Request by:
Adertot
"Do one on the history of Wolverine."
Who is Wolverine? Wolverine is considered by many to be the best-known member of the X-Men. While often shrouded in mystery, Wolverine's past is full of government secrets, traumatic events, and death.
Wolverine is a fictional character, a superhero who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Born as James Howlett and commonly known as Logan, Wolverine is a mutant, possessing animal-keen senses, enhanced physical capabilities, three retracting bone claws on each hand and a healing factor that allows him to recover from virtually any wound, disease or toxin at an accelerated rate. The healing factor also slows down his aging process, enabling him to live beyond a normal human lifespan. His powerful healing factor enabled the supersoldier program Weapon X to bond the near-indestructible metal alloy adamantium to his skeleton and claws without killing him.
What are his Powers and Abilities? Note: Due to the nature of comicbooks being an on-going tale, the character's powers along with his appearance, is in a constant state of flux. Regenerative Healing Factor: Wolverine's primary mutant power is an accelerated healing process that enables him to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue with far greater efficiency than an ordinary human. Wolverine's accelerated healing powers have been commonly referred to as his mutant healing factor. The full extent and speed of Wolverine's healing factor isn't known. He has been shown to fully heal from numerous gunshot wounds, severe burns covering most of his body, and regenerate missing eyes within a matter of seconds. Among the more extreme depictions of his accelerated healing factor involves him having his skin, muscles, and internal organs incinerated from his skeleton only to fully regenerate the tissue within minutes. Adamantium plays a crucial role in the speed of Wolverine's healing as well because of the fact that it produces a poison that his immune system fights off regularly. It is said that without the adamantium his healing rate increases. This power even amends psychological wounds inflicted as a result of traumatic experiences. However, Wolverine's healing powers force his mind to suppress the memories, sometimes resulting in amnesia. Wolverine sometimes calls this his mental scar tissue.
Foreign Chemical Immunity: Wolverine's natural healing also affords him the virtual immunity to poisons and most drugs, except in massive doses.
Immunity To Disease: Wolverine's highly efficient immune system, which is part of his accelerated healing factor, renders him immune against all known Earthly diseases and infections.
Superhumanly Acute Senses: Wolverine possesses superhumanly acute senses that are comparable to those of certain animals. He can see at far greater distances, with perfect clarity, than an ordinary human. He retains this same level of clarity even in near total darkness. His hearing is enhanced in a similar manner, allowing him to detect sounds ordinary humans couldn't hear at a greater distances. He is able to recognize people and objects by scent, even if they are well hidden. He can track a target by scent, even if the scent has been greatly eroded by time and weather factors, with an extraordinary degree of success. Wolverine can also use his keen sense of smell to detect lies due to chemical changes within a person's scent.
Superhuman Strength: Wolverine's mutant healing factor enables him to push his muscles beyond the natural limits of the human body without injury, granting him some degree of superhuman strength. His natural strength is augmented by the demand placed on his musculature due to the presence of over 100 pounds of Adamantium bonded to his skeleton, which also removes the natural limitations of the human skeletal structure by allowing him to lift weights that would damage a human skeleton.
Superhuman Stamina: Wolverine's mutant healing factor grants him high immunity against lactic acid and other fatigue toxins generated by his muscles during physical activity. Wolverine can sustain himself at peak capacity for several days.
Superhuman Agility: Wolverine's agility, balance and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels beyond the natural physical limits and capabilities of the finest human specimen.
Superhuman Reflexes: Wolverine's reflexes are similarly enhanced and are superior to those possessed by the finest human specimen.
Insulated Weather Adaptation: Wolverine's body is highly resistant to certain elemental extremes, particularly cold, to the extent that he can sleep nude in subarctic conditions with no apparent injury.
Retarded Aging: In addition, Wolverine's healing factor provides him with an extended lifespan by slowing the effects of the aging process. Wolverine was born sometime during the late 19th Century. Although well over 100 years of age, Wolverine retains the appearance and physical vitality of a man in the physical prime of his life.
Animal Empathy: Wolverine has the ability to sense the emotional state of animals on a basic level such as fear, anger, happiness or pain. He can even communicate with them to make the animal aware of his actions and or his intent.
Bone Claws: Wolverine's skeleton includes six retractable 12-inch long bone claws, three in each arm, that are housed beneath the skin and muscle of his forearms. Wolverine can, at will, release these slightly curved claws through his skin beneath the knuckles on each hand. The skin between the knuckles tears and bleeds, but the blood loss is quickly halted by his healing factor. Wolverine can unsheathe any number of his claws at once, although he must keep his wrists straight at the moment his claws pass from his forearms into his hands. When unsheathed, the claws are entirely within his hands, allowing him to bend his wrists when they are extended.
Psionic Resistance: Wolverine reveals that his mind is highly resistant to telepathic probing and assault due to the high level psionic shields implanted in his mind by Professor Charles Xavier.
Master Tactician: Though seemingly brutish, Wolverine is highly intelligent.
Master Martial Artist: Wolverine has extraordinary hand-to-hand combat ability. Due to his extensive training as a soldier, a CIA operative, a samurai, a spy, and a member of the X-Men, Wolverine is an exceptional hand-to-hand combatant, having mastered virtually every fighting style on Earth and is also well versed in pressure points and the art of espionage.
Advanced Covert Ops Expert: Due to his experience traveling the world and working for various government agencies, Wolverine is also a trained expert in multiple types of weapons, vehicles, computer systems, explosives, and assassination techniques.
Skilled Mechanic: Wolverine has been the mechanic of the X-Men's Blackbird jet for a long time.
Multi-lingual: A polyglot; Wolverine is fluent in many languages including English, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Cheyenne, Lakota, and Spanish; he has some knowledge of French, German, Thai, Vietnamese, and Portuguese.
What are the changes he underwent? 1. 1st appearance John Romita, Sr., would design the original Wolverine costume. The character's introduction was ambiguous, revealing little beyond his being a superhuman agent of the Canadian government. In these appearances, he does not retract his claws, although Len Wein stated they had always been envisaged as retractable. Wolverine's original costume introduced his signature blue and yellow color scheme and other apparel that would become hallmarks of the character's look. Featuring blue gloves, trunks, shoulder pads and winged-boots with a red belt over a yellow spandex body suit highlighted with tiger stripes, this would serve as the basis for most of Wolverine's future costumes. This costume also featured Logan's controversial "whiskers" mask, which contained thin lines above the mouth and very short "wings" above the cowl.
2. X-Men Wolverine's next appearance was in 1975's Giant-Size X-Men #1, Wolverine is recruited for a new X-Men squad. Gil Kane illustrated the cover artwork but incorrectly drew Wolverine's mask with larger headpieces. Dave Cockrum liked Kane's accidental alteration and incorporated it into his own artwork for the actual story. Cockrum was also the first artist to draw Wolverine without his mask, and the distinctive hairstyle became a trademark of the character.
3. Fang In X-MEN #107 (1977) Wolverine got a new outfit, the "Fang" costume, which is named for the Imperial Guard warrior it belonged to, who Wolverine took it from after victory in battle. Its a maskless costume featuring a collar, belt, and glove and boot cuffs made up of bony claws and skulls, it represented a steep departure from what came before. The costume lasted only for two issues.
4. Classic Brown and Tan During the mid 70s Wolverine was considered to be dropped from the X-men roster but artist John Byrne, championed the character, later explaining, as a Canadian himself, he did not want to see a Canadian character dropped. Byrne created Alpha Flight, a group of Canadian superheroes who try to recapture Wolverine due to the expense their government incurred training him. Later stories gradually establish Wolverine's murky past and unstable nature, which he battles to keep in check. Byrne also designed a new brown-and-tan costume for Wolverine, but retained the distinctive Cockrum cowl.
5. Black With a new ongoing series, WOLVERINE #1 (1988), Wolverine donned an all-black outfit, featuring shorter gloves than usual, and a netted mask over his eyes. This costume did not last long, but remains significant and fondly remembered for representing the character's stealth tactics, ties to Japan, and varied fighting skills.
6. Weapon X In the "Weapon X" storyline, Wolverine gets abducted, tortured and brainwashed into a living weapon by the Weapon X Program. For Wolverine's field test training, Wolverine runs around essentially nude, short for spikes jutting out of his skin and a virtual reality helmet connected by cables to a belt containing various electronic gadgets. It's a relatively simple design, but has proved memorable. The helmet's red visor comes off threatening and conveys the blank slate that had become Wolverine's mind; the unnerving spike show the pain of the character; the cables illustrate the control and manipulation of his captors; the electronics show that Wolverine's close to becoming the machine that he would be as Weapon X.
7. Feral After the event of Magneto ripping the adamantium out of Wolverine's body, this is the first time that we learn that Wolverine's claws were actually made of bone, and not surgical implants from the Weapon X program as long believed. Later, Cable's son, Genesis, hoping to make Wolverine into one of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, drew him into a trap designed to rebond adamantium to Wolverine's bones and ready him for Apocalypse. After Wolverine broke free during the bonding process, he had mutated into a grotesque feral-like form. Wolverine now had long forearms and legs, with animal-like nails and patches of fur, thick claws, and a deformed face. The most significant and remembered design change costume-wise, however, came with Wolverine's decision to wear a bandana to hide his mutated face.
8. Death For a time being during the Apocalyse The Twelve storyline. Wolverine was captured by Apocalypse and turned into his horseman, Death
9. Fantastic Four In a brief disturbance in the timestream after the previous storyline, we would see wolverine in one of the alternate universe of the "Ages of Apocalypse" as one of the New Fantastic Four. (There was an earlier New Fantastic Four story but they did not wore any Fantastic 4 costume).
10. Black Leather During the time of the first X-Men movie the costume of the comics mirrored the black leather outfits and added a yellow day-glo X's. Wolverine looking particularly Hugh Jackman-esque: He got rid of the mask, his winged-hair got toned down, and he began sporting his military dog tags and a white ribbed undershirt. Decidedly non-super hero, this costume fit well with the more adult, sci-fi tone of Morrison's run on the title.
11. Astonishing In a move to return them to superheroics, the X-Men returned to wearing costumes. A new costume was designed for Wolverine that blended elements of several of the character's previous outfits—the yellow-and-blue color scheme, a shorter mask recalling the original "whiskers" cowl, and yellow tiger-stripes similar to those worn by Ultimate Wolverine—with new alterations, such as striking blue paneling down the outside of the costume, visible stitching and zippers. The result: a costume that looked both current and retro, signaled the return of Wolverine the super hero.
12. X-Force Aside from being a full time member of AVENGERS and X-Men, he is also the co-leade of the X-Men black-ops strike team, X-Force. He wears the same costume only with muted colors.
There are countless others of Wolverine costume in alternate realities, if I miss any that are part of the mainstream continuity note it down in the comment section below.
Who has portrayed Wolverine in Comic Book Movies? Other than the younger self wolverine (which I won't include here)
Hugh Jackman has been the only actor who has played the Canucklehead in live media.
seen in: We first see Wolverine in the X-men movie (2000). He appeared first as a cage fighter, who met another mutant, then finds himself caught between a battle between two mutant fanctions. In the end he decided to fight with the X-Men.
Wolverine in X2 is still searching for his missing memories. He found someone who has some information about his past, but has to fight him to save mutantkind.
In the third part of the X-Men trilogy, Wolverine became a reluctant teacher in Charles Academy. He leads the X-Men to fight their biggest battle yet.
In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, we see Wolverine's Origin (Captain Obvious).
sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_(comics) : http://marvel.wikia.com/Wolverine : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_versions_of_Wolverine : http://marvel.com/news/story/7814/wolverine_costume_guide : http://jimsmash.blogspot.com/2009/04/wolverine-week-other-garb-bub.html
"I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice,"
This is the 5th article in my Know Your CBM Character series. Any requests and suggestions for an article for this series write it down in the comment section BELOW.
Note: Any error in the article above, if any, just blame it on my age, humanity and ignorance. Just be sure to check the comment section for the corrections, any error I made will surely be pointed out and corrected by much bigger geeks (because there will always be a bigger geek out there). -This has been PollMaster inviting you to the geekside.