Is Wolverine Really A Supporting Character?

This came up yesterday.

We were discussing the new Wolverine movie. Somebody mentioned that he didn't like the fact that there were so many other superhero characters in the movie: Gambit, Deadpool, etc. He just wanted a Wolverine movie -- you know, like Wolverine in Japan, stuff like that.


Now somebody else said basically: "Well, you need these other characters to round the movie out, because essentially Wolverine is a supporting character."

This gave me some food for thought.

Is Wolverine a strong enough character to really make a interesting protagonist? Or is he kind of one-note, sort of the cool guy with the sharp claws that makes for some good choppy-chop-chop?


I think Wolverine can be a strong character, but it really depends on the writer. (And sometimes the artist.) It may be easy to fall back on Wolverine as a one-note, as just a supporting character with lots of flash and violence. And/or as a supporting character with a bunch of interesting quirks, but an ultimately undefined character. But there is a lot there to explore in his personality: man vs the animal within, guilt over being "built" to be a killer...

"I'm the best at what I do, and what I do isn't very nice."

It sort of sums it up. And then the whole original Wolverine mini-series, his relationship with Mariko, his mentorship/friendship with Kitty, his attraction to Jean. He's definitely not one-note. Unless you want him to be.


Characters like Wolverine & Punisher are, in my opinion, harder to write as multi-dimensional. Or not so much harder as...it would be just easier to fall into just making their stories about awesome scenes of carnage, etc. I've seen both types of treatments of these guys. I always tend to move towards the stories with deeper characterization. Though I can be "wowed" by really wild "set-pieces" of pure action. I like the comic X-Force because it moves rapidly between these two polarities: really "emo" characterization, then big action sequences. It keeps me entertained.

Still, oh for the days of Classic Claremont! (strikes pose, fans herself)


As for Wolverine having the largish cast of mutants in the movie that he does...I have no problem with it. Maybe somewhere in my mind it will be like "X-Men 4?"