James Howlett

To be a true hero you need to inspire people. The most inspirational people are those people that overcome traumatic events or serious illness/injury, but sometimes this is not enough to inspire people. People are more likely to be inspired by cool people which is a sad fact, but a true one nonetheless. The X-Men character Wolverine has overcome many injuries and traumatic events while staying cool.

James Howlett, also known as Wolverine, Logan, and Weapon X, has dealt with tragedy his whole life. Wolverine would go on to join various groups and fight a great deal, and while fighting he would sustain and overcome many serious injuries. During the Weapon X Program, Wolverine had adamantium graphed to his skeleton, and many years later Magneto would tear it from his body during a fight. As you can imagine having metal ripped from you bones and through your skin will leave you extremely injured, but due to Wolverine’s healing power, he did not die. How can any man live through that much pain? Wolverine must have some special military training that’s helps him withstand pain. Later, Genesis would try to put adamantium back on Wolverine’s bones, but his body rejected it. He became wild and crazy afterwards, but he eventually regained his sanity. Apocalypse successfully coated Wolverine’s skeleton with adamantium again, which has to be a relatively painful process. When Wolverine was in a duel with Lord Shingen, a sword went all the way though his body and it took him two months to recover. I know he can heal and what have you, but he can still feel pain, if I were him I would try to avoid injury more. Wolverine’s healing power cannot heal his emotional and psychological wounds.

Wolverine does not know who he truly is. During the Weapon X Program, Wolverine received memory implants so some or all of his memories may be false. Wolverine has tried to find out which memories are really his, but he has failed for the most part. Only one of his old memories was proven true a memory of him fighting in WWII with Captain America. That has got to be frustrating, not knowing who you truly are. Wolverine’s healing ability has given him a long life span, so many of his memories could be true, but then again the Weapon X experiments may have erased some of his true memories. Wolverine may never know the full truth.

True heroes inspire people. It is an unappealing fact that most people are more likely to be inspired by someone with a cool persona. Wolverine has the cool persona plus he is not an impossibly perfect superhero like Superman. Wolverine has made mistakes in the past much like saints and people in the bible, such as Moses and King David. These things make him easier to relate to. Since he is cool and semi-realistic he is more likely to inspire people. People who inspire other people are heroes.