Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Getting Wolverine Right in the MCU!

Wolverine is of course well known from Hugh Jackman’s portrayal since X-Men (2000).  He has the beard, but Jackman is charismatic, Wolverine is not, he’s the opposite.  Wolverine is type of person you don’t want to be around; aggressive, coarse, blunt, and just disrespectful.  There was a little bit of this in X-Men and through most of the X-movies, but it slowly was set aside for Hugh Jackman’s leading man status.  I always thought the height was wrong with Jackman, Wolverine is 5’3”, a little short, Hugh Jackman is 6’3.”  


The other part is that Wolverine is savage like an animal, it’s not a scream like someone angry, it is an animalistic howl that would chill you to the bones.  He is a brawler, ready for a fight, and will take a beating so he can come back to give a real hurting.  Wolverine lapses into a berserk animal, the more damage he takes, it should be a blur of blood and motion when he gets into a rage.  Logan would be constantly sniffing, not just when enemies are around, it would be how he works out a place and unfamiliar people.  He has been on his own for some time so doesn’t really fit in well with others. Wolverine is also very hairy, hirsute, you wouldn’t want to see him shirtless.  He is very much like the wolverine animal.  



The character of Wolverine was fully introduced in The Incredible Hulk #181 (1974) by Len Wein and Herb Trimpe.  He joined the X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975) by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum still in his yellow uniform with stripes.  Chris Claremont had started his long run with X-Men and John Byrne took over from Cockrum.  In Uncanny X-Men #139 (1980), we had his brown and yellow suit. Also, that Wolverine’s name is Logan, this was the intention of Claremont and Byrne, no other names!  Wolverine was always Canadian, I would actually like a Canadian actor to play him.  


I’m really thinking Taylor Kitsch, he is a little tall though, 5’11”, Kitsch did play Remy LeBeau in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009).  Kitsch has the chops to handle the drama and good with action, I'm thinking John Carter (2012).  Also, Stephen Amell, who has experience playing superheroes with Arrow, he’s even taller, 6’1.”  He played Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016).  It is possible that there is new or unknown actor that fits the criteria to play Logan.  I think a strong contender is Adam Beach, still tall though 6’0”.  Beach did play Slipknot in Suicide Squad (2016), but that was more a cameo.  Also, he was the father of Dani Moonstar in The New Mutants (2020).  I think it’s time for Adam Beach to play a superhero lead role.      



The part of Wolverine is his classic saying, “I’m the best there is at what I do”, he repeats this endlessly in the comics, but you know when he says it, there’s gonna be violence. Wolverine’s claws, the other part I didn’t like about the X-films’ Wolverine was the popping the claws sound effect, it sounds like the sword blade taken out of a scabbard, wrong.  It is so distinctive that I feel I know what it exactly sounds like, SNIKT!  The first part is the claws coming out of the bionic housing, the last part is the claws locking into place. When he pops the claws they rip of the skin in his hand from silicon plugs, but his healing factor stops any bleeding, still he does feel the pain.  

The retraction of his claws also has a sound effect, SNAKT!, the claws sliding back and locked in the bionic housing.  


His past is always mysterious like the cowboy, Man Without a Name, it should never be revealed.  He slowly becomes calm, meditative as a samurai, in Japan.  I think Wolverine should be introduced in the second phase after the original X-Men team appears.  It has to be established about mutants, the x-gene, and the X-Men team before a new Wolverine is introduced.  What I found from the X-movies is that the good mutants were all supermodels and the villains were not.  Mutants should be strange, their powers disturbing, not typical super powers.  So the mutants will hate their powers not just use them as super heroes, they are more anti-heroes.  A better film was X2: X-Men United (2003) since it brought in Nightcrawler, a strange looking X-Man, but with heart.  Wolverine at first glance is a brute, but look deeper, he is an honorable warrior.  


#Wolverine, #MarvelCinematicUniverse, #HughJackman, #LenWein, #HerbTrimpe, #DaveCockrum, #ChrisClaremont, #JohnByrne, #Logan, #TaylorKitsch, #StephenAmell, #AdamBeach       


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