Not so long ago I visited a comic book shop for the first time in a long time. One thing jumped out at me, or I should say, one man. Wolverine. His image seemed to be on almost every shelf. In 2008, Wolverine was ranked #1 out of "Wizard Magazine's Top 200 Comic Book Characters of All Time" and was ranked #4 of "Empire Magazine' 50 Greatest Comic Book Characters". His popularity has reached such a level that he is used on the front of comics in which he hardly features.

Wolverine is a character created by Marvel over 30 years ago. He is a member of the X-men team and is one of the few of them to be included in every media adaptation of the X-men franchise, including film, television and computer games. Too popular to be left out he is featured in both the New X-Men and the Uncanny X-men teams. He is the only one to have starred in his own computer game and is now the subject of his own, soon to be released, big budget movie. Marvel recognized how much they used him when Wolverine appeared in an issue of What The?! where he is just trying to have a quiet day fishing and going insane because of all the other characters keep appearing and trying to get him to guest-star.

It is easy to dismiss his popularity as being a product of his no-holds-barred attitude and savage ferocity. However, I believe that there is a deeper and subtler reason...

Read more »