When did Wolverine really become popular?? 2 2

[joeypost]

I thought the Havok/Wolverine mini was magnificent.

 

I guess if you have a boner for Trollerine, it was fine.

 

I thought it was brilliant. Wolverine looked like I imagined him to.

 

I thought it was a great read as well. Havok looked like James Dean.

[CAP Freak]

Don't forget X-men 162. While 133 and 141 were cornerstones to his coming ubber popularity, which culminated in the Miniseries, I think 162 was his first solo book. As I recall it was the first time he mentions his "Bezerker" animal part of him. To me this really made him stand out as an anti-hero and not the whiner he was under the Claremont era as well as other whining superhero's that seemed to define marvel during the 70's.

 

Spiderman: Whiner since day one.

Iron Man: I'm a drunk feel sorry for me.

FF: Woe is me, I'm trapped in a rock body.

Silver Surfer: Earth people just can't be nice to each other, boo hoo.

Captain America: America just isn't what it was during the war. (tears up)

Power-man: I'm Black and the man has kept me down long enough

She Hulk, Ms Marvel, Spiderwoman: Who says the weaker sex is subordinate, maybe if I beat up on enough men, I'll feel better about myself. Vote for the ERA!

Wanda: The world just doesn't understand, I'm in love with an android.

X-men: The world just doesn't understand, I'm a mutant and different from everyone else.

Hulk: Why won't puny humans just leave Hulk alone, boo hoo.

Black Bolt:

 

Wolverine: I'm the best there is at what I do, and what I do isn't pretty.

 

Question, when did this quote (or derivative) first appear?

Black Bolt

[TeddieMercede]

Im not an X-Men/Wolverine fan at all but seeing those panels brings back great memories also of reading my older brother's X-Men comics. Thanks for posting JC.

[500Club]

Yes, that was a "whoa!" moment in the life of Wolverine.

 

Here's some that I remember being watershed moments, and I posted these before in another Wolvie thread:

That's a great selection of Wolverine moments. Those panels have been permanently burned into my memory for around thirty years.

 

Yep.... and it was the cumulative effect of all of those moments that made the character what he was/is.

 

I'll reiterate my initial statement at the start of the thread.... John Byrne is directly responsible for the popularity of the character, and that issue of 'Back Issue' details it nicely.

[Captain_Pike]

That brings back memories. I remember back in the late 70's Xmen became ubber popular when Bryne took over after issue 107. As for Hulk 181, I could not find a decent copy in '78 but the I recall X Men 94 was selling for $10 which I thought was a lot for $3 comic in the OPG. As for GSXM#1 the first time I saw that was at a convention in downtown Toronto back in Sept'79 the dealer was asking $20,it was nice copy I should have bought it

[General Zod]

IIRC the mini-series took place story-wise between X-Men 168 and 172 or thereabouts.

 

You are spot on.

[porcupine48]

 

 

Also when he started hanging out with Power Pack.

I loved the Havok/Wolverine mini as well!

[Ogami]

When the crossovers got out of control Wolverine lost me.

 

I thought the Havok/Wolverine mini was magnificent.

 

same for me on both.

 

the crossovers were Marvel's attempt to put Spidey, GR, WOlverine and Smart Hulk in every book they could. And the Punisher too.

 

And I loved the Havock and Wolvie mini. Still read it every five years or so.

[Domo Arigato]

I thought the Havok/Wolverine mini was magnificent.

I guess if you have a boner for Trollerine, it was fine.

 

 

That looks like a bad drawing of hellboy with normal skin.

 

[delekkerste]

 

Sorry, but RMA insists we're all wrong and that Wolverine only really took off in the late '80s. Never mind that every single person in this thread remembers it otherwise; we're all just misremembering and romanticizing our childhood memories. :yeahok: Because we all know that how many times Wolverine appears on a cover or solo in a crossover is the truest measure of how popular the character is. Arguments that Wolverine was a breakout star by UXM #133 (or earlier as some say in this thread) are "unsupportable" in his view. And to point to the Wolverine mini-series as a breakout event? Well, that just makes him as popular as Hercules or Cloak and Dagger, who also had mini-series at that time, while the sales of New Teen Titans and even Dazzler somehow invalidate our claims that Wolverine was a breakout star far earlier than his claims of "the late 1980s".

 

Comics General, please weigh in.

[Artboy99]

I personally recognized that he was "special" in Hulk 181.

That said early in the Uncanny Xmen what made him stand out was the relationship he had with his fellow Xmen; his don't take anything attitude came through early on.

For me the answer is 181 - GSXM 1 to 94-120's all developed his character.

[kav]

I say Wolverine became popular when 2 separate threads discussing his popularity appeared on CG main page.

[VintageComics]

The two most important issues in Wolverine's growth in popularity were X-Men 133 and the Wolverine Mini Series.

 

As many of you probably know, Wolverine was an also-ran in the early X-Men run, and the writers were decided which of the duplicate anti-social wild-child characters to kill off in X-Men 95 - Thunderbird or Wolverine.

 

Ah yes but by the mid 100's he was beginning to gain prominence both in stories and on covers.

 

I think the Miller mini was done because he was popular.

 

 

[dupont2005]

i think he really took off after the claremont/miller mini series (1982?).

 

this made him a cool character with an interseting story outside of the team.

 

poker is right 180 and 182 were also fairly highly priced at the time.

I suspect it was this. A bit before my time so I can't say I remember, but looking at pre-Miller Wolverine, he's just kind of a goofy Bronze Age character. No "cooler" than Nightcrawler or Colossus.

[VintageComics]

i think he really took off after the claremont/miller mini series (1982?).

 

this made him a cool character with an interseting story outside of the team.

 

poker is right 180 and 182 were also fairly highly priced at the time.

I suspect it was this. A bit before my time so I can't say I remember, but looking at pre-Miller Wolverine, he's just kind of a goofy Bronze Age character. No "cooler" than Nightcrawler or Colossus.

 

I think Wolverine's exposure grew as the X-men's exposure grew.

 

By the late 1970's they were all cool and then each character began to take a life on their own.

 

Byrne probably had the most to do with that. There wasn't much hotter than X-men during that era from what I can remember. Am I remembering it wrong?

[Kramerica]

I think that #120/121 began to feature his character a bit more and that he was given a little more attention during the Proteus Saga, especially his ongoing difference of opinion with Cyclops. By #133 I think the Marvel Brass knew what they had on their hands as did Byrne and Claremont hence the first "Solo Wolverine" tale in that issue. Every issue after that seemed to develop his character a bit more and it seemed that at least once a year we got a "Spotlight on Wolverine" issue.

[Randall Dowling]

i think he really took off after the claremont/miller mini series (1982?).

 

this made him a cool character with an interseting story outside of the team.

 

poker is right 180 and 182 were also fairly highly priced at the time.

I suspect it was this. A bit before my time so I can't say I remember, but looking at pre-Miller Wolverine, he's just kind of a goofy Bronze Age character. No "cooler" than Nightcrawler or Colossus.

 

I think Wolverine's exposure grew as the X-men's exposure grew.

 

By the late 1970's they were all cool and then each character began to take a life on their own.

 

Byrne probably had the most to do with that. There wasn't much hotter than X-men during that era from what I can remember. Am I remembering it wrong?

No, you are correct. In fact, if you remember around that time, any crossover with the X-men took off as well (Marvel Team-ups, Captain Americas, etc.). Prior to the epic Byrne run, X-men appearances were no big deal.

 

There were many of us that knew about the Adams run on X-men in the late 60s and thought it was pretty awesome but the rest of it was really uninteresting. It wasn't until the New X-men matured with Byrne/Claremont that all of the interest in the original X-men kicked in and the team became the coolest thing around.

 

Without question, Wolverine was a key individual component in that dynamic. Much more so than Nightcrawler, Colossus, Banshee or Storm. Although, Phoenix was the character I was most interested in, especially after reading 131. Still one of my all time favorite memories of reading a comic for the first time as a kid.

 

 

[VintageComics]

I remember being excited whenever there was an X-men crossover.

 

Marvel Team Up Annual #1 was becoming a mini key in the making for those of us that were a little too young to read it on the newsstand, as was MTU #53, ASM #161, 162 were hot ( and still is fairly popular) and then there were others (can't remember them all right now).

 

 

 

 

[DEATHLOK9147]

When they put him in the X-Men animated series, He was more of a badass then most of the xmen in the show .So that is what made him popular to me anyway..

Edited April 12, 2014 by DEATHLOK9147

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

Sorry, but RMA insists we're all wrong and that Wolverine only really took off in the late '80s.

 

Please stop bringing up my name, and misrepresenting what I said. You're perfectly capable of making your case without denigrating me.

 

Thanks.