Audiences can’t get enough of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, so let’s examine the dimensions of his character that make him so compelling
Hugh Jackman returning/continuing to play Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine twenty-four years after he first played the character in X-Men (2000) got me thinking. We’ve seen a lot of mutants appear in the dozen or so X-Men films over the years. Like, a lot. Yet only one has endured in the zeitgeist. Only one has consistently drawn audiences, received a trilogy of spin-offs, and starred in what many consider to be the greatest superhero movie of all time.
Why does Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine, posses such staying power? How is he so different to the rest of the X-Men, none of whom have individually received close to the same level of adoration from fans and general audiences?
Dimensions
In Robert McKee’s book, Character: The Art of Role and Cast Design for Page, Stage, and Screen, the author and writing coach talks about character dimensions:
“Dimensional characters arouse our curiosity by making us wonder how two sides of a contradiction can live within one person. That, in turn, makes them unpredictable and all the more fascinating. From moment to moment, who knows which side will show up?”
In fiction-writing terms, a character dimension is a contradiction. For a nearly universal example, look at the contradiction in Breaking Bad between Walter’s two selves; the family-loving chemistry teacher and the merciless drug-lord Heisenberg.
Of course, character dimensions don’t have to be so overt. A dimension could exist internally, in a character’s motivations or goals, too. Character X might desire romantic companionship, but what they really love most is their alone time. Character Y might be a horrible boss, but it’s only because they were the victim of workplace bullying in the past.
Hopefully you get the idea.
The more oscillating dimensions a character has, the more kinds of stories a writer can tell with them. Of course, there are only so many dimensions that are worth exploring in a single story before things get muddy, but in long-form storytelling — like television and comic-books — multiple dimensions in one character could be argued as the key to success.
So, what dimensions exist in the character of Wolverine that make him such an enduring, interesting character? Here are five that come to mind:
Young/Old
Logan’s mutant powers grant him an extra-long life. Despite being born sometime in the 1800’s, Logan only looks to be in his forties (in the comics, anyway; Hugh Jackman being a mere human means that his on-screen age is variable, but this doesn’t negate the fact that he’s playing a guy roughly two hundred years old).
How does this dimension add to Wolverine’s character? Well, there’s inherent pathos in the fact that Wolverine has had to watch so many of his friends and family age and die while he remained young, but his old age also grants his character a unique wisdom and worldview — one that conflicts with how young his character looks.
This conflict between Logan’s knowledge and perspective versus his youthful appearance cause a reader or viewer to lean in. Simply put, it’s interesting. There’s a reason that the comic book arc Old Man Logan by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven is one of the most popular Wolverine stories and also the basis for much of Logan (2017).
In this alternate universe story, the creators turned the dial on Logan’s ‘oldness’ all the way up. Watching Logan exist inside a failing body is fascinating because it’s such a sharp contrast to how he’s always been portrayed. They couldn’t have done this story if the Old/Young dimension wasn’t ingrained in how we typically view Wolverine.
(See also: In Logan (2017), an aged and weathered Logan faces ‘X-24’, a cloned version of himself at a younger age, which visually dramatises the Young/Old conflict in Wolverine)
Logan’s old age and youthful physique also provide writers an endless playground for action-packed Wolverine stories. Picking any time in the last hundred-and-fifty-odd years and asking ‘What was Logan up to then?’ is a fun way to generate stories. Logan has lived many varied lives — samurai, teacher, soldier, mercenary — all of which have contributed to his enduring appeal as writers continue to discover new ways to explore his character.
Savage/Civilised
“Become the animal.” — William Stryker
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a messy exploration of Logan’s days before becoming an X-Man that isn’t worth watching unless you’re a big fan of the character, but it does attempt to engage with the warring instincts inside Logan. On one hand, the villains encourage him to embrace his animalistic urges, while his lover Kayla pleads for Logan to show mercy and rationality.
Wolverine is prone to berserker-style rages as a result of his mutation. He’s not an elegant fighter most of the time — there’s lots of screaming and wild slashing whenever Logan draws claws, and during these moments he’s prone to losing his sense of self in his bloodlust. (I point to his appearance in X-Men: Apocalypse as an example of a completely wild Wolverine)
What makes this such an interesting concept is that, during his lucid moments, Logan doesn’t want to fight. He fights because he has to — not because he’s good at it or because he likes it. He has killed indiscriminately before — he’s fought in multiple wars — but since joining the X-Men, Xavier has helped ‘tame’ him to a certain extent, or at least redirect his anger in a way to benefit mutantkind.
(To bring up Logan and X-24 again: X-24 is a mindless, savage clone that attacks Logan and Laura when they’re literally living on a farmhouse with a nice family who make them dinner and give them beds and treat them like fellow humans, i.e., engaging in proper civilisation. It’s a dark reflection of Logan’s savagery intruding on his latest attempt at being civilised)
Of course, he’s not called ‘Wolverine’ for nothing. The animal he’s named after is ferocious by nature, and there’s nothing anybody can do to totally eliminate that element of Logan. That’s okay; for the audience, it’s Wolverine’s struggle that makes this aspect of the character so interesting. We’ve all wanted to lash out before, but know that the right thing to do is maintain civility. We empathise, then, with someone whose unwanted nature is to lash out, who can cause serious destruction if he loses control even for a minute, but does everything he can to maintain control.
Lover/Fighter
Logan has had many romances in his over a century of life. The one that’s been developed the most over the years is of course with fellow X-Man Jean Grey, with whom he develops an infatuation despite her relationship with Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops. There’s also Mariko, Silver Fox, and Itsu, with whom he has a son.
Many of Logan’s romantic relationships are doomed. Logan’s presence in these women’s lives invariably invites life-threatening conflict. There’s an inherent tension whenever Wolverine enters any romantic relationship — how is this going to fall apart? Logan can’t seem to stop pursuing personal fulfilment in relationships, which naturally leads to the nuanced question: ‘Should he even try?’
The question of whether Wolverine deserves love is interesting given his questionable past and the idea of withheld love possibly being a just punishment for his past deeds, but even more interesting is the debate around him entering a romantic relationship in the first place if his lovers mostly end up dead.
Both of these questions are explored through Jean Grey. She is perhaps one of the few people powerful enough to be able to survive being Wolverine’s lover, but her relationship with Scott prevents this. (Well, it prevents it most of the time — recent comics have touched on the idea of Jean being in an open relationship with both Scott and Logan)
Of course, the Lover/Fighter dynamic extends beyond romantic attachments. Wolverine loves. He loves his family and his friends. In his ideal world, he’d never have to bare his claws in anger again. It’s not a great movie, but in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the first thing Logan does when he quits the mutant black ops team is settle down with Silver Fox and try to live a normal life.
Unlike many of his bloodthirsty ‘mirror image’ antagonists like Sabretooth and Omega Red, Wolverine’s fantasy is to live in peace. Only his loved ones being in constant danger for being mutants is what forces Logan to fight, and that inherent conflict in his personality keeps him interesting.
Lone Wolf/Team Member
Unlike such mutants as Cyclops, Storm, and Jean Grey, Wolverine’s membership with the X-Men is not a given. From his first comic book appearance in a Hulk comic devoid of mutants to his first big screen appearance in X-Men (2000) as a transient, Logan has always come to the X-Men as an outsider. He’s solitary by nature, traumatised, abrasive, and doesn’t open up to people easily, which makes him functioning on a team difficult.
Nothing exemplifies this better than the fact that Wolverine nearly always his own ongoing ‘solo’ comic book, focusing on his adventures away from the X-Men and that he received a trilogy of movies where he was the sole focus.
Wolverine receives this special solo treatment in part because he’s a more dimensional character than the rest of the X-Men, but giving him a mix of solo and team adventures also adds a new dynamic to his character that increases reader/viewer interest. Very simply, there are elements at Wolverine’s core that always make him being a part of a team like the X-Men feel subversive.
Wolverine has both been a loner for so long before joining the X-Men — and also been a member of teams a lot less friendly than Xavier’s Children of the Atom — that there’s an immediate sense of catharsis whenever Wolverine starts to function successfully on the team. When Wolverine is integrating well, that means that he has a handle on his more savage side.
There’s a moment early on in the recent X Lives/X Deaths of Wolverine (2022) where Logan, while readying himself for a mission with Jean Grey and Xavier, narrates how much he loves and respects the two mutants.
“I might be twice as old as the professor. But he’s as close as I got to a father… Then there’s Jeannie. Maybe nobody knows me better. Maybe nobody’s ever loved me better. Every time my guts tell me I’m better off alone, my heart knows better. Maybe the broken bits of us come together… and form a kind of family.”
— Wolverine, X Lives of Wolverine (2022) #1
Interestingly, it’s the lack of conflict between Logan and the others here that make these words and moments so meaningful. Wolverine’s unique position as a loner-at-heart makes the moments where works on a team hit harder emotionally.
Victim/Weapon
Wolverine’s healing factor, rage, and claws make him somewhat of a perfect living weapon — and that’s not counting his unbreakable adamantium skeleton. Many leaders over the years have recognised this quality in Logan and put it to use. Even the usually benevolent proponent for mutant and human coexistence Charles Xavier isn’t exempt from directing Logan’s propensity for violence to further his own goals.
At a surface level, Wolverine’s power set makes him an appealing comic book character. There’s no other word for it: Wolverine’s cool. Although he possesses one of the most unique combinations of fantastical abilities in comic book history, coming up with superpowers is relatively easy compared to the task of making those powers thematically resonant for the character.
Being a mutant, Logan developed most of trademark powers naturally — all except his most recognisable feature: his adamantium claws and skeleton.
A key component of Wolverine’s backstory is the traumatic process through which he received his adamantium skeleton. The film version of this process is depicted quite effectively in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but you’ll find a more satisfying version of the story in the Weapon X story arc in the comics. The process is essentially pure torture. If you’ve ever thought it would be cool to have Wolverine’s powers, ask yourself first if you could survive the pain of having liquid-hot metal drilled into every bone in your body.
Of course, physical torture is only one half of the dehumanising techniques employed by the Weapon X directors on Logan. In order to pacify and control him, he has his memory wiped and is given fake memories to replace them. This disorienting psychological torture still affects Logan in the comics to this day, as he can’t be fully sure if his memories are real or not.
Undercutting the benefits of such a compelling power set with a cost as serious as the torture that Logan had to endure adds an interesting layer of complexity to the character of Wolverine. Finding the ‘downsides’ of a power has the potential to enormously increase the reader’s ability to relate to a superhero, as is the case with Wolverine. We aren’t jealous of Logan; we empathise with the suffering he went through. Positioning him as the victim of tremendous abuse in order to contrast his weapon-like powers is extremely thematically resonant, too.
(For more on the costs and limitation of powers in fantasy, have a read of Brandon Sanderson’s excellent essay on ‘Sanderson’s Second Law’)
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Even though Marvel has had plenty of characters that have existed just as long--and even longer--than Wolverine, the character clearly exists as one of their all-time best, and that's no coincidence.
Logan is a multi-dimensional character. It's the reason he's endured for so long while maintaining his popularity, and why Hugh Jackman is able to reprise the role for his 9th proper big-screen outing without re-treading any character ground.
I hope these five contradictions in Logan’s character help illuminate this fact (and maybe help you in the creation of your own multi-dimensional fictional character!)
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