*Warning*I'm not after a Wolverine bashing rant or anything of that nature*Warning*

My question is simply this, why is Wolverine so prevalent and overwhelming a presence in the X-men comics? And is he really at the forefront in these comics or is it more so that he simply has so many appearances over so many different books that makes his ever present nature in so many books despite being such a loner that makes him so disliked?

Has any other X-men character than Wolverine preferably another notable member such as Cyclops, Storm, etc. ever held their own title for very long or even had a decent solo title?

And finally, what is it about Wolverine that makes him so popular and makes the other X-men so much less so? Is he better written, more consistently written or are most of the other x-men just so much more lacking in development that he stands out more so? For example a lot of Nightcrawlers popularity seemed to upswing with his appearance in the 2nd X-men film in my opinion, as it really showcased just what he was capable of doing, so is the problem with the other X-men the fact that overexposure of Wolverine has cut down on their exposure making it hard to see anything interesting in them until it is just pretty much thrown in your face?

Wolverine is only in 3 X-books (not including solos and minis) and it's been like that for awhile. Uncanny doesn't have a team until after issue 500 and he won't be there much and "X-men" is a Professor Xavier continuity book until the...Wolverine Crossover...or just after. It only seems like that because he appears in so many books that you can't really escape him if you're an X-men or Avengers fan...and he gets new minis like every other month. They overload the community with him, yet he sells well most of the time.

Question 2: The only character that I can think of that held a long title book as of now is Cable...and his latest attempt needed Deadpool to really last. His current book is such a disgrace to what came before that it's not even funny, but it's still trying to find a place...it's just...dumb.

Question 3: Well, in the early days it was his anti-hero nature and his loner status. He's changed a lot since then and he's not particularly a loner, but something about him keeps the readers enticed enough EVEN when they're complaining about him. For me, I enjoy when he's shown as the man of wisdom that isn't particular fond of what he does and has some odd sense of humor. The other X-men haven't grown out as well because they haven't had any strong writers/runs in solos and they've been plagued with horrible solo projects (Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Emma <---yes, even you, Ms. Frost). That's starting to change a bit since several of the X-men are getting solo 'origin' books, so we'll see how that goes. I expect Angel's and Jean's origins books to sell moderately well...but Colossus's origin book was inane and super useless.

edit: I should mention that wolverine had the mystery thing going for him for years until they started giving us bad reveals...so that's probably not a reason anymore.

wolverine's like a really good friend that's kind of an jackass sometimes but he knows what he's talking about, he's scrappy and drinks a bit, but you know he'll be the first person to help if you're in trouble.
none of the other characters, except for maybe colossus have as much of developed personality.

I think some of those Logans are skrulls. :thumbup:

Nerd's dig loners. Especially ones who wear cowboy hats, smoke cigars, ride motorbikes, gets trained by samurais, mysterious origin, < insert: cool guy cliche>, etc.  :thumbup:

I really liked how Grant Morrison and Joss Whedon wrote Cyclops ... but Wolverine has the fan-base, so why work on developing other characters? That would take effort.

I'm repeating some stuff that Jakew and Prev already said but let's go:

* Rugged and macho when that was really in, a la Crocodile Dundee.
* He was 'turning japanese' thanks to Frank Miller when that was in fasion. Therefore his whole bushido side.
* He is an endlesly renewable martyr... you can ALMOST kill him a million times for noble causes and then do it again in the same issue.
* His up till now mysterious origin was great... now they have placed him in every war and told us about his childhood but still there is a lot of missing memories to mine.
* Inertia. People think he's cool so new readers assume he is cool.

So yeah, I am fond of the character myself, especially as written by Whedon and Morrison where they gave him a certain sort of dumb worldly wisdom. But at the same time I look at this character and I think "he's such a niche comic book character, how did he get popular?"

Why are other x-men not as popular? They have not had as much time and effort dedicated to telling stories about them and it's usually the same story again and again. Why was Gambit popular? Because like his story or not there was a lot of it, soaked in mystery and romance and conflict. Storm has a nice little slice of history as well a lot of people really like her (myself included).

Lastly why the wolvie hate? It's mostly an internet thing... he's no more over exposed or convoluted than Batman but people havent started a chain reaction of Bat Backlash. And personally I dont care, at the end of the day they are all just intellectual property that can be amazing when used correctly and given some real story. Same goes for absolute C-list characters like Ant-Man and Blue Beetle and such... good story means fanatical readership, although not always widespread readership.

The whys and wherefores of which character gets popular and which doesn't are baffling.
Batman sells books by the shedload, Nightwing, not so much. spider-man is endlessly popular, Daredevil less so.
I think Wolverine's appeal is as noted above, but also he is a 'rule breaking' character. By this I mean not within the stories themselves, but that he transgresses against the 'comics code', in that he cuts and kills people. And just as that makes Punisher popular, (because the internal logic of comics that says 'superheroes dont kill' is counter-intuitive to most people, who's instincts (correctly) suggest that getting hit by Hulk or Superman will kill you).
So those characters who come along and re-define what is possible in comics strike a chord. And in their own way, Superman, Batman, and spider-man all did this in their own early appearances, by defining and re-defining the genre, by 'breaking the rules'.
Now you may point out that other characters, before and since have been armed with swords etc, had the 'outsider', anti-hero, reformed villain schtick, and not been popular (Black Knight, Swordsman, Valkyrie all leap to mind). I refer you to my first line. Nobody knows for sure why the public takes one borderline psychopath to heart but not another. The characters in and of themselves have no distinguishing features above and beyond less successful ones. True, once popular, a character may get more 'developed', and attract 'name' writers and artists, but usually the popularity comes first, and the Prestige Series later.
And there is an element of cultural inertia involved. If there are eight books each month with Wolverine in, but Black Knight appears in only one, readers are more exposed to Wolverine, and to the idea that he is 'important' (or why would he appear so often). Of course, simply putting a character in eight books every month wont MAKE them popular overnight, but I bet it helps the process more than a twice yearly two panel cameo does.

I'd also like to point you guys to the latest arc in wolvie's solo.
it's done by mark millar and steve mcniven (its got the prestige)
but it's also as far removed from any other wolverine story out there you'd find.
it's called "old man logan", and its a kind of an Unforgiven/3:10 to Yuma meets Mad Max future storyline.  i only read the first issue and dang i'm hooked already.
and he doesn't even really pop his claws in the first issue.

my uncle used to do some work for marvel comics presents, and he always drew logan looking a bit like Clint Eastwood...  it's funny how 20 years later, he looks like clint does now too.

Speaking of wolverine stories (as most have been good as of late), I just wanted to add that because of wolverine's nature, his mysteries, and his ability to heal and live a long time, it's very easy for writers to pick him up and adapt him into many different stories without greatly compromising his character. Things like this usually happen to the other X-men when they get solos because the story doesn't fit the character. For example, does Nightcrawler going on a magical adventure seem like it'd be easily adaptable for what he's become over the years? Does Jubilee moving back to LA and going back to highschool (ignoring she graduated) and finding out her aunt is a crimeboss or w/e fit her character? Does Colossus being in some super spy story (not exactly, but I didnt read the story) before he even joined the x-men and then acting so tame and out of place in his original story/origin fit his character? With Wolverine, you have all these open spots to fill in and you don't have to worry so much about continuity nor do you have to hold back on his nature.

The other X-men could get good stories and last for awhile in a solo nature, but someone needs to give them something to actually work with. Most of the other X-men don't even have true enemies or rivals anymore, nothing to fill in about their history (they tried that before...latest example, Xavier and those other x-men that painted Xavier in a bad light...running trend since the 90s), and no reason to exist outside of a team book.

I always felt if Clint was young he could play Wolverine

I wonder if there are any good current stories a writer can tell with Wolverine, without transplanting him to the past or future....

Quote from: Jakew on July 09, 2008, 05:13:17 PM
I wonder if there are any good current stories a writer can tell with Wolverine, without transplanting him to the past or future....

You mean like the recently ended Get Mystique arc that came before Old man logan? Or maybe firebreak? Or perhaps the second story of Dangerous Games? And some might consider all of Logan #1-3 good. I only really liked issues 1 and 2, but it's a solid book. ^_^

or what about the over-the-top cool of millar and jrjr's enemy of the state/agent of shield run? easily one of the best runs on wolverine since he was in madripoor.

Meh................  ;)