These Wolverine variants are officially the strangest ever created, to the point where Marvel would rather that fans forget about them completely. Of course, as obscure as most of them might be, Marvel and its fans know full well that no version of its most iconic hero, no matter how absurd, is going to completely escape readers’ attention.
The characters here have made only limited appearances, with some restricted to only single cameo appearances. Yet, for better or worse, they made an impression, and forever etched themselves into Wolverine’s Multiversal Marvel history.
This list celebrates some of the weirdest incarnations of Logan to pop their claws, even if only for a single panel.
Clawed Monet
First And Only Appearance: “Say What? Astonishign X-Men,” Written By Mike Gallagher, Art By Dave Manak, From What If? Astonishing X-Men #1
Clawed Monet represents Wolverine at his most lighthearted. This affectionate parody is, of course, built around a pun on the name of famous painter Claude Monet. In his debut, and to this day singular appearance in Marvel lore, this version of the hero was featured chomping on a trademark cigar while holding a color palette, standing in front of an easel.
Hilariously, all the paintings in the super-artist’s studio have been torn to shreds by his eponymous claws. It is a great gag, one that expertly subverts Wolverine’s serious reputation in order to strike a chord with readers. Like most of the Logan variants here, Clawed wasn’t designed for longevity, but that doesn’t mean he might never pop up again.
Obnoxio-Wolverine
“What If Obnoxio the Clown Became Obnoxio-Wolverine?” Written And Illustrated By Alan Kupperberg, From What If #34
This bizarre Wolverine dupe represents a truely all-but-forgotten bit of Marvel Comics lore. Obnoxio the Clown is a deep-cut Marvel creation who originated in the pages of Crazy, a Mad-style magazine produced by Marvel. Eventually, Obnoxio popped into the mainstream Marvel canon for a brief appearance alongside the X-Men, which led to a What If? story recasting him as Wolverine.
This screwball comedy character might feel wildly out of place in the contemporary superhero comic landscape, but really, he is a testament to how much weirder and goofier comes were before the gritty anti-hero boom period of the 1990s. At the same time, it is fair to say Obnoxio’s brief masquerade as Wolverine is among the more embarrassing footnotes in the hero’s history.
Wolverham
First Appearance: Ultimate Civil War: Spider-Ham #1, Written By J. Michael Straczynski; Art By Various
Spider-Ham has become a fan-favorite variant of the Webslinger over the years, thanks to the comedic novelty of recasting Peter Parker as Peter “Porker,” an anthropomorphic pig. Naturally, this led Marvel to expand the universe surrounding Spider-Ham with other alternative takes on Marvel iconics, which led to the creation of Wolverham.
The basic premise is the same: a pig version of Logan. What makes the character memorable, even if Marvel would rather fans forgot about him, are the way Wolverham’s design accentuates the familiar aspects of the hero. His hair-do, in particular, is notoriously exaggerated, while the ill-fitting blue-and-yellow costume goes for a cheap, but admittedly successful laugh.
Wolverine-Bug
First Appearance: Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham #2, Written By Steve Skeates; Art By Mark Armstrong
Wolverine-Bug is another minor Marvel variant who has Spider-Ham to thank for his existence. Wolverine-Bug is a member of the X-Bugs, a madcap insectoid take on Marvel’s mutants that once again signifies how much sillier, and more self-parodic, the publisher was willing to get forty years ago, as compared to today.
This tiny take on the hero sports a distinct yellow-brown-and-black take on one of Logan’s early outfits. To the credit of the creators of Wolverine-Bug, as irreverent as a take on the character as it might be, he did manage to capture the spirit of the hero in a more coherent way than some of the more one-off analogs listed here.
“Mean” Wolverine/”The Fiend With No Name”
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #153, Written By Chris Claremont; Art By Dave Cockrum
“Mean” is a twisted take on Wolverine that was a product of an experimental 1980s issue of Uncanny X-Men. In a memorable story entitled “Kitty’s Fairy Tale,” Kitty Pryde tells Illyana Rasputin, the future hero Magik, a bedtime story, weaving an epic fantasy tale out of the familiar elements of the X-franchise.
In the issue’s funniest bit, Kitty renders Wolverine as “Mean,” or “the Fiend With No Name.” This incarnation of the character is depicted as squat, even more diminutive than the real version, and hyperbolically broad shouldered. He sports a mischievious grin, and only ever says a variation on the word “mean.”
In the decades since this initial appearance, “Mean” has shown up in a few subsequent comics, usually as a punchline, used to deliberately undercut the gravity of Wolverine as a character. Still, “the Fiend With No Name” remains one of the strangest extrapolations on the hero Marvel has ever produced.
“Rex-Men” Wolverine
First And Only Appearance: “Universe Rex” Written And Illustrated By Kevin McGuire, From X-Men: Millennial Visions #1
This dog version of Wolverine is another one-off, who appeared in the short comic story “Universe Rex” as part of the “Rex-Men,” an all-canine mutant squad. For all intents and purposes, Rex-Men’s version of the hero is an exact duplicate of ’90s Logan, down to the sleek yellow-and-blue costume, except he is a bulldog.
The Rex-Men version of Wolverine could easily be plucked from obscurity for a future Marvel animated series, if Marvel wanted to capitalize on the surprising proliferation of animal Avengers and X-Men in its history. At the same time, it wouldn’t be surprising if the publisher wanted to keep this obscure Logan variant under wraps.
Rumbo
First And Only Appearance: Power Pachyderms #1, Written by Roger Stern; Art By Maddie Blaustein
Hands down the most “out-there” incarnation of Wolverine Marvel has ever signed off on, Rumbo only bears passing resemblance to the hero, and might go unnoticed as a parody of the popular X-Men character if it weren’t pointed out. That’s because Power Pachyderms, published in 1989, is one of Marvel’s most inexplicable creative moves.
It’s unclear if Marvel intended to go further with Pachyderms, or really, how the book got green-lit in the first place. Today, it stands as a hilarious piece of comic book apocrypha, with Rumbo’s adamantium tusks and yellow-orange singlet highlighting his thin connection to Wolverine, while the character never quite materialized as more than a pastiche.
Wolvie (X-Babies)
First Appearance: X-Men Annual #12, Written By Christ Claremont; Art By Art Adams
The “X-Babies” are another one of the X-Men franchise’s strangest swings. Hailing from the bizarre “Mojoverse” pocket dimension, the X-Babies, including Wolvie, are adolescent versions of the X-Men created by Mojo. These miniature mutant heroes enjoyed a short spell of popularity, but the novelty wore off quickly enough. Still, a subset of fans remembers them fondly.
Wolvie and the X-Babies received their own miniseries in 2009, over twenty years after their introduction, but there hasn’t been much room for them in modern Marvel lore. As far as Wolvie himself goes, aside from his age, he is essentially an exact duplicate of the classic hero as fans know him.
That 2009 X-Babies miniseries actually introduced a second version of Wolvie, and as such, there are two competing versions in Marvel lore, setting the stage for future appearances by one or both. An X-Babies revival, in any form, would highlight the fact that no version of Wolverine is ever truly forgotten by Marvel and its fans.
- Created By
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Roy Thomas, Len Wein, John Romita Sr.
- First Appearance
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The Incredible Hulk (2023)
- Alias
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James “Logan” Howlett
- Alliance
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X-Men, Avengers, Canadian Army, OSS/CIA, Avengers Unity Squad, Alpha Flight, New Avengers, New Fantastic Four, Savage Avengers, Weapon X, X-Force
- Race
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Human-Mutant
