Real
Name: Unrevealed, probably James Howlett WOLVERINE
Real
Name: Unrevealed, probably James Howlett
Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Image reality - see comments) human, probably mutant
Occupation: Former agent of Tyrus
Group Membership: Erebus prisoners (Batman, Beast, Captain America, Captain Marvel/Billy Batson, Colossus, Doctor Doom, Doctor Strange, Flash, Hulk, Joker, Juggernaut, Punisher, Spider-Man, Superman, Thing, Thor, Venom, Wonder Woman)
Affiliations: Cerebus the Aardvark, Spawn (Al
Simmons), Troll (Bartholomew J. Troll);
formerly Tyrus
Enemies: Formerly Berzerkers
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Unrevealed, probably Logan
Base of Operations: Unrevealed
First Appearance: (arm
only) Spawn#10 (May 1993);
(full)
Powers/Abilities: Wolverine possesses metal (presumably
Adamantium) claws, and probably a metal skeleton too. He also likely has
enhanced senses and a healing factor.
Height: 5'3
Weight: 300 lbs.
Eyes: Unrevealed, probably blue
Hair: Black
History:
(Spawn#10) - Because his "creators" had sold him out, Wolverine was
imprisoned in Erebus, the seventh level of Hell, alongside the Hulk,
Captain Marvel (Billy Batson), Batman, Wonder Woman, Punisher, Doctor
Strange, Captain America, Doctor Doom, Beast, Venom, Colossus,
Juggernaut, Flash, Superman, Spider-Man, the Thing, Thor, Doctor Octopus
and the Joker. When they were later visited by Spawn and Cerebus the
Aardvark, the inmates appealed to the pair for release, but despite
Spawn blowing up their prison the inmates remained incarcerated.
(Berzerkers#2)
-
Wolverine fell into the service of Tyrus on the plant Savageon, and
joined the pursuit of his escaped prisoners, the Berzerkers. He was no
longer with the group when they caught up with their prey, perhaps
having bailed on the group because he soon realized he was working for
the wrong side.
(WildC.A.T.s I#25) - Wolverine hung out with some
similarly hirsute friends (see comments), including his hairstyle-twin, Youngblood's Trolle, at the
superhero eatery Clark's Bar and Grill, but was refused a drink at the
bar because he didn't have proof of a secret identity on him, which led
to a heated discussion with his fellows.
(Prophet II#5) - Wolverine was minding his own business, reading a newspaper in a doorway, when Prophet and a Cyber-Assassin smashed through a window right behind him, startling him into popping his claws; the crashing glass also grabbed the interest of the nearby Hulk, Mr. Fantastic and Captain America.
(Pact II#4/4 - BTS) - When his teammate Zephyr Noble took
up smoking, claiming her superpowers should protect her from its
potentially lethal side effects, Firebreather (Duncan Rosenblatt) stated
that this was merely a commonly held misconception among superheroes,
citing Wolverine, Nick Fury and the Thing as examples of this erroneous
thinking.
Comments: Created by Len Wein, Herb Trimpe and
Jack Abel, introduced to Image by Dave Sim and Todd McFarlane.
Obviously this profile takes some conceits, treating several unconnected cameos as the story of a single individual; clearly we are only getting snapshots of his life, and while it might seem bizarre to, for example, find him serving a villain such as Tyrus on an alien world in Berzerkers, we've got to remember that if you were to pick up a random selection of Earth-616 Wolverine appearances spread across multiple titles and several years, you'd have no idea why he's suddenly much more feral-looking with bone claws in one story and then back to more of less his normal appearance but serving Apocalypse as a Horseman in the next. Fwiw, in Berzerkers, Tyrus also has a Yautja (Predator) and a Mandalorian (not Boba Fett, based on armor coloring) in his service.
Another question in terms of whether it
can all be the same Wolverine depends on the state of Image's shared
reality. Most of the appearances above are from the company's early
years, so they should be, but by the time the Pact comic came out
Image's reality had suffered some...disruptions. Shattered Image saw the
reality split so that the Youngblood characters were no longer part of
their history, transforming into the Wildstorm Universe, which gradually
drifted into the DC Megaverse (in the days when DC published Wildstorm,
but kept the universes separate bar the odd crossover), briefly merged
with Marvel's Heroes Reborn universe, then joined the DC multiverse
proper following Infinite Crisis, merged into the DC universe completely
after Flashpoint, and became a separate reality within their multiverse
again post-Convergence - phew! So presumably the reality shift removed
Youngblood's Troll from the scene where he is with Wolverine in
WildC.A.T.s I#25; similarly, the Berzerkers belonged to the Youngblood
section of the Image universe, so they probably phased out too, taking
with them Wolverine's appearance in their miniseries. If Shattered
Image wasn't enough, in Savage Dragon II#103 (September 2002) the
original Image Earth is destroyed, which Officer Dragon now living on a
parallel Earth; this presumably means that any Image story
published prior to this is strictly speaking in a different reality from
those published before it, albeit one that had a virtually identical
history up until that point.
Some sites state that Wolverine has a cameo
in Youngblood I#9, based on an extreme close-up of someone in a mask
attending Badrock's party for the premiere of his new TV show; however,
checking that issue, I believe the character in question is actually
Batman. In case others disagree, I include a summary of that appearance
here in the comments - based on publication date, it would go after the
Spawn appearance and before the Berzerkers' one.
(Youngblood I#9) - Having landed a deal for a TV show based on himself, Badrock threw a party so that every hero he knew could watch the premiere airing at his mansion. Standing outside, the press sought to catch each new arrival for a quick soundbite about what they thought of the still-unseen show; while black-suited Spider-Man predicted it would be amazing, spectacular and sensational, Wolverine (or Batman) angrily told the reporter to get the camera out of his face.
Of course, with Youngblood's departure from Image's reality, the question of whether this is Wolverine or not becomes moot anyway.
There are a few Image
characters who share Wolverine's distinctive hairstyle, and in
WildC.A.T.s I#25 Logan appears to be in the company of a few of them.
I'm far less expert with Image characters than I am with Marvel, so if
anyone out there thinks they can positively identify them, please drop
me a line. The one with goggles is definitely Youngblood's Troll. The
Berzerker Wildmane likewise has Wolverine's hairdo, but I don't think
he's one of the guys in the picture, since he lacks a beard.
Wolverine also appears in ShadowHawk IV#14, but there he is shown as part of a montage of characters witnessed by Shadowhawk as he transitions through Alternity (a.k.a. the Bleed, a.k.a. the multiversal crossroads), so there's no reason to believe this isn't 616 Wolverine.
 As
best as I can identify: main image: ShadowHawk panel 1, top down: Don Simpson's Fiascoverse characters - Phantom Jungle Girl, unknown, Meddler, the Slick, Ms. Megaton Man panel 2, top down: Tower's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents - Raven, NoMan, Dynamo, Lightning panel 3: Valiant's Shadowman panel 4: Wolverine panel 5, top down: DC's Green Lantern, Batman, Flash Superman panel 6, top down: Archie/MLJ's Comet and the Fly (miscolored) panel 7, top down: miscolored Ultraverse I think - Hardcase, Nightman (masked face), Prime (arm) and Mantra panel 8: Spawn panel 9: 1963's Mystery Incorporated - top down: Kid Dynamo, the Planet, Neon Queen |
| Similarly, Wolverine is in
Gen13 II#13C, but there he is one of many cameos from
characters native to other comics/realities, so once again
there is no reason to believe it wouldn't be 616 Wolverine. He also shows up in normalman-Megaton Man Special#1, where he is seen fighting Batman, but that scene is set in Alternity, described as "sorta like a place that everything that is anything that is everything all comes together at the same place and time"; as a result, the issue in question contains a ridiculous number of cameos from across the comic book section of the Omniverse, so again this could easily be 616 Wolverine. |
 Bottom
left, Dave Sim's Cerebus
the Aardvark kicks Don Simpson's Megaton
Man while he is punching Captain
Everything (from normalman).
Above Megaton Man, Valiant's Solar punches a miscolored Titan (from Comics' Greatest World) off the panel's edge while Fawcett/DC's Captain Marvel knocks Ultraverse's Prime to the ground. Behind Captain Everything, Wolverine spars with Batman, while an as-yet unidentified woman points a gun at them and another not-yet identified woman watches. Superman swoops in from above to intervene. Top left, Groo battles Beanworld's Mr. Spook, Supergirl kicks Mary Marvel, Scott McCloud's Zot confronts Jeff Smith's Phoney Bone, and Spawn tries to strangle Spider-Man. In the bottom panel, Megaton Man punches Captain Everything towards comic creator Scott McCloud. |
|
I was reminded of one additional appearance in an Image comic in Youngblood: Bloodsport (well, full disclosure, it was under Liefeld's Arcade Comics stuff, but considering he's back at Image now and it features such prominent Image characters as Seahawk and Battlestone, it likely would be set on that earth). It's.....well, it's a Mark Millar joint, and it's genuinely pretty heinous. Might have to pair down a bunch of language. This is his sole appearance in the comic alongside Cyclops, and they're dressed as Mariko Yoshia and Jean Grey and...well, it explains itself. |
|
CLARIFICATIONS:
Wolverine is an alternate reality counterpart ofbut has no known connections to:
Appearances:
Spawn#10 (May 1993) - Dave Sim (writer), Todd McFarlane
(art), Tom Orzechowski (editor)
Berzerkers#2 (September 1995) -
Beau Smith (writer), Dan Fraga (pencils), Marlo Alquiza, Danny
Miki, Joe Weems (inks), Eric Stephenson (editor)
WildC.A.T.s
I#25 (December 1995) - Alan Moore (writer), Dave Johnson,
Kevin Nowlan and John Nyberg (art), Mike Heisler (editor)
Prophet II#5 (February 1996) - Chuck Dixon, Steven Downs
(writers), Stephen Platt (cover artist), Marlo Alquiza
(cover inker), Eric Stephenson (editor)
Pact#4 (January 2006) - Robert Kirkman (writer), Jason Howard
(art), editor uncredited
Youngblood I#9 (September 1994) - Jim Valentino (writer, pencils),
Dan Fraga (inks), editor uncredited
ShadowHawk IV#14 (October 1994) - Jim Valentino (writer, pencils),
Randy Queen, Batton Lash (inks), Len Senecal (editor)
normalman/Megaton Man Special#1 (August 1994) - Jim Valentino
(writer, art), Don Simpson (writer, art for Megaton Man only),
Larry Marder (writer, art for Mr. Spook only), Randy Chalenor
(editor)
First Posted: 10/13/2019
Last updated: 10/13/2019
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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