Logan: The Five Best Comic Book Stories Starring Wolverine

With Logan arriving in theaters in less than a week, we thought it was time to look back at some of Wolverine’s greatest comic book stories over the years.

When you think about it, Wolverine as a character just shouldn’t have worked.

In his first appearances, Wolverine was a fairly one-dimensional idea. Logan was the best there is at what he does, which is kill bad guys, good guys or just about anyone who got in his way. And that was about it. There was really no reason for readers to even care about Wolverine beyond who he ran through with his adamantium claws.

Of course, then writer Chris Claremont took over and the rest, as they say, is history.

Claremont took Wolverine and turned him into a complex, multi-faceted hero with a backstory like few others before him. By turning Logan into more than a caricature, Claremont gave comics a hero that you could do just about anything with. Feudal Japan, the far flung future, grim and gritty noir, space adventure, the style of stories you could place Wolverine in is almost as endless as the writer’s imagination.

And the result is that Wolverine has starred in some of the best comics ever produced by a literal who’s who of talent.

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On the other side of that coin, over the years readers have complained at times that Wolverine seemed to be everywhere. At one point he was featured in both the X-Men and Avengers lines of ongoings as well as his various solo and spinoff titles.

Admittedly, that is a whole lot of Wolverine.

But to be honest, even a bad comic starring Logan usually has some redeeming qualities that makes it worth the time.

In honor of the release of Logan, the final film (so he says) to star Hugh Jackman in the role, we have complied a list of the top five Wolverine stories Marvel has published. We didn’t use any scientific method to make our decisions or take a poll of Wolverine fans across a wide spectrum. These are simply our favorites and the ones that have become essential reading for comic book fans over the years.

These are books that if you haven’t checked them out, you really need to. And if you have read them, it might be time to give them another look.

So let’s get started with the story of when Logan met Steve Rogers…