Favourite Wolverine moments

This coming Wednesday, Marvel is killing off their most popular mutant character, Wolverine. There are most certainly legions of fans who don’t want him to be killed off and I feel for you. However for every fan who wants him to remain alive, there’s someone who needs a break from him, someone who actually hates Wolverine and is looking forward to his death, or someone who may be a fan, but is still looking forward to seeing where this story goes.

Personally I don’t hate Wolverine. In fact, he was my favourite X-Men character before I got into comics, but I’ve grown increasingly resistant to read anything featuring him due to Wolverine fatigue. I can still enjoy some of his better stories or some of the arcs he guest stars in, but otherwise I need a break. With a break, perhaps I’ll start to enjoy him again if and when they do bring him back. What do I mean if?

Before I get into the list itself, today they announced a weekly series called Wolverines by Charles Soule and Raye Fawkes, featuring the five “Logan Legacy” characters and a new character. It’s supposed to start in January. Although I don’t care about Daken in the slightest, I’m fairly excited for this series. Even ignoring that X-23 is my favourite X-Men character, it’s a book featuring what could be the most dysfunctional team in X-Men history trying to unravel the mystery behind the death of the one link they have in common. Hopefully it will be 2.99 though, because $4 a week is a bit much for most people to add to their pull list.

Anyway, here are my five personal favourite Wolverine moments in celebration of the character. The rules are simple – they must be about Wolverine. It can’t just be a tale about a character related to Wolverine, so no moments about Kitty Pryde, Sabertooth or X-23 on here. He has to be the central focus of the moment or story. Without further to do, here they are.

5. What I do is so terribly pretty (Astonishing X-Men 15)

The context here is that the x-men are being assaulted by a very powerful telepath, Cassandra Nova. She mentally much turns Wolverine into a little girl who is very talkative, artsy and easily frightened. He’s the total opposite of his normal self, and it’s hilarious. Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-men is fantastic and if you ever wanted to try an X-Men comic out but don’t know where to start, this will likely satisfy you.

4. Wolverine goes to hell (Wolverine 1-16 by Jason Aaron)

Sometimes, the best stories about characters are the ones where they suffer. There’s no better way to test the strength of a character than to put them through hell and back, and in the first 5 issues of Jason Aaron’s “Wolverine” run, that’’ quite literally what happens. But having his soul trapped in hell isn’t even the end of his suffering, for his body is possessed by a demon and attacking everyone he cares about while it attempts to tear down his mind.

Once he finally regains control of his body, he chases after the men who sent his soul to hell. He fights through a gang of mercenaries, killing them one at a time. He reaches those responsible only to see them dead on the ground, having committed mass suicide to rob him of his revenge. Worse yet, they leave a videotape that drops a massive bombshell regarding the mercenaries he had just killed. They’re all his children.

This storyline is what truly began Wolverine’s personal quest for redemption, and when he started his attempts to stop killing people. His level of success depended on the writer and circumstances, but with more consistent writing this could have been a fascinating character change.

3.  Wolverine: Weapon X 16 (Nightcrawler memorial issue)

While this is technically a Nightcrawler memorial issue, it does a great job at exploring the relationship the two had, and the ways Kurt had influenced Logan over the years. Wolverine spends the issue pulling a piano up a hill for a church, by Nightcrawler’s request. It turns out that the church has no use for the piano, but the ending is still very touching. It’s the kind of comic that has to be read to understand its impact.

2. Now it’s my turn (Uncanny X-Men 132 and 133)

Back when this issue came out, not much was known about Wolverine. He was easily the most mysterious member of the X-men and hadn’t yet had his moment to shine. What we knew is that had a much harder edged personality than any other member of the team and was willing to go much further than the rest.

In Uncanny X-Men 132 (part of the legendary Dark Phoenix storyline), the X-Men are defeated by the Hellfire club, with only Wolverine left standing. He caps the issue with this awesome panel, and the next issue is almost entirely made up of Wolverine wrecking havoc. This was the first sign of Wolverine’s true proficiency in combat, and it still remains among Wolverine’s best fight scenes. This intimidation speech Logan gives the hellfire guard is priceless.

1. Every time he gets pwned.

Yeah, I know this may seem a bit mean spirited considering he’s about to be killed, but its fun watching him get wrecked by all sorts of various means. Sometimes the best way to get over feelings of loss is to have a good laugh. Let the show begin.

This is from the X-Men/Star Trek crossover, or one of them at least.

These are all from All New X-Men 2 (and maybe 3)

If I remember correctly, this panel is from the first arc of Avengers vs. X-Men

I’m not exactly sure where this next batch is from; I found them all in a comicbookresources thread dedicated to X-Men characters being pwned.

Apart from the webbed up picture, these should all be easy enough to track down, it’s just that it’s after 1 am and I don’t have the patience right now.

And of course what might be the greatest Wolverine pwned image ever. I have no idea what the context is here, so if anyone reading this knows where this is from, please let me know.

Yup, Wolverine being kicked by a deer.