The Stuff that Makes 'The Wolverine' Dope

What’s up Punch Drunk Readers, so now that The Wolverine is out let’s talk about where this movie came from. Now this isn’t going to be as in-depth as the Pacific Rim one since the influences are clear and you can easily consume them. Plus it’s just not as much. This post here is for the people who saw this movie and wonder why Hugh Jackman in Japan is and this is for the people who know Wolvie and is still leery because of the last Wolverine movie.

Wolverine

This was a four issue miniseries that came out in 1982 by Chris Claremont (aka the most important guy in creating the modern X-Men) and Frank Miller (aka that dude that made Batman a douche, Daredevil cool and later Gerard Butler’s career). This comic was everything back then. See this was joint that hit you off with all the stuff that made Wolverine cool. Wolverine is a wild man but see he struggles to be civilized and tries to follow the code of the Samurai. This is the story that mostly impacts the new movie. While the plot of the comic is different since it’s not here where Logan meets Mariko it is one of the main factors of making Wolverine THE new superstar character of Marvel at that time. When you read it you can tell there is a bear, sword duels and ninjas. Man Ninja alone make anything 1000% cooler than the Arctic Circle. People NINJAS!

Logan

This was pretty surprising to see them use as parts of the movie. In comics this was pretty well promoted because of the creators working on the character. Brain K. Vaughn, the writer is well known in comics for his work Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina and The Runaways with Eduardo Risso, an artist with great acclaim from the title 100 Bullets. The movie really doesn’t use much but the whole thing with Logan in Japan during the end of World War II comes from it. To tell the honest truth I got this comic for the art. Risso is a beast on this comic. The story being told never stood out to me but I was pretty pleased to see Logan in a hole in the early part of the new movie referencing this beautiful looking comic.

There are a few other things you can check out like Old Man Logan from Mark Millar and Steve McNiven which has that Logan not wanting to kill any more stuff. That is a fun story; you should just read it regardless of whether or not it influenced the movie. Check out the Marvel Anime of Wolverine (which might be on Netflix) that adapts the miniseries more closely so it covers some of the same ground as The Wolverine. Now if you’re a real G you can go find the Essential Wolverine volume 1 that covers the first 23 issues of Wolverine’s ongoing series from back in 88. It’s reprinted in black and White and it’s just awesome cause it’s Logan with an alias as Patch in a fake island country of Madripor fighting people and being a fake criminal. Jackman’s black suit and tie in the movie I feel is in reference to this stuff.

For the trillest of the Wolverine fans you should think about copping this ginormous Wolverine Admantium Edition that has that has some of this stuff plus other Wolverine GOAT-level stories in there.

Alright that’s all from me, and if you’re wondering what I thought of The Wolverine then:

#TheWolverine was surprisingly good. The most enjoyable time I've had with a comic superhero movie all year.
— julianlytle (@julianlytle) July 24, 2013

Yep a co-sign.

Bong.

P.S. all the links in here is to the Punch Drunk Critics amazon store so buy them books from there bub.