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Over the five decades of Wolverine’s existence, we’ve gotten many, many different versions of the characters. There have been alternate universe versions, movie and TV versions, entirely new people in the mantle, and various changes to the character the himself. Wolverine is big money for Marvel and the publisher has given us so many different versions of the character; there’s a Wolverine for some. While for some of us, the original Wolverine is the best, these ten versions are the next best thing to the original.
10) Feral Wolverine
I’m in the minority on this one, but I love Feral Wolverine. Feral Wolverine first appeared in Wolverine (Vol. 2) #100. The concept was teased in Wolverine (Vol. 2) #77, after Wolverine lost his adamantium and visited his friends Heather Hudson (Alpha Flight member Vindicator/Guardian II) and Puck. As events progressed in the books, Cable’s son Genesis decided to make Wolverine into the Horseman of Death for the soon to be resurrected Apocalypse, killing Cyber to take his adamantium, and capturing Wolverine to bond it to his skeleton. X-Man Cannonball tried to save Wolverine, but failed and Wolverine violently rejected the adamantium pumped into him and slaughtered Genesis’s allies the Dark Riders. Wolverine’s mutation, held in check by the adamantium, made him into a beast. Fans mocked his lack of nose (more pronounced when artist Val Semeiks drew him), and Marvel abandoned the concept quickly; however, it was kind of awesome to watch Wolverine fight back the beast inside of him and do his best to become a human again. Eventually, he started using an image inducer to hide his feral looks, and it wouldn’t be until Wolverine (Vol. 2) #145 where he would finally go back to normal. There are some amazing stories during this 45 issue run of Wolverine, and it’s one of the more interesting times in Wolverine’s existence.
9) Zombie Wolverine
Zombie Wolverine first appeared in Marvel Zombies #1. On Earth-616, Wolverine’s healing factor protected him from most viruses, but the zombie virus was able to overcome it on Earth-2149, and he joined the ranks of the undead. Unlike the other zombie heroes, Wolverine didn’t feel the same regret over killing as many of the other heroes did. He sort of embraced his zombie nature and was one of the most entertaining members of the zombie survivors. He was definitely a monster, but he made the best he could of his zombie life, which is the most Wolverine thing ever. His most recent appearance was in the excellent Weapon X-Men, where he was able to keep his appetite at bay and help the other Wolverines defeat Onslaught. Zombie Wolverine has a lot of potential as a character — both as a character to be explored and a monster to be fought — and maybe we’ll get more of him as the years go on. There’s also been a Vampire Wolverine, who appeared in several issues of What If…, but Zombie Wolverine is way cooler than he is.
8) Daken
Daken is the son of Wolverine. Akihiro, the name his parents meant to give him, was conceived after World War II, when Logan lived in Japan and was married to a woman named Itsu. While off on one of his black ops missions, Itsu was killed by the Winter Soldier while pregnant. Romulus cut the unborn Daken out of her corpse and had him raised by a Japanese family who named Daken, which meant “mongrel” in Japanese. He was also taught to hate Wolverine, and became a part of Romulus’s campaign against Logan. When Norman Osborn was given control of the Superhero Initiative, he recruited Daken to act as the Wolverine of the Dark Avengers. Daken got to wear the superior brown and orange costume and took to being an Avenger very well, loving the adulation and the fame. He battled his father as Wolverine several times, and helped the Dark Avengers in their attack on Asgard. Later, Daken would take up the name Dark Wolverine, working to take over the underworld of Madripoor. Daken made a pretty good Wolverine, but eventually just went back to being Daken, leading the Brotherhood of Mutants against his father. where he was killed by his father before being resurrected by the Apocalypse Twins. He made up with Logan after Wolverine came back to life and becoming a member of the Wolverine family of heroes.
7) Patch
Logan started going to Madripoor at some point in the early 1900s, and fell in love with the lawless island. While there, he took up the identity of Patch, in order to keep himself off the radar of his many enemies. Patch became a legend on the island, and when Wolverine would return there, he would don the eyepatch and white tuxedo. During the Outback Era of the X-Men, the world thought the mutant team was dead, so he dusted off the Patch identity, making his base of operations when he needed a break from the X-Men the Princess Bar, where he went so many years before. Wolverine’s time as Patch is one of the most interesting times in his life; he would drink, gamble, and fight, all while protecting the weak on the island. Patch doesn’t show up very often anymore, although fans did get an excellent Patch flashback miniseries from legendary Wolverine writer Larry Hama and artist Andrea Di Vito, but most hardcore Wolverine fans wish there was more. Maybe if he becomes a major part of the MCU, we’ll get our wish; he did end up appearing in Deadpool/Wolverine, so there’s definitely hope.
6) Laura Kinney
Laura Kinney first appeared as X-23, and was thought to be a clone of Wolverine. It was later found out that she was actually his daughter of sorts. She was used as a weapon by the Weapon X program and eventually broke out. She worked with the X-Men and New X-Men for a time, went to the Avengers Academy, and joined her father in X-Force. After the death of Wolverine, she would be the one to take up the mantle of Wolverine. Laura’s first tenure as Wolverine is one of the more disappointing periods in Marvel history. Not because it was bad, but because Marvel didn’t really trust her as Wolverine. They never put her on the A-list X-Men team, and even brought Old Man Logan in to hedge their Wolverine bets. She would go back to X-23 after the return of Wolverine, but he decided to share his name with her, and she became Wolverine again in the Krakoa Era. She starred in some of the best stories of the Krakoa Era — X-Men (Vol. 5) #5 and #18-19 — but things get kind of confusing after that: she was left in the Vault and also resurrected outside it. Eventually, there were two versions of Laura — the resurrected one and original, who ended up taking on the name Talon and dying at the end of the Krakoa Era (honestly, we try to forget about the end of the Krakoa Era for Laura; she was part of Gerry Duggan’s middling X-Men (Vol. 6) and the two Lauras thing is more confusing than it needs to be). Laura is still going strong as Wolverine.
