10 Things Marvel Wants You To Forget About Wolverine
4. The Second Origin Story
Okay, so that thing with the High Evolutionary and the humanoid literal wolverine was pretty weird, albeit unconfirmed. Whats far less contested is the apparent second concept for Wolverines origin story that was floated a few years after the walking, talking angry squirrel thing was abandoned, this time the handiwork of artist John Byrne. He came onto the X-Men title during Chris Claremonts legendary run, taking over from Dave Cockrum and illustrating such classic storylines as the Dark Phoenix Saga and Days Of Future Past. Together the pair conspired to reveal a very different backstory to Logan than the one seen in Origin. Byrne had apparently been toying with an idea for the unmasked Wolverines look for a while, before realising that Cockrum had already drawn such a thing - fleetingly - in X-Men #98 some years before. That didnt stop Claremont and Byrne coming up with the idea that Sabretooth (previously an Iron Fist character) was Wolverines father, Logan being approximately 60 years old and having served in World War II after escaping from Sabretooth, who was approximately 120 years old. The weird rivalry between the character remained, but that origin was swiftly trashed.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
