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.
More from All-Time Lists
- 7 best episodes from the original Star Trek series
- All 8 Black Canary actresses ranked from worst to best
- Star Trek: All Discovery characters ranked from worst to best
- Ranking the unrankable: Top 10 The Clone Wars episodes, ranked
- MCU: All 33 Marvel Cinematic Universe films ranked from worst to best
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…
Madripoor Knights
Uncanny X-Men #268 (1990)
By Chris Claremont and Jim Lee
With Madripoor Knights, Claremont showed everyone that Wolverine was quite a bit older than most fans had assumed.
I mean, we all knew Logan’s past was shrouded in mystery and that because of his healing factor, he was probably older than he looked. But this was one of the first times we saw Wolverine in action during World War II. And if you are going to have Wolverine in running around during World War II, it only makes sense to have him meet Captain America.
Madripoor Knights followed a pair of storylines, one in the present and one in the past, both taking place in Madripoor, the island nation Logan had started calling home. While the story taking place in the present was well and good, it was the second one where Logan met a still wet behind the ears Steve Rogers that made this issue a classic.
Claremont’s script was perfect as he alternatively showed the grizzled, worn down Logan in the present and the younger, still hopeful Logan of the past. It was a fascinating juxtaposition few writers have tried since, which is probably a good idea. I really don’t think anyone could have done it as well as Claremont.
But what pushed it over the top was the art of Jim Lee. Lee was still relatively new to the comics scene and was still finding his “voice” on Uncanny X-Men when this issue came out. By the final page, readers were amazed what he could do when given the right script and the right characters.
Madripoor Knights is considered by many to be Lee’s single best issue of his run on Uncanny X-Men and honestly, it’s hard to argue with that.
Weapon X
Marvel Comics Presents Vol. 1 #72-84 (1991)
By Barry Windsor-Smith
Normally, when you do any best of list and the name Barry Windsor-Smith comes up, nothing more needs to be said. By 1991 the man was already a comics legend and even if Weapon X was awful that wouldn’t change.
Lucky for all of us, Weapon X is not only brilliant, but has become an essential piece of Wolverine’s history.
See, before Weapon X, Marvel had considered anything even remotely relating to Logan’s origins strictly off-limits. By the time 1991 rolled around, the character was starting to peak in his popularity and the whole shroud of mystery around how he became Wolverine was starting to wear thin.
Enter Windsor-Smith and Weapon X. Telling the story of how exactly Logan got his adamantium skeleton from the point of view of the scientists and military that did it to him was pure brilliance. Both artistically and story wise Weapon X is an emotional and brutal tale told my a master of the genre.
No Wolverine collection is complete without it.
Weapon X is also ranked #43 in our 100 Greatest Superhero Stories Ever list.
Old Man Logan
Wolverine #66–72, Wolverine Giant-Sized Old Man Logan (2008-2009)
By Mark Millar and Steve McNiven
Old Man Logan was the second time Mark Millar had written a Wolverine arc and considering both are on this list, he must have done something right.
The story tells the tale of the future featuring an older Logan, broken and haunted by brutal acts he had committed in the past. As he tries to atone for what he had done, it takes him on a quest across an America never seen in comics before.
Much like most of Millar’s work, it is over the top, excessive to the extreme and a must read. Old Man Logan not only took the whole “grim and gritty” genre and expanded it to an absurd level, but it showed readers a Wolverine they had never seen before. This was Logan unleashed, apologetically savage and done holding back.
Millar and McNiven had worked together before on Marvel’s Civil War and the result was one of the best-selling events in comic book history. The two reunited for Old Man Logan and the same incredible chemistry was clearly evident on the page. McNiven is an amazing talent and when he works with Millar the result is usually pretty magical.
Old Man Logan was no exception.
Enemy of the State
Wolverine #20-31 (2004-2005)
By Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.
In Old Man Logan, Millar took Logan’s grim and gritty persona and took it to an extreme degree, showing readers what a Wolverine taken to his limits would be like. But prior to doing that, Millar gave fans something we had never seen before:
Wolverine the superhero.
Because that is what Enemy of the State is: a 12-issue story starring the unlikeliest superhero of them all.
Enemy of the State was just as over the top as Old Man Logan, but had more similarities to Millar’s work on The Ultimates. It was filled with widescreen action and ridiculous sequences that you will only ever see in the pages of a comic book.
I mean, where else are you going to see Wolverine riding a giant Sentinel through the sky to fight the ninja clan The Hand?
Bringing the whole this to spectacular life is Romita Jr., one of the best artists currently working in comics. He had a prior history with Logan thanks to his seminal work on Uncanny X-Men, but with Enemy of the State the rules were thrown out the window. Much like Logan himself, this was Romita Jr. unleashed. He got to draw the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and just about anyone else he damn well felt like.
Enemy of the State was in many ways the ultimate Wolverine story. But it wasn’t the ultimate Logan story.
Wolverine
Wolverine #1-4 (1982)
Chris Claremont and Frank Miller
If you can believe it, there was a time when a comic with the name Wolverine on the cover wasn’t guaranteed to be a best seller.
Shocking, I know.
However, back in 1982 that was exactly the case. The character had begun to gain a following, but Marvell still wasn’t 100 percent sure what they had in Logan. So why not have him star in one of those new limited series things Marvel had begun publishing and see what happened?
They enlisted Uncanny X-Men scribe Chris Claremont to write it and Daredevil writer/artist extraordinaire Frank Miller to provide the visuals.
And Wolverine was never the same.
Now regarded as the definitive take on Logan, it’s tough to put into words just how important this book is to the evolution of the character. Between its covers Claremont showed Logan’s ties to Japan as he battled Lord Shingen and began his doomed romance with his daughter Mariko. He established much of the tone and style that every Wolverine writer since has tried (and oftentimes failed) to emulate.
Wolverine is where Logan started to become less of a comic book character and more of the complex, three-dimensional antihero fans have come to love. The miniseries gave Logan a depth that, at that time, was unusual for comics. In many ways it laid the groundwork for books like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, which as we all know changed comic books forever.
Must Read: 100 Greatest Superhero Stories Ever
Wolverine is a as essential a book to have on your shelf as either of the ones I just mentioned. It is just an astounding piece of graphic literature that no fan of Logan should go without.