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10 Surprising Things You Might Not Know About Wolverine


Logan wowed fans all over and showed new sides of Wolverine to many of them. We saw a Wolverine driven to the edge and pushed to his limits. We saw his vulnerabilities, his strengths, his struggles, and his legacy all on display. Wolverine has been an incredibly popular character for many, many years and throughout his endless media appearances, he’s developed a long and full history.

What are some facts that you might not know about the short, hairy grumpy Canadian? Check them out:

  1. Wolverine was almost called Badger

    Imagine a movie called Badger: Origins. Wolverine’s creation actually came about the request of Marvel’s editor-in-chief at the time, Roy Thomas. Marvel wanted to increase sales in the Canadian market and they thought a Canadian character would be a good way to appeal to Canucks. Wolverine’s creator Len Wein was torn between two possible names for this character- “Wolverine” and “Badger”. Both were creatures you could find in both Canada and the USA, making the character a bridge between the two countries. Sort of.

    Eventually, he went with Wolverine because it sounds close to “wolf”. Funnily enough, a superhero called “Badger” WAS created just a few years later. Writer Mike Barron created the character for the short-lived company Capitol Comics and he had his own self-titled comic. He was a dude with multiple personalities, one of which happened to be a martial arts expert called “Badger” who talked to animals. He…wasn’t nearly as successful as Wolverine, to say the least. 

  2. Wolverine's original concept was a teenager with tricked-out gloves

    Wolverine debuted in The Incredible Hulk #180 in 1974. He antagonized the green giant and not much was revealed about him. It was evident that he was superhuman and an agent of the Canadian government but that’s about it. He didn’t even retract his claws, though artist John Romita Sr. said he always intended them to be retractable.

    Wein also originally intended for Wolverine to be a teenager, but since his mask obscured his face, it was easy enough for Marvel to change their minds and reveal him to be an adult later on. The change came about when Dave Cockrum first drew Wolverine unmasked as a hairy forty-year old. Wein saw the concept art and liked it.

    What’s more, Wolverine’s claws were originally just supposed to be part of his gloves. They were a simple weapon and his healing ability was his only power. But two years after his debut, Chris Claremont revealed in X-Men #98 that the claws were part of him. 

  3. Wolverine's iconic mask and hairstyle were the result of an art mistake

    You can see in Wolverine’s original appearance that the pointy “ear” looking headpieces on his mask was originally much smaller. The change to the large headpiece was actually the result of an accident. Wolverine’s second appearance was in Giant Sized X-Men #1. When Gil Kane drew Wolverine on the cover of the comic, he accidentally gave him a larger headpiece. However, artist Dave Cockrum liked the alteration so much he redesigned Wolverine’s mask and included the larger headpiece in the interior artwork. He thought the new mask looked cool, like Batman’s. So when it came to design the unmasked Woverine, Cockrum made his hair mimic those headpieces and Wolverine gained his distinctive pointy hairstyle. 

  4. Wolverine was almost dropped from the X-Men but was saved thanks to Canadian pride

    It’s hard to believe it now, but in the early days of Wolverine’s time on the X-Men, Marvel actually considered dropping him because they felt he wasn’t interesting enough. Chris Claremont, the X-men writer, and Dave Cockrum, who redesigned Wolverine, both preferred characters like Collosus and Nightcrawler.

    However, Wolverine being Canadian actually saved him. Artist John Byrne replaced Dave Cockrum on X-men and he also happened to be Canadian. He was happy about having a Canadian hero and he says, “I wrapped myself in the flag and said, “No way are you getting rid of the only Canadian character!” I set about doing everything I could to make Wolverine more interesting, to Chris and the audience.”

    He admits, “Just as Dave had tended to make the book Nightcrawler—Costarring the X-Men, I sort of took it over toward Wolverine—Costarring the X-Men. Given all the money they’ve made off the character, I don’t guess there would be anyone up at Marvel who would consider that a bad thing!”

  5. Many different weird origins were considered for Wolverine and he was a mystery for a long time

    Wolverine’s origins were shrouded in mystery for a surprisingly long time. We didn’t even learn Wolverine’s name was Logan until 1977, a full three years after his debut. It wasn’t until 1991 that it was fully revealed that Wolverine had been experimented on for the Weapon X program and adamantium had been bonded to his bones. And it wasn’t until 2001, nearly 30 years after Wolverine’s debut, that the circumstances of his birth and his real name (James Howlett) was revealed.

    In the meantime, several origins were considered for Wolverine. Wolverine’s creator Len Wein maintains he always intended Wolverine to be a mutant, but it’s rumored that Chris Claremont and co. might have considered revealing him as a mutated wolverine cub who was combined with human DNA through an experiment and became a man that way. John Byrne and Christ Claremont intended at one point to reveal that Sabretooth was Wolverine’s father.

    As Claremont puts it, they were “father and son. That's why Sabretooth always considered Logan "sloppy seconds" to his "original" / "real deal." The other critical element in my presentation of their relationship was that, in their whole life, Logan has never defeated Sabretooth in a knock-down, drag-out, kill-or-be-killed berserker fight. By the same token, on every one of his birthdays, Sabretooth has always managed to find him, no matter where Logan was or what he was doing, and come within an inch of killing him. For no other reason than to remind him that he could”.

    However, this never came to pass and Sabretooth was simply presented as Wolverine’s long-time rival and a fellow subject of the Weapon X program.

  6. Early on, artists faced restrictions regarding Wolverine's arm hair

    Believe it or not, in the early days of the X-Men comics, writers had to follow some weird rules regarding Wolverine’s arm hair. It’s noticeable in Wolverine’s early X-Men appearances that artist Dave Cockrum drew Wolverine with hairy arms when he was out of costume but the arm hair would mysteriously disappear when he was in costume.

    click to enlarge

    From X-Men

    Apparently this was an official rule put in place by the editors. When John Byrne replaced Cockrum as the artist on the title, he was told to follow it. It’s unknown exactly why this rule was in place (maybe the arm hair was thought to conflict with the clean cut superhero image?) but it was eventually broken by George Perez. He drew hairy-armed Wolverine in costume on the cover of X-Men #114. Seeing that, Byrne decided he must not need to restrain himself any longer. Wolverine’s been a hairy guy no matter what he wears ever since. 

  7. Wolverine is a polyglot

    Wolverine has been alive since the late 1800s and he’s traveled all over the world during that time. In that time he’s learned a lot of different  languages. To be exact, he can speak 18 different languages. In addition to English, he speaks Spanish, Lakota, Russian, Chinese, Cheyenne, Arabic, Japanese, Thai, Tagalog, Italian, Persian, Korean, Vietnamese, French, German, and Portuguese. Hey, when you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, you might as well learn some stuff, right? Japanese is probably the language Wolverine is most proficient in besides English, since he spent a lot of time in Japan. 

  8. Wolverine made out with Hercules in an alternate universe

    Wolverine x Hercules is canon…in an alternate universe, at least. X-treme X-Men featured an alternate dimension where Wolverine was a couple with everyone’s favorite bisexual demigod, Hercules. This version of Wolverine goes by his birth name, “James”, rather than Logan, but he’s pretty much the same as the one we know, while also dating Hercules. In X-treme X-Men #10, the two of them shared a passionate kiss, with Wolverine declaring “"We were our worlds' greatest heroes. And the day we slew the worst monster who ever threatened the Dominion of Canada ... We revealed our love.”

  9. Wolverine is a hockey traditionalist

    What kind of Canadian would Wolverine be if he didn’t like hockey? Well, rest assured that he does and that he’s chock full of national pride about it. Writer of the 2013 Wolverine series, Paul Cornell, actually held a contest on Twitter that allowed fans to decide Wolverine’s favorite hockey teams. As a result, Wolverine was revealed to be a fan of the Montreal Canadiens and Calgary Flames in issue nine. For the record, the Montreal Canadiens are Canada’s oldest team, debuting in 1910. Wolverine might have attended their first game!

  10. Wolverine has some weird powers

    Everyone knows Wolverine has healing and the claws and all that, but some of his powers are a little out there. For instance, his healing powers make him resistant to telepathy and psychic probing somehow. Apparently it’s something to do with the scar tissue in his brain? It probably also helps that Xavier gives all the X-Men psychic shields as a bonus.

    Another bizarre power Wolverine claims to have is the ability to smell lightwaves. Yeah, in a cartoon he actually claims he can smell the infrared spectrum or something. That…doesn’t seem plausible. Granted, he says he can smell ozone generated by high voltage or something, but even that seems to be severely stretching it.

     

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