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Is Wolverine the Best Canadian Superhero?

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On Tuesday it broke that Hugh Jackman would be reprising his role as an Australian actor playing a Canadian everyone thinks is America - Wolverine!

With Professor Ashley wrapping up her AURORA AND THE EAGLE #1 Kickstarter campaign (there’s only a couple days, so be sure to preorder if you missed the campaign!), there’s been a lot made about Canadian superheroes! We wanted to pull out to a macrocosmic view and answer the question:

Is Wolverine the Best Canadian Superhero?

Being Canadian entails being many different things. Professor Ashley has spoken candidly and extensively about her own relationship to her Canadian identity and about her journey to dual citizenship. Listen to our Jason and Ashley’s Excellent Adventures series Ashley’s Immigration Updates:

From the view of the rest of the world, being Canadian entails: enjoying hockey, chugging beer or whiskey, being the kindest person alive, withstanding the cold, peacekeeping, and more.

Additionally, it implies that you have a long history of inspiring some fantastic comic book characters. Nelvana of the Northern Lights (currently free on Comixology unlimited!), debuted in 1941 and is Canada’s first national superhero. She debuts earlier than Wonder Woman who is credited with 1942 as her debut. Maple Leaf Publishing also graced us with Brock Windsor during the Second World War. Captain Canuck comes to mind for a lot of readers making his debut in 1975 (the Silver Age), with the catchiest of Canadian names.

American publishers got in on the Canadian nationalism as well with Marvel Comics trotting out Alpha Flight and creating who most comic book reader identify as the most famous Canadian superhero: James Logan Howlett a.k.a. Wolverine.


Does he even count as Canadian?

Writing as someone who is Canadian, many of my friends and fellow comic book readers associated with Wolverine and were incredibly happy that he was Canadian. He was powerful. He was cool. He was popular. He was us.


However, there was always the argument it's difficult to declare definitively that Wolverine is Canadian. His Canadian heritage is only seldom brought up in connection with an Alpha Flight narrative, but otherwise, he has many characteristics with the archetypal American anti-hero.


… and you know how much I hate the phrase “anti-hero”.


What attributes of Canada does Wolverine exemplify?


None of the Canadian superheroes are as well-known or adored as Wolverine. He is not only the most focal X-Men character (with numerous X-Men movies focusing around him directly to the detriment of other team members), but he was also the first X-Men to get his own solo movie. Admittedly, it was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but we won’t hold that against him. 


When Wolverine first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #180, he swiftly established himself as a character not to be trifled with. He possesses a healing factor that enables him to recover from any wound, even those caused by nuclear bombs, as well as an almost impenetrable skeleton.

He drinks and he smokes which are both traits credited with Canadians and afforded Wolverine by his healing factor.

He’s a touch outdoorsman, he wears flannel, and he’s kind. What could be more Canadian than that? Over the years Wolverine has become memeified for the mentor role he has often taken on across X-Men franchises with young women. From Kitty Pryde, to Rogue, to Jubilee, to Laura Kinney. What’s more Canadian than looking after the less fortunate? This is such a cornerstone part of his personality it inspired Wolverine’s third swing at a solo movie: Logan.

What does this all mean?

As long as Canada wants Wolverine to be Canadian and writers want to trade on our best characteristics, we will continue to embrace him as out fellow countryman.

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