It’s doubtful that Wolverine creators Len Wein and John Romita Sr. thought the pint-sized brawler they created for an issue of The Incredible Hulk would become one of the most popular Marvel characters in the publisher’s history. Wolverine came to prominence as part of the cast of Uncanny X-Men, and rode a rocket to the top of the charts. Wolverine got his first solo title in 1982, when Uncanny writer Chris Claremont teamed with Frank Miller to give readers Wolverine (Vol. 1) #1-4. That would lead to some more appearances in miniseries, and in 1989 he would get his first ongoing series. Over the years, Wolverine is basically the only member of the X-Men that has been able to keep a solo book going (Cable used to be able to and Deadpool has technically never been an X-Man; however, neither of them have Wolverine’s track record). While the name of Marvel’s game in the 21st century has been repeatedly relaunching books, Wolverine always has a solo comic; often he even has more than one.
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Wolverine is a Marvel legend, but he’s been past the point of overexposed for a very long time. Wolverine thrives in books where he can hang out with other characters, but there are times his solo adventures get to be a little too similar. Looking at the variety of Wolverine books going around right now, there are a lot of repeated ideas, and that’s why it’s about time that Wolverine step out of the solo spotlight and instead concentrate on being a team player again.
Marvel Is Engaging In Their Favorite Practice with Wolverine
Marvel loves regression, and it’s Wolverine’s turn. The most obvious example of this is Ultimate Wolverine; while I enjoy the book, there’s no doubt that it’s just a retelling of “Weapon X”, a story that long term Wolverine readers like me have seen dragged up numerous times, combined with an Uncanny X-Force kind of deal, with Wolverine working with a team mutants and killing their targets. They could have went some entirely new way with Wolverine, but they didn’t. It’s not a bad book, but it’s definitely not as original as something like The Ultimates or even Ultimate Black Panther. We have Spider-Man & Wolverine, which is all about the chance that Wolverine killed Peter’s parents in those years he can’t remember things; Wolverine memory stories like this were once extremely common with the character. Deadpool/Wolverine is pretty good, with Wolverine under the control of Apocalypse, from Cable and Stryfe’s future in Stryfe’s body, who also has his hands on a new strain of the ’90s Legacy Virus. Finally, Wolverine is trying its best to remind people of ’90s Wolverine stories, with the book so far being a who’s who of Wolverine villains cycling through the book. At one point, it seemed like Wolverine was going to lose his adamantium skeleton, and the latest story involves the return of his mother Elizabeth… who is really Mastermind manipulating Wolverine in what’s looking to be a pretty standard bad guy using Wolverine’s past against him story. There’s even a return of a blue and yellow Wolverine costume, inspired by the one from X-Men “97, to put the cherry on top of all the regression.
Wolverine is a character that can work in any kind of story — there have been wild Wolverine sci-fi stories, Wolverine spy stories, Wolverine war stories, Wolverine horror — but Marvel has taken to repeating itself. Even the loss of Wolverine’s healing factor over a decade ago echoed the loss of his adamantium in the ’90s (which was coincidentally about 20 years after he lost his adamantium, give or take a few months). Marvel doesn’t really seem to want to give Wolverine fans anything new, instead playing the hits for potential new readers that never show up in the numbers they’re expecting. It’s become something of a problem. If you look at the current Wolverine titles, the best ones have more than Wolverine in them. Deadpool/Wolverine, Spider-Man & Wolverine, even Ultimate Wolverine are all better because of the supporting cast. Wolverine is also showing up in Uncanny X-Men, and it feels just right for him in ways the solo titles don’t. There hasn’t been a lot of focus on him, and he gets to do what he does best — fight battles against the X-Men’s villains, play off characters like Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee, and Nightcrawler, and work with young mutants. Wolverine is one of the best members of the X-Men, and it’s always a lot of fun for him to shine with them. Putting Wolverine with other characters has always been a recipe for success, and at this point, if Marvel isn’t going to do anything new in his solo books, they may as well put him back in team books full time, letting him work in the background and enhance the other character. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and it may be time for Wolverine to take a leave of absence from solo books.
Wolverine on Team Books Is a Recipe for Success
Wolverine wouldn’t ever be as popular as he was if it wasn’t for his time in Uncanny X-Men. He fit perfectly with the other characters, and was able to develop a lot over those years. As his solo books became more prominent, his major character developments happening there, Wolverine spent less time with the X-Men, but that changed in the ’00s. Wolverine became a member of the cast of all the X-Men books, and joined the Avengers. There was even a period where Wolverine was on multiple X-Men and Avengers teams, and was leading X-Force. This was actually a pretty fruitful time for the character, for a simple reason — there was a multitude of characters to play Wolverine off of. This put Wolverine in situations that a solo book couldn’t.
I’ve loved reading Wolverine every month for decades; there have been times when it was the comic I looked forward to the most. However, that time is past. Wolverine needs a break in his solo books if Marvel isn’t going to do anything new with him, continually treading the same ground for new readers who aren’t showing up (in fact, comparing this run of Wolverine with the Krakao Era one, Wolverine (Vol. 8) has fallen pretty far in any available sales charts we have). Instead, a trip back to the team books would allow the character to develop again in a way that he hasn’t gotten to in his own comics for ages. Wolverine works best when he has a cool supporting cast, and the best place for this is a team book.
Do you think Wolverine works better in team books? Sound off in the comments below.
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