5 Wolverine Stories the MCU Should Adapt

Wolverine is the X-Men’s most popular single character, and has fifty years of amazing stories under his belt. This is why Wolverine coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is such a tantalizing prospect for fans: over the years, they’ve imagined their favorite Wolverine adventures in live-action and gotten some pretty good moments onscreen; The Wolverine is great and Logan is among the best superhero movies of all time. The reasons those two are so great is because of how much they borrow from the comics. Wolverine’s comic adventures are often unsung in the greater pop culture, and there are some meaty stories that would be perfect for the MCU.

The MCU has found great success by taking ideas from the comics and bringing them to the big screen. Wolverine has some fertile story ground for the MCU to harvest, and Marvel Studios would do well to either use ideas from these stories, or drop them whole cloth into the MCU.

These five Wolverine stories would make for excellent MCU projects, giving audiences the best cinematic Wolverine tales of all time.

Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine

Wolverine made his MCU debut in a team-up with Deadpool, so people may not want him to have another teamup movie. However, Wolverine has a lot of amazing stories co-starring other characters; the feral X-Man plays very well off other Marvel heroes. Several of them would make for excellent movies, but the best choice would be Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine, a six-issue miniseries from writer Jason Aaron and artist Adam Kubert. This series took the two character on a caper across time, as they are thrown from the beginning of humanity to the end of mankind and everywhere in between, chasing down mysterious villains in the employ of a master manipulator.

Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine is a blockbuster story. It fits with the MCU’s current multiversal paradigm, as it takes the character through both the main timeline and possible alternate timelines, and is full of amazing action setpieces, beautifully rendered by Kubert. However, the meat of the story is the burgeoning friendship between Spider-Man and Wolverine. Their rivalry melts as they begin to get to know each other, and they become the best of friends. It’s the perfect action-comedy for the MCU and could make for an awesome movie.

“Weapon X”

The Fox X-Men movies gave moviegoers multiple glimpses of Wolverine’s Weapon X origin, revealing facets both comic-accurate and those invented for the films. However, all of these scenes have their origin in one of the best Wolverine stories of them all: the classic “Weapon X” from Marvel Comics Presents #72-84 by writer/artist Barry Windsor-Smith. This story is told from the perspective of the Professor, Doctor Cornelius, and a woman named Hines. It follows them as they watch their supersoldier program experiment on a mysterious man, through the admantium bonding process to the moment he escapes, tearing through the Weapon X facility.

“Weapon X” is a brutal masterpiece. There’s an aspect of body horror to the whole situation, as Wolverine is treated like a piece of meat, and experimented upon as if he wasn’t a human being. It’s a harrowing tale, and even when Wolverine breaks out of their control, it’s more of a horrific moment than one of triumph. The MCU could use something like “Weapon X” and it would be great for more casual fans to get the whole story of Wolverine’s origin.

“The Shiva Scenario”

“Weapon X” came out in 1991, when the X-Men were getting a major relaunch. This was a perfect jumping on point for fans and Wolverine (Vol. 2) #48-50, by writer Larry Hama and artist Marc Silvestri, takes the seeds of “Weapon X” and lets them blossom in Wolverine’s present day. Wolverine decides to look into the blank spots in his head with the help of Professor X and Jean Grey. This leads him to a massive clue about his origin, which leads him on a quest to find the Weapon X facility. However, Wolverine’s search sets off alarm bells, and Weapon X’s contingency plan is activated — the Shiva Scenario.

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“The Shiva Scenario” is an action-packed Wolverine story that takes readers into his past, setting him on a new course in the days that follow. The Weapon X mythos is the perfect place for Marvel Studios to take their Wolverine epic; “The Shiva Scenario” shows just how dangerous Weapon X can be, even as a dormant entity, and could set up big things in the future. Plus, Wolverine’s battle with the android Shiva is one of the best Wolverine fights ever, and it would look amazing on the big screen.

Logan: Path of the Warlord

Wolverine has an amazing history. Starting with the beginning of his life in the mid-1800s, Logan traveled the world, learning to the master the beast inside of him. This took him to Japan numerous times over the years, as Logan studied the martial arts in an effort to learn self-control. Logan: Path of the Warlord, by writer Howard Mackie and artist John Paul Leon, is a prequel story, taking place before Wolverine ever got his adamantium. It begins with a mission gone wrong against a warlord, one that Logan is forced to revisit several years later when he’s found training in Japan. Logan is dragged into an inter-dimensional caper, one that will test both the limits of his ability to fight and the limits of his self-control.

Logan: Path of the Warlord is an epic one-shot that digs into Wolverine’s black ops past. There’s a lot of great bedrock Wolverine lore in this story: for example, his relationship with the inter-dimensional law firm Landau, Luckman, and Lake. Landau, Luckman, and Lake is one of the more interesting Wolverine concepts that the comics have seemingly forgotten about, and would make a great part of the MCU. Black ops Wolverine action on the big screen, along with dimension-jumping shenanigans? Sounds like an amazing MCU project.

“Not Dead Yet”

Wolverine’s black ops life took him everywhere imaginable, and saw him make friends and enemies that would last several life times. Wolverine (Vol. 2) #119-122, by writer Warren Ellis and artist Leinil Yu, called “Not Dead Yet”, sees part of the past come to the present. Wolverine is targeted by the legendary assassin known as the Gweilo, who has spent years planning his revenge. However, the Gweilo was planning to kill Wolverine while he had his adamantium skeleton – only problem was that at the time of “Not Dead Yet”, he didn’t. Wolverine has the greatest killer in the world after him and is weaker than expected — a recipe for disaster.

“Not Dead Yet” does revolve around Wolverine not having his adamantium skeleton, which isn’t going to be the state of affairs in the MCU for a while, if ever. However, that doesn’t mean the story can’t be changed to incorporate an adamantium enhanced Wolverine. “Not Dead Yet” is an underrated ’90s Marvel comic, and it deserves a much bigger audience, as it would be breathtaking on the big screen.

Check out Wolverine stories at Marvel.