Wolverine is one of the most recognisable superheroes out of all the comic book universes, even before the X-Men films hit cinemas he was well known to those who had never picked up a comic book. This list will provide interesting facts about him but it will be a lot more about the comic book version rather than the film one that most people know him as today. His story is jam packed with loads of crazy history and hopefully even those who have read the comics books may find something new here!

 

 

 

 

10. He’s only 5 foot 3 in height

Starting off with one of the more known facts, this may come as a surprise to those who don’t know. A lot of people would think he’s a towering brute who can use his height to add to his intimidation but he’s basically a midget in superhero height terms. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as his low height adds to his agility and stealth.

 

 

 

 

 9. He was the first Canadian superhero

Not really the most relevant first in Marvel history, such as the first openly homosexual superhero or first african-american superhero but it’s a cool fact nonetheless. He doesn’t live up to the Canadian stereotypes that’s for sure.

 

 

 

 

8. He’s really old

The picture shown is of Logan/Wolverine in the first World War, he was born right before the turn of the 20th century and has featured in both World Wars (even fighting alongside Captain America in World War 2). This means he’s around 120-130 years old so it explains how powerful he is. I mean, having the experience of fighting for almost 100 years, learning countless fighting styles and all the time becoming stronger and stronger, there’s no surprise he’s one of the strongest mainstream superheroes.

 

 

 

 

 

7. He knows 18 different languages

In that time, he's learned 18 different languages.

He’s been all over the world many times so it’s only natural that he knows a lot of languages. He knows English, Cheyenne, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Lakota and Spanish fluently. He’s also familiar with Korean, Persian, Italian, French, Thai, Filipino, German, Vietnamese,  Hindi, and Portugese. You wouldn’t expect someone with a name like Wolverine to be so multilingual.

 

 

 

 

6. He’s been included in more “teams” than any other superhero

Another thing that most people think about Wolverine is that he’s a loner but I can’t fault them for that as most depictions of him describe him as a loner. He’s actually quite the opposite when it comes to teaming up, it can’t be that he needs help with certain fights as he can beat pretty much anyone. He’s joined the Alpha Flight, Avengers, Avengers Unity Squad, Department H, Department K, The Hand, Horsemen of Apocalypse, Hydra, Jean Grey School, Landau Luckman and Lake, New Avengers, New Fantastic Four, S.H.I.E.L.D, Secret Defenders, Team X, Weapon plus, Weapon X, X-Force (as shown in the above picture), X-men and X-Treme Sanctions Executive.

 

 

 

 

5. His alcohol problem

About his alcohol problem, he doesn’t/can’t have one. Although he can become an alcoholic, the negative effects of frequent heavy drinking don’t affect him due to his regenerative powers. It also takes a lot more alcohol for him to get drunk than it would for us (although even without his powers he could probably still drink any of us under the table). The same goes for smoking, any negative effects us mere mortals would succumb to are just practice for his powers to him. One thing is for sure, if you need a designated driver for a trip home, give Wolvie a call.

 

 

 

 

4. He CAN swim

So this one is a funny one. While doing the research for this list I ended up just reading a lot about Wolverine as he’s the most interesting character I’ve encountered so far and I found an interesting question. Can Wolverine swim? The first answer you’d pick would probably be “no” (like most of the people who answered the question) due to the fact his body is full of metal. He can swim, it has been depicted a few times and hasn’t been officially said that he can’t. He’s incredibly strong, he wouldn’t float like most of us would but he’d be able to swim quickly for a long while but eventually he would get exhausted and drown but that would be a ‘stranded at sea’ situation.

What Wolverine has said is that he’s scared of swimming because it’s one of the few ways he can die. Cut him in half? Fine. Shoot him 50 times? No problem. Drowning though, is a different story.

 

 

 

 

3. The Hulk

There aren’t many characters as powerful as Wolverine in the Marvel universe and there’s even less who could form a long lasting rivalry with him but Wolverine and Hulk have fought each other many times. Wolverine’s first appearance was actually in a Hulk comic and there was a story arc where the Hulk actually ripped Wolverine in half (pictured). Hulk is arguably one of the most overpowered heroes in the franchise so he is a fitting challenger for Wolverine.

 

 

 

 

2. Jean Grey

Wolverine’s interest in Jean Grey is a sad one, he regarded her as the love of his life but due to her loyalty to Cyclops, she couldn’t let Wolverine have what he wanted. This didn’t stop her from leading him on a few times, even kissing him once. If Jean had left Cyclops for Wolverine, it could have made an interesting story arc and eventually turn to Jean choosing one of the two.

 

 

 

 

1. He’s really busy

Wolverine is one of the most useful superheroes as he’s very powerful but can always be available. Hulk for example never really follows orders and Thor has an entire galaxy to roam. Wolverine has so much going on in terms of comics and films that I doubt he ever gets a moment to himself. Right now he currently has his “own” solo adventures, he’s part of the New Avengers as well as some X-Men teams and makes some guest appearances in other comics all the time.

This is probably just because he is so popular rather than his actual story line but he’s getting milked quite a bit.

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the list!