"Misunderstood Characters Pt. 2 - Wolverine"
by David (Rhyme)

This is part two of a three part article concerning some characters hated or liked by fans-for the wrong reasons! I continue this week with another character misunderstood by the masses-Wolverine.

Exactly how is Wolverine misunderstood? Well, that's actually a very difficult question. This may offend some of you, but some of Wolverine's biggest fans misunderstand him the most. They watched the cartoon, and it brought them to comics. That's good and all, because comics need more readers, but...the cartoon has affected what they think about the character. Wolverine to them is a hack and slash, don't-take-orders, mean, tough guy with claws. Sorry, but that's not Wolverine, as you'll discover later in this article. On the other side, some people that hate Wolverine misunderstand him. These are people that love characters that you can examine and think about, and get to the core of. Yes, that is me. I used to hate Wolverine for the fact that you could describe him in words, and he was the little kids cool guy. But then I read UXM #205. And it made all the difference. And then I read Essential X-Men #1-3, and it made all the difference, because I saw the progression of the character.

I will start off with the cartoon part. Before I begin, I just want to say that I am sorry if I offend any of you who watched the cartoon, but I have a lot of emotion that makes me hate it. Ah, in the early 90's, the X-Men was a huge franchise. It had been made that way by Chris Claremont, who handed the reigns over to Scott Lobdell. And yes, Jim Lee's art helped tremendously. So soon, the bigwigs at Marvel started thinking...if this is so popular, let's get all the money off it we can. And then came the action figures, the bedsheets, the boardgames, and eventually...the cartoon. But of course, the cartoon was for kids, and designed to gather readers for the comics. Plain and simple, it was a marketing tool whose storyline was crap. Hey, the bigwigs thought-when you're aiming it at kids, all you need is some cool looking guys who are mean, don't take orders, and fight. Then they looked at all the characters and decided who looked the coolest. Wolverine. Yes, so Wolverine was in lots of episodes-saying catchy phrases, and hacking and slashing. And then when the writers saw the cartoon and how popular it was, they decided, hey...let's kiddify Wolverine in the comics as well. And thus began the downfall of Wolverine. He is not what he once was.

Now let's look at those people who love literature, character development, and everything like it. Those who started reading the comics in the early 90's could easily identify with Jean Grey, who was being developed. Others loved the leader-Cyclops. But then...there was this hairy guy with claws who seemed to do nothing except present problems. And him, they couldn't identify with. And so suddenly, these people wanted Wolverine out of the book. They wanted him to just sit in his own book and rot. But what about longtime readers? What about those who had grown up with Wolverine, and watched him develop as a character? Surely, they were a little annoyed with these newfound changes that could not possibly be called character development. So they too, grew to hate Wolverine, and all that he had come to be. And I hated Wolverine until one day when I picked up and X-Men classic...

...and read UXM #205. If you go to the Marvel Boards, you will see me giving numerous praise for this issue. Heck, everyone knows I love it. Everyone knows it's my favorite issue. And I can't really explain it. All I can say is that Wolverine is human. And I love that I can't explain it, because that means it's a great work of literature that can't be defined with words. You know what that means. Wolverine is a character who can't be defined with words. So I went to my comicbook store and bought the original issue for $11.50. Yes, it's a lot because it's the first appearance of Lady Deathstryke, but I urge you to do the same.

But I couldn't just be satisfied with UXM #205. I had to see how Wolverine had developed over the years. So, instead of spending thousands of dollars, I bought Essential X-Men #1-3. It covered the period from Giant Sized X-Men to far into the 100's. And it shows a lot of Wolverine. It shows how he developed because of his love for Jean Grey. It's great. Buy it.

*and now...I love the Wolverine of old, hope he can one day be what he was...and spend a lot of money on back issues*.