So, stop me if you’ve heard this theory before, but we all think Marvel is going to kill Wolverine.
There had been rumors and mumbles about the idea before, with many of us thinking that it could happen in “Battle of the Atom” (when the rumor first popped up, around a lot of misleading solicits) before it turned out that Wolverine simply lost his healing factor in his solo book when an alien virus yadda yadda comics comics comics, you know.
And now, in an exclusive reveal/interview at CBR, Marvel has announced that in June Wolverine will have ‘3 Months to Die.’ In July? ‘2 Months.’ August? ‘1 Month.’
And September? To quote Axel Alonso, “the title of this story arc is ripe with implication.”
In the promotional interview for the event, there’s a lot of the standard boiler plate commentary. But, there are a few things to note:
- That the last volume of “Wolverine” lasted 13 issues before relaunching
- That the last volume of “Wolverine” was Part One of a three-part “epic” by Cornell
- That Marvel has said in the past that “Wolverine” #12 (of this run) is returnable for retailers and would be a double-sized “game-changing” issue that will supposedly receive national attention
- Mike Marts, editor of this book, was running the Batman franchise during “Batman RIP”
I know sometimes people look at the grass and wonder if it’s actually green, or if we all just perceive color in different ways and maybe to some people green is actually yellow. That’s an interesting existential argument, but I’d prefer to call this what it is: Marvel is going to kill Wolverine, re-launch his book again in some form or fashion and bring him on a roller coaster ride of emotions.
That’s not me being cynical, either. Far from it, honestly. But look at Spider-Man — Peter died, Otto took over for a while, we all went along for the ride and now Peter is coming back into the hot seat. A property as big as Wolverine could die, sure (and has, in some ways; just look at Aaron’s run with Wolverine in Hell), but he’ll never stay dead. There’s too much money to be made with him at this point.
But that doesn’t mean it can’t be a fun story anyway. Cornell’s clearly got a plan.
That’s my prediction. What’s yours?
