From 2008 to 2009, Wolverine Files highlighted, in chronological order, iconic Wolverine covers and their homages. Want to start at the beginning? Click here…

Wolverine, the limited series.

Back in 1982, the revelation of a Wolverine limited series was the biggest thing I could imagine.

Now it happens nearly every week.

But in September 1982 when Wolverine’s first miniseries hit the stands, I was absolutely blown away. And frankly, so was every other Wolverine fan on the planet.

We all knew about Chris Claremont and his contribution to the Wolverine mythos, but this time he was paired with Frank Miller who was wowing the industry with his unbelievable Daredevil run (including the unforgettable Daredevil #181).

But according to the Chris Claremont interview in ‘Comics Creators on X-Men’ (2006), the limited series almost didn’t happen…

Frank Miller thought Wolverine was an incredibly dull character and didn’t want to have anything to do with him. He had absolutely no interest in drawing a story about a berserk psycho killer. The two of us got stuck in traffic on the way to Los Angeles after a San Diego Comicon… Since we had nothing else to do, we started talking about Wolverine, about who he is and why he is. The conversation ranged over samurai pictures and manga and all of the things that we were enjoying at the time. During the course of the conversation, we basically started building the story. This is one of those rare occasions where a story evolved out of the character, rather than the plot.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

The stunning cover to the first issue is by Frank Miller and Josef Rubinstein and one of the best Wolverine covers from the 1980s, if not of all time.

Below is the cover sans logo…

First up is the original cover artwork with logos, from the collection of Joe Rubinstein.

Yes, the Joe Rubinstein.

And let me mention that Joe does do cover recreations and commissions. If you are interested, please check out his work at Comic Art Gallery and make sure not to miss his amazing commissions page.

Next comes the absolutely breathtaking original color artwork by Frank Miller and Josef Rubinstein, also from the collection of Joe Rubinstein.

Update: It seems I missed two very stunning homage covers when I first posted this. Let me rectify that by adding the Wizard #157 cover from Nov 2004 by Steve McNiven and Mark Morales…

And the Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness #5 homage cover from August 2007 by Arthur Suydam…

Previous Cover: Uncanny X-Men #167 | Next: Wolverine #2 (Limited Series)

Want to see the Classic Wolverine Covers from the beginning? Start here…