Nerdly » Wolverine Wednesday #78 – 50th Birthday Celebration Part 3

11th Sep2024

Wolverine Wednesday #78 – 50th Birthday Celebration Part 3

by Ian Wells

Wolverine is one of the most iconic heroes around and I mean both visually and characteristically. He has endured for 50 years in the comics and is now a big-screen powerhouse. He has an instantly recognisable aesthetic whether he is in costume or his street clothes. He even has the ability to change his fatigues on a regular basis and still hold that visual appeal. Sometime last year I did a round-up of his most famous costumes and highlighted some of the best artists to work on each. This is an extension of that, but looking more in-depth at what artists have contributed what visuals to Wolverine body part by body part (which sounds way dirtier than I meant it). By the end of it, I will present to you my top 5 Wolverine artists of all time. I want to preface all of what is about to follow by saying that John Byrne is rightly regarded as the definitive Wolverine artist. Every Wolverine artist is following in the footsteps of Byrne and Cockrum – both of whom shouldn’t be forgotten in all this in the pages of X-Men. And that is where saying Byrne is the best becomes a bit of a problem for me. Yes, he has done some issues of the Wolverine ongoing series but his original evolution of the character happened in the pages of X-Men and I haven’t read enough of them to see that growth with my own eyes in a number of issues.

The best place to start is with the head. He of course started out in the John Romita-designed costume with the whiskers and a hint of Silver Age about it. When Giant Size X-Men came around Gil Kane extended the fins of the helmet, unintentionally creating an icon! Cockrum and Byrne would follow and maintain a standard for the look of the mask for the artists that followed on X-Men like Marc Silvestri, Paul Smith and Jim Lee. Silvestri and Lee would both be serious candidates to be called the best to draw the Wolverine mask. Frank Miller would be the first to draw Wolverine in a solo adventure and his cinematic approach with inks by Rubinstein and colours by Oliver and Varley brought new shadowing and depth to the mask. Of course, #1 of that series has the classic cover by Miller with Wolverine maskless in a portrait style. Within the issues, there are moments where Miller’s Wolverine hair it seems is either standing up or drooping down depending on his mood. Pre-dating this Wolverine first appeared without his mask in X-Men #98 with art by Dave Cockrum. What other artists have added to the evolution of a mask-less Wolverine? A big part of Wolverine as Logan is the hair mimicking the shape of the mask fins. For me collecting the back issues of the Wolverine series Silvestri and Mark Texiera are solid choices. The latter brings a raw sketchiness where you can never truly see the eyes, adding to the mystery of the man. The very first issues of Wolverine I picked up had art by Sean Chen. He had the unenviable mandate of having to make his Logan look like Hugh Jackman whilst stamping his own style on him as well. Moving into a much newer era I would put forward Goran Sudzuka. His is what I would call a modern Logan. The hair is more styled, there is less stubble. With a slight animated feel along the lines of Batman The Animated Series you could call this face a PG13 Logan. Barry Windsor Smith in the pages of his seminal Weapon X story arc actually created a plot point for the hairstyle so for that alone he makes the cut on merit. Lastly, I put forward Lenil Yu as an artist who consistently produces a solid Wolverine in and out of the costume.

In my 2002 Marvel Encyclopedia Wolverine is listed as 5’3 in height. Herb Trimpe in the debut issue of Incredible Hulk #181 constantly had Wolverine caught between behemoths Hulk and Wendigo, thus establishing his diminutive stature. I think it is fair to say that his height only comes into play when artists want to use it as a plot point. It reminds me of something I read about the artists in the early days of Ant-Man. After a few issues they stopped drawing him in his world of being small against everyday objects and started drawing regular action and it wasn’t really obvious he was shrunk down. It is easy to draw Wolverine small when he is fighting Sabretooth, Cyber and Sentinels. But the rule wasn’t really stuck to religiously. I’m thinking of the panel where he fights Sauron in X-Men #115 by Byrne as a good example. John Bolton in his backup stories in Classic X-Men is an artist who consistently portrays his small stature. In group shots, fights and even in panels when he is on his own you get a sense of his height. Having a diminutive character with animalistic tendencies allows artists to be creative in the poses they can put him in. Jim Lee excelled at this, but again with the height being ignored. I submit the covers to X-Men #268 and #277 as evidence for both sides of Lee. Liefeld was another later artist bringing dynamic poses with a slender, muscle-bound, over 5 heads tall Wolverine. Talking of muscles Hugh Jackman has distorted everyone’s view of what Wolverine should look like. Like a lot of people my first exposure to Wolverine as the animated series and I wouldn’t say muscle-bound is the first thing that springs to mind when I recollect that show. In my mind, Wolverine should be of a build similar to CM Punk (although as I write this he is in the best shape of his career). Another example I would use and perhaps way more controversial is I have this notion Kyle Chandler would make a great Wolverine. John Buscema is an artist I would put in with this vision of mine. His Wolverine is a good height and not too heavy with muscle. Best of all when in action he has that low-slung, stealth quality to his movement. The last part of the upper body aesthetic is that sexy arm hair! As mentioned Windsor Smith created a plot point for the long hair, but over the course of the Weapon X story the arm hair is largely absent. It is there in some panels, as is a hairy chest. I put it down to the colour and inking choices, perhaps the overly hairy arms would have muddied the images. In the early days of Wolverine from Byrne and Cockrum, up to his first solo series by Miller arm hair was at a more realistic follicle count. When I Googled who first drew Wolverine with hairy arms the answer I got was George Perez/Bob Layton on the cover to X-Men #112. After this Byrne with his inker Terry Austin would proceed with the increased amount. Jim Lee, who is getting a lot of mention now is responsible for the over-the-top hairy arms. Taking all of the above into account I believe there are two stand-out candidates who deliver the complete package of short, stocky and hairy Wolverines. They are Sam Kieth and Art Adams. Kieth’s Wolverine is the perfect example of taking the basics of the character and completely making him his own. Yes, Bloody Hungry is a Wolverine story but really its a Sam Kieth story. Art Adams is someone who I wish had had an extended run on the Wolverine series. The cover of Classic X-Men #1 and the inside cover piece is the perfect showcase for his Wolverine. I will go as far as to say that the cover is more visually appealing than the cover of Giant Size X-Men #1.

Last but by no means least it all comes down to the claws. This is the only category that matters right? Get the claws wrong and your Wolverine lacks that intimidating factor. Thankfully in all my reading there are none that spring to mind who got it wrong, but there are styles that are like more than others. It is amazing really how much variation there can be in six claws. Going back to the point of personal taste, although Cockrum and Byrne may be early pioneers of the Wolverine aesthetic to me their claws are a little on the small side. On the cover to Giant Size X-Men #1 Gil Kane portrays claws where the middle one is slightly longer and the ones on either side taper to meet it. Lee and Silvestri would follow both of these styles depending on the composition of the page. What they both did though is add some extra length to them. So when he was in his dynamic crouched poses it felt like he could scratch the ground with them. I don’t like my claws with too much of a curve to them. Looking through some Wolverine covers Lenil Yu is a culprit of this. Also looking at these covers it seems the aforementioned artists tend to portray claws that appear more solid, with more heft to them when doing close-ups. Then the sleeker ones are for the action sequences. On his cover of Wolverine #1 Miller followed what had been done before in this regard. But on his interiors, the claws have what I call the diagonal tips. The cover of Wolverine #8 by Buscema is another early showcase of the diagonal tips. The two varieties of claw bring up the question are they like swords or more like sais? Adam Kubert delivers a chunky mean looking set of claws. During his run on the ongoing, he also had to produce a number of issues with the bone claws and his are the best bone claws, beating out Windsor Smith for that crown in my opinion.