There’s one thing that immediately jumps out when you watch even just a few seconds of Marvel’s Wolverine in action: it’s jaw-droppingly violent. There is so. Much. Blood. After a fight with a single enemy, Wolverine is drenched in gore and his own flesh is cut to ribbons. By a comfortable distance, Insomniac’s follow-up to its Spider-Man series is looking like the most violent superhero game we’ve ever seen.
While there will be a suite of violence customization settings for more squeamish players, it’s important to recognise that the immense violence on show here is not overkill. It’s actually completely in keeping with the character. The more you know about Wolverine, born as James Howlett, the more the hard-hitting bloodshed makes sense. This is not just violence for violence's sake. Let’s explore Wolverine’s complex comic book history to see why brutality is key to making the ultimate Wolverine game.
Comics (and particularly Marvel’s output) have a reputation for being kid-friendly, but most issues focused on Wolverine are hyper-violent and intended for more adult readers. There are staggering amounts of blood and death within those pages. In fact, one of Wolverine’s in-game abilities, “Rage Mode,” appears to be directly inspired by Logan’s antics in the 2020 comic series Wolverine: Black, White & Blood.
If your only experience of Logan comes via the X-Men films, then this may come as a surprise. While many of them are excellent, the movies present a much more family-friendly version of Wolverine. Hugh Jackman delivers plenty of the character’s trademark smart talk and attitude, but the majority of his appearances lack the visceral, cover-your-eyes kind of violence the character has delivered time and time again in the comics. Logan and Deadpool & Wolverine, both R-rated, get the closest to exploring his true nature, but even they still come in a few notches below the comics – yes, even that decapitation of Sabretooth is comparatively tame.
Stripping the violence way back makes sense from a film perspective (and a box-office one), but it robs the character of a core part of what makes him tick. Sanitizing the violence sanitizes the man himself. The comics are about a character who doesn’t just fight when necessary to protect his friends – there is rage in Wolverine. Violence isn’t just something he’s capable of, it’s an intrinsic part of him that he cannot live without. This is the guy who tore Hulk open from the inside (WOLVERINE: OLD MAN LOGAN GIANT SIZED 2009 #1), and that kind of untamed brutality is what a great Wolverine game needs—it must explore his extreme relationship with extreme violence.
That relationship began early. In Wolverine: Origin (2001), young James Howlett is described as “frail and sickly.” His father, John, is kind and loving, but his mother has become a recluse since her eldest son died of illness. You can practically feel the heartbreak in his face as John looks up at his mother’s balcony, hoping to catch even a glimpse of her. He’s a sweet, loving kid who wouldn’t hurt a fly – a far cry from the clawed killer he’ll one day become.
One moment changes everything: James watches a man called Logan kill his father with a shotgun. It’s a moment he can never return from. Completely and utterly overcome by rage, bone claws emerge from his hands for the first time, and he leaps at Logan, tearing apart his abdomen. It’s a natural, swift movement, as if James had been training for this his whole life. No longer the meek, sickly child: now, he is a brutal killer, so overpowered by grief that violence becomes the only answer. In the last frame of the story’s second issue, he kneels over the carnage he’s created, letting out a primal roar, a toxic mixture of grief and rage. He is no longer James. Now, he is Wolverine. The innocence he’s lost is gone for good.
This is an essential moment in understanding why Wolverine is prone to brutality. He’s predisposed to violence; when bad things happen, he doesn’t hesitate or hide, he gets brutal. He throws himself into action and doesn’t look back. This has remained consistent since he first appeared in Marvel comics in 1974. While many heroes refuse to kill, Wolverine has no issues taking a life. And so any game featuring Logan must channel a character that leaps into violence as an innate response.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/why-brutality-is-the-key-to-making-the-ultimate-wolverine-game
