Who's this?
- Just a guy telling you to get back in your nice truck,
go play Okie dickhead somewhere else.
- 'Logan' finally came out, and
since it's "Hugh Jackman's" final time playing the "Wolverine",
this is the perfect time to do an all-"Wolverine" episode of the show.
It's the least we can do.
Well, I guess the least we could do would be literally nothing.
Anyway, here are seven things you didn't know about the "Boy From Oz",
I mean "Wolverine", probably.
(Sound) - What do they call you, "Wheels"?
(Laugh) This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
- "The Wolverine" has gone through a lot of changes and
versions since he was first introduced.
For one, he grew about a foot taller once they cast "Hugh Jackman".
You might be surprised to hear that "Clint Eastwood's" 'Dirty Harry' was a major
inspiration for some of the more recent stylings of "Wolverine".
- One question, do I feel lucky?
Well, do you, punk?
- Most notably in 2013's 'The Wolverine',
others have also cited "Jack Nicholson" as a model.
But perhaps the deepest inspiration cut is in the comic.
Marvel artist "John Byrn" was inspired by the "Tim Dr. Hook McCracken" character in
the 1977 hockey comedy 'Slap Shot', played by "Paul D'Amato.".
- They don't call me "Dr Hook" for nothing.
- "Dr Hook" is barely even in the movie, but, no small parts as they say.
More importantly, "Wolverine's" resemblance to "Dr Hook" then and
now is undeniable.
(Music)
Obscure characters from "Paul Newman" sports comedies aside,
we wouldn't have any versions of "Wolverine" without the original.
What most people don't know is,
there's a strong likelihood that "The Wolverine" actually began as fan art.
In 1973 a fan magazine called 'Friends of Old Marvel', aka 'FOOM',
which sounded only slightly less stupid than 'Friends of Old Marvel',
had a contest for readers to create new characters.
One guy who submitted was named "Andy Olsen".
His "The Wolverine" character submission didn't win, but for starters,
his freaking character was called "The Wolverine".
Pretty strong evidence right out of the gate.
He also illustrated his "Wolverine" receiving some kind of injection,
having healing capabilities, what appears to be a metal skeleton.
And finally,
a costume that's very evocative of the old school "Wolverine" getup.
Yeah, the claws and the beard may be missing, but still.
It's hard to believe that "Roy Thomas", Marvel's then Editor in Chief,
never saw any of this before he tasked "Len Wein" with fleshing out the character
to debut in the 'Incredible Hulk' number 180 just six months later.
And we all know what became of "The Wolverine" after that.
- What's it to you, bub?
- Meanwhile, all "Andy Olsen" ever got was a reprint of his sketches in
a fan magazine.
Ugh, does anyone else feel dirty after that story?
Let's get the hell out of this thing and move on.
(Sound) Considering the billions of dollars that "Wolverine" has helped to
generate for Marvel, though definitely not for "Andy Olsen", as well as
the character's overall popularity, it might be surprising to hear that
Marvel almost got rid of the character shortly after he joined the X-Men in 1975.
The Marvel executives felt that he just wasn't as exciting as the more
established heroes.
So they were going to give "The Wolverine" the heave ho.
After all, we never even got to hear "Wolverine's" origin story until
the 'Origin' miniseries in 2001, 27 years after he was first introduced.
Needless to say, fans didn't have a whole lot to go on in the beginning in terms
of emotional investment.
What saved him?
The intervention of "John Byrne".
He took it upon himself to revitalize the character.
And his creativity played a huge role in "The Wolverine" becoming the massively
popular superhero that he is today.
See, "Byrn's'" family immigrated to Canada from the UK when he was only eight.
Canadian pride fueled his passion for
keeping a fellow Canadian in the Marvel universe.
Come to think of it, it probably also fueled his love of hockey movies.
Canadians love hockey.
(Music)
It's been pretty well covered that "Hugh Jackman's" 6'2" frame wasn't super
consistent with "The Wolverine's" 5'3" height in the comics.
But you may have not have known that they did at least try to make "Hugh Jackman"
appear shorter than he is.
Part of that was just through creative camera angles,
but another trick they used was having "James Marsden" wear elevator shoes.
At 5'10", "Marsden" is already shorter than "Hugh Jackman".
But since "Cyclops" is supposed to be way taller than "Wolverine", they needed
platform boots to create the illusion of "Hugh Jackman" being the shorter guy.
- You wanna get out of my way?
- Nice effort, but it definitely didn't stop fan boys from bitching anyway.
(Music)
- Have some 'Deadpool' boy.
(Music)
- Time to make the chimmi- (Bleep) chongas.
- 'Deadpool' opened the door for
R-rated superhero movies being viable box office draws, and 'Logan' followed suit.
But that doesn't mean it was easy to get the go-ahead from the studio to
make 'Logan' an R-rated movie.
In fact, "Hugh Jackman" took a pay cut just to make it happen.
Once a movie is rated R the profit ceiling gets lower,
mostly thanks to uptight parents.
"Jackman" took the hit so the budget would allow them to include all the violence and
f-bombs they wanted in 'Logan', and they definitely did.
- No, No, No.
- Ahh! - And hey,
it's his last time playing the role.
So good for him for putting his balls on the table in 'Logan' to get that R rating.
I mean, not literally.
We never see "Wolverine's" balls in 'Logan', spoiler alert.
Actually, I guess that doesn't really work if you say if after the spoiler.
Moving on.
(Music)
Considering that Marvel makes all of the money in all of the land now, it's weird
to think about them being a struggling company back in the 90s, and DC was too.
Times were so hard that the two brands tried to drum up sales with crossover
titles, like the DC versus Marvel Comic showdown in 1996.
An even lesser known offshoot of these crossovers was "The Dark Claw",
which was part of the Amalgam Comics universe.
- A publishing offshoot that featured amalgamations that were have
DC characters and half Marvel characters.
"The Dark Claw", whose real name was "Logan Wayne",
was a combination of "Wolverine" and "Batman".
His back story combined elements of both characters and so did his skill set.
He had adamantium claws, but he also had "Batman's" cool gadgets, vehicles,
and wits.
The odds of us ever seeing "The Dark Claw" get a big screen debut is slim.
Especially considering Marvel has a hard enough time trying to get
crossover rights to their own characters from Fox and Sony.
So it would be exponentially harder for
them to work something out with their direct competitor DC.
Still, a fanboy can dream.
(Music)
- This is just a misunderstanding.
- Put the knives down.
(Music)
- I can't.
- We've talked a bit about "Wolverine's" changes through the years, but
we didn't cover one pretty significant change, his claws.
Over the course of the films, his claws have evolved.
The earlier films like 'X-Men' and all the way through 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine',
the claws were pretty straight and had a slightly curved end with a pointed tip.
But starting with 'The Wolverine',
his claws got a redesign to look sharper and more reflective.
They also changed the placement so
that the claws came out slightly lower, beneath the tops of his knuckles.
Rather than sitting higher up near the top of his hand like they are here in 'X-Men'.
The comics have had their share of claw updates too.
In the beginning his claws weren't even meant to be part of his body,
they were just a part of his gloves.
It wasn't until 'X-Men' 98 that Marvel officially revealed that his
claws were stored in his forearms.
Later on in the mid-90's we learned in the comics of another twist.
That his claws were made of bone and
were only coated with adamantium in the Weapon X Project.
"Wolverine" took us to the bone zone on screen,
in 'X Men Origins: Wolverine.', in 'The Wolverine', and in 'Days of Future Past'.
- (Sound) Imagine if they were metal.
- And by took us to the bone zone,
of course, I mean we got to see his bone claws in action in those particular films.
That's it for this one, but let us know if you saw "Logan" this weekend and
what you thought of it.
If you'd like us to do a part two with more "Wolverine" things,
hit the thumbs up.
And if you knew all the things from today's episode and
just wanna bitch about it in the comments.
- Go (Bleep) yourself.
- Thanks for watching, and subscribe to Cinefix for
more true-ish things about movies, and sometimes "The Wolverine's" bone zone,
right here on 'Things You Didn't Know'.
(Music)