Wolverine became a superstar in the ’80s, had his victory lap in the ’90s, and the ’00s saw him take his place as a true A-lister in the greater Marvel Universe beyond the X-books. He became an Avenger in good standing, and got his first chance to lead a team in 2008’s X-Force (Vol. 3). He was finally becoming the icon that every one of this fans knew he could be. The ’10s kicked off with him playing a massive role in the X-Men and Avengers books, appearing in numerous team and solo comics. The ’10s would be one of the most interesting decades of the character’s existence, with Marvel going all in on making him into the biggest hero possible (at least for a part of the ’10s).
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Just like any, not everything that happened in the decade was great — Death of Wolverine, Wolverines, the “Hunt for Wolverine” minis, and Return of Wolverine were all mostly bad — but there were still a lot of great Wolverine moments. Some of them stand out more than others, with several becoming unforgettable. These are the five best ’10s Wolverine moments, creating some of the coolest stories for the hero ever.
5) Laura Becoming Wolverine
X-23 was introduced in the ’00s, with the character quikcly brought into the X-Men’s orbit. She had her moments throughout the ’00s, but was mostly the B-list Wolverine character for B-list X-books. All of that changed in the series Wolverines, a book that isn’t anything that anyone would consider great, as it ended with her becoming the Wolverine. She’d get her own solo series and a version of Logan’s yellow and blue costume, becoming pretty popular. She made an excellent Wolverine, to the extent that after his return, she was allowed to keep the name. She was a new flavor of the ol’Canucklehead, and it’s paid off in the years since.
4) The Paul Cornell Run
At some point behind the scenes, Marvel decided that Wolverine was going to be killed (I’ve always suspected it had something to do with the Inhumans push; Marvel didn’t what their most famous character in the X-books they were marginalizing), and writer Paul Cornell was chosen to helm Wolverine (Vol. 5) #1-13 and Wolverine (Vol. 6) #1-13. Over these 26 issues, Cornell dealt with Logan losing his healing factor and having to deal with the repercussions, all while setting up the most unique Wolverine/Sabretooth story of them all. His run on the character captured the desperation and resolve of the hero, and once again proved why he is truly the best there is at what he does.
3) Uncanny X-Force
Wolverine leading X-Force as the mutant kill team grabbed fans, and the Uncanny X-Force was even better than X-Force (Vol. 3), which is saying something. Wolverine brought together a new, double secret version of X-Force (basically, after Cyclops told him to disband the team, he kept it going , telling no one), and readers got some of the best X-Men stories of the ’10s from it. Wolverine and his history with the World and the Weapon Plus program played a huge role in the book, and the final story dealt with his son Daken bringing together a new Brotherhood of Mutants together to kill him. This book wasn’t just a Wolverine book, giving readers great stories with Psylocke, Deadpool, Fantomex, and Archangel, but it did a tremendous job using the character.
2) Wolverine and the X-Men
X-Men: Schism changed the X-Men corner of Marvel, with Wolverine and Cyclops fighting over the future of mutantkind, splitting the mutant population in half. Wolverine and the X-Men followed his new mutant school, with Logan taking his place at the head of team. This book, from Wolverine: Weapon X/Wolverine (Vol. 4) writer Jason Aaron and main artists Chris Bachalo and Nick Bradshaw (with numerous fill-in artists), mixed several flavors of Wolverine and X-Men stories to create an X-book that was better than any other of the decade. Instead of focusing on the depressing plight of mutants, it was a cool school book with awesome villains (the new Hellfire Club Inner Circle was so cool, and I wish they would come back), and has become a best of all time X-book.
1) Old Man Logan (Vol. 2)
Marvel killed Wolverine at the end of 2014, but the publisher wasn’t going to go without a Logan for long. Secret Wars gave readers an Old Man Logan miniseries that ended with the fan-favorite version of the character coming to the new Earth-616 and led to Old Man Logan (Vol. 2). This 50-issue series was fantastic, especially the first 24 issues from writer Jeff Lemire, working with main artist Andrea Sorrentino and fill-in artists Eric Nguyen and Felipe Andrade to tell a story about the mutant coming to terms with the demons of his past. The last 26 issues, from writer Ed Brisson with artists Mike Deodato, Ibrahim Roberson and numerous fill-in artists, weren’t as amazing as the beginning, but still pretty great. This was Wolverine storytelling at its finest, and it contained several best of all time stories starring the hero.
What’s your favorite ’10s Wolverine moment? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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