Okay, I've always hated the retcon idea that Wolvie's claws were bone

[Orrex]

And I'm going to hate it in the new movie, too.


Just had to get that off my chest. Thanks.

[Broken_Hero]

1. I never minded he had bone claws

originally, and had the admantium bonded to his bone system later on....so, whats all the hub bub, bub?....:D

[Orrex]

2. Well...

Off the top of my head, I can think of two places where his claws are specifically decribed as bionic. One time was in X-Men somewhere around issue 185, when Kitty Pryde had been kidnapped by the Morlocks to marry Caliban. Confronting Leech, Logan threatened him by declaring that Leech's power-dampening ability wouldn't work on Logan's claws.

Also, prior to the retcon, The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe had a fairly elaborate diagram and description of his claws, explicitly describing them as bionic.

I think it might also have come up in Alpha Flight, but I can't remember for sure.


Anyway, I'm not a big fan of retcons anyway, because too often they're done for commercial or editorial reasons, rather than for reasons of character or story.

For that matter, didn't the same bone-claws storyline indicate that his healing ability was due to some kind of implant? I'm hazy on this because I never actually owned the story arc in which Magneto de-adamantiumed Logan, and I read a friend's copy.


Damn, I'm old.

[semillama]

3. what I don't like is when artists draw the claws

as longer than wolvie's forearms. Drives me nuts.

[Orrex]

4. Yeah! What's that about?!?

There was a long stretch in the 80's when artists couldn't decide whether the blades were positioned horizontally or vertically, too. Since the first X-Men film they seem to have settled on vertical, but there was a lot of back and forth before that.

But the longer-than-his-arms thing is baffling. Do the claws magically bend halfway along their length while they're retracted?

[semillama]

5. Or if the claws were telescopic or something. really.

This John Romita Jr. drawing has them at somewhat of an appropriate length.



but going back to the addition of blades vs. natural bone issue:

If it's going to be "official" canon now that they are part of his mutation/genetic heritage (I've not been clear on this issue since a story line a year or two ago that implies that Wolverine is descended from a whole race of similar beings), then they can't look like knife blades - they should look like metal-coated claws, cylindrical in cross-section, not wedge-shaped like blades.

[Orrex]

6. If he's really descended from a whole race of such beings, then that's really lame

When Wolvie made his debut in that Hulk vs. Wendigo story, his creators initially considered making the claws part of his gloves. In the end they decided against it, because then anyone who put on the gloves could be Wolverine.

If there is (or was) a whole race of Logan-types, then everything that was cool about his uniqueness goes out the window. In fact, Marvel has already worked very hard to destroy this cool aspect of his character with all of its Weapon-X shit. That's the sound of a comic company wringing every last cent out of a property.