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Topic: Should Wolverine have gotten his own long running titles? Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Andrew Cate
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Posted: 09 July 2019 at 9:20am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Yes they were successful and made Marvel money...which I guess is the point. But was the character designed to carry long story arcs? Wouldn't he have been better off treated like the Joker or Dr. Doom, little goes a long way. He is probably the only hero character I can think of that in my opinion was designed to be shrouded in a bit more mystery and handled with an onion layer peeling approach or brooding team member. Forcing a monthly focus on the character seemed to dilute much of this. 
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John Byrne
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Posted: 09 July 2019 at 9:46am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

No.
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James Woodcock
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Posted: 09 July 2019 at 2:11pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Much of Wolverine’s appeal was the mystery surrounding the character - & that we knew bits that the characters didn’t.
Also that the bits we did know were just dropped in there matter of fact but only added further to the mystery - incredible how many people, myself included, missed Mac calling him Logan in their first meeting.

Put him in everything & that mystery is eroded. 

He’s just a normal guy now. That’s not the Wolverine I was interested in @ all
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Brian Hague
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Posted: 09 July 2019 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

The early Wolverine lost a good portion of his appeal and charm when the first mini-series kicked in. He was already well on his way to wallowing in the "failed samurai, unworthy warrior" morass with which Claremont was so fascinated, but the mini-series sealed the deal. The pint-sized psycho scrapper was left by the side of the road in favor of the tarnished warrior who sought a measure of peace in a world that would forever deny him it. 

After that, it was clear he would go on to become a regular fixture in the Marvel Universe, with books and mini-series of his own. The replacement Wolverine was fine as a regular book. Not very interesting and lacking a good deal of the charm of the original, but clearly a character that could be sanded smooth and easily dropped into any number of situations. The rough-edged original would not have been as a good a fit, despite his being the one that inspired the cult that has sprung up around the character since. 

An early lesson in having to let some things go and move on.

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Mike Norris
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Posted: 09 July 2019 at 3:46pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

I'll take the pint-sized psycho scrapper over any other version presented. 
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Jason G. Michalski
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Posted: 09 July 2019 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

No, I don't think so. Maybe the occasional mini-series or one shot would have been cool. I liked the early days of the character in the X-Men, but I didn't like the "failed samurai, unworthy warrior" as Brian put it and then by the 90s it got completely out of control. 

I think the worst thing Marvel did was give him is memories back. Once that happened, there was nothing interesting about him anymore. 

Doesn't he have flaming claws now? 

(fixed typo)


Edited by Jason G. Michalski on 09 July 2019 at 3:52pm
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John Harrison
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Posted: 09 July 2019 at 5:13pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Go back and read his original series the first 50 or so issues he's pretending to be Patch in a bad novelization of Casablanca .... as a kid reading that I was just confused where's Sabretooth the X-Men anything familiar? Yes I know what was goin on in the X-Men but as a kid buying the book it still made no sense as to why he finally got his own book and this is what we got

There even a Wolverine Saga limited series Im still mad at I paid top dollar for reprinted stories w narration 

Many years passed he's an Avenger running the West Coast school of X-Men his name is James bone claws etc he has a clone he has daughter 

So no absolutely not he should have stayed on as a X-Men who occasionally got some spotlight 

And his claws should like ninja Sais not blades 
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John Byrne
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Posted: 09 July 2019 at 5:16pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Wolverine pretending to be “Patch” is right up there with Obi-Wan Kenobi disguising himself as Ben Kenobi.
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Matt Hawes
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Posted: 09 July 2019 at 10:14pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Giving a series to a character known for being a loner and mysterious doesn't really make sense. You eventually lose those character qualities,  and that did happen to Wolverine.  For a loner, he sure has ran around and met nearly every major Marvel player from the 1940s to present during his career. And mysterious? I know more about his past than most superheroes before they got powers or joined a team.



Edited by Matt Hawes on 09 July 2019 at 10:15pm
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Shane Matlock
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Posted: 10 July 2019 at 12:14am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

I don't think so, but I did enjoy the Archie Goodwin and JB and Klaus Janson run on the ongoing title and the Claremont and Frank Miller mini. I don't think he ever worked as well outside of the X-Men.
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 10 July 2019 at 5:16am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

I agree about “Patch”, but we sure did get some nice J Buscema/ Williamson art out of it. 
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Dave Phelps
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Posted: 10 July 2019 at 5:44am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

I had no objection to him getting his own book. "Patch" was silly, but I appreciated Claremont trying to give him his own thing instead of just doing X-Men without the rest of the X-Men stories.

I've come to find "mysterious pasts" to be overrated over the years, mainly because everyone feels the need to toss in old friends or subtle hints that may or may not make sense with what's established. There's enough interesting about Wolverine (claws, attitude, etc.) that filling in the background wouldn't have taken away from. Could've avoided that "James Howlett" nonsense if nothing else...

 Jason G Michalski wrote:
I think the worst thing Marvel did was give him is memories back.


My problem was with them taking them away in the first place.

Up until around Wolverine #50, as near as I can tell, HE knew his past. He just didn't feel the need to talk about it. Then we get stories of memory blocks and such and who knows what's going on? Just makes things unnecessarily convoluted.    
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