Wolverine: Weapon X #1
(preview | threads)
“The Adamantium Men, Part 1”
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Ron Garney

The 22-page first issue of the new Wolverine series that Marvel has been hyping for months hit the stands this week.

The first eight pages are spent in fairly standard fashion setting up the plot of this five-part opening storyline.

The next seven pages show, again in fairly standard fashion, how much of a badass Wolverine is and ostensibly introduces a reporter to the cast.

And the final seven pages are devoted to Wolverine researching the bad guys with the help of a de-powered Maverick.

All in all, a fairly tame issue that sets the groundwork for Jason Aaron’s run.

Perhaps unfairly, I was expecting more, though Ron Garney’s art certainly does not disappoint.

All in all, a decent first issue.

What do you think? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments below OR in the Wolverine Files Forum using the ‘thread’ links above…

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

Barry Windsor-Smith returned to X-Men cover duty in December 1986 with Uncanny X-Men #212 and wrapped up an amazing year of Wolverine covers.

As with his previous cover, one can only look on in astonishment as it slowly comes to life…

As for the issue itself, Rick Leonardi filled in as guest artist with Dan Green and provided some eye-popping interior art to go with some sharp Chris Claremont dialogue…

Followed by…

Rick Leonardi also produced a Wolverine poster around this time that proudly graced my wall for many years before finally disintegrating.

This is the best copy I’ve been able to track down, if anyone has a cleaner version, please let me know…

Previous Classic Wolverine Cover: Uncanny X-Men #210 | Next: Uncanny X-Men #213

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

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…

.

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?

.
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!

[MUST CREDIT WOLVERINEFILES.COM]

In breaking news that is shocking the comic book world, WolverineFiles.com has learned that Marvel Comics is at risk to lose rights to one of its most popular characters, Wolverine.

At issue is a contract between Marvel Comics, the current publisher of Wolverine, and Twentieth Century Fox, a subsidiary of News Corporation and producer of the big budget ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ movie.

According to legal experts, News Corporation lawyers added a clause giving Twentieth Century Fox complete rights to Wolverine upon release of the movie, as well as complete rights to all other Marvel Comics’ characters appearing in the movie.

With U.S. release slated for May 1, 2009, it seems that News Corporation will take over ownership of Wolverine, Sabretooth, Deadpool and several other Marvel characters in a little over a month. This is not unprecedented as News Corporation retained rights to the “Watchmen” movie through a similar legal loophole, eventually extracting distribution rights from Paramount Studios.

Marvel Comics is reportedly working on contingency plans in the event that their planned injunction against News Corporation fails. Potential plans include a new publishing schedule to wrap up existing story lines from the main title, ‘Wolverine’, and sister title, ‘Wolverine: Origins’.

As this story began to leak, several Marvel writers weighed in with their thoughts.

Legendary X-Men scribe Chris Claremont said, “It really is unfortunate to lose a character of this complexity. Even more unfortunate is that I will never be able to tell the true origin of the character that I have been planning for the past 35 years.”

Prolific writer Brian Michael David Bendis (New Avengers, Dark Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Origins, Powers, Daredevil) was more philosophical, “Is this is a sad day for Marvel? It is. It really is.”

WolverineFiles.com has learned that Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada will soon be releasing a statement which, in part, will read, “As much as it is an anathema to me personally, we may need to remove Wolverine from Marvel continuity entirely. 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.'”

If this eventuality does comes to pass, the final Wolverine story, the final appearance of the character in the Marvel universe, will reportedly be entitled ‘Wolverine: Prima Aprilus’.

More details to come as they become available…

[Contact: dig@typingmonkeys.com]

[MUST CREDIT WOLVERINEFILES.COM]

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

Back in November of 1986, Marvel Comics celebrated the 25th anniversary of the “Marvel Age” of comics by featuring a character portrait on every single Marvel title that month.

Uncanny X-Men #211 was no different, placing Wolverine in the exalted position.

The cover by John Romita, Jr. and Bob Wiacek wonderfully captures Wolverine at his battle-tested best, mask torn asunder.

If you want a real treat, alternate placing your hand over each side of the cover. You will be amazed to discover two entirely different images.

It is really difficult at times to determine if Wolverine is central enough to a cover to truly call it a classic Wolverine cover.

And because of the overabundance of genuinely terrific Wolverine covers from 1986, I made the difficult decision to downgrade Uncanny X-Men #210, also by John Romita, Jr. and Bob Wiacek.

But because the cover rocks so much, I decided to present it here as an added bonus…

Make our day, indeed.

Previous Classic Wolverine Cover: Uncanny X-Men #207 | Next: Uncanny X-Men #212

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

We start this week’s edition of Wolverine News off with My Cup o’ Joe from MySpace and the details on the upcoming black and white ‘Rampaging Wolverine’ magazine (scroll down for details)…

In Other Wolverine Comic Book News…
–Marvel: Dark Avengers #4 Preview (details)
–Marvel: Wolverine Art Appreciation Month UPDATED (details | thread)
–Marvel: X-Student Eric Mattias’ Blog (Day 1 | Day 2)

In More Wolverine News…
–SuperHeroHype: Raven’s Vondrak on the Wolverine Video Game (details | thread)
–Marvel: Exclusive ‘Wolverine and the X-Men’ DVD Clip (details)

Probable (and Possible) Wolverine Appearances in stores on 4/2/09…
–Cable #13 (preview): Messiah War, Part 2 (and Deadpool!)…
–Astonishing Tales #3 (preview: More over-the-top action…
–Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular #1 (details: Marvel comedy book with Wolverine…
–Avengers/Invaders #9 (preview): No idea if Wolverine appears
–Wolverine Magazine #1: Reprints, puzzles and more…
–Wolverine Appreciation Month Covers: Agents of Atlas #3 | Amazing Spider-Man #590
Anita Blake: The Laughing Corpse – Necromancer #1 | Secret Warriors #3

I must admit that I’ve been a little nervous about the release of ‘Wolverine Saga’, Marvel’s latest attempt at a Wolverine chronology in comic book format. So now that it’s out, let’s how good it really is…

Wolverine Saga (details | thread)
Writer: Ronald Byrd
Chronology Writer: John Rhett Thomas

For a free giveaway, this is a very impressive Wolverine chronology.

Even at regular price, this would be an impressive chronology.

Constructed by Ronald Byrd, the creator of the old ‘Unofficial Wolverine Chronology’ abandoned back in January 2003, this is, quite frankly, the best Wolverine chronology that Marvel has ever published.

It reads well and will be helpful for old and new readers alike.

That said, there are a few things contained with ‘Wolverine Saga’ that I would like to address…

Dates (thread): We’ve been having some genuinely fascinating debates around here and on the Wolverine Files Forum (see this thread) concerning Marvel Time and how dates  are handled in the Marvel Universe. So it is interesting to see this chronology very blunt in assigning dates through the 1970s and placing the debut of the Fantastic Four at some unspecified time after that…

• Logan’s time training young Natasha Romanova has been placed in 1937, suggesting Black Widow is 70 some years old.
• Logan’s spell with Neil Langram and a secret Canadian Intelligence group is placed during the 1970s as is his run-in with Peter Parker’s parents and his intelligence work with Carol Danvers.
• The events of team X are placed between 1961 and 1968.

Chronological Discrepancies (thread): If this is indeed the official Marvel position on Wolverine’s chronology, then, obviously there are officially no errors. But let me point out a few places where I have a difference of opinion with their conclusions…

• With Logan meeting Sabretooth for the first time in Japan prior to World War One, it is posited that Logan first began his work with Chang and Landau, Luckman and Lake at this point in history. This is something that I had not previously considered, but seems plausible, even though Logan himself describes this period of time as “bumming ’round.”
• The romance between Janet and Logan and her resulting death at the hands of Cyber is placed AFTER World War One. Not sure why, since it fits better prior WWI, but it certainly is something to consider.
• Logan’s initial meeting with Ogun in Shanghai is placed prior to 1921, an odd choice since the Japanese involvement in Shanghai didn’t really start until the Shanghai War of 1932, culminating in the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in 1937.
• I completely forgot about Logan saving Blade’s life in ‘Blade’ #5, and there is a deft reference to Raven Darkholme and Irene Adler, that makes my time traveling adventure slightly more plausible.
• The treatment of Logan’s adventures in World War II is interesting as Logan globe trots from adventure to adventure willy-nilly instead of  attempting a more coherent flow as I did. Left untouched is how Captain America could work with Logan again after his betrayal to Baron Strucker.
• Interestingly, it is suggested that the experiments of Tule Lake were at the behest of Romulus, even though Logan hid his son there specifically because Romulus didn’t know anything about it.
• Jasmine Falls is handled most strangely, placing Logan there twice, once from 1945-1946 with Itsu (even though Logan claims to have spent four to five years there) and a second time in 1948 (accounting for ‘Logan: Path of the Warlord’), having forgotten his initial stay.  Again, I attempted to create a smoother flow, reversing and combining the events as posited here. Not sure why they chose the more complicated route, but there you go.
• It is funny to see Experiment X’s Professor referred to as, “Truett Hudson a.k.a. ‘Professor Thornton’.
• While I understand why they place the Ben Grimm and Logan miniseries after ‘Weapon X’, it really should be placed before.
• There is some very bizarre chronology of Logan’s early days as Wolverine. His battle with the Hulk was his first assignment as Weapon X, but here, they move many of his later adventures to before this story. Not sure why as they place plenty of the adventures afterwards. And personally, I think Logan rescuing Hudson’s armor should take place before he met Hudson, since in the story he takes on the job only reluctantly.
• A bit of a surprise is the suggestion that Logan sought out Ogun AFTER he became Wolverine. I have no idea why this is even mentioned as I have seen nothing at all to even hint at this possibility.
• Perhaps my biggest single issue as a chronologist is this assertion that Romulus was behind (or possibly behind) everything. It is an unnecessary device that needlessly clutters an already complicated history.

Unknown Wolverine Appearances (thread): One of the biggest treats for me was that there were mentions of several appearances that I had been blissfully unaware of. Please, please help me discover what issues they took place in….

• Not sure when Logan smuggled bootleg alcohol and met Jim Beam. Anyone remember?
• Where specifically is it mentioned that Logan worked with Doop during the Cold War?
• When did Logan cross paths with Arnim Zola (before joining the X-Men)?
• And where is the reference to Logan serving with Xavier in Asia (probably Korea)?

Phew! As always, leave comments below or join in on the discussions in the Wolverine Files Forum…