Seven Cool Facts about Wolverine

Wolverine is one of Marvel’s most popular characters and is considered the star of the X-Men comic and movie franchise.Created in 1974, Wolverine wasn’t originally part of the X-Men (he was a generic Canadian superpowered agent), and his character has evolved from an angry loner to a stoic samurai to a schoolteacher and father figure to a generation of mutants.Here’s some facts you might not know about the popular superhero:

Wolverine’s Claws Originally Weren’t Part of His Body

When Len Wein first conceived Wolverine way back in 1974, he had some wildly different thoughts as to the character’s backgrounds and skills.  For one thing, Wein didn’t originally make Wolverine’s claws part of his body.  Instead, they were part of his costume and were attached at his wrists instead of through his knuckles. In Wolverine’s first appearances, Wolverine’s claws remained affixed to his wrist and were popped out at all times.  It took two years for Chris Claremont to reveal that Wolverine’s claws were actually part of his body.  Despite the evolution of Wolverine’s claws, Wein always intended Wolverine’s claws were always retractable, as Wein didn’t see how a superhero with giant knives attached to his hands could complete simple tasks like open a door or tie his shoes.

Wolverine Wasn’t Supposed to Be a Mutant

One of the most popular comics trivia questions of all time is that Wolverine wasn’t always supposed to be a mutant. Allegedly, Wolverine was originally conceived as a super-evolved wolverine created by the High Evolutionary, but exactly who came up with that idea remains under question.  Len Wein, the creator of Wolverine, denied that he came up with that idea and stated that he always intended Wolverine to be a superpowered human or mutant. Instead, it seems that Dave Cockrum, an artist who created many of Wolverine’s X-Men teammates with Wein, mentioned the idea in an 1986 interview but never followed up with it during his time on Uncanny X-Men. 

Interestingly, Jeph Loeb later introduced the Lupines, a race of humanoid mutants that allegedly evolved from wolves instead of primates.  According to their leader Romulus, Wolverine, Sabretooth and several other “feral” mutants were all part of the Lupine race instead of Homo Superior. That was later revealed to be a lie, although Wolverine never really seemed to fall for that trick.

Wolverine’s Looks Were Inspired by Clint Eastwood

In the early 1980s, Chris Claremont and Frank Miller collaborated on Wolverine’s first ever miniseries, which came to define the character in multiple ways.  Not only did that series introduce Eastern elements to Wolverine’s background and personality (famously turning him into a ronin, a masterless samurai), Miller also subtly changed Wolverine’s appearance to resemble Clint Eastwood, the actor behind hits like the Dirty Harry movies and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.  Miller wanted Wolverine to exude Eastwood’s quiet macho toughness and confident swagger and morphed Wolverine’s traditionally short and stocky frame into a slightly more sleek look.  Sure, Wolverine was still short, but he carried himself like a man who knew he could kill you in the drop of the hat. The re-design stuck, and Wolverine skyrocketed to unheard of levels of popularity because of the subtle change. Many years later, James Marigold claimed his movie The Wolverine was inspired in part by the Clint Eastwood movie The Outlaw Josey Wales. 

Wolverine Broke Time

The 2013 event Age of Ultron featured Wolverine and the Invisible Woman traveling through time to stop Hank Pym from creating Ultron after Ultron conquered Earth and killed many of Marvel’s heroes.  After Wolverine murdered Pym the first time, it created a divergent timeline that saw magic overtake technology as the dominant driver of society.  Because murdering Pym didn’t “stop” a horrific future, Wolverine and Sue Storm went back in time a second time and saved Pym from (past) Wolverine.  Their second attempt was much more successful, as it led to Ultron’s defeat, it had an unfortunate side effect: it caused tears to appear in the multiverse, leading to an array of devastating consequences, including Galactus suddenly appearing in the Ultimate Universe and nearly eating it. 

Wolverine Killed Most of His Kids

In a recent storyline, Wolverine fought a group of supervillains called “the Mongrels”, a collection of savage and violent fighters working for the mysterious “Red Right Hand” organization.  After cutting down the Mongrels one by one, he learned that the Red Right Hand was a “Wolverine Revenge Squad” consisting of the family members of some of the many people Wolverine had killed over the years.  They had recruited the Mongrels for a very specific reason: they all were Wolverine’s children from his various dalliances over the years. 

Later, Wolverine was forced to put down another one of his children, Daken, who had grown up to hate Wolverine under the care of Romulus.  After reforming the Brotherhood of Mutants and leading an attack against X-Force, Wolverine realized that Daken couldn’t be reformed and drowned his son in a pool of water.  Unlike the Mongrels, Daken eventually returned to life, although he seems to have a better appreciation of his father now that he’s dead. 

Wolverine Fought Spock and Lost

In 1996, Scott Lobdell wrote a crossover featuring the X-Men and the cast of the original Star Trek television series. The two teams eventually teamed up to fight Gary Mitchell (who had merged with the X-Men villain Proteus) and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard, but not before the two teams squared off in the classic “good guy vs. good guy” fight that’s part of every crossover ever.  Wolverine rushed at Spock, who quickly placated his foe with a Vulcan nerve pinch.  Wolverine quickly recovered from the nerve pinch, but he didn’t get a chance to make Spock bleed green as the two teams quickly realized they were on the same side.     

Hugh Jackman Wasn’t Wolverine’s First Choice

Australian actor Hugh Jackman is synonymous with Wolverine, having played the character since the 2000 X-Men movie.  However, Jackman wasn’t 20th Century Fox’s first choice to play Wolverine.  Instead, Fox wanted Russell Crowe, the star of Gladiator, to play Wolverine instead.  Crowe turned down the part and suggested Jackman (a close friend and countryman) for the part instead. Jackman also credits Crowe for getting the lead in Australia as Crowe turned that part down too, so maybe Jackman should just hire Crowe as his new agent.