Fuck You. Badassery.

He’s the best there is at what he does. And what he does. . . isn’t very nice. You know him, I know him, hell, even people who don’t read comics know him. He’s The Wolverine. Well, maybe just Wolverine these days. . . Or Logan. The feral mutant with the adamantium claws, extreme healing factor, uncontrollable body air, rotten scent and an attitude to match. The poster boy of the X-Men. The leader of the X-Force. One of the only characters to guarantee a second printing with him on the cover.

Born with the name James Howlett in the 1890’s in Alberta Canada, James was the son of Elizabeth and John Howlett Jr. The younger of two sons, Elizabeth went insane after her first son, John Howlett III, died under mysterious circumstances years earlier. It is hinted by, well, just about everyone that James’ older brother was a mutant too. His mom even has the scars to prove it. But enough of the dead. Back to the bad ass.

Long story short, in the 1900’s a young Irish girl named Rose is hired to be James’ companion because he has no friends. The two soon become friends with the other youth, Dog Logan, son of the gardener of the Howletts’. IT’s funny because Dog’s father , Thomas, looks EXACTLY LIKE AN OLDER WOLVERINE. KINDA WEIRD, HUH.  Years later Thomas tries to convince Elizabeth to leave with him. She says no so Thomas does what any rational man would do. He kills her husband. In front of her kid, his friend and her. At this point, the badass in James is awakened. For the first time in his life he pops those bone claws that everyone wishes they had. He ends up scaring Dog ACROSS THE FACE and killing Thomas. That’s right, it took 4.8 seconds for James to avenge his father. Badass. What’s weird is that his mom then ran to Thomas’ corpse and cried over it. Its assumed they slept together at this point. So, again, Elizabeth does what any rational person would do. She calls her son a freak, banishes him and shoots herself in the face with the closet gun she could find. This was the beginning of the past that is Wolverine’s. But we’re not here to discuss his loooooooong past. We’re here to talk about why he’s a badass.

Wolverine, like the previously mentioned Ernest Hemingway, is a multi-war-veteran. He fought in both World War I AND World War II. Plus a few more in the middle. He even fought the angel of death and won. Let me repeat that in caps. WOLVERINE BEAT THE ANGEL OF DEATH IN BATTLE. Ok, we got that? Good. There was also a shit ton of other things he did in the wars that would make a normal man seem epic, but compared to fighting the angel of death, they seem insignificant. Except for fighting with Captain America in WWII. Thats pretty badass. Wolverine was and still is able to fight with Captain America both before and after he was frozen in a chunk of ice.

Logan, like most badasses, also has a nemesis. Sabretooth. These two beasts have been at each other’s throats (literally) for years and years. Their battles could be described as epic or visually stunning. But what they really are are the most badass things anyone has ever seen. Neither of these two can die by normal means. They’re skewered each other’s eyeballs, they’ve boiled each other alive and they’re probably cut each other up in every direction. To be able to survive and walk away from a battle like that doesn’t just make you awesome. It makes you a badass.

Now, I could continue to go on and on about how bad ass Logan/James/Wolverine is and chances are I probably will down the line. So for all intents and purposes let’s just say this is “Why Wolverine is a Total Badass Pt. 1: The Beginnings”.