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Wolverine first appeared as a third wheel in a fight between two monsters, joined a team that had never been successful before, and somehow became the most popular new addition to the Marvel Universe. Logan was an antihero at a time when they were new, which definitely helped him gain readers’ attention, but the one thing that kept fans coming back was the character’s mysteries. He was the most mysterious man, with a history dating back to the days of the frontier in Canada that we knew little about. Each new revelation was treated as a heavenly revelation, with stories like “Weapon X” leaving readers with as many questions as answers. It was the most exciting part of being a Wolverine reader back in the day; You never knew when a story would become part of the canon, for lack of a better term.
Origin would finally see the biggest secrets revealed, and readers would discover that the man we knew as Logan was actually James Howlett, a Canadian son of privilege who discovered the terrible truth about his ancestry the night his mutant powers manifested. Origin was a huge success, but you could tell there was a part of Marvel that regretted revealing so much about their first mystery man. A few later, in house of mWolvie would regain the rest of his memories and eventually learn of the existence of Romulus, a mutant who had been playing a very important role in his life, in the story “Evolution.” This story also brought up one of Wolverine’s worst ideas ever. However, there’s something even funnier about the whole thing: a similar origin had appeared a few years before “Evolution.”
Paradise He gave a glutton a bestial origin that was repeated a few years later
So in “Evolution,” by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Simone Bianchi, Romulus took Wolverine, Sabretooth, Sasquatch, Feral, Thornn, and Wolfsbane on a journey across the world that took them to an archaeological site with some strange bones. The point of the plan was that they were all related to a branch of humanity called Lupine, which had evolved with more canine characteristics. It was a wild reveal, explaining why so many heroes and villains in the Marvel Universe had powers (and hair) similar to Wolverine’s. It caused quite a stir in online spaces at the time. However, when the story was published in 2007, it was the second time in four years that fans received a story that did the same type of thing.
kingdom come made Alex Ross an even bigger superstar than ever in the ’90s and Magician The magazine asked him to take the kingdom come address it and apply it to the Marvel Universe, creating a future where today’s heroes had retired and a new generation had emerged. was called Earthpublished like a magazine you received when you bought Magician #77. Fans loved it and Marvel eventually decided it would be a good idea to make it happen. Ross teamed up with writer Jim Krueger and artist John Paul Leon and Earth became a reality in 1999 and eventually became a trilogy with Universe X and Paradise continuing the story.
The basic gist is that the Celestials implanted an egg on Earth and modified the human race in order to protect it, which is why humans gained superpowers when exposed to certain traumas; The Celestial seed germinated within them. However, this was just the beginning, as Mar-Vell used the battle against the Celestials to return to life and begin a new mission, one that would see him gather powerful weapons and target Lady Death, all in an effort to stop the machinations of Mephisto, who was the true big bad of the Marvel Universe.
Ross has gone on record to say that he never liked Wolverine as much as anyone else and the version of Logan he created in Earth It was about a bitter, broken old man in a loveless marriage to someone he thinks is Jean Grey, but who is actually Madelyne Pryor. Paradise He would see the “Days of Future Past” that Logan brought to Earth-616 and eventually meet a group that had appeared in Universe X – the Moon Boys, primitive humans who were offspring of Moon Boy, the caveman who had ridden Devil Dinosaur and had hair similar to Wolverine’s. Eventually, X-51 was able to discover that they were the only humans to escape being altered by the Celestials and that Wolverine was one of their descendants.
So, in EarthLogan wasn’t even actually a mutant; his superhuman abilities were what humans were always supposed to have if the Celestials never got involved. Ross has often spoken about disliking the more mature comics that came out in the ’80s and ’90s, feeling that Wolverine was endemic to many things he didn’t like about the character. However, in the epilogue of Paradise vol. 1 (you may have reread it lately), Krueger reveals that researching the character gave Alex a greater respect for Logan.
Paradise came out in 2002-2003, so the internet was becoming a bigger part of the comics fandom. However, not many fans realized the “Wolverine as Moon Boy” origin that the book posits. Part of this is popularity; Earth It had been a great success, but Universe X Honestly, it was much more complicated and the fans didn’t like it as much. Paradise debuted with a groan of interest; most fans probably didn’t even read the book and those who did apparently saw no need to run to the internet and complain about an alternate universe story. That was the other factor; the story was an alternate future, so it’s technically not canon.
The same cannot be said of “Evolution”. It started in the 50th edition of Glutton (Vol. 3), which was one of the most important solo books of the time and had a new top-notch creative team. It was a great story for Wolverine fans and when we got to the end, many of us were wondering what exactly we had read. Fans took to the internet and trashed the story, to the point that Marvel made sure to establish that Lupine’s idea was actually a trick by Romulus. It’s a fun example of a similar story that has two very different reactions, but it’s about to get even better.
Wolverine’s Strangest Origin Is Technically MCU Canon
Everything just got a lot wilder with the addition of the MCU to everything. If you’re reading this and have any knowledge of the MCU, you’ll know that the Celestial plan (placing a celestial egg in the middle of a planet and then empowering its inhabitants to protect the planet) is canon for the MCU. While the MCU didn’t go as far as to reveal that all of humanity was the result of celestial experimentation, we can assume that’s canon as well. This is all a long way of saying that the MCU’s Logans aren’t actually mutants, but rather ancient humans who escaped celestial experimentation and have more in common with Moon Girl than the X-Men.
This is the fun part about being a fan who knows the comics and the movies: you notice things like this. I don’t think Marvel Studios wanted Wolverine in the MCU to be an offshoot of Moon Boy and one of the only “real” humans in the MCU, but they did. I figured it out and now, if you’ve read this, you know it too. Share this knowledge with the world.