Wolverine’s first solo series launches with a 6-page intro story about a bear that immediately establishes who Logan is, the duality that defines him, and his capacity to symbolize and disrupt perceptual boundaries between animal and person. #xmen #wolverine 1/9
The miniseries is built around the conflict between the primal and the civilized, with particular emphasis on destabilizing the distinction between the two of them by portraying the violence of civility as well as the nobility of the primal. 2/9
The grizzly encounter demonstrates this principle perfectly. The bear is terrifying and deadly, but only because of the interference of man. A good comparison might be to Grendel, with Logan thereby cast in the Beowulf role. 3/9
The literal story is simple: Wolverine hunts down and kills a rogue man-eating grizzly. He discovers that the bear only turned lethal when poisoned by a hunter, so Logan tracks the hunter and confronts him in a pub. 4/9
Like the bear, the hunter showcases the destabilization of primal vs civilized; he used advanced technology to hunt the bear, but he lacked the nobility to finish the job, and people died in consequence. And so, Wolverine must hunt him down as well. 5/9
Frank Miller uses parallel form to establish this equivalence with some page symmetry featuring Wolverine in the top left corner descending both into the bear’s den and also into the bar that houses the unscrupulous hunter. 6/9
Additionally, the vignette clearly establishes the duality of Logan himself. He feels grief for killing the bear, but he also smiles when it first attacks him. He obeys the law in apprehending the hunter but is delighted when the hunter chooses violence. 7/9
Perhaps most importantly, the story also establishes Wolverine’s unique position as a figure who is able to traverse through both worlds: primal and civilized – delivering justice in both and easily permeating the boundary between worlds that others simply cannot. 8/9
It’s a fairly straightforward story, but it lays important groundwork for the mini-series that follows and, even more generally, for the defining character arc that will accompany Logan’s solo journeys for decades to follow as well. 9/9
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.