Wolverine is one of Marvel’s biggest stars in basically any media. The hero has had quite a history in his 52 years of existence, going on some of the coolest adventures with the X-Men, the Avengers, on his own, and with other heroes. One of the things that made fans love him for years was the fact that he was a “man of mystery” with a long life that fans knew nothing about. It took a while, but the House of Ideas has fleshed out a lot of the character’s backstory, and we’ve gotten loads of glimpses of it over the decades. He’s one of the most storied characters around, and his varied history has meant that he can fit into any kind of story.
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Marvel likes to put out nostalgia bait miniseries, revisiting numerous eras from their most popular teams and heroes in an attempt to get old fans to read them. Wolverine has gotten a few of these over the years, but there are way more eras of the character that have never been explored. These seven Wolverine eras would be perfect for a miniseries, fleshing out his past even more.
7) His Time With Romulus
Romulus is one of Wolverine’s most dangerous villains, and was introduced to be a new shadowy manipulator in Logan’s life. He was the main villain of “Evolution”, the Wolverine: Origins series, and “Sabretooth Reborn”. The latter established that Logan had once worked with the villain, his sister Remus, and Sabretooth, even volunteering to join the Weapon X program as part of whatever schemes they were cooking up together. There is a treasure trove of stories that can be told about this time, and it would be nice to flesh out this period in the ol’Canucklehead’s life.
6) His Post-WWII Life in Japan
After World War II, Logan ended up in Japan, where he trained in the martial arts and tried to leave the killing behind him. During this time, he ended up meeting Itsu, a Japanese woman, and the two of them fell in love and married. She’s the mother of Daken, and would end up killed by the Winter Soldier at the behest of the Soviets. I can really only think of one story from around these days (Logan: Path of the Warlord) and a few scenes from other stories. It would be awesome to see more of the hero in this period, showing us a different side of the best there is at what he does, and letting us get to one know one of Wolverine’s most important love interests better.
5) Madripoor
Madripoor is an important part of the history of Wolverine. He started going to the outlaw island at some point around WWI, and ended up working with Seraph, the owner of the Princess Saloon. Since then, he’s spent years on the island as Patch, hanging out there whenever he wants to drink too much and fight people. We got a Patch miniseries a couple of years ago, but Madripoor is one of the coolest locations on Earth-616, and there are so many years of Logan stories there that we’re more than due for another one.
4) Feral Era
Wolverine comics in the ’90s changed the character completely. He lost his adamantium in 1993’s X-Men (Vol. 2) #25 and didn’t get it back until 1999’s Wolverine (Vol. 2) #145. This is the “feral era” of Wolverine, when the loss of his adamantium caused his mutation to start to make him more bestial. This is one of the best stretches of the character’s history with some of this greatest stories coming from these six years. Revisiting this era of the character would be awesome for readers who grew up with these books, and there’s a good chance that we could get Larry Hama, the man who wrote the majority of this era, back to write it.
3) Department H Missions
When Wolverine first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #181, he was under the aegis of Department H, the Canadian supersoldier program. He was trained alongside Alpha Flight and was meant to be the leader of the team. However, he quit the group when Charles Xavier came a-calling. Since then, he’s teamed up with them many times. It would be great to go back to those Department H days to get a story of the ol’Canucklehead and his fellow Canucks fighting evil for the glory of the Great White North. This era hasn’t been visited very much and could make Alpha Flight popular again after years of obscurity.
2) World War I
Wolverine has fought in every major war of the 20th century, but there’s one that never really gets talked about: World War I. Logan joined the Canadian forces fighting the war, training alongside a man named Silas Burr, who would become the villain Cyber. During this time, Romulus had his eyes on the diminutive mutant (Burr was his cat’s paw at this time), and there’s always Sabretooth, who was a part of Wolverine’s life even back then. World War I is the forgotten world war in pop culture, and it’s about time that we got more stories set back then, especially ones starring Wolverine.
1) Team X
Team X consisted of Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Maverick. The three of them were all Weapon X alumni, and were used by the CIA to battle against allies of the Soviets all over the world. We’ve seen the group several times over the decades, starting with 1992’s X-Men (Vol. 2) #6, but for whatever reason, we’ve rarely gotten any full length adventures starring the group. In fact, the only time I can think of is a crossover with Wildstorm’s Team 7 back in the ’90s (they also appeared in 2022’s X Lives of Wolverine, but the story wasn’t really about them, they were just a plot element). Marvel is going all in on ’90s X-nostalgia nowadays, and it’s past time to get a Team X miniseries.
What Wolverine eras do you think would be great for a miniseries? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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