User blog:Nausiated/Meeting Chris Claremont -- Some thoughts..

So Ottawa Comiccon has come and gone, and I had the opportunity to work with Chris Claremont in my capacity as a guest liaison. During one of his panels he mentioned that he did not like how they revealed Wolverine's origin. He said that it took away the mystery of the character. He went on to comment how that the mystery behind Logan's past was what gave the character dimension and that when he wrote the character he had no intentions of revealing Logan's entire past, just small snippets here and there.

This got me to thinking... I've recently gone back to re-read a lot of the Claremont era X-books, and basically any time he delved into Wolverine's past (and a lot of writers did this as well the first time Chris left Marvel in 1991) usually revealed a small sliver of his past and usually left more unanswered questions than before.

Reflecting back on what I've read and Claremont's feelings, I would disagree with him to a point. I thought it was great that they revealed Wolverine's origins. Who he was, where he came from. Because that is all it was: an origin. There were many many years between Logan's origins and when his memory was messed with.

Where I can agree with Claremont, is on removing the mystery behind Logan's past. As you all know, the aftermath of House of M found Logan suddenly remembering his entire past. While it was a method of delving into his past further, it removed the struggles that Logan had trying to learn about his own past. He just suddenly knew it all, and the only real plot device to look into those parts of the past was Logan just recollecting it (as featured heavily in the Wolverine: Origins series) it took away the mystery and struggle that Logan constantly faced when delving into his past.

I think that really effected Wolverine's character. However, has that made the character completely devoid of further development? I'd say no. Not really. Sure gone is the mysterious past -- which was done to death in the 80s and 90s with a ton of characters, Logan being the paramount of these characters -- but they have found other things to keep Logan occupied and develop his character. Looking after X-21, dealing with Dakken, Schism, founding the Jean Grey school, being an Avenger and an X-Man.

But, that said, even though they have plenty of ways to expand Wolverine as a character, some of his long standing mystique -- I think -- was tossed away on a cheap plot device.