When Was Wolverine Wolverine?

At this point, so long after the fact, and with a bevy of films reinforcing the essential ideas of the character, the specifics of who and what Wolverine are have been very well established. But for a very long time, that simply was not the case. And in fact, it would be almost six years after his debut before all of the fundamental facts of who he was and what he could do were clearly established and laid out. Thinking back on this, I wondered about what we learned about Wolverine when, and what was the earliest point where the basic elements were in place: healing factor, adamantium skeleton, unbreakable adamantium claws, and so forth. So I sat down and did the research–and now I’m going to share it with you.

Now, it probably ought to be mentioned that nobody involved with the early days of Wolverine thought he was going to become more than just another character. A fun player in a group dynamic, but not a sales juggernaut unto himself. Which just goes to show, you really never know what combination of elements is going to strike sparks with an audience. In his initial appearances in INCREDIBLE HULK, Wolverine was simply positioned as a new Canadian super hero. He’s only referred to as a mutant in passing, and there isn’t anything to connect him to the X-Men. What’s more, his personality isn’t quite what it eventually became, although there’s a certain base similarity in that he’s a feisty scrapper who doesn’t mind turning his claws on his opponents.

So here’s how it all breaks down:

INCREDIBLE HULK #180 – Wolverine is also code-named Weapon X. He is dispatched by the Royal Canadian Air Force to hunt down the Hulk, who has entered the country. This is a cameo appearance, and so while there are references to Weapon X throughout it, Wolverine himself doesn’t show up until the final panel of the issue. Weapon X, of course, is not yet a clandestine government project, it’s simply a code-name for Wolverine. (Why he needs two code-names is a bit of a mystery, apart from not wanting to say Wolverine until the cliffhanger of the issue.)

INCREDIBLE HULK #181 – Wolverine is identified as a mutant by his handlers who indicate that they have developed his natural strength, speed and savagery into the skills of a professional warrior. We learn that Wolverine has unbreakable Adamantium claws. They never retract into his hands at any point in this story—writer/co-creator Len Wein felt that they were a part of his gloves. Wolverine is also established as being small and he leaps around acrobatically, engaging in hit-and-run tactics. He strikes to kill the Wendigo and makes no bones about it, but as he can’t actually finish off his almost indestructible foe, not much is made of his lethal approach to combat.

GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1 – Wolverine’s claws are shown to retract into his hands/gloves–Wein still thinks they’re a part of his costume at this point in the character’s development. The distinctive sound effect SNIKT! is first used here as Wolverine unsheathes one of his claws. Also, on the cover, artist Gil Kane had inadvertently changed the design of Wolverine’s mask, eliminating its catlike whiskers and making the eye-fins into a more unified design. Liking this version better, artist Dave Cockrum adopted it going forward.

UNCANNY X-MEN #94 – Wolverine first says Bub, a signature expression of his relating somehow to him being Canadian. He’s referred to as “lad” by Banshee, conveying his seeming youth. In Len Wein’s estimation, Wolverine was meant to be only around 19 years of age, something that would change as time went on.

UNCANNY X-MEN #96 – While he’s clearly enjoyed using his claws in previous issues, Wolverine first exhibits berserker fury in this story, attempting to cut down Nightcrawler after Kurt laughs at him. Wolverine mentions having undergone ten years of psycho-training and drug therapy to control his murderous urges, to no avail

UNCANNY X-MEN #98 – Wolverine seen out of uniform for the first time, his distinctive human face underneath his mask established. Wolverine’s bio-scan readings are “nothing like the others” and there’s skepticism that he’s a mutant at all. This is a hint towards an idea for his origin that was floated early on between Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum. The idea was that Wolverine was an actual hyper-evolved wolverine created by the High Evolutionary. This was ultimately discarded not just because it was pretty stupid, but also because Archie Goodwin used a similar origin for Spider-Woman at around that time.. Wolverine’s claws are shown to be a part of him, ejecting out of the backs of his hands. Banshee refers to Wolverine as shorty, reinforcing his small stature. Wolverine first flirts with Jean Grey.

UNCANNY X-MEN #100 – Wolverine and Colossus first execute the Fastball Special maneuver in which Colossus throws Wolverine into the air. Angel refers to Wolverine as pint-size. For the first time, we learn that Wolverine relies on scents, voices and feelings when he reverts to a more animal state. This is the first nod towards his other animalistic attributes.

UNCANNY X-MEN #101 – Wolverine indicates that he’s never been in love before.

UNCANNY X-MEN #103. One of the Leprechaun of Cassidy Keep identifies Wolverine as Mr. Logan. The way it’s phrased seems to indicate that Logan is a last name rather than a sole name. The Leprechaun’s reference to not believing in talking wolverines is another not to the concept that Wolverine was a hyper-evolved animal.

UNCANNY X-MEN #106 – Wolverine mentions Alpha Base, a nod to the eventual reveal of Weapon Alpha and Alpha Flight beyond that. Wolverine’s animal senses allow him to partially see through the illusion of the fight the X-Men are in.

UNCANNY X-MEN #107 – Wolverine’s costume is burned off of him by Starbolt. He’s hurt but effectively unharmed, and steals the costume off of Fang’s back to replace his own. No mention is made of any heightened healing abilities, though. This entire sequence was an attempt to change Wolverine’s costume by artist Dave Cockrum. But incoming artist John Byrne didn’t like the new suit and had Wolverine discard it upon returning home. The fact that Wolverine takes it off of a thinly-disguised version of the Legion of Super-Heroes’ Timber Wolf was another reason to avoid using it moving forward.

IRON FIST #15 – Wolverine and the X-Men make a key guest appearance in the final issue of Iron Fist’s title at this point, and it establishes a couple of key points. Wolverine’s real name is definitively given as Logan. Wolverine mentions not being hit as hard as Iron Fist hits since he was a kid. Wolverine reminds Iron Fist of Sabretooth, and Iron Fist ponders there being a connection between the two. This is because Sabretooth had been designed with the notion of him being either Wolverine’s father or brother by Claremont and Byrne, plans that never got actualized.

UNCANNY X-MEN #108 – Wolverine is punched into orbit by Jahf. He survives. No mention is made of a healing factor yet, nor even of him possessing an adamantium skeleton–he’s simply tough.

UNCANNY X-MEN #109 – Wolverine goes hunting, but not to kill–that requires no skill, whereas being able to sneak up on a doe undetected does. Weapon Alpha/James MacDonald Hudson comes to retrieve Wolverine for Canada. Wolverine tells the X-Men that he and Hudson were buddies, almost brothers.

UNCANNY X-MEN #110 – Second Fastball Special. This becomes a regularly-referenced move from here on in.

UNCANNY X-MEN #114 – As Wolverine repairs his damaged costume after surviving a battle with Magneto, we see his bare chest and shoulders, which clearly carry the scars of previous battles. But these scars have not been eliminated by any healing factor–though we never see them again. Potentially, they’re the last remnants of the wounds Logan took during that Magneto battle, but that’s not really the way they’re presented.

UNCANNY X-MEN #116 – A key issue, as by this point, Claremont and Byrne had worked out the broad strokes of their origin of Wolverine, though the two disagreed somewhat on certain key elements. Wolverine is able to communicate with Ka-Zar’s pet sabretooth Zabu on an animal level. Wolverine tries to track missing X-Men by their scent. Wolverine’s hand is almost bitten off by a dinosaur. He explains, “The beast ain’t been born that can break my bones”, the first obscure reference to his adamantium skeleton. He also indicates that he heals fast, albeit in a way that doesn’t seem like it’s meant to be a power. This is also the issue in which Wolverine straight up murders a hapless Savage Land guard, an action that Claremont and Byrne both blame the other for.

UNCANNY X-MEN #118 – Wolverine reveals that can read and speak Japanese. Wolverine muses that he was a “punk kid” the last time he was in Japan, and expected never to return. Wolverine meets Mariko Yashida and begins to tell her that his actual name is Logan, but is cut off.

UNCANNY X-MEN #120 –We learn that James MacDonald Hudson gave Logan the codename Wolverine. The Prime Minister of Canada indicates that his nation spent a lot of money and resources developing Wolverine. At this point, Byrne’s notion of Wolverine’s origin was that he possessed a healing factor but that it didn’t work on his bones, and so when he was almost pulped in an accident, the government put him back together again with adamantium replacements, implanting his claws at the same time. Wolverine reveals his name to Mariko. Wolverine tells the X-Men that he was the first prospective Alpha Flight member recruited by Hudson, who believed in him when the shrinks all said he was an uncontrollable psycho. He never met the rest of Alpha Flight before this issue. Logan’s rank was Captain.

UNCANNY X-MEN #121 – Vindicator indicates that he and Heather gave Wolverine a home and a chance to be human

UNCANNY X-MEN #123 – Wolverine recognizes Colossus by his scent

UNCANNY X-MEN #124 – Wolverine says that he uses all his senses, not seeing with just his eyes alone. As he’s thrown towards the wall, Cyclops thinks to himself that he doesn’t have unbreakable bones as Wolverine does, the first time this attribute is made overt.

UNCANNY X-MEN #126 – Wolverine reveals that his entire skeleton is made of adamantium, repelling Proteus. This is the first direct reference in print to him possessing an adamantium skeleton in addition to his claws, but it would be referenced frequently going forward.

UNCANNY X-MEN #128 – Cyclops saves Wolverine from a deadly fall with pulsed optic blasts, counting on his adamantium skeleton to take the punishment. No mention is made of any healing factor

UNCANNY X-MEN #132 – Wolverine reveals that he almost became a cyborg, another reference to the Byrne version of his origin.

UNCANNY X-MEN #133 – Wolverine survives a point blank gunshot by spinning away and letting it only graze his side. No mention is made of any healing factor, but it’s pretty clear from the visuals that Byrne staged this scene to make that power overt. Claremont, though, chose to script it differently, possibly concerned about whether the Comics Code would permit such violence if it wasn’t downplayed. Wolverine refers to himself as The Best There Is for the first time, a phrase that would become something of a catchphrase for the character. Wolverine chooses not to use his claws against what may be regular rent-a-cops, a definitive shift from his earliest appearances where he’d use them against anything and anyone.

UNCANNY X-MEN #139 – Heather Hudson called Wolverine Logan in front of Nightcrawler, the first time any X-Man learns it. It strains suspension of disbelief to the breaking point that Wolverine has lived with the X-Men for what must be years and in all that time none of them have asked him his name. Wolverine reveals that his battle with the Hulk and Wolverine was his first mission as Wolverine for Department H. Wolverine also exchanges his yellow and blue uniform for a similar one in brown and tan, a change made by John Byrne.

UNCANNY X-MEN #140 – We learn that Wolverine was found by James and Heather Hudson in the Canadian Rockies near their home, sick, frozen , starving and near death. They nursed him back to health. It is implied that Wolverine was given his adamantium claws and skeleton as a part of this process. Wolverine states that he’s been turned into a killing machine. Wolverine looks relatively young in the flashback, closer to the 19-year-old that Len Wein had envisioned, but by this point Claremont and Byrne had already worked out that he was older than he appeared, though they hadn’t yet put that information into a story. Wolverine is mauled by the Wendigo and his adamantium skeleton is credited for his survival. No mention is made of any healing factor. Wolverine tells Nightcrawler that in his life, he’s been two things: a wartime soldier and a secret agent. He states that he never used his claws on anybody who hadn’t tried to kill him first, which is plainly not true as earlier issues would attest. But this is Wolverine’s code going forward.

UNCANNY X-MEN #142 – Storm indicates that Wolverine’s fast-healing ability will help him survive being grabbed by one of Pyro’s flaming monsters. This is the first overt mention of Wolverine possessing a fast healing ability, and it’s the final piece missing from the character’s essential make-up. From this point forward, Wolverine is pretty much his refined self. It’s also presented self-evidently, as though it was a long-established part of his abilities rather than new information that was being dropped. It’s entirely possible that Claremont didn’t realize that he’d never stated this in the book before this.

So it takes about six and a half years for all of the pieces of the character to come into focus, which seems like a long while in retrospect. What’s interesting is how often new bits of information were dropped into the text as though they weren’t new at all. As a reader who came into this run part of the way through it, whenever this happened, I simply assumed that I’d missed some earlier issue where that particular fact had been established. But such was not the case. All of the New X-Men were rapidly-adapting works in progress during these early issues, but none of them moreso than Wolverine.