GUGGENHEIM ON WOLVERINE #48 AND BEYOND

[MattBrady]

So – back in Wolverine #43, the second issue of Marc Guggenheim and Humberto Ramos’ run, the titular hero of the title was burned down to his adamantium skeleton by Nitro, the same villain who, when it all comes down to it, is kinda responsible for this Civil War thing going on.

Of course, the issue before that, Wolverine survived a plane crash that killed everyone else aboard. Of course Guggenheim’s no sadist – he doesn’t have a jones for trying to kill Wolverine, he’s just following in the tradition laid down by dozens of writers before him – stab, shoot, dismember, burn, blow up, grind, or vaporize Wolverine, and he’ll come back. Sure – there are issues among fans in regards to how badly you can hurt Wolverine and still have him come back, but safe to say, at least for the past decade or so, the constraints have been pulled off, and as long as you’ve got one cell left, you can bet that Wolverine will return.

But – if Wolverine’s body is virtually destroyed…where does his mind go? Where does his soul go? Does he even know? Does he even care?

Guggenheim cares – and this week’s Wolverine #48 is his place to play around with the questions. We caught up with the writer to talk about the issue, the character, his upcoming Marvel Comics Presents run…which isn’t happening just as planned…and more.

Newsarama: So basically, with #48…you burned Wolverine up early on in your run, and now you have to explain how he's still alive and kicking. Does that about sum up the larger editorial mission of #48?

Marc Guggenheim: Not really. Actually, I'm glad you asked the question because it gives me an opportunity to clear up what I've been perceiving as a misunderstanding about the genesis of this issue. For one thing, there was no "editorial mission," as you put it. In fact, I had a totally blank canvas for Issue 48 -- it didn't even have to relate to "Vendetta," my Civil War tie-in story, if I didn't want it to. I really appreciated Wolverine editor Axel Alonso giving me that kind of leeway, because one of the Wolverine runs I took inspiration from was Mark Millar's, and I always loved how he ended his run with the self-contained Holocaust story and wanted to do something similar -- i.e., a powerful, impactful, self-contained issue. Towards that end, I started kicking around an idea that I thought would work as a self-contained story. The idea centered around a question I've had for a number of years: When Wolverine suffers the kind of injury that would conceivably destroy his brain, how does he manage to regenerate from it with his personality and memories intact? I pitched the explanation to Axel for issue #48 and he liked it, but correctly pointed out that there was too much story there for 22 pages. So I suggested revealing the explanation in issue #48, but leaving the explanation's backstory - the explanation for the explanation, if you will - for a future story arc.

Somewhere along the line, it occurred to me that this idea I had for issue #48 could "speak to" the larger "Vendetta" arc. Basically, there were more than a few instances in that arc -- which I was only half-way through writing at that point -- where I'd be giving Wolverine the kind of brain-destroying injuries that I was looking to explain in issue #48, so there was a potential point of connection. From there, I came up with a(nother) crazy idea: Make the plot of issue #48 contemporaneous with the plot of issues #42 through #47; basically, tell the story that was taking place "between the panels" of that issue. Once again, Axel -- who I'm now convinced just likes to play Russian roulette with both of our careers -- gave me his blessing.

NRAMA: And all of that came before the plan to burning him to a crisp?

MG: Right - this was all conceived of before the now-infamous "melting" of Wolverine in issue #43. In fact, when issue #43 damaged the structural integrity of the Internet (or somesuch), I commented to online journalist, Remy Minnick, "Great. Now everyone's going to think I'm doing this story to explain away the controversy."

But here's the funny thing: I never thought burning Wolvie down to his adamantium would be controversial in the first place. It always struck me as just another day at the office for Logan.

NRAMA: Right – there’s precedent for this kind of regeneration…including, among others, that Uncanny X-Men Annual where Wolverine came back from a drop of blood…

MG: Thank you!!! Someone's been listening to me!

NRAMA: But for this one – you burned him pretty conclusively. Without telling the story - what is the anchor for Wolverine in this regeneration? A few cells left alive, somewhere in al of that heat?

MG: There are certainly a few cells left for Wolverine to regenerate from - more than a few, actually. I think that was one of the reasons I didn't think his regeneration in this instance would be so controversial. The other reason is -- as you point out -- there's precedent for this kind of regeneration. In addition to the Claremont/Davis moment, Daniel Way has hit the guy with a nuke, Mark Millar incinerated him in an oven and Grant Morrison and Garth Ennis have also done some equally nasty stuff to him.

NRAMA: As you seem to be wanting to delve more into the metaphysical issues around complete morphological regeneration…where does Wolverine "go" for lack of a better term when this level of destruction occurs? Obviously, it’s hard to have thoughts when you don’t have a brain…

MG: Ah, that would be telling.

NRAMA: When writing comics, writers have always been able to wave their hands a little and invoke "comic book science," but you've got a couple of things working against that here - a sophisticated audience, and you pushed the limit to an extreme condition for Wolverine…

MG: That's the funny thing: Given the source material I mentioned above, it never occurred to me as being all that extreme.

NRAMA: Well, but that said, it seems as if you're going to have to go that extra mile to answer the majority of the questions...is that an accurate way to look at it?

MG: It would be if my intention was to answer those questions. But it really isn't. My only intention was to explain how Wolverine could regenerate from a brain-damaging injury yet still retain his memories and personality.

NRAMA: Base level for Wolverine - he mentioned that, after 500 degrees, you really don't feel the pain anymore, but in terms of reconstruction - how much does it hurt?

MG: Physically... or spiritually?

NRAMA: Er…

MG: That's a rhetorical question, by the way, 'cause I ain't saying.

NRAMA: So - basically, Wolverine can endure this, but isn't about to start doing it for fun on the weekends...get drunk and do a little self-immolation for ya-yas?

MG: I doubt it. In fact, in addition to explaining how Wolverine can retain his personality and memories, I also had a secondary goal. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't think I was doing anything all that different from what other writers have done - the suggestion that I did really came as a big surprise to me. I've read some postings on the Internet observing that Wolverine's healing factor has grown more and more powerful over the past, say, 20 years. I'd have to agree with that assessment. As a writer, you want to put your protagonist in a kind of physical jeopardy, but that has grown harder and harder to do with Wolverine, who appears to be able to heal from anything. So my ulterior motive was to increase the stakes for Wolverine; so that future writers can put him in physical jeopardy and still maintain a degree of suspense. And I wanted to do that without just crippling his healing factor. The solution I hit upon is based on the idea that just because Wolverine can heal from almost any injury, there is a massive cost to doing so.

NRAMA: Fair enough. Along with the exploration of his healing factor and the cost, the solicitation for this issue said that it lays the foundation of the next mystery for Logan - that will continue in the upcoming Marvel Comics Presents. First off - how did you land that gig of writing Wolvie in the new series?

MG: As with most gigs: Marvel asked. As I mentioned, issue #48 tees up another story for Wolverine. At the time, we weren't sure when and where and how that story would get told, but then a few months later, Marvel decided to go ahead with MCP and I was talking with MCP editor Andy Schmidt about doing a serialized story for them and someone -- I forget who -- said, "Well, y'know, there's that Wolverine story you still kinda owe us..." And it came out of that.

NRAMA: And you’re doing the story with Howard Chaykin, no less - he had mentioned earlier to us that he was having a great time on Blade with you, and wanted to do more...guess he wasn't fibbing, huh?

MG: I certainly hope not. Otherwise, he'd have to give me back all the money I've been paying him to say those things.

NRAMA: Format-wise, what are we looking at for you and Howard's Wolverine story? Is it 22 pages in each issue? Less?

MG: Well, that's an interesting question because the format has changed on us somewhat. Consider this your exclusive, because Howard and I will not be doing our Wolverine story within the pages of MCP. Rather, we're going to do the story in the pages of Wolverine-proper, after Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi finish up their run. So I'll be returning to the pages of Wolverine after all!

NRAMA: Very cool. But back to the story - tease it man, tease it - what does this upcoming mystery involve - Wolverine's past? Future? Something he though he knew, but doesn't really?

MG: It's very hard to tease that story because it's set up in issue #48 which I'm trying to tease at the moment. In other words, I can't think of a way to tease something off a tease except to say that the story is set up in issue #48... is that a tease?

NRAMA: Er…yeah? Finally - why Wolverine? What's the attraction of the character for you?

MG: I'm a short Canadian. With claws. No seriously, I just find the character very cool. I like his code of honor. I like his sense of humor, his way of looking at the world. He's had a very interesting life and he's one of those rare characters where you actually feel the weight of all those experiences when you're writing him. He's the Marvel Universe's Batman, in my opinion. He's a bit dark, a bit mysterious, a bit tortured and, as you may have heard, he's the best there is at what he does. Plus, like Batman, he really could give a crap about what other people think. I wish I was a little more like that.

[durkadurka]

I'm a fan of the run. I find the art really original for a wolverine story, and it seems to work pretty well. Needs more beer, though.

[Kerrz]

Still he avoids the concept of time. Sure, Claremont tore Wolvie to pieces, but he took two story arcs to recover. Guggenheim had Logan recover in half an issue... something equivalent to about twenty minutes if I had to guess.

[Snikkas]

At least when Claremont was writing Wolverine (in Uncanny or Classic X-Men) he set parameters for the healing factor. For example, there's one story in Classic X-Men where Sabretooth slashed Wolverine's jugular and it was explained that he had to stay conscious to stay alive.

And wouldn't an exlposion, either in a plane crash or by Nitro, be the same as being burned alive by Sentinels (ala Days of Future Past)?

It almost begs the questions, what comes first, the healing factor or the injury? If his healing factor is "always on" that means his body is recuperating from injuries that have not yet occured, so his body his already healing once the explosions happen.

I think I'm even confusing myself here....

[Jef]

A couple of things:

Wolverine rejuvinated from a drop of blood by way of a magical crystal in said X-Men Annual.

Also, Wolvie's brain is well protected in his admantium skeleton, which would go to explain how he doesn't lose his memories and self a lot more than some spiritual hocum.

[Jef]

Originally Posted by Snikkas

If his healing factor is "always on" that means his body is recuperating from injuries that have not yet occured [....]

You are confusing your self. That makes no sense. That his healing factor is always on does not mean that he is recuperating from injuries that have not yet occured.

[Doctor_Chronos]

Originally Posted by Jef

A couple of things:

Wolverine rejuvinated from a drop of blood by way of a magical crystal in said X-Men Annual.

Also, Wolvie's brain is well protected in his admantium skeleton, which would go to explain how he doesn't lose his memories and self a lot more than some spiritual hocum.

Yeah, seems that little detail is always forgotten. I don't remember exactly but it amounts to that given enough energy, he can regenerate from one blood cell. That crystal or whatever, was pumping all the energy of a star or galaxy or some such, through that one cell at the time. If that one cell was just sitting on a leaf in the woods, he'd be a goner.

Also, didn't he mention in a fight with the Hulk, that while he couldn't break the adamantium, if he took a punch in the head hard enough, his brain would just slam into the skull wall and turn into so much paste. A super-concussion, so to speak, so that much would lead to memory loss if the brain had to basically rebuild itself.

[Ye Olde Iowa]

More Guggenheim on Wolverine? That certainly makes me happy. I'm not sure how I feel about Chaykin on it though. He has been really hit-or-miss with me lately, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'd much rather see Ramos with Guggenheim. Then again, if I had my way, the Loeb-Bianchi arc would be a miniseries and Marc would keep going with Ramos on the regular title.

Still, though, this is some great news and I can't wait to see how it all plays out!

I think everyone is reading into continuity way too much with Wolverine though. There isn't an exact science to how the healing factor works, so each writer is going to interpret it differently. While I know that it can be annoying when major details (like a character's death) are contradicted, I think everyone is just nit-picking too much here.

[render man]

So basically Wolverine is immortal and can not be killed? Wheres the suspense in that? You've just made Wolverine stories a lot more boring.

[tridon]

Very cool. I'm glad Guggenheim is returning to Wolverine after the Loeb run. My only problem is that I wish Ramos was returning as well. Not the biggest fan of Chaykin. He's good but I can't always get into his art.

[durkadurka]

This is purely speculative here, but since wolverine's brain no longer "heals" over bad memories (as i seem to remember somebody saying a long time ago), and he doesn't have to put up with any more physical brain crap, maybe his healing factor got a major boost??
Whatever, the point is that he is wolverine!!! I'd rather see him get blown to pieces small enough to inhale and then come back than to have him die.
He might as well be immortal because he's never going to die anyway.

[BubbaKanoosh]

The Cyborgs in Austrailia, for the life of me I cant remember there name, released if you kept beating Wolverine and not give him time to heal his healing factor would "overload" so to speak.

I remember him coughing up blood and such when he, Jubilee, and Psylocke were roaming hte country...

[durkadurka]

Originally Posted by BubbaKanoosh

The Cyborgs in Austrailia, for the life of me I cant remember there name, released if you kept beating Wolverine and not give him time to heal his healing factor would "overload" so to speak.

I remember him coughing up blood and such when he, Jubilee, and Psylocke were roaming hte country...

The Reavers?

[skaly]

Someone should do an arc about how Wolvie's powers have changed over the years, because it feels like Marvel has glossed over the subject too much. Who should write it?

[James Seals]

This is the arc that brought me back to Wolverine after leaving with Millar's first two issues or so. Wasn't that I disliked Millar's run, just not enough cash loving to spread around at the time.

Glad to hear that it'll continue on in some form post #48.

-James

[BanMan]

Originally Posted by render man

So basically Wolverine is immortal and can not be killed? Wheres the suspense in that? You've just made Wolverine stories a lot more boring.

Not immortal, it just takes A LOT to kill him.

Oh and the Adamantium skeleton won't help his brain much at all. In some cases. Sure it won't be falling out of his skull but it could still turn to much given enough force or be burned from the inside.

[mikeyg]

guys, its a comic, the comic book science wont work no matter what you think of. Just relax and read the funny books.

[The Bry]

Originally Posted by render man

So basically Wolverine is immortal and can not be killed? Wheres the suspense in that? You've just made Wolverine stories a lot more boring.

I don't think that's the case here, but if you consider the fact that if Marvel went that route and killed him off, fanboys would be clamoring for them to bring him back...or worst he'd just show up in the Exiles series or something. to me this just reads as another Wolvie story, nothing really crazy out there, just Logan slashing and hacking a great deal of people...though the plane crash bit was cool as hell I thought kind of morbid but still really cool to see him get through it...but that's just me

[StevieCool]

So can we split him in half like a Planarian or not?

[Bird Flu Man]

Originally Posted by StevieCool

So can we split him in half like a Planarian or not?

Yeah, is he like Lobo now? Can you chop him into a million little pieces and get a mllion little Wolverines?

If so, I think this calls for "Sloverine" joining the Young Avengers!

[WadeGarrett]

Originally Posted by Jef

Also, Wolvie's brain is well protected in his admantium skeleton, which would go to explain how he doesn't lose his memories and self a lot more than some spiritual hocum.

Of course, once a fire burned out his eyes and got into his brain, he'd have a problem.

[rbenevid]

Originally Posted by BanMan

Not immortal, it just takes A LOT to kill him.

Oh and the Adamantium skeleton won't help his brain much at all. In some cases. Sure it won't be falling out of his skull but it could still turn to much given enough force or be burned from the inside.

Talk about 'A LOT'. Maybe if someone toss him in the sun?

What I find funny is that Wolvie takes 10 minutes to fully recover from being burned down to his skeleton and hours to recover from being punched by Namor.

[Ace]

I'm ok with it being impossible to kill Wolvie IF and only IF the emphesis is shifted back to where it should be, on Wolvie fighting the bestial instincts and refusing to kill, in finding another way,d espite every instinct telling him to take the easy road.

They got so far away from that in the Millar run.

[lex luthor]

Regarding the healing factor, I think we're all over thinking this. As long as the story is entertaining, I'm willing to suspend logic.

All in all, Marc Guggenheim is a heck of a writer. In less than a year he's established himself as one of Marvel's best writers. There is no doubt in my mind that he's written the best Civil War tie-in. Frankly, it's better than the main Civil War series (great idea, horrible execution).

I'm curious to see what he can do with Spidey (minus the vampire fangs ), The Xmen, aaaaannnnnnddddddd, drumroll please . . . . . . . . Young Avengers.

[Clockwork]

After Wolverine lost his adamantium, Professor X said the only way to kill Wolverine was to cut off his head. Take his head away from the body then he dies. But how are you going to get through that adamantium.