10 Fascinating Comic Moments That Almost Happened
4. Wolverine Was Almost Quickly Killed Off
Wolverine is one of the most well-known and popular characters in comics, so it's crazy to think that he was nearly killed off soon after his introduction.
Wolverine joined the X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men #1, along with other classic characters Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler. Another member of the team though was Thunderbird, a Native American man with super strength, speed, stamina and tracking abilities. Much like Wolverine, he was also an obnoxious loudmouth.
The X-Men didn't need two characters who were so similar and so one was picked to be killed off. The next issue, Thunderbird was killed in a plane explosion while trying to take out Count Nefaria. But, it could easily have been Wolverine in that same position.
The most important thing to remember is that, at the time, Wolverine hadn't built up anything like the popularity he has today and resurrections weren't as commonplace. After all, Thunderbird died and only the most die-hard X-Men fans are aware of his existence. We very easily could have ended up in a world where Wolverine was just remembered as a tiny footnote in X-Men history and someone else would have become the poster boy for the franchise.
They probably would have picked Nightcrawler.