Newsarama......
So back in Wolverine #43, the second issue of Marc Guggenheim and Humberto Ramos run, the titular hero of the title was burned down to his adamantium skeleton by Nitro, the same villain who, when it all comes down to it, is kinda responsible for this Civil War thing going on.
Of course, the issue before that, Wolverine survived a plane crash that killed everyone else aboard. Of course Guggenheims no sadist he doesnt have a jones for trying to kill Wolverine, hes just following in the tradition laid down by dozens of writers before him stab, shoot, dismember, burn, blow up, grind, or vaporize Wolverine, and hell come back. Sure there are issues among fans in regards to how badly you can hurt Wolverine and still have him come back, but safe to say, at least for the past decade or so, the constraints have been pulled off, and as long as youve got one cell left, you can bet that Wolverine will return.
But if Wolverines body is virtually destroyed
where does his mind go? Where does his soul go? Does he even know? Does he even care?
Guggenheim cares and this weeks Wolverine #48 is his place to play around with the questions. We caught up with the writer to talk about the issue, the character, his upcoming Marvel Comics Presents run
which isnt happening just as planned
and more.
Newsarama: So basically, with #48
you burned Wolverine up early on in your run, and now you have to explain how he's still alive and kicking. Does that about sum up the larger editorial mission of #48?
Marc Guggenheim: Not really. Actually, I'm glad you asked the question because it gives me an opportunity to clear up what I've been perceiving as a misunderstanding about the genesis of this issue. For one thing, there was no "editorial mission," as you put it. In fact, I had a totally blank canvas for Issue 48 -- it didn't even have to relate to "Vendetta," my Civil War tie-in story, if I didn't want it to. I really appreciated Wolverine editor Axel Alonso giving me that kind of leeway, because one of the Wolverine runs I took inspiration from was Mark Millar's, and I always loved how he ended his run with the self-contained Holocaust story and wanted to do something similar -- i.e., a powerful, impactful, self-contained issue. Towards that end, I started kicking around an idea that I thought would work as a self-contained story. The idea centered around a question I've had for a number of years: When Wolverine suffers the kind of injury that would conceivably destroy his brain, how does he manage to regenerate from it with his personality and memories intact? I pitched the explanation to Axel for issue #48 and he liked it, but correctly pointed out that there was too much story there for 22 pages. So I suggested revealing the explanation in issue #48, but leaving the explanation's backstory - the explanation for the explanation, if you will - for a future story arc.
Somewhere along the line, it occurred to me that this idea I had for issue #48 could "speak to" the larger "Vendetta" arc. Basically, there were more than a few instances in that arc -- which I was only half-way through writing at that point -- where I'd be giving Wolverine the kind of brain-destroying injuries that I was looking to explain in issue #48, so there was a potential point of connection. From there, I came up with a(nother) crazy idea: Make the plot of issue #48 contemporaneous with the plot of issues #42 through #47; basically, tell the story that was taking place "between the panels" of that issue. Once again, Axel -- who I'm now convinced just likes to play Russian roulette with both of our careers -- gave me his blessing.
NRAMA: And all of that came before the plan to burning him to a crisp?
MG: Right - this was all conceived of before the now-infamous "melting" of Wolverine in issue #43. In fact, when issue #43 damaged the structural integrity of the Internet (or somesuch), I commented to online journalist, Remy Minnick, "Great. Now everyone's going to think I'm doing this story to explain away the controversy."
But here's the funny thing: I never thought burning Wolvie down to his adamantium would be controversial in the first place. It always struck me as just another day at the office for Logan.
NRAMA: Right theres precedent for this kind of regeneration
including, among others, that Uncanny X-Men Annual where Wolverine came back from a drop of blood
MG: Thank you!!! Someone's been listening to me!
NRAMA: But for this one you burned him pretty conclusively. Without telling the story - what is the anchor for Wolverine in this regeneration? A few cells left alive, somewhere in al of that heat?
MG: There are certainly a few cells left for Wolverine to regenerate from - more than a few, actually. I think that was one of the reasons I didn't think his regeneration in this instance would be so controversial. The other reason is -- as you point out -- there's precedent for this kind of regeneration. In addition to the Claremont/Davis moment, Daniel Way has hit the guy with a nuke, Mark Millar incinerated him in an oven and Grant Morrison and Garth Ennis have also done some equally nasty stuff to him.
NRAMA: As you seem to be wanting to delve more into the metaphysical issues around complete morphological regeneration
where does Wolverine "go" for lack of a better term when this level of destruction occurs? Obviously, its hard to have thoughts when you dont have a brain
MG: Ah, that would be telling.
NRAMA: When writing comics, writers have always been able to wave their hands a little and invoke "comic book science," but you've got a couple of things working against that here - a sophisticated audience, and you pushed the limit to an extreme condition for Wolverine
MG: That's the funny thing: Given the source material I mentioned above, it never occurred to me as being all that extreme.
NRAMA: Well, but that said, it seems as if you're going to have to go that extra mile to answer the majority of the questions...is that an accurate way to look at it?
MG: It would be if my intention was to answer those questions. But it really isn't. My only intention was to explain how Wolverine could regenerate from a brain-damaging injury yet still retain his memories and personality.
NRAMA: Base level for Wolverine - he mentioned that, after 500 degrees, you really don't feel the pain anymore, but in terms of reconstruction - how much does it hurt?
MG: Physically... or spiritually?
NRAMA: Er
MG: That's a rhetorical question, by the way, 'cause I ain't saying.
NRAMA: So - basically, Wolverine can endure this, but isn't about to start doing it for fun on the weekends...get drunk and do a little self-immolation for ya-yas?
MG: I doubt it. In fact, in addition to explaining how Wolverine can retain his personality and memories, I also had a secondary goal. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't think I was doing anything all that different from what other writers have done - the suggestion that I did really came as a big surprise to me. I've read some postings on the Internet observing that Wolverine's healing factor has grown more and more powerful over the past, say, 20 years. I'd have to agree with that assessment. As a writer, you want to put your protagonist in a kind of physical jeopardy, but that has grown harder and harder to do with Wolverine, who appears to be able to heal from anything. So my ulterior motive was to increase the stakes for Wolverine; so that future writers can put him in physical jeopardy and still maintain a degree of suspense. And I wanted to do that without just crippling his healing factor. The solution I hit upon is based on the idea that just because Wolverine can heal from almost any injury, there is a massive cost to doing so.
NRAMA: Fair enough. Along with the exploration of his healing factor and the cost, the solicitation for this issue said that it lays the foundation of the next mystery for Logan - that will continue in the upcoming Marvel Comics Presents. First off - how did you land that gig of writing Wolvie in the new series?
MG: As with most gigs: Marvel asked. As I mentioned, issue #48 tees up another story for Wolverine. At the time, we weren't sure when and where and how that story would get told, but then a few months later, Marvel decided to go ahead with MCP and I was talking with MCP editor Andy Schmidt about doing a serialized story for them and someone -- I forget who -- said, "Well, y'know, there's that Wolverine story you still kinda owe us..." And it came out of that.
NRAMA: And youre doing the story with Howard Chaykin, no less - he had mentioned earlier to us that he was having a great time on Blade with you, and wanted to do more...guess he wasn't fibbing, huh?
MG: I certainly hope not. Otherwise, he'd have to give me back all the money I've been paying him to say those things.
NRAMA: Format-wise, what are we looking at for you and Howard's Wolverine story? Is it 22 pages in each issue? Less?
MG: Well, that's an interesting question because the format has changed on us somewhat. Consider this your exclusive, because Howard and I will not be doing our Wolverine story within the pages of MCP. Rather, we're going to do the story in the pages of Wolverine-proper, after Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi finish up their run. So I'll be returning to the pages of Wolverine after all!
NRAMA: Very cool. But back to the story - tease it man, tease it - what does this upcoming mystery involve - Wolverine's past? Future? Something he though he knew, but doesn't really?
MG: It's very hard to tease that story because it's set up in issue #48 which I'm trying to tease at the moment. In other words, I can't think of a way to tease something off a tease except to say that the story is set up in issue #48... is that a tease?
NRAMA: Er
yeah? Finally - why Wolverine? What's the attraction of the character for you?
MG: I'm a short Canadian. With claws. No seriously, I just find the character very cool. I like his code of honor. I like his sense of humor, his way of looking at the world. He's had a very interesting life and he's one of those rare characters where you actually feel the weight of all those experiences when you're writing him. He's the Marvel Universe's Batman, in my opinion. He's a bit dark, a bit mysterious, a bit tortured and, as you may have heard, he's the best there is at what he does. Plus, like Batman, he really could give a crap about what other people think. I wish I was a little more like that.
DD is way over his amateur hour Kingpin performance, as he just mercilessly beat the guy half to death a little while ago when he declared himself the new Kingpin. Also I'm not sure that Wolverine's stronger than Captain America.
But that heightened senses thing, man, that really screws over DD. If only DD had some sort of heightened senses, he could compete with Wolverine. But, seeing as he doesn't, I guess you win the argument.
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