Wolverine was first introduced as the mouthy loner, the guy who was constantly saying that he didn’t need anyone. There’s a certain irony to that, because he’s become one of the X-Men most well-known for taking on partners. It all started with his friendships with Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler. Logan started to lighten up and that led to him being partnered off more, with him getting numerous sidekicks over the years. Sidekicks were never all that popular in the Marvel Universe; for every success story like Bucky or Sam Wilson, you have a bunch of them that never catch on (remember Spider-Man’s sidekick Alpha? No? That’s my point). However, Wolverine has been able to take several different sidekicks and make them into icons.
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When most people think of Wolverine sidekicks, they usually think of the younger women who he usually ends up training. However, they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Logan has had numerous sidekicks over his adventures; some of them are just learning to use their powers, while others are experienced heroes who partner well with the ol’Canucklehead. Some of them are weak when they join him and others were honestly very powerful, all of them getting something different from the partnership. These are Wolverine’s five best sidekicks, ranked by the powers they brought to the dance.
5) Elektra
Elektra is most well-known for her relationship with Daredevil, but she’s worked with numerous heroes over the years. Matt Murdock and Elektra Natchios met in college and hit it off, falling in love. The death of her father drove her to vengeance, with the Greek woman training in ninjitsu and becoming one of the most deadly assassins out there. She reunited with her love interest, but would meet her end in battle with Bullseye. She’s since been resurrected and has been fighting evil ever since, sometimes working with Daredevil, sometimes working with SHIELD. She ended up meeting Wolverine during his feral regression in the mid ’90s, helping him regain his humanity through discipline. They’ve worked together several times since then. Elektra is supremely skilled in combat and while she doesn’t have any powers per se, she does know some ninja magic, allowing her to sense others and stuff like that. She’s more formidable than powerful and her time with Logan is mostly unsung despite it being a cool partnership.
4) Kitty Pryde
Kitty Pryde is usually considered Wolverine’s first sidekick and she’s often thought of as the best. Kitty joined the X-Men as a younger teenager and has grown up with the group, becoming one of its most stalwart members. She’s led the team and helped found Excalibur, all of which can be laid at the feet of her partnership with Logan. He took the young mutant under his wing and began helping her learn the ropes of combat. Kitty gained her ninja skills because of her time as Wolvie’s number one sidekick, getting trained by his ninja master Ogun (who has possessed her several times over the years). Since then, the two of them have been inseparable. Sometimes, they might not be on the team at the same time, but they are somehow always close. Pryde’s powers are extremely useful, but they aren’t all that powerful. Her ability to phase through anything is a mostly defensive power, but she’s also mastered using it offensively. Her time with Logan helped her become a better fighter, which allowed her to master her powers in ways she never would have without him.
3) Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler is an iconic X-Man and his friendship with Wolverine is one of the most beloved in the team’s history. Kurt and Logan couldn’t be more different. They both had rather tragic backgrounds, but Wolvie’s drove him mostly to despair and death. Kurt’s took him in the exact other direction; he’s known as the X-Men’s smiling swashbuckling demon, always ready with a joke and some brimstone. He and Logan became the best of the friends, each of them playing an important part in the other’s life. Now, there are some out there who would argue that calling Nightcrawler a sidekick isn’t exactly correct. They have always dealt with each other as equals, but since the ol’Canucklehead is more popular of the two, he usually gets top billing for the pair. Wagner’s powers are flashy, but calling them powerful is a bit of a misnomer. His teleports can only cover so much distance and the more he uses it, the more tired he gets. However, he’s mastered these powers, mixing them with acrobatic fighting style to become one of the most formidable X-Men ever.
2) Jubilee
Jubilee became a superstar thanks to her partnership with Logan. Jubilation Lee is a Chinese-American mall rat, introduced in the late ’80s and becoming the X-Men’s mascot. Kitty Pryde was the face of early ’80s teen girls and Lee became a symbol of the ’90s for the team. She joined the group during the Outback years and was immediately thrown into a partnership with Wolverine, helping save him from the cybernetic Reavers. The two of them bonded and became the best of friends. Logan looked out for her, showing her the ropes and keeping her from doing anything too stupid, and she brought some much needed levity and light to a life that was defined by the darkness of death. Jubilee’s powers have been mocked for years, but are actually powerful. She can generate superheated plasmoids and they can explode with some tremendous power. She’s gotten much better with them over the years; she used to barely be able to hurt anyone with them, but has since become extremely potent in combat because of them.
1) Cannonball
Cannonball isn’t as well-known for his partnership with Wolverine, but it was honestly pretty awesome. Sam Guthrie joined the fight against bigotry with the New Mutants, becoming one of the focuses of the team. He’d help found X-Force and became the leader of the team after Cable left, showing that he had learned his lessons well. After “Age of Apocalypse”, he finally graduated and joined the X-Men, which led to his partnership with Logan. While it definitely wasn’t that long of a period – they were basically just partners through Wolverine (Vol. 2) #91-102 – it is one of the coolest times in Cannonball’s history. Guthrie was born with “blasting powers”. He harnessed kinetic energy, allowing him to fly at fantastic speeds, his body protected by an impenetrable force field to protect him, allowing him to smash through just about anything in front of him. He can use this field to absorb impacts and convert it to power, allowing him to throw some insane shots (it’s how he beat Gladiator in Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #341, a book that you need to read). He was easily Logan’s most powerful sidekick.
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