Is Wolverine being used by Marvel?

[Adamantium_Avatar]

It struck me that the only reason that Wolverine is in the New Avengers is to attract the attention of the comic buying public...

At the moment he is being seriously overused and I just have this feeling that once NA has a decent readership Marvel will send Wolvie back to the X-Men.

To be honest he barely fits into the X-men team dynamic and I find it a little far fetched that he would be accepted into the Avengers given his track record.

Anyone else have an opinion regarding this?


Also, considering that the (New) Avengers are supposed to be Earth's Mightiest Heroes I think that without Sentry they would be seriously underpowered.. A case of putting all your eggs in one basket?

[Buddahbelly]

It struck me that the only reason that Wolverine is in the New Avengers is to attract the attention of the comic buying public...

Hell... I'm a Wolvie fan and I agree with you. He rarely speaks and when seen he's just in the back ground. He should be left to his own series and occasionally in the X-books.

To be honest he barely fits into the X-men team dynamic and I find it a little far fetched that he would be accepted into the Avengers given his track record.

IIRC... His track record is why he was invited. He could and would do things the others wouldn't, such as kill.

[Sean Whitmore]

It struck me that the only reason that Wolverine is in the New Avengers is to attract the attention of the comic buying public...

This...this just struck you, did it? :)



SEAN

[Adamantium_Avatar]

Well, I have only recently gained an interest in the Avengers..

Primarily due to the Young Avengers

[The Shadow]

It struck me that the only reason that Wolverine is in the New Avengers is to attract the attention of the comic buying public...

What's wrong with Marvel using an asset to generate income?

At the moment he is being seriously overused and I just have this feeling that once NA has a decent readership Marvel will send Wolvie back to the X-Men.

How?
He's only in one X book (Astonishing), his own 2 solo books and (as you pointed out) RARELY in New Avengers.

What's overused about that?? Especially considering his useage 3 years ago.

To be honest he barely fits into the X-men team dynamic and I find it a little far fetched that he would be accepted into the Avengers given his track record.

His track record is what got him ON the Avengers in the first place.

Anyone else have an opinion regarding this?

Yeah I disagree ;)

considering that the (New) Avengers are supposed to be Earth's Mightiest Heroes I think that without Sentry they would be seriously underpowered.. A case of putting all your eggs in one basket?

When has it ever been said the New Avengers are Earth's Mightiest?
I think you're thinking of the OLD Avengers! ;) The NEW Avengers have never made that claim.

[Adamantium_Avatar]

Well, hush my mouth! :p

[pharoahe22]

I actually really like Wolverine in the New Avengers. Even though he's had minimal participation so far, I like seeing him in this new atmosphere and environment. His interactions with Spider-man are comical...he seems to have a tough guy bond with Luke Cage, and he's got a long history with Captain America and Spider Woman. He also has history with Echo/Ronin, so I think he fits on the team well. While he may not have gotten as much face time in the beginning of the book, I remember Bendis saying that he had written a story for NA that went back and forth from the past to the present to tell a secret chapter of Wolverine's relationship with Captain America. Also, we have the arc coming up with The Hand and Elektra, so we know Wolverine's gonna have an involvement in that cause he's an expert when it comes down to Elektra and the Hand. That's the thing about a team book...sometimes it takes a while for every character to get their moment to shine, so they have to play a background role until the appropriate time. He got a little bit of face time when they showed his team intro and when the fought the Wrecker. Now we just have to wait for the next story that's appropriate for Wolverine to have a leading role

[Gnarl]

I sometimes get the feeling they don't know his powers when writing the Avengere. He seems to spend an inordinate amount of time going "What was that?" or "Who was that?"

Superhuman senses? What senses?

[Joe Acro]

How?
He's only in one X book (Astonishing), his own 2 solo books and (as you pointed out) RARELY in New Avengers.

Does a character being less overused mean that he's not overused? I don't think so.

[rwsmith]

I'd rather see him with the New Avengers than with the X-men these days, so I hope he just becomes a full-time Avenger after Astonishing wraps up. Just seems to me that he's graduated beyond the X-men at this point, since he's such a big part of the Marvel U as a whole.

As for his two solo books, who gives a f@#$ how many he has? Spider-man has like 4 or 5 and I don't see people b!tching about that. Just don't buy them if you don't like them and find something else to p!ss and moan about. Jeez. :rolleyes:

[The Shadow]

Does a character being less overused mean that he's not overused? I don't think so.

Considering the amount of titles Marvel puts out in any given month, having the same character in 3.5 monthly full books is hardly overused.

It Marvel puts out 50 books (I just picked an arbitrary number) in a month and he appears in 3.5 (AXM, Wolverin, Origins and partially New Avengers)... that's only 7% of their total monthly output.

And he's only overexposed if you buy them ALL. If someone only gets his two monthlies I doubt they'd think that.

Iron Man and Captain America are far outstripping him lately.

[Joe Acro]

I think Cap's and Iron Man's exposure will go down after Civil War is over.

Spider-Man will probably stay overexposed. He's been that way since practically the start of the heroic age.

I have the feeling Wolverine's appearances will be on the rise after Civil War is over.

[Mister Mets]

It struck me that the only reason that Wolverine is in the New Avengers is to attract the attention of the comic buying public...

At the moment he is being seriously overused and I just have this feeling that once NA has a decent readership Marvel will send Wolvie back to the X-Men.

To be honest he barely fits into the X-men team dynamic and I find it a little far fetched that he would be accepted into the Avengers given his track record.

Anyone else have an opinion regarding this?


Also, considering that the (New) Avengers are supposed to be Earth's Mightiest Heroes I think that without Sentry they would be seriously underpowered.. A case of putting all your eggs in one basket?

Wolverine is Marvel's character to do with as they please, so he's not being "used" by Marvel.

Currently it probably makes sense for him to be on Astonishing X-Men teams, and New Avengers teams.

"Wolverine: Origins" is also a spinoff with a good reason for existing, as it has a core purpose distinct from Wolverine (essentially a spotlight for solo adventures of Wolverine).

And I have no problem with the "Ultimate Wolverine VS Hulk" and the "Utlimate Wolverine" mini series.

[The Shadow]

I think Cap's and Iron Man's exposure will go down after Civil War is over.

I don't and here's why: Observations of Marvel based on my collection

Granted thisisn't exactly scientific... but I get a lot of comics.

Notice the date when I started the thread: 06-17-2006 - VERY early in CW.

Now here's the main observation:

Want to know who, over the last 3 years, has had the MOST Marvel appearances??? I bet you'd say Wolverine. You'd be WRONG!!!! Spider-Man? Nope. It was *drum roll*... CAPTAIN AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Based on my entire collection /snip/ Captain America appeared in 234 comics I purchased over the past 3 years. Next was Wolverine at 188 appearances and Iron Man at 184 followed by Spider-Man at 183 and the first lady makes an appearance as Emma Frost appears in 134 books. (As a side note Batman outpaced em all with 414 appearances!)

Cap has appeared in 27.7% of the comics. Wolverine 22.2%, Iron Man 21.7%, Spider-Man 21.6%, Emma Frost 15.8%. (Batman has appeared in a WHOPPING 50.74% of DC comics I've purchased over the past 3 years!)

As I said, that's just based on what I get... but I get a lot. As of that post I list the monthly comics I collect plus a crap load of minis (not listed).

[Kirk G]

Bravo!
Good work on the research.

I did an informal count of cover appearances in the first 102 Avengers main title and found that Cap was the most frequently pictured, with Vision, Giantman/YellowJacket/AntMan and Wasp also very close. Other high ranking heroes included Iron Man and Thor (duh!)

Then I recounted the number of covers that showed a character in a weaker or subbordinate hostage or fainted position (kind of hard to define and even harder to defend on some of them) and found the character MOST offen in a hostage or defeated image on the cover was....
Cap America...
followed closely by Giantman, Wasp and Scarlet Witch, not necessarily in that order.
I would imagine that this reflected a deep seated feeling of interest when one's favorite hero was at risk, or perhaps when the image of our country was treatened.

Again, this was somewhat abitrary in judging which of the first 102 were a weaker position, and when one wasn't at risk or hostage.

Someday I will recount and print up a more official article for CBR... based on all the 230 or so Avengers issues depicted in the Gerber Photo-Journalism catalog of several years ago.