Wolverine… Are You Okay?

 
Collector’s Guide:
Dialogue by Warren Ellis; Art by Simone Bianchi.
– From Astonishing X-men: Ghost Box
(Astonishing X-Men #25-30 plus the 2-issue Ghost Boxes series)

Dear Chuck… Lighten Up!

X-men #30 from 1994 has a wrap-around cover featuring the wedding of Scott “Cyclops” Summers and Jean Grey (Marvel Girl, Phoenix, Dark Phoenix, Black Queen, etc.). We had it unfolded and framed until it seemed like a fun wedding present to drop in the mail. Before it left, we snapped a couple pics, including our favorite panels from the issue: Professor X feels a bit melancholy after the wedding, until he opens a letter from his old pal Logan… better known as Wolverine.

 

 
Collector’s Guide:
– From X-Men #30; Marvel, 1994.

The wedding of Scott Summers and Jean Grey in “The Ties That Bind.” Script by Fabian Nicieza, pencils by Andy Kubert, inks by Matt Ryan. Includes 3 Fleer Ultra cards celebrating the wedding of Scott and Jean (painted art by Bob Larkin). Kubert/Ryan wraparound cover. Cover price $1.95.

 

 

I Think I’m in Love!

 
Collector’s Guide:
– From Wolverine: Enemy of the State by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.

wolverine

 
This week we’ll take a look at three of our favorite animals from The Album of North American Animals: the wolverine, the bobcat, and the cougar! This wonderfully illustrated book came in many editions, some of which fetch high prices on Amazon. We have the sixth printing, from the mid 80s, which cost much less. Many of the 26 animals featured within have become exceedingly rare due to loss of habitat caused by the expansion of our cities and industry. Liberate the mountain lions!

Collector’s Guide:
– from Album of North American Animals; Rand McNally, 1966.
Text by Vera Dugdale, illustrations by Clark Bronson.

I Know Your Scent Too Well!

Hiya, Chuck! You can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can’t f%#$ with Wolverine’s sense of smell. He is the bullshit detector of the Marvel Universe, sniffing out aliens, robots, holograms, phantoms, fake costumes, and psychic projections. This is a Jim Lee panel we like so much that we cut it out and put it on the wall.

Collector’s Guide:
– from X-men #1; Marvel, 1991.

The First Fastball Special!

Uncanny X-men #100 ended a three-part saga culminating in the crashing of their spacecraft and the subsequent death of Jean “Marvel Girl” Grey. She would erupt from the wreckage as Phoenix and spawn decades of continuity in the process.

…Big fraggin’ deal. The truly historic moment of this issue was the execution of the now-legendary fastball special. That’s where Colossus grabs Wolverine and throws him at something far away that needs to be destroyed right the hell now.

Collector’s Guide:
– from Uncanny X-men #100; Marvel, 1976.
 

Wolverine and Zealot Beat Up Demonic Alien Nazis in WWII!

Travis Charest draws Wolverine and Zealot taking on the daemonites from the WildC.A.T.s series. Only here, the nasty aliens inhabit the bodies of Nazis in the 1940s. Aliens masterminding the Third Reich may not be the most original science fiction idea, but Charest and Scott Lobdell make it a solidly entertaining tale in the vein of Indiana Jones. Cool Jim Lee cover, too!

Image and Marvel made four WildC.A.T.s X-Men crossovers: Golden Age, Silver Age, Modern Age, and Dark Age, each with a different creative team. The first three also came in 3-D, and look pretty awesome.

In these pre-adamantium days, Wolverine doesn’t pop his claws. He opts for strapping some nasty hardware to his wrists, even though we’d seen four years earlier in Fatal Attractions that the claws were part of him. In these carefree days before Wolverine’s past became laid bare by Origins, he is also shown going by the name Logan in WW2 – not James Howlett. But don’t worry. You don’t need to be a continuity expert to kick back and enjoy this story! You can enjoy the first 1/3 in our gallery below.

Collector’s Guide:
– From WildC.A.T.s X-Men The Golden Age #1; Image/Marvel, 1997.

– Also available in 3-D
– Reprinted in Wildcats/X-Men TPB #1
– See all WildC.A.T.s X-Men crossovers