Wolverine T-Shirts & Movie Jacket

Wolverine Profile

History
Wolverine is the mutant who walks alone. Marvel's mutants, the most popular comic book characters of the 1980s, tended to cluster together in groups; so far only Wolverine has broken out to carve a solo career for himself. Writer Len Wein and art director John Romita [Sr.] introduced him on his own in 1974, but he was almost immediately recruited to join The X-Men. Even as part of that team, however, his aggressive yet puzzling personality set him apart from the others, and eventually he was unleashed in his own series.

Wolverines most visible attribute is a set of long, unbreakable metal claws. These dangerous weapons suggest that Wolverine is an expert at inflicting injuries, but in fact his special mutant ability is the power to endure unimaginable agony. Although he is gifted with a modified form of invulnerability, he doesn't have a tough hide: he can be hurt, and frequently is, but he heals with incredible speed. It is his innate capacity for tolerating pain that allowed an unidentified individual to implant the claws and a reinforced skeleton into Wolverine's body. The enormous shock of this strange and grotesque surgical procedure, which seems to have been designed to turn Wolverine into a living, breathing, walking weapon, was evidently strong enough to drive him temporarily out of his mind, and he was discovered living like an animal in a Canadian forest. Wolverine answers to the name of Logan, but beyond that nothing of his past is known. [editor's note: this text (straight from the Marvel Universe) is prior to recent events such as the Origin series which unfurls Wolverine's true past)]

In essence, Wolverine fits the pattern of the archetypal hero who appears out of nowhere, performs deeds nobody else would dare attempt, and yet by the very nature of those deeds is denied total integration into the community he serves. Outwardly this small man is cocky, pushy and quarrelsome, but inwardly he is troubled by the rages that sometimes drive him to kill enemies without compunction. [look it up] Yet, as he learns to control his fury, he runs the risk that his ability to fight fiercely will be impaired; being fully human might cost him his life. He must walk forever on a razor's edge, and when all is said and done, he knows he must walk alone.
p. 191
The Cutting Edge

p. 209-210 It was perhaps inevitable that the most popular of Marvel's mutants would get his own monthly comic book, and it finally happened with Wolverine #1 (November 1988). A hot seller from its first issue, Wolverine brought out a new side of writer Chris Claremont. Removed from the complicated plotting and complex emotional relationships that characterized The X-Men, Wolverine's solo adventures had a dark, gritty, hard-boiled quality that suited the menacing, enigmatic hero. Five Fabulous Decades of the worlds greatest comics, MARVEL. By Les Daniels, published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc NY. A Times Mirror Co. p. 163-165.