Wolverine Was Almost a Real Animal, Not a Mutant — But Marvel Quickly Scrapped the Idea
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Wolverine is one of Marvel’s most popular characters, especially among mutants. His origin and powers are well known, with his animal-like traits fitting his name, look, and skills perfectly.
Today, everyone knows Wolverine as a mutant, but that wasn’t always the plan. When he first appeared in ‘Incredible Hulk’ #181 (1974), created by Len Wein, Roy Thomas, and John Romita Sr., he wasn’t originally intended to be a mutant at all.
In Wolverine’s debut, the Canadian government called him “Weapon X,” which was just a code name for him back then.
When Len Wein was asked to create a new international team of X-Men, he decided to include Wolverine. But after launching the team in ‘Giant-Size X-Men’ #1, Wein stepped back due to his new role as Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief and handed the series over to Chris Claremont, who kept developing Wolverine’s character.
In ‘X-Men’ #98, Claremont, Cockrum, and artist Sam Grainger revealed that Wolverine’s claws were actually part of his body, not just his costume as first intended, showing a key part of his mutant traits. Interestingly, this issue also hinted that Wolverine might *not* be a mutant, which surprised fans.
Dave Cockrum originally planned for Wolverine to be a mutated wolverine, not a human. In an interview with Peter Sanderson for the ‘X-Men Companio’, Cockrum shared that he and Len Wein discussed this concept, making Wolverine similar to one of the High Evolutionary’s New Men.
In a 1996 ‘Wizard Magazine’ interview, Cockrum mentioned that Stan Lee dismissed this idea, calling it “disgusting.” They had even planned for someone in the storyline to question if Wolverine was really human, hinting he was a mutated animal. However, this idea was never fully pursued.
Cockrum often said “we” when talking about the idea, but Len Wein later clarified that it was actually developed with Chris Claremont, not him. Wein disliked being connected to it and criticized the concept later in life, distancing himself from it.
The idea of Wolverine as a mutated wolverine was even considered when John Byrne joined the comic. Byrne shared that the original backstory was for Wolverine to be a mutant wolverine turned human by the High Evolutionary, but they dropped it, finding it too similar to a story already used in ‘Spider-Woman’.
‘Marvel Spotlight’ #32 was released about a year after ‘X-Men’ #98, so Cockrum and Claremont’s idea for Wolverine was still new when they considered it. It seems they were simply asked to drop the original concept. It actually took some time in the comics to confirm that Wolverine was a mutant. This was finally made clear in ‘X-Men’ #101, where he’s directly called a mutant.
Interestingly, this bit of Wolverine’s history almost came back in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.’ Director Shawn Levy shared that one of the Wolverine variants Deadpool meets in the Multiverse would actually be an animal Wolverine.
Number six and seven was an actual Wolverine. We really, really wanted an actual Wolverine, the animal, and then he would maul Deadpool. But, we came up with that idea too late to do a convincing digital wolverine, so that one is in my back pocket should I need one for a sequel.
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