The creators and managers of Wolverine explain how the character has evolved since he debuted in the Hulk comic.
Wolverines appeared briefly in the comic Marvel titled The Incredible Hulk #180which was published in October 1974. This character was not created to be a rival to Hulk, but they had thought from the beginning that it would have its own history. It soon became a comic book favorite and is something that continues to this day.
Various creators and contributors to X Men who contributed to Wolverine’s lasting legacy at Marvel, have revealed details of Logan’s journey. roy thomas said:
“I sat down with the larger idea of what this character could be. I didn’t know he was a mutant, he was just a character who knew he was Canadian. I chose the name Wolverine because as a child he was obsessed with animals and knew wolverines were from Canada. I mean, I couldn’t call it ‘Moose’ because it wouldn’t sound right. I thought of ‘Badger’. But badger also meant ‘bother’, so I didn’t like it.”
Roy Thomas also explained why Wolverine had to be featured in The Incredible Hulk series: “Bringing the Hulk to Canada was no big deal. Even though Wolverine was fighting the Hulk, he was never meant to be a villain, that was just a nice way of introducing him. He knew that he would eventually be a hero.”
This is how they created the character:
According Thomasthe creation of Wolverines at that time it was a collaboration between Len Wein, John Romita, Herb Trimpe and himself: «Romita is the one who had the idea to give him these three claws. Len later decided that they were made of Adamantium, which I liked because I came up with the Adamantium thing when I worked on Avengers.”
After his spectacular debut, Wolverine appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 in 1975, in which he had his iconic outfit and joined the mutant team. For a time, he was a supporting character as he continued to evolve.
“There were some big details that we established in the early years.” Said the legendary Chris Claremont. “Len Wein’s perception of him was that he was a teenager, but neither Dave Cockrum nor I were particularly excited about that. So I said: Let’s grow it and see what happens, then we move on. We made him older than the others, which gave him infinitely more experience.”
In 1982, he had his first solo adventure, titled Wolverine was written by Chris Claremont. The story centered around him returning to Japan to find his beloved Mariko Yashida, who first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #118.
“The greatest thing about the Wolverine character is that he’s been through so many interactions, and yet people still find him interesting.” Said writer Scott Lobdell. “He’s such a strong character that he can withstand so many different interpretations and still remain intact.”