There are few Marvel Comics’ characters more iconic than Wolverine with a design recognized by even the most casual of fans, and in a new piece of art advertising his new X-Men comic, Wolverine’s worst character design has returned. Wolverine is known for his bright yellow costume and six razor sharp claws extending from his knuckles, but no one pays much mind to Wolverine’s nose. However, when a redesign for the character came to pass, everyone noticed when Wolverine lost his nose as a part of his supposed farthing mutation, which is just one aspect of Wolverine’s worst design that will apparently be seen again in the near future.
Wolverine’s noseless redesign was kicked into gear after the events of X-Men #25 by Fabian Nicieza, Andy Kubert, and Matt Ryan. In the issue, Magneto ripped the adamantium from Wolverine’s skeleton while the X-Men launched a strike against the villain. Little did Magneto know, the adamantium was actually holding Wolverine back from reaching the full potential of his mutation. Without the adamantium, Wolverine became feral and devolved into an animalistic version of himself, with the mental capacity of an ape and the ferociousness of a rabid dog, and of course, without a nose.
In a Tweet by artist Russell Dauterman (@rdauterman), the artist shared a variant cover they drew and colored for X Lives of Wolverine #5. The image contains nearly every single iteration of Wolverine imaginable as the new series will explore the extensive history of Wolverine throughout Marvel Comics. One of the designs for Wolverine present in the image is the version made possible from the events of X-Men #25. The noseless Feral Wolverine complete with bone claws and a blue bandana over his face, is on the edge of the image, teasing its return in this all-new story.
It is unclear what X Lives of Wolverine and X Deaths of Wolverine will entail exactly, but what fans know for sure is that the comic will delve even deeper into Wolverine’s history while simultaneously writing his future. While the Feral Wolverine is an infamous version of the beloved character, that version still has a prominent place in X-Men history which cannot be ignored.
With the rise of Feral Wolverine, fans were shown for the first time that Wolverine had natural bone claws that were coated in adamantium along with the rest of his skeleton. It was previously believed that Weapon X gave him his claws and naturally he was without them. Feral Wolverine gave fans a greater insight into Wolverine’s anatomy and the full extent of his mutation. Unfortunately, Marvel Comics went a little too far with the evolution of Wolverine’s mutation and turned into a version of himself that was almost laughable. Given Feral Wolverine’s presence on the all-new cover art along with the significance that version of the character has in X-Men history, Wolverine’s worst design could be making a comeback in Marvel Comics just as it did in this new piece of artwork.
Source: Twitter/Russell Dauterman (@rdauterman)