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Why I Hate Wolverine


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NOTE: I RARELY READ COMICS AND HAVE ONLY READ MAYBE 2 ESSENTIAL X-MEN COLLECTIONS.

 

Maybe it isn't fair, as a non-comic fan, to even comment. But after growing up on the X-Men cartoon, seeing all of the X-Men movies and watching a large number of comic movies over the course of my life... I think Wolverine is boring. Or, rather, I think Wolverine has been made boring by the fact that every character has become dark, angry and brooding. Wolverine initially offered a unique hero who had a different perspective - he was a loner among a group that bonded over the fact that they were all forced to be loners. Wolverine was the consummate outsider, the rebel among rebels. Fast forward a few decades, and suddenly virtue is boring and every hero HAS to be angry, flawed and dark, and basically a Wolverine clone, and it no longer makes sense to make him the central figure in everything.

 

Wolverine needs an upstanding, virtuous Cyclops to have a balance. If everyone's emo, then the character is diluted and meaningless.

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That's sort of like suddenly hating a great song because somebody else did a horrible cover version of it. If you hate the cover version, just listen to the original!

 

It's not Wolverine's (or his writers') fault that other writers copy him. I can see where that would make those other characters less interesting to you, but Wolverine is Wolverine. He's the best at...alright, never mind. You get the picture. My point is, the character has remained true to itself and that's a good thing. It would be absolutely horrible if some fool got the idea to suddenly change him in order to keep him as unique as he once was. I mean, should we have a Marvel/DC crossover where Logan & Bruce Wayne hang up their spandex to go do show tunes together on Broadway?!? :eek:

 

So, I think maybe your hate should be directed in a more proper direction. I understand your frustration, for the most part, just not why it's focused on the original and not all the copies. In other words: Leave my man alone!!!

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As a life long X-Men fan I feel the need to stick up for Wolverine.

 

With Marvel's allowance of characters actually evolving and learning, the Wolverine as of let has been really interesting. He's gone from a feral outsider to becoming an Avenger, the head of the mutant school for gifted youngsters, a leader and a mentor to several characters. He's been a spy, a superhero, an assassin and a community leader, often at the same time. When his origin story finally come out, it was something no one expected and was really interesting.

 

He generally has some of the best lines and has a moral code unique to superheroes, which sometimes does make him the anti-hero. I think he's always been one of the best characters Marvel has.

 

That's not to say they haven't made some big mistakes with him-- his powers have varied in strength to the point of ridiculousness; he's had some god-awful terrible stories based around him; he almost replaced Spider-Man as Marvel's icon in the 90s leading to a level of over-exposure that continued right up to a couple months ago when they killed him off.

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Yeah, the only thing really muddy is how he can be in so many places at once. He's even joked about that, himself (like when he was an X-Man, Avenger, and New Avenger at the same time: "I'm good at multi-tasking", I believe was the line). At some point in the future, maybe we'll learned that he has some Madrox blood in him.

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He's also joked that his REAL mutant power is being in more than one place at a time.

 

Yeah, this time last year he was headmaster of the Jean Grey school, yet still went on missions with multiple x-men teams (3 X-Men books), lead a secret strike team (X-Force) was an Avenger (New Avengers and Mighty Avengers) and still had time for solo adventures (in TWO different solo books) while managing to go through time, go into space AND star in a couple miniseries.

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One of the interesting things about Wolverine is that his ascent to iconic status was so unlikely. He was initially just a one off bad guy for Hulk to smash in 1974, then he wound up with the new X Men which was, at the time, a shaky attempt to reboot a failed title. Then he was almost killed off until newly acquired John Byrne, who was from Canada, insisted on keeping him solely because he was also from Canada. For years after that he only played a supporting role. Then the 80s happened and he became kind of a big deal with the limited series, became an even bigger deal in the 90s, and then became an icon with the X films of the 2000s.

 

Characters like Spiderman and the like were given top billing immediately. Wolverine got there over time, and that's what makes him so cool.

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If my only exposure to the X-men and Wolverine were the 1990s cartoon, I'd hate Wolverine, too.

And the Wolverine movies. That's another issue. We've only had one X-Men movie so far, and like 5 Wolverine movies.

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I agree mostly. He was one of my favorite comic book characters for a long time but I've gotten bored with him, for the reasons you stated. He's cool when he's an animal, the X-Men's wrecking ball... NOT when he's a slightly edgy, James Bond-with-a-bad-hairdo, reluctant leader.

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If my only exposure to the X-men and Wolverine were the 1990s cartoon, I'd hate Wolverine, too.

And the Wolverine movies. That's another issue. We've only had one X-Men movie so far, and like 5 Wolverine movies.

 

Yeah, but he's the biggest X-Men in popularity and Hugh Jackman has hard core pull and appeal, why wouldn't they do it that way? He's the star of most of the X-Men comics. It's like the Justice League without Batman or Superman.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

 

 

If my only exposure to the X-men and Wolverine were the 1990s cartoon, I'd hate Wolverine, too.

And the Wolverine movies. That's another issue. We've only had one X-Men movie so far, and like 5 Wolverine movies.

 

Yeah, but he's the biggest X-Men in popularity and Hugh Jackman has hard core pull and appeal, why wouldn't they do it that way? He's the star of most of the X-Men comics. It's like the Justice League without Batman or Superman.

 

I like Hugh Jackman as Wolvie, in fact I think he really does the character right, but I do agree with Fozzie in that Wolverine shouldn't be the axis by which the entire franchise revolves around. I've always been surprised the Xmen movies didn't center more around Patrick Stewart and/or Ian McKellen, considering their collective star power (DOFP notwithstanding).

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Except for the crap "Death of Wolverine", I´m with the Logan gang here. Dark and broody? Yeah at times, but also with a sense of dark humour and a very versatile character. He´s not a moper, in fact most of the time he comes across as a guy you could have a pint with (except that he would never get drunk due to his healing factor, poor sod). Adding things to his past just makes him more interesting IMO.

 

As for the films... who else could carry them? Stewart and McKellan keep the story going and act as Good Basil Exposition vs his evil twin just like Guinness and Cushing did in Star Wars. For the action and viewer indentification... well Rogue is fine with me but not interesting enough as a character. And centering them on Storm or Cyclops would make me walk out. Logan with his outsider/newcomer/loner status is the perfect choice for center character.

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  • 3 weeks later...

NOTE: I RARELY READ COMICS AND HAVE ONLY READ MAYBE 2 ESSENTIAL X-MEN COLLECTIONS.

 

Maybe it isn't fair, as a non-comic fan, to even comment. But after growing up on the X-Men cartoon, seeing all of the X-Men movies and watching a large number of comic movies over the course of my life... I think Wolverine is boring. Or, rather, I think Wolverine has been made boring by the fact that every character has become dark, angry and brooding. Wolverine initially offered a unique hero who had a different perspective - he was a loner among a group that bonded over the fact that they were all forced to be loners. Wolverine was the consummate outsider, the rebel among rebels. Fast forward a few decades, and suddenly virtue is boring and every hero HAS to be angry, flawed and dark, and basically a Wolverine clone, and it no longer makes sense to make him the central figure in everything.

 

Wolverine needs an upstanding, virtuous Cyclops to have a balance. If everyone's emo, then the character is diluted and meaningless.

The comics aren't that dark and gritty! I mean, there are titles like Rocket Raccoon, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, Silk, All-New X-Men, Daredevil, Deadpool, Spider-Man 2099, All-New Hawkeye, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Gwen...all very fun series to read!

Also, Cyclops isn't that virtuous anymore. A lot of X-Men hate him since he killed Xavier. Granted, he was possessed by the Phoenix Force at the time but he has since become something of a renegade.

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