I’ve been reading through my old comic book collection, and I just finished off my run of The Uncanny X-Men (#234 - #280). I now have a couple questions:
Just how old is Wolverine supposed to be? Apparently, he and Captain America met in Madripoor in 1941 (recapped in issue #268). We all know the reason for Cap’s longevity. What’s up with Wolverine, then? It seems that most superheroes who have been around since WWII or before are maintained as being about the same age they were when first introduced, and as the decades pass, fewer and fewer references are made to their WWII experiences. Keeps 'em current, ya know.
But right there in the middle of the Uncanny X-Men run, around 1990, we’re told (perhaps for the first time?) that Logan was an adult in 1941, placing his date of birth somewhere in the 1920’s. I always thought he looked noticeably older than the rest of the X-Men, but I didn’t think he was that much older! I assume that his mutant healing factor is what keeps him from actually looking his age?
Does Wolverine have a thing for the young girls? I mean, I noticed Kitty Pryde (in Excalibur - her X-Men run preceded my collecting days) frequently reminiscing about the time she spent with Wolverine. Her memories seemed to be far more focused on Wolvie than on any other X-Man. I think she was a fairly young teenager - 15 or so. And then of course, there’s Jubilee, who was about 13 when she and Wolverine met. And lest I forget, wasn’t Jean Grey still kinda young when Wolverine first appeared on the scene?
So was it Logan’s idea to spend so much time, uh, “mentoring” these girls? Or were these relationships simply examples of the adolescent girls’ fantasy attraction to the “bad boy” image? (Heck, I couldn’t help noticing, a while back, the number of ladies on this board who seemed to be quite breathless when they posted comments about Wolverine in the X-Men movies…)
Well, I can’t say how old Wolvie is. I do know that it’s his healing factor that keeps him so youthful though.
As for the young girls, he’s more of a father figure to Jubilee and Kitty. Not exactly sure why, but he is one of the more stable X-Peoples. Not prone to dying. Rarely needs rescuing. He’s also been viewed as the “heart and soul” of the team. Read that one a couple of times.
And the young girl thing is still far less worrisome than that Batguy and his young boys in tights thing. But that’s a different thread.
In the Marvel Universe, what other heroes have been around since WWII? Off the top of my head the only other ones I can think of are Cap (who was in suspended animation for a few decades), the first Human Torch (who is an android and was deactivated for several decades), Sub-Mariner (who is half-Atlantean and a mutant so who knows what that does to his longevity) and The Blonde Phantom (who appeared several years ago in the “break the 4th wall” She-Hulk book, had aged and explained that comic book characters only stop aging when they’re recurring in a title, otherwise they age normally). A number of other heroes from the era (I’m thinking specifically of The Invaders, who were retroactively inserted into WWII Marvel continuity in the 70s) have been shown having aged normally and some have died of old age. Also from that era was The Whizzer, who aged, had a number of heart attacks and finally died.
As far as Logan’s relationship with Kitty Pryde, I don’t think there’s anything sexual or romantic about it. She was crushed big time on Colossus when she first joined the team. her relationship with Logan was forged and solidified in the “Kitty Pryde and Wolverine” mini-series in which IIRC he served as her sensei. The one romantic relationship I remember from my X-reading days was with Mariko, an adult Japanese woman. There’ve been some apparent sexual dalliances with other women (I’m thinking specifcally of the lunatic Japanese assassin who got her hooks into Storm for a while too) and, in the decade or so since I gave up on the X-books and comics in general, there’ve undoubtedly been others.
It’s been a long time since I hung out in racmx, but hasn’t Wolvie gone running off into the woods to commune with his inner child or to Destination X Far Far Away from time to time for no good reason? That’d make me wonder about his stability…
No. Young girls have a thing for him. He’s the ultimate strong, mature, capable ‘daddy’ figure. I’d imagine a lot of the young boys have a thing for him too, but comics aren’t quite that liberal.
Jubilee was his main young girl side-kick, and that was because he had just gone through some tough stuff, and she essentially nursed him back to health. Now show me a young teenage girl who gets to secretly, and all by herself, nurse some strong super hero guy back to health and doesn’t form a life-long attachment to him?
Good points That whole storyline is in the run of issues I own. I’m happy to have Jubilee’s first appearance in my collection - Near Mint, $30! And I also have Gambit’s first appearance - Mint! $65! But anyway…
On, and Otto, I didn’t mean to imply that I thought there was any hanky-panky going on. I just thought it was odd that Logan always seemed to get partnered up with the youngest girls on the team.
I seem to remember some throw away lines in a few seventies x men stories that had “science” types and doctors admiting that there really wasn’t any way to tell how old Wolverine was, and that his memories were not immune to his healing ability, so even Wolvie himself couldn’t say for sure, beyond what he did remember.
According to the Origin: TPB which is now considered the Canon for Wolverine, he is the best part of 130 years by the time of the current series of comics.
His attraction to younger females is partially because the only female who could give him a run for his money in regards to age is Mystique, and ( Jean look-a-likes in particular) because of the girl who looked after him whilst he was first getting his powers.
The guy who wrote the Origin TPB (which is highly recommended) is also doing Wolverine: The End which is going to give the canon finale for Wolverines final days (it appears to be set at least 50-100 years from now)
-and hes Canadian too!
(when I saw X-men the movie there were many cheers in the audience when it said, “Northern Alberta” at the bottom of the screen!)
Solidified, yes, but I think it was probably forged earlier. I haven’t read those issues for a while, but she’d been around for about 50-60 issues prior to the miniseries. I also remember Wolverine getting seriously pissed at Colossus when he broke up with her following the Secret Wars, which was before the miniseries. I’ll have to reread those issues sometime and find out when it developed.
Well, there’s Nick Fury, obviously – I’m sure there’s been some shenanigans with high-tech anti-wrinkle cream or some such with him.
Am I right in remembering that Ben Grimm and Reed Richards were in the Air Force together during WWII? That seems to have been quietly swept under the carpet.
Around 1980, they started hedging on that claim. Nowadays, the claim is that they served in the first Gulf War and are in their late 30s.
As for heroes who were in WWII and are still active, check out New Invaders and Citizen V and the V Battallion. Spitfire, Mighty Destroyer, Thin Man and Silver Scorpion are apparently still around, in varying degrees of fitness.
That whole storyline is in the run of issues I own. I’m happy to have Jubilee’s first appearance in my collection - Near Mint, $30! And I also have Gambit’s first appearance - Mint! $65! But anyway…