5 Comic Storylines We Hope Marvel’s Wolverine Is Adapting (And 1 We Pray They Leave Alone)

Marvel’s Wolverine is one of the year’s most anticipated action games, with the trailers promising a gory game where the X-Man hacks apart legions of enhanced humans known as the Reavers or the giant mutant hunting robots dubbed Sentinels. The game seems intent on leaning into the “mutants vs. machines” thread that’s been at the heart of numerous X-Men stories over the years, including X-Men ‘97.

Looking ahead to the game’s release, it’s worth revisiting some of Wolverine’s best stories from the original comics and pondering how they could have influenced the game. Maybe they could have helped inspire boss encounters, unique locations, story beats, or stylish flourishes that could improve the experience. Here are the Wolverine comic stories we hope influenced Marvel’s Wolverine – and one that we really hope they avoided.

Wolverine (Miniseries)

The miniseries that helped turn Wolverine from a breakout X-Men character into one of Marvel’s biggest characters, the original Wolverine miniseries written by Chris Claremont with pencils by Frank Miller, would be an ideal source material for the Wolverine game. Set in Japan and pitting Logan against hordes of deadly ninja amid the ruthless power plays of crime families in Tokyo, the story has already been referenced in other media adaptations of Wolverine. 

However, the game could benefit from the classic setting and memorable fights, as well as the tragic romance between Logan and Yuriko, a powerful emotional arc for the character that carved a heart out of the unstoppable berserker. It could be a good way to humanize Logan, especially if the player is taking the mutant anti-hero to violent extremes. It’s also a good excuse to have Logan face off with plenty of quicker and craftier foes than the straightforward Reavers and Sentinels confirmed in the trailers.

Spider-Man Vs. Wolverine

This isn’t necessarily a call for Spider-Man to leap over to Marvel’s Wolverine – although that could be a lot of fun – but this story, written by Priest and with pencils by Mark Bright, could be a great groundwork for a story within the game. In the narrative, the more innocent Spider-Man finds himself overseas and dealing with a Cold War espionage thriller – as well as a Logan who is far more familiar with this kind of situation and is far more ruthless about it. 

Having Wolverine be contrasted against other fixtures of the Marvel Universe would be a good way for the game to highlight just how different Logan’s brutal approach is, leaning further into the game’s visceral violence. It could also be a fun way to play with the genre of the gameplay, putting Logan into some stealthy sections that reflect the spy thriller tone of this classic story.

Wounded Wolf

A classic story from Uncanny X-Men #205, “Wounded Wolf” was written by Chris Claremont with pencils by Barry Windsor-Smith that saw Logan face off with the Reavers and their leader, Lady Deathstrike. With the Reavers already seemingly confirmed in trailers for the game, it wouldn’t be surprising to see fixtures of the franchise like Lady Deathstrike or Donald Pierce appear as bosses in the game. 

What we hope is that these appearances are in line with the stark art design of stories like “Wounded Wolf,” which force Wolverine to reckon with his own humanity while facing off with Deathstrike. Superhero stories have real potential for visual beauty, even in their darkest moments. While we are likely to get some tense boss battles, we can only hope Marvel’s Wolverine chooses to lean more into the stylized approach of comics like this rather than just basic arena fights.

Operation: Zero Tolerance

While not necessarily a single story or solely focused on Wolverine, elements of the “Operation: Zero Tolerance” crossover could easily be a good story beat for Marvel’s Wolverine to pull from. When public fear over mutants hits a fever pitch, Wolverine and the other X-Men are forced on the run from Bastion and his forces. This kind of story beat could give every move by the heroes a sense of stakes, with the spreading forces of the Reavers, the Sentinels, and the Omega Sentinels that exist as a cross-section of the two slowly overtaking entire swaths of the country. 

Logan being forced on the run would be a good impetus for a globe-trotting adventure. It would also be a handy excuse for more and more advanced anti-mutant technologies to be sent after him at an enhanced rate to give the game non-stop action encounters. It would also be a good excuse to pull from other recent adaptations, such as X-Men ‘97, which also took a lot of cues from Operation: Zero Tolerance.

The Legacy House 

Written by Benjamin Percy and with pencils by Andy Kubert, “The Legacy House” arc was part of the recent “Age of Krakoa” relaunch of the franchise. The story, which took place in the Wolverine solo book, focused on Logan’s efforts to infiltrate an underground black market that is illegally selling superhero and supervillain equipment – including parts of Logan that he had left behind on missions and had otherwise healed from. 

On top of being a fun chance to throw a cavalcade of Marvel references and easter eggs at fans, this storyline also had a good way of bringing together a lot of beats mentioned in this list. There are distinct locations like the criminal haven of Madripoor and the Legacy House itself. The various deep cuts and black market super gear could set up lots of exciting fights. The rest of the Marvel Universe gets a chance to be referenced and even serve as the impetus for some of Logan’s fights. More than almost any other story, I really hope Marvel’s Wolverine pulls from this one.

Marvel’s Wolverine Should Skip Origins

One thing the Wolverine game needs to keep focus on is Logan as Wolverine. That means not letting the character’s mysterious past become too distracting a story beat, something the comics suffered from, especially after Origins. Written by Bill Jemas, Joe Quesada, and Paul Jenkins, with pencils by Andy Kubert, Origins delved into the previously unseen early years of Logan – revealing his birth into a wealthy 19th-century family, the development of his powers, and how he originally abandoned humanity. This story does have some interesting dividends for the character in the comics, but it would be a frustrating turn to see in Marvel’s Wolverine. It’s a story where Wolverine really doesn’t factor in, distracting from the action and narrative that the trailers are hinting towards. 

The truth behind Logan’s origins carries a lot of setup for other historical exposition, which could grind the momentum of the action-focused game down. More than anything, it would be disconcerting to see a Wolverine game, seemingly so rooted in the present day and against forces of human aggression like the Sentinels, suddenly shift to the open environments of the forests or delve too deeply into Logan’s past – something that is rarely as compelling as stories about Wolverine now. Maybe a campaign exploring Wolverine’s history could make for good DLC or even a separate title, but I’m too excited to get my hands on Wolverine’s claws to want to see such a shift back to an earlier, bone-clawed take on the character.