Wolverine is the best there is at what he does, and that’s sell comics. The character has had quite a rise to fame; he debuted as the third wheel in a fight between Hulk and the Wendigo and joined the X-Men, which was his road to superstardom. His time with the team strapped a rocket to his back, and he became one of the most popular superheroes of all time, leaping above the pack to the rarefied air of characters like Spider-Man and Batman. Wolverine got his first solo book in 1982 and since then has starred in thousands of comics, across solos, team books, miniseries ongoings, team-up series, crossovers, and many more.
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Over the last five decades of Wolverine history, the hero has had various eras, each one of them bringing something new and interesting to the character. Not every era is perfect, but there have been some amazing ones. These five eras of Wolverine made the character into the superstar he is today, each one containing the greatest stories in the character’s history.
5) Utopia Era
The Utopia Era of the X-Men’s beginning is a little hard to tack down. Some people start it at Avengers/X-Men: Utopia, where the mutant island of Utopia was “created”, but a lot of people move it back to when the X-Men moved to San Francisco towards the end of “Messiah Complex” in 2008. It lasted until 2013, ending with Avengers vs. X-Men #12. This is an amazing period for Wolverine. He became the leader of X-Force, writer Jason Aaron started writing his solo books, Uncanny X-Force dropped, and X-Men: Schism saw him start his own team of X-Men in Wolverine and the X-Men. It was a period of hits for the character and his fans (Aaron and Ron Garney’s Wolverine: Weapon X is an amazing series you need to check out), and it’s an era of the character that doesn’t get nearly enough credit.
4) Marvel Knights Era
The Marvel Knights imprint began in 1998. The imprint was all about street-level hero adventures, and helped revitalize characters like Daredevil, Black Panther, and the Punisher. In 2003, Wolverine (Vol. 2) ended and Marvel moved the book over to the Marvel Knights side of thing. Wolverine (Vol. 3) kicked off beautifully, with Greg Rucka, Darick Robertson, Leandro Fernandez, Mark Millar, John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, Kaare Andrews, Daniel Way, Javier Saltares, and Mark Texeira kicking off the book’s first 39 issues with some best of all time stories. The Marvel Knights trade dress was taken off the covers with starting with Wolverine (Vol. 3) #40, although the book continued for several more years. Readers got everything from gritty realism to superhero madness, and it’s an awesome period of Wolverine stories.
3) Weapon X Era
There are some fantastic Wolverine stories out there, but many fans agree that “Weapon X”, from Marvel Comics Presents #72-84, is the best. Barry Windsor-Smith’s classic also kicked off a whole new era for the character. 1991 was a huge year for the X-Men, with books like X-Force #1 and X-Men (Vol. 2) #1 rebooting the franchise. “Weapon X” was the Wolverine portion of that reboot, and it kicked off a couple of years of stories. Wolverine (Vol. 2) #48-50 started Logan’s investigation into Weapon X in the present day, before heading to Japan for the heartbreaking ending of Logan’s relationship with Mariko Yashida, leading to a multi-part epic in the 60s of the book. This short era would last until Wolverine (Vol. 2) #74, and would see readers have some major revelations dropped on them. Wolverine (Vol. 2) was written by the brilliant Larry Hama, and artists like Marc Silvestri, Mark Texeira, and Darick Robertson all drew his solo adventures. Cyber and Omega Red would also both debut during this time, giving Wolverine two of his greatest villains of all time. 1991-1993 were amazing for Logan and his fans, and this era deserves way more credit than it gets.
2) The Claremont Era
The Chris Claremont era of Wolverine is the longest in the character’s history. Claremont was the X-Men’s most revolutionary writer, and wrote the series from 1974 to 1991. During this time, he was the main mind behind Wolverine. He wrote Wolverine’s first solo series, 1982’s Wolverine (Vol. 1) #1-4 and all of the character’s adventures in Uncanny X-Men from #94 to #279. He wrote the first ten issues of Wolverine (Vol. 2). For 17 years, Claremont called the shots for the character, making him into the most popular mutant ever. Other creators worked on the character during this period as well, like Walt and Louise Simonson, Alan Davis, Mike Mignola, Frank Miller, Bob Wiacek, Marc Silvestri, John Byrne, Larry Hama, Peter David, Howard Chaykin, Kent Nelson, and many more. These seventeen years are the bedrock of the character, with some of his best stories of all time dropping.
1) The Bone Claw Era
Wolverine’s bone claw era began with X-Men (Vol. 2) #25. It ran from 1993 to 1999’s Wolverine (Vol. 2) #145, encompassing 70 issues of his solo book, and all of his appearances in X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and the various miniseries and one-shots that dropped in that six year span. Writer Larry Hama was the chief architect of the character during this period, and turned in some of the best Wolverine stories in Wolverine (Vol. 2) #75-100. Hama’s last issue of Wolverine was #118. During the period between #75-118, Adam Kubert and Leinil Yu became superstars because of their work on the book and the “Age of Apocalypse” series Weapon X #1-4 dropped. We got the return of Chris Claremont to the ol’ Canucklehead and the four-issue masterpiece “Not Dead Yet”. Finally, Image founder Erik Larsen wrote the book through 1998 and 1999, working with Yu, Jeff Matsuda, Roger Cruz, and several fill-in artists to give him back his adamantium. This is an amazing stretch of Wolverine, taking the character in new directions and giving people the kind of action-packed mayhem they craved from the hero.
What’s your favorite era of Wolverine? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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