While I can say that an issue of Wolverine’s solo run was among the first comics that I had ever purchased with my own money for something like $1.50 during the early 90’s, I would not have been able to recall which issue it was if it were not for Google. I remembered that it featured a feral female character named Lynx, with whom Wolverine had more than simply bonded. The Google assist turns up Wolverine #13. It was something of a love story, showing a gentile side of Wolverine that I was not expecting as a ten year-old. My comprehension of nuance and subtlety was still developing.
During a recent library trip, I am stacking up graphic novels and lo and behold, I find a hardcover of Wolverine (officially titled, Wolverine by Claremont and Miller: Deluxe Edition). The names Chris Claremont and Frank Miller catch my eye; the former is directly responsible for the best X-Men stories of the Silver Age, while the latter, I came to know through Sin City, The Dark Knight, and 300. I knew he had worked on Daredevil as a writer, but not Wolverine/X-Men as an illustrator! How shameful it is for me to admit that I did not know Wolverine’s iconic, smug “come hither” gesture, claws extracted, is a Frank Miller special!
As I grew older, my contrarian nature made me grow distant from the most popular X-Man. Yet for the sake of posterity, and to knock another book off my list, I checked this one out, a collection of Wolverine 1-4 and Uncanny X-Men issues #172-173. With the funky ways that Marvel spread stories across several publications, I was glad that I did not try as a child to compile complete sagas. I only would have achieved only frustration and penury on my $10/wk allowance.
I am embarrassed to discover that the main plot of Claremont’s Wolverine is also the main plot of 2013’s The Wolverine movie. As a self-proclaimed fan of comics, how could I not have known this? After all, Claremont is the X-Men writer!
Yet with sensibilities more attentive than they were in 2013, I am less enamored with Wolverine’s trip to Japan. Indeed, a writer with a nascent column called “Japanophilia” is giving Chris Claremont’s and Frank Miller’s exoticism the side-eye. The Canadian’s excuse for an excursion to Japan originates with return-to-sender letters from an old flame, Mariko Yashida. Inspired by the 1975’s Shogun, Claremont pens Wolverine like a 1982 weeaboo.
Don’t get me wrong; the writing is good. Excellent, in fact. Yet as I write from 2024, I appreciate that the 2014 version of Shogun checks itself before it wrecks itself. Between Wolverine, The Last Samurai, and Nioh, the volume of modern media producing white savior gaijins is concerning (I will reserve judgment for Blue Eyed Samurai until I watch it). The optics of a white character defeating an entire clan of ninja and their Yakuza samurai boss is Claremont compounding silly comic book hero things with Japanese tropes. Wolverine prevails because of his literal plot armor—indestructible adamantium-laced skeleton and his quick healing factor.
Wolverine as a character is straight up hax. Besides his cantankerousness and tendency to solve all of his problems with violence, I can see why he is the most popular X-Men character. He is basically Superman but with character flaws.
Blerd Beats 