Stumbled across this little missive today, and I thought it was spot-on. Here's one for all you Wolverine-haters:
De: http://www.sequart.com/SequentialCulture15.htm
Why I Hate Wolverine
Sequart.com Columns
JULIAN DARIUS
Wolverine would have been a good recurring character in The Incredible Hulk, where he first appeared. And I would have defended him, retractable claws and all. But he cant really sustain his own book, nor being a major character in a team book. Hes just a fairly ****** character, a second-stringer to anyone but those with a part of their brains stuck at 17 years of age.
Lets be clear about this: people love Wolverine because hes a tough guy. Hes the Dirty Harry of the mutant world. And God knows Americans love their Dirty Harrys. Wolverines sole point is to be a badass and to kill people. If super-hero comics are stereotypically defined by the fight-of-the-month, Wolverines the king of the fight-of-the-month mentality. Hes not good at anything else.
The Weapon X program is cool and interesting, and its a good origin for a character defined by his ability to kill. But its only that. Wolverine can act anguished about his own abuse, but that usually just results in a berserker rage in which he just claws everything in sight. The guys not exactly an introvert. The guys not exactly a thinker. Does he have any measurable interior space? Not really. Hes the tough guy, and thats it.
I like nothing more than seeing Wolverine burned to a crisp and slowly healing. You cant feel sorry for him: hes a tough guy, and he gets what he gets. Hes not a hero. No one gets points for courage when he heals like that. I mean, Supermans a fun character but hes not known for his courage: what does he have to fear? But Superman has an interior space. Watch Clark Kent agonize over not being able to stop a dictator as Superman because of his ridiculous, Kansas-imposed commitment to the laws of this world. Hell, watch him agonize -- in the classic Superman-Lois-Clark love triangle -- over his inability to woo Lois Lane. Theres a character whos hard to write but who has interiority despite his powers. Supermans a rich character not for his powers, even though he could be the ultimate badass if he wanted to be. But not Wolverine.
Wolverine talks like a kid acting tough. Im not good for nothing but killing is something Wolverine might say, but not in a moment of introversion. Instead, hed say it with a tough demeanor, revealing nothing more than his own shallow bravado mixed with a seasoning of self-pity. This is a guy who routinely says things as stupid as the Things its clobbering time but who takes these ridiculous expressions seriously. Hes got the emotional maturity of a high school kid, and an immature one at that. Like an adolescent, he thinks tough guys say this kind of ****. dfh tough guys know that toughness is communicated through actions, through self-control as well as through rage. Even the women in Frank Millers Sin City are tougher than Wolverine. Anyone over 17 is tougher than Wolverine. Hes the poster child for arrested development. Hes got all the complexity of hard rock music, of prancing in leather and thinking that acting tough makes you a badass. Hes a poseur, and not a very good one at that.
If Im going to read a tough guy, Ill read the Punisher. I dont need the claws. I certainly dont need the ridiculous healing factor. The Punishers a badass but hes a badass you can relate to. He cant hide behind his healing factor. Hes not a super-hero. He had a bad day, like the Joker, and his solution to his rage at what humans are capable of doing to each other is to eradicate as many bad guys as he can from the face of the Earth. And he does so with guns, like real people do, not with claws. Hes a ****ed-up Vietnam vet, killing vicious criminals instead of robbing banks for that old high he got in war. Hes not the deepest character, to be sure, but hes a better badass than the whiny, bragging Wolverine. Wolverine belongs with villains like Juggernaut, ridiculous monstrosities who can withstand his claws and unwillingness to control himself and his berserker barrages. The Punisher belongs with mobsters, with the mundane child molesters of the world. Hes not Rorschach, but hes cut of that cloth. Now, theres a badass with depth. Wolverine, on the other hand...
None of this addresses, of course, the remarkable inconsistencies of Wolverines character. Hes a loner who spends all his time with the X-Men. If Wolverine has a problem with Weapon Xs abuse of him, why does he not have a problem with Professor Xs agenda? Sometimes, Wolverines depicted as killing civilians in bar fight. Other times, he has the non-killing attitudes of the X-Men, even against the vicious killers that the Punisher greets with a bullet to the brain. He stops short of killing mass murderers, but has left a string of dead drunken brawlers across the United States and Canada. Yeah, great guy.
Not to mention the whole love triangle with Cyclops and Jean Grey. I mean, theres a reason Jean Grey chose Cyclops over Wolvie. Cyclops is an introvert, a thinker. Wolverine is the extrovert, the unexamined adolescent. Okay, we know the average comics reader is a little more nerdy than the average Joe. A little more thoughtful. Probably a little more introverted. Why identify with Wolverine? Granted, Cyclops doesnt have a lot of interiority either, but hes certainly a lot closer to the stereotypical comics reader than Wolverine is. Its argued that comics readers see super-heroes as power fantasies: is Wolverine, then, the fantasy of being the high school jock instead of the high school nerd? Doesnt the love of Wolverine by thoughtful, introverted readers express a kind of self-hatred? A wish that they could be a badass, perhaps? And a stupid, bragging, unexamined badass at that? A secret desire to be -- dare I say it? -- Flash Thompson?
Of course, theres also that awful sound effect. I mean, really. Snikt! Snikt? What the **** is that? Have you ever heard something make that sound in your life? No, but it sounds cool -- in a thoughtless, adolescent kind of way.
Any character can be good if written properly. Heres a guy who, when he extends his claws, they rip holes through his skin. Hes so used to pain that writers and artists dont even note that pain in the comics when his claws come out. But he feels it. Now, if you wanted to do this right, youd have a psychotic Wolverine. A guy who cant use his powers without pain, whos not really good for anything but killing. He should be ****ed up, in his own little world. He enjoys the rip of his claws through his skin. He likes it enough to do it at almost any opportunity. It makes him, deadened to sensation through experience, feel alive in some small way. Hes an addict. He craves combat. He craves feeling alive. No wonder he kills guys in bars but not villains who rend him limb from limb. Make Wolverine a psychotic who goes to S&M clubs and gets torn to ribbons every night -- a guy who cant come unless half his body is on fire and literally shredded. Hes not good for anything else, and hes gone down a path of needing to be hurt more and more to produce that same adrenaline rush.
Hes not in the X-Men for a social outlet -- or because, after seeing everything hes seen of the world, he believes in Xaviers dream. No, hes there to pick up chicks. Then he gets the sexy, spandex-wearing teenage new recruit back to his room, where shes thinking shes going to have sex with Wolverine -- Mr. Badass to her, because shes 17 and falls for that kind of bragging thoughtlessness, which is probably why he does it in the first place, outside of his own arrested development. She gets back to his room at the X-mansion, so convenient for such liaisons, and he closes the door. She expects him to be all over her, to take her like the tough man he is. But he begs her to tie him up and to cut him with knives, to set him on fire, to shoot him over and over again. She does so, but it does nothing for her. So much for the tough Wolverine, she thinks.
Thats my Epic Comics proposal, Mr. Jemas. A one-shot mature readers book. And the best Wolverine story ever written.
Because, you know, there havent been many good ones.
De: http://www.sequart.com/SequentialCulture15.htm
Why I Hate Wolverine
Sequart.com Columns
JULIAN DARIUS
Wolverine would have been a good recurring character in The Incredible Hulk, where he first appeared. And I would have defended him, retractable claws and all. But he cant really sustain his own book, nor being a major character in a team book. Hes just a fairly ****** character, a second-stringer to anyone but those with a part of their brains stuck at 17 years of age.
Lets be clear about this: people love Wolverine because hes a tough guy. Hes the Dirty Harry of the mutant world. And God knows Americans love their Dirty Harrys. Wolverines sole point is to be a badass and to kill people. If super-hero comics are stereotypically defined by the fight-of-the-month, Wolverines the king of the fight-of-the-month mentality. Hes not good at anything else.
The Weapon X program is cool and interesting, and its a good origin for a character defined by his ability to kill. But its only that. Wolverine can act anguished about his own abuse, but that usually just results in a berserker rage in which he just claws everything in sight. The guys not exactly an introvert. The guys not exactly a thinker. Does he have any measurable interior space? Not really. Hes the tough guy, and thats it.
I like nothing more than seeing Wolverine burned to a crisp and slowly healing. You cant feel sorry for him: hes a tough guy, and he gets what he gets. Hes not a hero. No one gets points for courage when he heals like that. I mean, Supermans a fun character but hes not known for his courage: what does he have to fear? But Superman has an interior space. Watch Clark Kent agonize over not being able to stop a dictator as Superman because of his ridiculous, Kansas-imposed commitment to the laws of this world. Hell, watch him agonize -- in the classic Superman-Lois-Clark love triangle -- over his inability to woo Lois Lane. Theres a character whos hard to write but who has interiority despite his powers. Supermans a rich character not for his powers, even though he could be the ultimate badass if he wanted to be. But not Wolverine.
Wolverine talks like a kid acting tough. Im not good for nothing but killing is something Wolverine might say, but not in a moment of introversion. Instead, hed say it with a tough demeanor, revealing nothing more than his own shallow bravado mixed with a seasoning of self-pity. This is a guy who routinely says things as stupid as the Things its clobbering time but who takes these ridiculous expressions seriously. Hes got the emotional maturity of a high school kid, and an immature one at that. Like an adolescent, he thinks tough guys say this kind of ****. dfh tough guys know that toughness is communicated through actions, through self-control as well as through rage. Even the women in Frank Millers Sin City are tougher than Wolverine. Anyone over 17 is tougher than Wolverine. Hes the poster child for arrested development. Hes got all the complexity of hard rock music, of prancing in leather and thinking that acting tough makes you a badass. Hes a poseur, and not a very good one at that.
If Im going to read a tough guy, Ill read the Punisher. I dont need the claws. I certainly dont need the ridiculous healing factor. The Punishers a badass but hes a badass you can relate to. He cant hide behind his healing factor. Hes not a super-hero. He had a bad day, like the Joker, and his solution to his rage at what humans are capable of doing to each other is to eradicate as many bad guys as he can from the face of the Earth. And he does so with guns, like real people do, not with claws. Hes a ****ed-up Vietnam vet, killing vicious criminals instead of robbing banks for that old high he got in war. Hes not the deepest character, to be sure, but hes a better badass than the whiny, bragging Wolverine. Wolverine belongs with villains like Juggernaut, ridiculous monstrosities who can withstand his claws and unwillingness to control himself and his berserker barrages. The Punisher belongs with mobsters, with the mundane child molesters of the world. Hes not Rorschach, but hes cut of that cloth. Now, theres a badass with depth. Wolverine, on the other hand...
None of this addresses, of course, the remarkable inconsistencies of Wolverines character. Hes a loner who spends all his time with the X-Men. If Wolverine has a problem with Weapon Xs abuse of him, why does he not have a problem with Professor Xs agenda? Sometimes, Wolverines depicted as killing civilians in bar fight. Other times, he has the non-killing attitudes of the X-Men, even against the vicious killers that the Punisher greets with a bullet to the brain. He stops short of killing mass murderers, but has left a string of dead drunken brawlers across the United States and Canada. Yeah, great guy.
Not to mention the whole love triangle with Cyclops and Jean Grey. I mean, theres a reason Jean Grey chose Cyclops over Wolvie. Cyclops is an introvert, a thinker. Wolverine is the extrovert, the unexamined adolescent. Okay, we know the average comics reader is a little more nerdy than the average Joe. A little more thoughtful. Probably a little more introverted. Why identify with Wolverine? Granted, Cyclops doesnt have a lot of interiority either, but hes certainly a lot closer to the stereotypical comics reader than Wolverine is. Its argued that comics readers see super-heroes as power fantasies: is Wolverine, then, the fantasy of being the high school jock instead of the high school nerd? Doesnt the love of Wolverine by thoughtful, introverted readers express a kind of self-hatred? A wish that they could be a badass, perhaps? And a stupid, bragging, unexamined badass at that? A secret desire to be -- dare I say it? -- Flash Thompson?
Of course, theres also that awful sound effect. I mean, really. Snikt! Snikt? What the **** is that? Have you ever heard something make that sound in your life? No, but it sounds cool -- in a thoughtless, adolescent kind of way.
Any character can be good if written properly. Heres a guy who, when he extends his claws, they rip holes through his skin. Hes so used to pain that writers and artists dont even note that pain in the comics when his claws come out. But he feels it. Now, if you wanted to do this right, youd have a psychotic Wolverine. A guy who cant use his powers without pain, whos not really good for anything but killing. He should be ****ed up, in his own little world. He enjoys the rip of his claws through his skin. He likes it enough to do it at almost any opportunity. It makes him, deadened to sensation through experience, feel alive in some small way. Hes an addict. He craves combat. He craves feeling alive. No wonder he kills guys in bars but not villains who rend him limb from limb. Make Wolverine a psychotic who goes to S&M clubs and gets torn to ribbons every night -- a guy who cant come unless half his body is on fire and literally shredded. Hes not good for anything else, and hes gone down a path of needing to be hurt more and more to produce that same adrenaline rush.
Hes not in the X-Men for a social outlet -- or because, after seeing everything hes seen of the world, he believes in Xaviers dream. No, hes there to pick up chicks. Then he gets the sexy, spandex-wearing teenage new recruit back to his room, where shes thinking shes going to have sex with Wolverine -- Mr. Badass to her, because shes 17 and falls for that kind of bragging thoughtlessness, which is probably why he does it in the first place, outside of his own arrested development. She gets back to his room at the X-mansion, so convenient for such liaisons, and he closes the door. She expects him to be all over her, to take her like the tough man he is. But he begs her to tie him up and to cut him with knives, to set him on fire, to shoot him over and over again. She does so, but it does nothing for her. So much for the tough Wolverine, she thinks.
Thats my Epic Comics proposal, Mr. Jemas. A one-shot mature readers book. And the best Wolverine story ever written.
Because, you know, there havent been many good ones.
![[A]](https://superherohype-data.community.forum/avatars/l/70/70800.jpg?1270390582){kind=avatar}
It just seems like other attempting alpha males get their gander up whenever he's around--and for good reason. He threatens their authority.
