Wolverine News kicks off with a special behind the scenes look at the ‘X-Men Origins: X-Men’ video game (see details | thread)…

In More Wolverine Video Game and Movie News…
–Marvel: Play the ‘Wolverine: Time Warrior’ Game (details)
–Comics Continuum: ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ Slurpee Promotion (details | thread)
–IGN: Wolverine 2 Rumor Clarified (details | thread)
-Wolverine Files: Wolverine Leaks on the Internet (details | thread)
-Newsarama: FOXNEWS.com’s Roger Friedman Fired Over ‘Wolverine’ Review (details)

In Other Wolverine Comic Book News…
–Marvel: ‘Wolverine: Hunger’ As Marvel Digitial Exclusive (details | CBR | Newsarama | thread)
–Marvel: Wolverine Anniversary Party and Logan’s Lost Loves (details | thread)
–Marvel: ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ #1 Sneak Peek (details | thread)
–Marvel: The All-New, All Deadly Dark X-Men (details | thread)
–CBR: Wolverine and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (details)
–CBR: Astonishing X-Men #29 Preview (details)

Probable (and Possible) Wolverine Appearances in stores on 4/2/09…
–Timestorm 2009/2099 #1 (preview | thread): 2099 returns…
–Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #4 (preview | thread): Much anticipated series continues…
–Wolverine: Weapon X #1 (preview | threads): The NEW Wolverine series…
–Wolverine: Prodigal Son #1 (preview | thread): Wolverine manga-style…
–Wolverine Appreciation Month Covers (thread): Captain Britain and M13 #12 | Exiles #1
Anita Blake: The Laughing Corpse – Necromancer #1

Wolverine appeared in three titles this past week (April 1, 2009), on one other and made a cameo in yet another from last week…

So on with the reviews…

Cable #13 (preview | thread)
“Messiah War, Part Two”
Writer: Duane Swiercyznski
Art: Ariel Olivetti

The art by Ariel Olivetti, as always, is stunningly beautiful, but the issue itself is not quite as good as the ‘Messiah War’ one-shot.

Deadpool is his usual funny self, unfortunately Duane Swiercyznski is stuck with unenviable task of telling nearly a thousand years of history.

And Deadpool is his narrator.

So all in all, a necessary and humorous issue, but one that doesn’t quite hold up to chapter one…

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Astonishing Tales #3 (preview | thread)
“Bloodlines! Part 3”
Writer: C.B. Cebulski
Art: Kenneth Rocafort

More of the same in this bizarrely over-the-top series.

Tyger Tiger shows up in grand fashion. But due to the opening credits-style entrances of every character so far, I was thrown by the lack of an introduction for a punky Asian girl.

Jubilee? Random Tyger Tiger nurse from Madripoor?

Bueller? Anybody?

Avengers/Invaders #9 (preview | thread)
“Yesterday Gambit”
Plot: Alex Ross & Jim Krueger
Script: Jim Krueger
Pencils: Steve Sadowski, Patrick Berkenkotter & Alex Ross

Shockingly enough, Wolverine actually gets some dialogue in this issue.

Only he’s not Wolverine.

He’s Captain Terror.

In fact, Wolverine as Captain Terror gets more lines than Wolverine as Wolverine in the last three issues combined.

I repeat again, why is Wolverine in this series?

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Finally, Wolverine appears, thankfully, only on the cover of Assistant-Sized Marvel Spectacular #1 (preview) and from last week (courtesy of Comusiv once again), comes a Wolverine television cameo within the pages of The Mighty Avengers #23…

Sigh.

What do you think? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments below OR join in on the fun in the Wolverine Files Forums…

Forgive the headline. I couldn’t help myself.

Lost in the shuffle of our April Fools prank (‘Wolverine: Prima Aprilus’) was an actual breaking Wolverine news story.

A high-quality cut of the soon-to-be-in-theaters ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ was leaked onto the Internet. Reportedly, hundreds of thousands of people illegally downloaded and watched the movie.

Because this story broke amidst all the other April Fools hoaxes, many news services and websites were afraid to run the story, for fear of it being an actual hoax.

But hoax it was not.

So in case anyone out there has any doubts about how we feel about this, let me be clear.

Wolverine Files does not condone this theft, nor will we be party to any “reviews” of the bootleg copy.

I am eagerly awaiting the movie and will pass judgment only after seeing it on opening night. — unless, of course, someone would like to invite me to the premiere. I can be a very cheap date.

–‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ Leaked Movie Thread (Wolverine Files Forum)
–Wolverine Film Leaked on the Internet (CBR)
–How Did ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ Get Leaked on the Internet? (Chud — very slow)
–FBI Hunts for “Stolen, Incomplete & Early Version” ‘Wolverine’ Print (Deadline Hollywood)
–Has Wolverine Film Busted Out Early? (Newsarama)
–‘Wolverine’ Rough Cut Leaks (ICv2)
–X-Men Pic ‘Wolverine’ Leaks Online (AP)

Almost a month ago, I came up with the “brilliant” idea to pull an April Fool’s prank this year on the Wolverine Files website.

A week ago, I put the finishing touches on the article, ran it past a bunch of people, all of whom thought it was believable, funny and wanted to be in on the roll out.

But as April 1st came closer, I started to have doubts.

Would people get angry at the website and at me for trying to fool them? Would people sniff it out too quickly? Would it work too well, overloading my servers? Or, would Joe Quesada have a cow and send the Marvel lawyers after me to shut down the site?

How about all of the above.

Well, except for Marvel lawyers trying to shut me down. I’m shooting for that for next years April Fools.

Here are some of the reactions to the ‘Wolverine Prima Aprilus’ Hoax:

Hey, wait a minute! Prima Aprilus? as in April First…April Fool’s?

OMG IT IS ISN’T IT? LMAO I fell for that one.

I haven’t laughed this much today. Thank you DiG!

Good one, it got me for a second, until I remembered what day it was. ;)

Good AFJ. Not Alex Ross doing the Wonder Twins, but good none the less.

“I hope we can seamlessly achieve this goal with the full support of the fans, much like we did with Spider-Man and ‘Brand New Day.’” That is the best line I have read all week.

And my personal favorites…

This is why I hate the Internet more today than any other day of the year.

Would’ve been more believable if it was better written and the story wasn’t broken by a lone Wolverine fansite.

For the record, the hoax helped to generate, by far, the best day this website has ever had, doubling our previous best day in pageviews, visits and visitors.

I also want to thank Tod, Anne, Gabriel, Ace and Brian who helped to spread the word, posting “believably believable” comments to help keep up the pretext.

And I do want to apologize to anyone who was offended. It really was not my intent.

Finally, let me thank the Wolverine community for keeping our discussions civil. Aside from one commenter whose comments I removed, we have been able to maintain a level of civility I did not think possible in a mostly anonymous Internet forum.

So let me know what you thought of the ‘Wolverine: Prima Aprilus’ hoax. Did you enjoy it? Did it fool you, if even for a second? Did anyone notice my other attempts at humor?

Please add your thoughts in the comments below!