Marvel Wants You to Believe Wolverine Is the Greatest Anti-Hero (But Actually He’s the Worst)

Wolverine is one of the most popular superheroes ever. Wolverine could have been relegated to the dustbin of history, a third wheel in a Hulk vs. Wendigo fight. However, Wolverine co-creator Len Wein (who created the character along with John Romita Sr., not Roy Thomas) was given a chance to reboot the X-Men, and brought Wolverine along with him. Back then, Wolverine was thought of as an anti-hero, a more violent hero who didn’t do the kinds of things that other superheroes did, and over the years, many fans have thought of him as not only Marvel’s best anti-hero, but also the best anti-hero in general. However, this is wrong. Not only is Wolverine not Marvel’s best anti-hero, he’s a hundred percent the publisher’s worst.

As a Wolverine superfan, I’m not saying that Wolverine is a bad character. Far from it, actually. Wolverine is a Marvel great, a character that has grown and changed, becoming an A-lister. Wolverine’s history has given readers amazing stories. I love Wolverine, but I don’t look at him as an anti-hero, and there’s a big reason for that — the character himself. Wolverine is a superhero of the highest order, someone who does the right thing every chance he can. Wolverine is definitely a violent person, but the violence is just part of the character. Wolverine is an amazing hero, and not an anti-hero.

Wolverine Was Always Meant to Be More Than an Anti-Hero

So, let’s look at what an anti-hero is. Anti-heroes in comics were all based on the anti-heroes of ’60s and ’70s cinema. Think Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti Westerns of the day, or the Dirty Harry movies, or Charles Bronson in the Death Wish movies. These characters were loners who broke the rules to save the day. Now, Wolverine is known for breaking the rules to save the day, but he was never a loner. Wolverine immediately jumped into the X-Men (and later continuity established that he had basically always hung out with people, from Alpha Flight to Team X to Romulus and Remus to Mystique to his old nursemaid Rose), because he didn’t want to be the kind of person who saved the day on his own. He wanted to find the family that he never had.

Sure, he fits the violence of Eastwood and Bronson’s characters, but he’s not the lone killer come to clean up the town. That’s the Punisher. That’s Ghost Rider. Wolverine, on the other hand, is a man looking for family who is willing to kill. Sure, Wolverine was mouthy, but he still followed orders. He was just a man who had built callouses over his soul because of all the loss he suffered. On top of all of that, Wolverine actually didn’t kill as a member of the X-Men back in the day (honestly, I can’t think of a single time he out and out killed anyone the X-Men fought while he was with the team until the 21st century; if you have any incidents of this, put them in the comments). Wolverine was never trying to be an anti-hero. He wanted to be a hero.

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Wolverine Works Better on a Team Than He Does Solo and I Can Prove It

Let’s look at the history that was later established for Wolverine. After Weapon X, he was found by James and Heather Hudson, who nursed him back to humanity. The two of them brought him to Department H, and he trained with the early version of Alpha Flight to be a superhero. Wolverine had seemingly wanted to leave behind the killing that had defined his life for as long as he could remember (which at the time wasn’t exactly long, but he did know that he was a killer), and decided to be a superhero. Not an anti-hero, but an actual superhero. Wolverine then joined the X-Men and made trouble, but he also worked with the team. He made friends. He grew as a person. Now, compare that to Marvel’s actual best anti-hero, the Punisher.

The Punisher can’t work with anyone because he’ll never give up his desire to kill, and he looks down on anyone who doesn’t agree with his methods. The Punisher knows that he’s a bad guy who does the right thing, and doesn’t even try to be a good guy. The last time we saw Frank Castle, he joined the Hand ninjas and used the power of the Beast to kill every enemy he could. That’s what an anti-hero does. Wolverine always does everything he can to do the best things for everyone. He cares about the people around him. He cares about the innocent more than he does the mission. The fact that Wolverine was trusted to become an Avenger, to lead a school of young mutants, shows that he isn’t at all an anti-hero.

Wolverine Has Always Been a Hero, Not an Anti-Hero

Calling Wolverine an anti-hero ignores basically everything about the character. Sure, if you’ve never read an actual Wolverine story or basically any story with him on a superteam, it would be easy to look at the claws and grimace he always wears and assume that he was an anti-hero. However, Wolverine has always set out to be an actual hero, trying to grow and change as a person on the road to becoming better than he was.

If you look at Wolverine’s history, you’ll see that he’s a terrible anti-hero. Wolverine may kill, but he’s always strove to be accepted, to be respected. In fact, Wolverine won’t always kill. Wolverine won’t always use ultra-violent methods. When you read a Wolverine story, you aren’t reading the story of a loner anti-hero. You’re reading about a hero who is trying his best to be better than he was. Wolverine is a lousy anti-hero, but he’s the best kind of superhero.

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