How did Wolverine Become a Cultural Icon? The Enduring Allure of Marvel's Fiercest Hero

What makes Wolverine one of Marvel's most enduring and iconic characters? Prepare to uncover the journey of this brooding anti-hero from his humble beginnings in 1974 to his status as a fan-favorite in both comics and film. Join me, Aaron, as we reminisce about Wolverine's intense debut in the X-Men animated series and explore how creators Len Wein and John Romita Sr. crafted his gritty and enigmatic persona. We’ll also unravel the layers of his mysterious past and the evolving depth that has kept fans captivated for decades.

Inspired by the real-life ferocity of the wolverine animal and the stoic demeanor of Clint Eastwood's characters, Wolverine has always been a unique figure in the Marvel universe. In this episode, discover how his Canadian roots, initial appearance in The Incredible Hulk comics, and subsequent rise to fame as a brooding anti-hero added to his compelling nature. We'll discuss his battles, loyalty, and rebellious spirit that set him apart, as well as his stature as one of the shortest but mightiest Marvel superheroes.

From his traumatic involvement in the Weapon X program to his complex emotional battles, Wolverine's character has seen significant evolution. We'll highlight influential storylines like the "Weapon X" series, his solo series starting in 1988, and essential comics recommended by our Fandom Portals Community. Plus, we’ll celebrate Hugh Jackman's iconic portrayal that brought Wolverine to life on the big screen, ensuring his lasting popularity.
Join us for an in-depth look at the allure of Wolverine's character, his psychological complexity, and why he continues to resonate with fans worldwide!

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Popularity of Wolverine in Media
• 4:45 The Origins and Influence of Wolverine
• 14:48 The Evolution of Wolverine's Character
• 27:02 The Enduring Appeal of Wolverine
• 34:24 The Allure of Wolverine's Character

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

also presented as that physical presence. The very first episode that you see him in where he's eviscerating Sentinels in Night of the Sentinels, part 1, season 1, episode 1. He's tearing these Sentinels apart, ripping robots limb from limb. He's sneaking into various different government agencies. He's doing all of the cool things. But then at the end of that arc in Night of the Sentinels, part 2, when Morph goes missing, wolverine is one of the most emotional characters when it comes to the loss of that teammate. So they're kind of playing on that physicality and that emotionality. Once again, welcome to Fandom Portal's podcast, where curiosity meets community in celebration of all things geek. We build connections on every episode by delving into your favorite fandom questions in the time it takes you to walk your beloved dog. Now, today's episode, ladies and gentlemen, is a solo episode hosted by me, aaron. Now, the question that we are looking at today for this solo episode is one that is very close to my heart. Now I want you to picture yourself on a Saturday morning. There. You've got no troubles in the world. You walk down into the kitchen, you pour yourself a bowl of cereal with your favorite pajamas on. You go into your lounge room, you sit down on the floor, you turn on the tv and who appears on your tv screen? But wolverine in the x-men animated series cartoon. Now that story is probably very familiar to a lot of listeners and it's kind of the reason why this episode kind of was given life and the like. The way that we came about this episode was because on our threads we posted a couple of questions about people's favorite Marvel characters and Wolverine ranked pretty highly amongst those characters. And also, after doing some research, we found that for people over the age of 30 or millennials, wolverine was the most popular comic book character. He's also very highly recognized. Wolverine was the most popular comic book character. He's also very highly recognized. He's maintained this popularity across a 40-year generation, across multiple audiences, across multiple types of media. And it begged the question and made me wonder why exactly is this character of Wolverine so popular amongst the generations of people? So by the end of this podcast you will be able to know exactly how Marvel turned Wolverine into a single issue subplot, into a franchise fan favorite. You'll be able to know what made Wolverine so appealing for those 45 years to all of its fans and which iconic storyline solidified Wolverine's popularity over the decades of media. Now, in the back end of this podcast, we're actually going to be recommending some of the titles that wolverine stars in, as recommended by our fandom portals community. So stick around to the end of that. Those details will also be in the show notes for you to look at as well. A big, special thanks to our fandom portals community for this one, this episode. It does come off the back of your requests and it also has quite a bit of information and statistics based on some of the comments on our threads and instagram posts as well.

Speaker 1: 3:09

Let's get started on our question on how did the character of wolverine get so popular in the first place? Okay, so our journey takes us back to 1974, where richard nixon is stepping down as president, abber is taking the world by storm with waterloo and steven spielberg is about to make his directorial debut with the Sugarland Express. Amidst all this, an unforgettable character floors his way into the comic book world. Enter Wolverine, making his debut in the Incredible Hulk 180 and 181,. This ferocious Canadian government agent with floors of adamantium instantly grabbed readers' attention. But we ask the question why? Now? My research has broken this down into three basic reasons as to why Wolverine was so popular during this time, and I think before we get into those three reasons, we'll talk about some of the initial impressions that the community had on Wolverine when he was first given to the comic book readers all those years ago. So overall, when readers initially saw Wolverine, they saw a gritty, enigmatic character with a mysterious past and a very fierce demeanor. He was unpredictable. His depth as a character was slowly and gradually revealed over many, many years and that sort of led to his appeal as well. He's become one of Marvel's most beloved and endearing superheroes and he was created by Len Wein and John Romita Sr, and those two basically laid the groundwork for this iconic character and for his personality over the years, which evolved and expanded upon numerous different writers and artists throughout the decades of his comic book history.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Now the look of Wolverine is definitely very identifiable. He takes lots of inspiration from the wildlife obviously named the Wolverine. He's got an animalistic nature and fighting style which he drew from the ferocity of the actual Wolverine he is named after. He also has some cinematic influences as well, most notably the earlier iterations of Wolverine in the comic books that he appears in. He takes a lot of inspiration from Clint Eastwood, even some of the lines that is written from Wolverine are taken or adjusted directly from some Clint Eastwood movies. Most notably the character of Dirty Harry. His demeanor and his no-nonsense approach is two of the things that was taken from that character itself. Now, another important thing about Wolverine that you should know is that he has Canadian roots.

Speaker 1: 5:35

Now, at the time of his introduction, the diversity of characters in the Marvel universe wasn't there and as a result of that, marvel decided to diversify their roster of superheroes in an attempt to broaden their international audience. Now, obviously, with the success of marvel uk, which was a uh, a sister company to marvel in the us, they decided to then branch out into canada by introducing the wolverine as a canadian. Now, as we said, he first appeared in the Incredible Hulk comics and that was where we first got our introduction to this character of Wolverine, and that was all the way back in the 1970s. So the first thing that I think and what I've researched that has made Wolverine so popular over these years, is that he fits a particular character archetype. Now he is the brooding anti-hero and at the time this was a refreshing change to the boy scout kind of heroes that were around during the time. And by his introduction in the mid 70s to the time that it was uh, popularized in the in the 1980s.

Speaker 1: 6:42

You can think of lots of different action movie heroes that build this archetype. A lot of the Arnold Schwarzenegger sort of characters in movies fit this archetype. It was a robust figure of manliness, but at the same time this archetype had a strong emotional and psychological damage which made him vulnerable as well. So it was that pairing of the physically strong and the psychologically weakened sort of character that really drew people to him when they first saw him. Now, when he was introduced in the Incredible Hulk comics in number 180, he only appeared in the final panel as an adversary, a Canadian government agent trying to stop the Hulk. And then in 181, released in November of 1974, he actually featured in the whole entire comic book and everybody got to see him in his finest forms through combat and also obviously displaying those claws that he's famous for as well, with his rebellious and brooding archetype.

Speaker 1: 7:47

He has exhibited this through many, many years in his comic book history, and it was one of the first things that audiences were able to garner from his backstory, as he was a character that was introduced with very little background to him. One particular example is all the way through the Dark Phoenix saga, most notably in X-Men 133, which was released in the 1980s, and During this episode Wolverine finds himself locked in a battle against the formidable Hellfire Club, and inside a dark and foreboding halls of this Hellfire Club lair Wolverine instincts scream with rebellion and he also is fiercely determined to protect and save his X-Men counterparts, who have all been captured. This is one of the very first issues that Wolverine appears solo on the cover of a Marvel comic and it is very, very valuable today if you can get your hands on a rated copy of X-Men 133. Now, during this issue, you can see Wolverine basically having a John Wick or a Taken moment where he's taking out lots of different enemies from the Hellfire Club. He had lots of panels drawn showing him just eviscerating his foes, using stealth and all different types of strategy, cunning and willpower just to overthrow these oppressors, and that was probably one of the first times that Wolverine really took center stage in that manner.

Speaker 1: 9:13

Beforehand, during the dark phoenix saga, he was very much a sub sort of character, with the creators of the, the x-men at the time really preferring the character of nightcrawler, and you can kind of see that in the issues leading up to this, with the, the arc of wolverine or the, the change in roster of x-men starting in the 90s sort of issues of the X-Men, but by this time by 133 they definitely sort of solidified this new team of X-Men, most notably like Colossus, storm, nightcrawler and Wolverine, all introduced at the same time to diversify, as we said, that um, that roster of Marvel superheroes into an international sort of brand, colossus being from Russia, nightcrawler from germany, storm from africa and etc. But with wolverine he was then able to go through this hellfire club all on his own, as a one-man army. He was ignoring, he would often ignore the cautious strategies of his teammates and he would kind of go against their, their ideologies, refused to bow to authority and he'd combine his raw determination with his ambition and his loyalty to turn the tides of battle and it cemented his reputation as a mutant that kind of followed his own rules, which cemented his spot as a, as that, anti-hero sort of character. Wolverine also sort of stands up in the face of overwhelming odds, which is a very attractive trait for readers of comic books, and he reminds us that he is more than just a superhero. He's kind of like a lone wolf that refuses to be tamed. But in the same stance he'll stand up for what he believes in, whether it's going to hurt him or not. This is coming off the back of the fact that the character stands at a whopping five foot two or five foot three. He's one of the shortest marvel superhero characters and that was intentionally done by the creators of wolverine. They were definitely conscious of the fact that he was going to be a little guy with a big attitude and that also kind of really impacted the audience when they read him as well.

Speaker 1: 11:09

He kind of stood out from the bunch as well, being an adversarial character to Cyclops with his attraction to Jean and during this Dark Phoenix saga that really kind of came about with the destructive force of the Phoenix just sort of tearing through a lot of the X-Men when they were forced to face her, which came just after this Hellfire arc as well. Back in the 1980s it was issue 137. It was written by Chris claremont and illustrated by john burn at the time and this sort of unfolding of wolverine's emotions sort of came to the forefront in prior issues. He definitely bonded with jean gray and been entangled in almost like a love triangle with cyclops, which added like a poignant layer to to his character. During the storyline of 137, wolverine grapples not only with gene's transformation into the dark phoenix, but also his conflicted feelings towards cyclops, who previously he had been very adversarial towards or uh teammates, but also like very quippy with him in terms of questioning his leadership decisions. As it's often stated that cyclops is a bit of a boy scout in this sort of regard, and Wolverine was the antithesis of his character in that result as well and by this time X-Men fans had read a hundred or so issues with Cyclops being the one-dimensional character that he was and seeing something completely different or going against that. That sort of character was very attractive for them people as well.

Speaker 1: 12:31

During this Dark Phoenix saga, though at the the climax of this saga between issue 137 and 138, wolverine definitely shows some emotional vulnerability, which was uh different for a character with his tough exterior at the time, which was attractive to people too, and this sort of rugged demeanor belays a profound sense of of loss and regret, and he navigates the aftermath of Gene's sacrifice in a very raw and emotional way, and again that, combined with his physicality, is just a combination that really stuck with the fans. It portrays him as a deeply emotional being who struggles with love, who struggles with loss. He has complex dynamics within his internal psychology. He has complex human and mutant relationships and it enhances his character, making him more relatable and compelling beyond just the fierce battles. So he had the cool exterior, he was a cool character to see and he was also that emotionally vulnerable character as well. So it paired the two really well and it was one of the first times that was done successfully in comic books during the 1980s. He's definitely very loyal and protective as well.

Speaker 1: 13:39

During the mutant massacre storyline in uncanny x-men 205, published in 1986, we see his adamantium claw berserker rage unleash for his fierce loyalty of the x-men. During this, this storyline, deep beneath the streets of new york, thelocks, a community of outcast mutants, face annihilation at the hands of the merciless Marauders led by Mr Sinister, these killers. They showed no mercy as they hunt down the defenseless Morlocks, and Wolverine came in alongside Colossus and Nightcrawler and Shadowcat, also known as Kitty Pryde, with this adrenaline-pumping, claw-ready jump-into-the-fray-at-any-action and he was just driven by this unyielding determination to protect these mutants. These Morlocks and if you don't know, x-men lore Morlocks are the mutants that reside below New York City and they live there basically because they would undergo prosecution by the general public, because they're the kind of mutants that have physical differences as opposed to ones that they could hide in plain sight. So they made their community down below the surface and Wolverine, being loyal to his kind, went down with the X-Men to help these guys out after the Marauders were trying to destroy them.

Speaker 1: 14:48

Basically, the battle during these issues was chaotic. It was brutal and hissharp claws just tore through a lot of the marauders with deadly precision. Wolverine actually suffered some serious injuries during the heat of this battle, but he still refused to retreat and he stood firm during these overwhelming odds. So over the course of his publication you saw wolverine just have these moments where he stood up against overwhelming forces and it was almost like those, those climactic scenes at the end of a lot of story arcs where the lone hero would stand against the army and that oppressive force. And this was an attractive thought as well, especially during the 1980s where there was a lot of sort of talk about about the end of the Vietnam war being in the 1970s and 1975 and also the long ongoing cold war with the Soviet Union that ran all the way up until 1991. So the little guy standing up against the big oppressor was definitely something that was going right through America at the time and Wolverine was a character that sort of allowed people to embody that in a fictional character.

Speaker 1: 15:49

So to summarize that sort of point, he was definitely emotionally very complex, but he also had these really awesome moments through his publication that allowed him to seem like he was really cool in front of the readers and he was slowly revealed to the audience, which brings us to our next point. So when he was first revealed, the only thing that people knew about him was that he was a Canadian operative who had roots in the government of Canada and he was part of Canadian intelligence. He was asked to then go and take down the Incredible Hulk. Through those issues as well, it was revealed that he had a mutant ability to have his regenerative healing factor, which allowed him to rapidly heal from his injuries and survive wounds that would usually be fatal to normal humans. This also allowed him to stand firm in the face of incredible danger, which made him also one of the first X-Men to sort of jump in or do the crazy thing or be thrown into the fray at a moment's notice because he would heal straight after and fans kind of kept reading to see what he would endure, what he would put up with and what he was able to withstand as a result of his healing factor, which was cool to read as well.

Speaker 1: 16:55

Now, one of the most significant factors of Wolverine's character was his adamantium claws and again, this was released very, very slowly, almost drip fed the comic book reading community so everybody would tune into the X-Men every kind of week because they wanted to know more about this character was doing all this cool stuff because a lot of the other characters like Storm and Colossus and Nightcrawler that were revealed at the time their backstories were pretty well fleshed out, but this loner, sort of enigmatic, mysterious character of Wolverine, there wasn't much known about him at all. So you saw that he had these adamantium claws and at the time of his, his introduction it was very much assumed that those claws were part of his gloves and they were retractable up and down through those gloves. But one of the first reveals that you kind of see during the run of the X-Men, after he was introduced in X-Men 98, was that those claws were actually part of his physiology. They came in and out of his hands and that was just another wondering point for the community. As that was revealed that was his mutant ability. And then that was revealed in X-Men issue 98 that was released in 1976 and it was also revealed during that time that they were this, this coated coated bone claw, and the coating was obviously the adamantium, this rare and indestructible material.

Speaker 1: 18:08

Over the years as well, in 1979 with X-Men 117, it was revealed that Wolverine actually had some military background experience, with slight mentions of this Weapon X program being puddled through his history and his publication and the actual bonding of the adamantium. That Weapon X program that everybody knows he was a part of didn't actually get fully fleshed out until the 1990s, in 1991. Part of didn't actually get fully fleshed out until the 1990s, in 1991, and it was revealed in Marvel Presents issue number 72 to 84. That issue, weapon X, or that, that small publication, weapon X, was one of, and still remains to be one of, the most famous and exhilarating reads of Wolverine canon to date.

Speaker 1: 18:50

Weapon X was written by Barry Windsor Smith and illustrated by Sam Keith and the comic issue sort of took on a more sort of psychedelic aesthetic and the storytelling perspective takes a lot from the third person in the room, I guess you could say so. It's taken from the perspective of a lot of these scientists who are observing Wolverine as a test subject. So these people who are reading these comics back in the 1970s and 1980s, when they get to this issue in 1991, when it starts to come out, you can really sort of see the wandering and the slow development of that character and you kind of for the first time see what Wolverine went through and it actually depicts some pretty traumatizing scenes. There's a torture that Wolverine goes through actually depicts some pretty traumatizing scenes. So there's a torture that Wolverine goes through and that also sort of highlights the personality of Wolverine throughout the earlier issues that he's been a part of as well. It kind of explains that trauma that he's gone through as well and it really sort of cemented the fact that he was incredibly flawed, whilst being perceptively perfect with his healing factor, but obviously psychologically damaged as well. So that slow drip feeding of Wolverine definitely was accelerated in 1988 when Wolverine was able to get his solo series and that came off the back of a series that aired in September of 1982.

Speaker 1: 20:05

It was the solo issue called Wolverine. It was written by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller and this really established his origins in terms of him battling with his animalistic nature and it showed the emotionality of Wolverine, sort of psychologically processing the berserker and the rage traits in him and him coming to terms with having that part of him and being inside of him and it releasing at a moment's notice and explore the sort of avenues of him and it releasing at a moment's notice and explore the sort of avenues of him controlling that and the consequences that that animalistic nature kind of has on his life. This is the issue where wolverine does take some time in japan and he meets his, his love interest, mariko, and he goes to battle with a ninja organization known as the hand. Now he goes to japan to seek and regain his lost honor, uh, in order to win the hand of Mariko who suffers at the hands of her tyrannical father and an abusive husband as well. This storyline also emphasized Wolverine's sympathetic side and also going to the limits to undergo samurai training in an attempt to tame his animal instincts. This was explored further his relationship with Mariko in 1983 in X-Men issue 172 and 173. And he actually ended up engaging and marrying Mariko during this time, which also gave a layer of depth to him as well.

Speaker 1: 21:28

So Wolverine's origins were finally 100% revealed all the way in 2001 and 2002. Now that's 45 years after his initial inception, where readers of Wolverine had slowly been drip-fed this backstory of the character, going from the revelation of his claws being a part of his anatomy to his healing factor, to his relationships, to his ongoing rivalry with Sabretooth during his solo series in 1988, to his time with Alpha Flight, to his time in the Weapon X program, all of these things had been revealed. But things prior to and his actual childhood were never really revealed until the Origins series, which was a six-part miniseries released in 2001. It was written by Bill Jemis and Joe Quesadilla, it was illustrated by Andy Cubitt and it explored Wolverine's full origin story, revealing to readers that his name was not in fact Logan, it is James Howlett. It explored his childhood in Canada, where he was a sickly and weakened young man, and his transformation into Wolverine, where it shed light on his mysterious past.

Speaker 1: 22:37

So because he was so incredibly well written in terms of the revelation of his backstory, it allowed readers to really stay engaged with his character over generations of his publication and those readers that sort of tuned in in 1975 when he was first introduced into the Uncanny X-Men, stuck around and stuck around until in the 1990s a lot of his backstory was really fully revealed and he also was a plot device during this time where any comic book that was underselling Wolverine would be used to upsell those comic books through guest appearances, especially during the 80s when Marvel was very flippant with where they would put their characters for a guest spot, and Wolverine was definitely used in that way to bolster sales at times as well, wolverine having appeared in different comic books, not just X-Men and his solo series, but he also appears in Fantastic Four and thegers as well. So when we did our threads research, a lot of what we've talked about so far has been comic book information, and when we did our threads research, we did a poll that asked people in our community how they first met wolverine, as I was curious to see how people of different ages interacted with this character, having him been a long-standing Marvel fixture and having a 45-year history, and 34% of our community actually said that they first encountered Wolverine in a comic book. So with that, the most popular way that people had come to meet Wolverine was actually the same way that I personally met Wolverine and 45% of our community actually did as well, and it was through the X-Men animated series cartoon. Now, it was a very popular series in the 1990s. If you haven't seen it then you've definitely probably heard of X-Men 97 at the time of this podcast recording.

Speaker 1: 24:22

That was a very popular show on Disney Plus. That was based on the 90s cartoon which released in 91, 92, 93 and that cartoon basically takes all the great things about Wolverine that the comic books sort of laid foundations for and they put it into this show that was based for kids as well. So obviously the readers of those comic books, the ones that fell in love with the genre, grew up to work in the industry, created this cartoon and really did the character justice as well. So he was also very mysterious in that cartoon. He often was considered the loner as well. He has more solo episodes during the five-season run of that show than any other character.

Speaker 1: 25:02

There is lots of time presented to Wolverine due to his popularity in the comic books and he was also presented as that physical presence. The very first episode that you see him in where he's eviscerating Sentinels in Night of. The very first episode that you see him in where he's eviscerating Sentinels in Night of the Sentinels, part 1, season 1, episode 1. He's tearing these Sentinels apart, ripping robots limb from limb, he's sneaking into various different government agencies. He's doing all of the cool things, but then at the end of that arc in Night of the Sentinels, part 2, when Morph goes missing or allegedly dies offscreen. Wolverine is one of the most emotional characters when it comes to the loss of that teammate. So they're kind of playing on that physicality and that emotionality once again, allowing people to see his amazing abilities but also see his emotional vulnerability as well.

Speaker 1: 25:50

Now Wolverine was voiced by Carl Dodd, or Cal Dodd, during this run of the cartoon and he was able to capture Wolverine's character's toughness, vulnerability, humor and just the complexity of his emotional range in such a unique and amazing way. His performance not only brought Wolverine to life in the animated series, but it really contributed significantly to his enduring popularity in popular culture. He was able to give voice to the catchphrase that everybody had listened to or, sorry, read over all their years of reading comic books. You know he's popularized catchphrase. Like he calls people bub. The lines that he says from his first solo run, written by Chris Claremont in 1982, where it was introduced that he always says I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice. These all were iterated by Cal Dodd during the, the animated series and everybody that. It's almost like that cartoon series. For us, having read those comic books, was like when you see an easter egg in a Marvel MCU movie. Now it was just. You see those things brought to life for the first time and you're just amazed that it's happened on the screen. And for it to be done in such a gruff and visceral way by Cal Dodd was just absolutely amazing as well.

Speaker 1: 27:02

Wolverine was also popular during this series because his personal vendettas were publicized pretty well. His emotional battles with Sabretooth and his relentless pursuit of justice against these enemies was put on screen for everybody to see. I think by the sixth episode Wolverine actually so he goes undercover as a truck driver to investigate a string of mutant disappearances and over the course of that episode he actually finds that a lot of different villains are kind of involved and he confronts them, defeats them, and that's just another one of those moments where Wolverine's given the spotlight to do the thing that nobody else wants to do. So obviously the third way that people have interacted with Wolverine over their years or from our threads poll, we found that 21% of people first met Wolverine in the X-Men movie that was made in the early 2000s. Now this movie and the character of Wolverine brought to life by the amazing and Australian Hugh Jackman is a favorite of mine. It was probably one of the movies that I rented the most from Blockbuster Video when we used to go there and when it first came out you'd see the TVs in the corner of the video stores playing the trailers and I just saw Wolverine. I saw the claws coming out for the first time and it was on a live action person and it was just something that you had to follow through and watch.

Speaker 1: 28:22

And Hugh Jackman takes on that character of Wolverine so perfectly. They obviously highlighted his character in the movie as one of the mains and Hugh Jackman's played that role now for a number of years I think it's close to 24 or 25 years and he he just does a stunning job throughout the whole thing with the people who have viewed his performances. They've also gone and put onto the big screen some of everybody's favorite comic book moments from wolverine as well, with his weapon x history being shown in x-men 2 and the old man logan storyline being exemplified in the incredibly moving piece known as lo. You can see Wolverine as a disheveled and older version of himself, dealing with a life full of violence and the consequences that have led to that life of violence as well, and it's just a really sort of moving piece and a stunning goodbye to the character of Wolverine prior to him retaking up the role in 2024 to star alongside Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool and Wolverine.

Speaker 1: 29:23

But to summarize, over this, wolverine has been extremely popular over his 45 years for three main reasons that I've found. He was a unique character at the time, playing that brutish archetype that we've seen emulated so many more times since that iteration. He was emotionally complex and also physically strong, and he was relatable to a lot of different audience members at the time when he was introduced in the comic books back in the 1970s and 80s. Secondly, he was slowly revealed to the audience members, his backstory not fully fleshed out, giving those writers time to develop the story that was most poignant for the character, to allow his mysterious nature to draw readers in to find out more about this character every time they wanted to find out more about Wolverine. They also used him sparingly to start with, but then as his popularity grew and they needed him in other issues, they used him in other issues and that sort of grew the fan base of Wolverine as well, that sort of grew the fan base of Wolverine as well. And third and finally, wolverine was part of some of the most epic storylines in Marvel history. He also got some really great moments during his tenure as an X-Man and he was just really highlighted through lots of different mediums as well, whether it be comic book, tv and movies. Wolverine was a staple for these in order to draw that popular sort of appeal.

Speaker 1: 30:46

So at the start of this podcast, I told you that our threads community recommended some amazing storylines for you to dive into if you're a Wolverine fan, and I'm going to go through them for you right now. So a lot of these were mentioned during the podcast. So if you're interested in them, here are the exact issues that you can look at and read to get a really good count of what Wolverine was like across the years of his development. So the first thing that I would recommend, and what was recommended by our threads community, was the 1980 series, issue 129 to 138. It really shows the crux and the end of that Dark Phoenix saga where Jason Wingrade of the Hellfire Club is infiltrating Jean Grey psionically. She's slowly going down that rabbit hole and moving towards the Dark Phoenix and Wolverine's role. During this powerful sort of moment in X-Men, history kind of highlights his loyalty, his resilience, his moral complexity. He has some really great moments as we described in X-Men 133 with the Hellfire Club. Some really great moments as we described in X-Men 133 with the Hellfire Club We'll say evisceration.

Speaker 1: 31:45

The second piece of Wolverine material that is recommended by our Instagram and threads community is the 1982 limited series that was written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by Frank Miller. We talked about this one. It was when he was in Japan. It shows his inner struggle between the savage instincts and his sense of honor. Definitely go and pick that up. You can get it as a trade paperback. Those links will be in the show notes below for all of these as well, guys. The Weapon X series from Marvel Comics presents issue 72 to 84, written by Barry Windsor Smith. That was a 1991 production. It delves into his tortured past, revealing the brutal experiments that were done on him. You get to see how that adamantium was secured to his skeleton and the psychedelic artwork that sort of accompanied it as well was very much coming out of the 80s into the early 90s, and it's just a really great sort of comic book piece staple to all Wolverine lovers.

Speaker 1: 32:35

One that I actually haven't read and is going to be homework for me and I'll probably post on social media as well. My reactions to this is Wolverine Enemy of State. Now, this was made in 2004 and 2005,. Written by Mark Miller, illustrated by John Romita Jr, who was the son of the creator of Wolverine, and it shows a brainwashed Wolverine as he goes up against his allies in the Marvel Universe, showing his fight for control against that manipulation as well. So looking forward to that read and I'll keep you posted on our socials, which is also in the show notes below, to see how that one turns out as well Very highly recommended by our threads community.

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When they found out I hadn't read it, they definitely ensured that I did and I will. The last one that I will recommend and definitely think everybody should read is Old man Logan. That I will recommend and definitely think everybody should read is Old man Logan. That was written in 2008 to 2009 by Mark Miller, again this time illustrated by Steve McNiven, and it's the dystopian future presented in the Logan movie. It's the inspiration for that movie. So if you loved the movie Logan, definitely pick up this copy as well. Wolverine is retired during this and explores those themes of redemption, of that consequence of a life filled with battles for the character of Wolverine. It's definitely something that you should pick up if you are a Wolverine fan and especially if you're a fan of Logan.

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That has been our episode of Fandom Portals to answer the question as to why Wolverine is so popular, why that rebel rose from being that subplot character into one of marvel's most famous faces. If you have liked this episode, if you've learned something from this episode, then please do not hesitate to go into our show notes and find a wolverine comic book that you can read yourself and talk to us about it on our social media, our threads, our instagram, even email us if you have something that you want to say. If, if you read something cool, come and talk to us here at Fandom Portals. We want to hear from you.

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I personally love Wolverine as a character. I fell in love with him as a young child and I still love him to this day. I cannot wait to go and see him on any sort of media that he's presented in. He's a character that is just so complex and just really great to dive into. He is written by lots of different authors and drawn by lots of different artists, but they still always capture that fundamental brilliance that brings Wolverine into everybody's hearts. He's a great character and I really, really hope you guys enjoy reading some of the things that he is in as well, if you haven't already. So that's been me, aaron, here at Fandom Portals. I can't wait to see you guys next week and remember, as always, we're connecting with respect here and we will catch you next week. Thank you you.