SO, Wolverine is dead. Big deal, you say, he’s not the first comic character to die, and surely he’ll be back faster than you can say “snikt!”, right?
Well, this is a significantly more important death than you think. This is not just any comic character we are talking about. This is: the (formerly) immortal and indestructible Wolverine – X-Man, Avenger, headmaster of the Jean Grey Institute for Higher Learning, and one of Marvels most popular characters ever.
This was a character who over the years has paid a major part in shaping the Marvel Universe. From forming part of an all-new X-Men team back in 1975’s Giant-Sized X-Men to playing a huge part in the time-travelling shenanigans that broke the space-time continuum in last year’s Age Of Ultron event, Wolverine has been a central figure in almost ALL of Marvel’s big events since he made his debut FORTY YEARS ago in 1974’s The Incredible Hulk #181.
Sure, Marvel has already gone on record to say that Wolverine will stay dead until at least 2016 (just in time for the next X-Men movie. How uncanny!), but the fact remains that Wolverine’s death DOES matter. It leaves a distinct Wolverine-shaped hole in the Marvel Universe, and his absence WILL be keenly felt throughout Earth-616. Here are six reasons his death matters more than any other Marvel character death in recent times (sorry, Johnny Storm):
Wolverine is relevant again
It may sound strange, but killing Wolverine off might actually be the best thing that could happen for the character right now. You see, Wolverine was in danger of becoming overused and over-exposed. Before he died, he had two solo books (Wolverine and Savage Wolverine), and featured heavily in team books such as Wolverine And the X-Men, Amazing X-Men, Uncanny Avengers, and Avengers. He was also a central figure in the recent X-Men: Days Of Future Past movie, a year after his THIRD solo movie last year.
So maybe spending a year without Wolverine might not be a bad idea after all. And who knows, a year without a single “snikt” might actually give fans time to re-evaluate his importance to the Marvel Universe, and make him more relevant than ever.
