A real Canadian hero
Clawing back the curtains on Wolverine, and the actor resurrecting him one last time
“I’m the best there is at what I do and what I do isn’t very nice.”
It’s not what you’d expect to hear from the lips of a Canadian superhero. Delivered by Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in his 2009 solo film, the line coyly hints at the X-Men’s propensity to engage in cuttingedge violence over Pearsonian diplomacy.
It’s also what makes him a fan favourite. With his deep-seated anger, trust and identity issues, Wolverine (AKA Logan), is like a perpetually wounded animal. Created in 1974, the clawed bruiser was an anti-hero long before cable TV came along — and he’s a slice above the comic medium’s trio of defining superheroes. Batman is a bonkers billionaire with a vigilante vanity project; Superman is an earnest, alien boy scout with a God complex; and Spider-Man is a sarcastic, nerdy kid handed great power (and great attention,) — hence the constant showboating. Wolverine is an anti-social, grumpy, beer-chugging, cigarchomping mutant who has been reluctantly saving people — and occasionally the world — for roughly two centuries. The character’s casting in 2000s
X-Men was paramount to the success of the franchise. Coming in the wake of the 1997 flop, Batman
& Robin, a great Wolverine was needed to save superhero cinema. Jackman’s performance captured the intractable pain locked inside the body of a man who can heal from any physical wound, but whose mind is forever scarred.
After slicing and dicing his way into moviegoers’ hearts for 17 years, Jackman is set to play the hero a final time in Logan, opening March 3.
While Jackman isn’t Canadian, having an Australian inhabit Wolverine’s iconic sideburns was the next best thing. Something about both nations being underdogs living in the shadow of greater powers? At first glance, Wolverine makes for an unlikely Canuck. Born in Alberta in the 1800s, his primary mutant powers are a healing factor, and razor-sharp claws that painfully burst through his hands. No X-ray vision; no gadgets or armoured vehicles; no mystical hammers or magical rings; no gamma radiation or radioactive spiders. Wolverine was born to cut things and recover from injury. As he might say, “That’s it, bub.” Modest. Just like us.
“Your country needs you!” the fanatic U.S. Major Stryker tells Wolverine in 2009. His response: “I’m Canadian.”
Wolverine’s pain threshold and berserker rage make him a prime candidate to suit up for Canada’s game. In another lifetime, he could have been a top hockey goon. With his signature horn-shaped cut, Logan could have given new meaning to hockey hair. The character’s lifelong battle against his animal instincts speaks to another Canadian trait. Endurance. The ability to survive the wilderness — and wildness — that defines our country. (Wolverine is essentially what would happen if a Mountie, and part-time lumberjack, happened to have been raised by Don Cherry and a team of coureur des bois.)
Wolverine and Canada are both always a bridesmaid, never a bride. People really like us, but someone else is always a little more important.
So, we can sympathize with Wolvie’s mostly unrequited love with Jean Grey; her boyfriend Cyclops — the X-Men’s laser-eyed leader — is the America of this equation. While Wolverine may not make the team’s big decisions, he often pointedly challenges them. As Slate.com put it in one movie review, “Like all wildly successful figures in American entertainment, Wolverine is a Canadian.” Wolverine first appeared in The
Incredible Hulk #180 hunting a Wendigo, a mythical Indigenous creature. Logan’s also a Canadian veteran of both Word Wars (Library and Archives Canada even released his fake military records this past April Fool’s.)
And like our complex, bilingual, multicultural nation, Wolverine is in a near-constant identity crisis (understandable, given he had his memory wiped.) After two centuries and counting, Logan is still struggling to figure out who he is. Canada, at age 150, is arguably in much the same place.
Wolverine doesn’t pretend to be anything he’s not. He’s not the flashiest, loudest or strongest superhero, but he just might be the most dependable (how very Canadian.) He always ends up joining the good fight. Beneath that gruff exterior is a big ol’ softy — a man of character who’ll stand on guard for thee.
In his eighth and final appearance before being declawed, Jackman’s silver-screen Wolverine is aged, weakened, broken down — and growling his way through an all-too-near apocalyptic future. America is a dusty, dry wasteland. Our hero’s powers of healing are diminished, and he boozes to kill chronic pain. Hiding on the Mexican border, Logan is just trying to survive, while helping care for an ailing Professor X (Patrick Stewart). Everything changes when Wolverine becomes the reluctant protector of a young mutant girl.
“This character will go on,” Jackman recently stated.
True, but whoever plays Logan next will have to be razor sharp. X is for great expectations.