This was the first "collectible" I ever bought as a comics fan. When I was 11 or 12, I saved up $20 of allowance & birthday money to buy this one issue. It felt amazing to finally hold it in my hands, and to read it, and to wonder why it wasn& #39;t Wolverine& #39;s origin story. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😂" title="Gesicht mit Freudentränen" aria-label="Emoji: Gesicht mit Freudentränen"> https://twitter.com/ManFirestorm/status/1045518155618095104">https://twitter.com/ManFirest...

It was a lot of fun to read, tho! And I studied Buscema& #39;s art in it for hours. It felt like a movie. A 70s crime flick. I think this was when I first started thinking of Wolverine as a pulp character rather than a superhero (though I didn& #39;t have the words for it at the time).

My journey to find Wolverine& #39;s origin story next delivered me one of the best stories Marvel has ever published: Barry Windsor Smith& #39;s WEAPON X. I was WAY too young to understand, but I staaaaared at those pages. Nightmarish, violent, and dense lines. I still have that hardcover.

And again! Not a superhero story. Instead, this was more a mix of psychological & monster horror, casting Logan as Frankenstein& #39;s monster. Revisiting it as an adult with a healthy love of horror and better understanding of storytelling, I realized it& #39;s also a masterwork.

And just when you thought Wolverine was done jumping genres and his origins were all told, the beginning of the beginning arrived in the form of ORIGIN. AGAIN, not a superhero story - a turn of the century frontier romance, like a Jack London novel starring a dude with claws.

Origin tends to catch flack from certain readers, but I absolutely adored it. Because, again, this was reinforcing what I& #39;d always felt about Logan - that he can fit into EVERY story, every genre. He can be the spy, the monster, the hero; tragic & noble, dangerous & vulnerable.

He deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Conan, the Man With No Name, Doc Savage. He& #39;s just got that grit, that versatility, that potential for story, and every time he& #39;s been explored outside the typical superhero narrative, it& #39;s been a success - hell, look at LOGAN!

(btw, another comic character who deserves to be listed among the greatest classic pulp heroes? HELLBOY! That& #39;s sort of a no-brainer, tho)

Anyway, I didn& #39;t expect this to become a thread about my love of Wolverine, but that& #39;s not a bad place to find myself. It& #39;s the right time of year for it, so after I finish my Domu reread, I think I& #39;m gonna break out that Weapon X hardcover.

Happy reading, all.