Spoilers for “Deadpool & Wolverine” to follow.
In “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) learns from the Time Variance Authority (TVA) that his universe is dying. This is mostly because Marvel Studios parent company Disney bought 20th Century Fox (home of the “X-Men” movie franchise since Marvel Comics sold off the rights in the 1990s). It’s also, though, because in 2017’s “Logan,” Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) died.
The “X-Men” franchise made Logan its star and did not do a good job getting the audience hooked on the other characters. So, without Logan, the sustaining-interest in the setting is gone. It’s typical “Deadpool” metatext, especially since with this film, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is bringing Jackman back as Logan to renew interest in itself.
After getting the news his universe is due for a pruning, Deadpool begins hopping across the multiverse. He thinks if he can find a Wolverine to fill his world’s Logan-shaped hole, the catastrophe will be averted.
There was a glimpse of this montage in the “Deadpool & Wolverine” Super Bowl trailer. Deadpool is walking through a casino and a man in a white suit, seen only from behind, sits at the head of a Poker table.
It turns out that this man is a Wolverine variant, one with an eyepatch. Marvel Comic fans will recognize this outfit as “Patch,” an alias Logan uses whenever he dives into the criminal underworld of Madripoor, a (fictional) island nation in Southeast Asia.
Marvel Comics’ Wolverine, aka Logan, aka Patch
Wolverine got his first ongoing, eponymous comic series in 1988. (He’d previously starred in a 1982 mini-series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, which established his long-standing ties to Japan.) “Wolverine” was initially written by Claremont (who’d been writing the X-Men since 1975) and drawn by John Buscema. Instead of just doing stories like those that people could read in “X-Men,” Claremont took “Wolverine” in a more hard-boiled direction (down to having Logan narrate the comic in prose out of a Dashiell Hammett novel).
Wolverine first goes to Madripoor in “Save The Tiger” by Claremont and Buscema, published in “Marvel Comics Presents” #1-10, months before “Wolverine” #1 hit stands. (“Save The Tiger” is basically the pilot for Wolverine’s solo series.) Madripoor has sharp social stratification — the “Lowtown” half is a den of criminals. That’s where Logan stumbles into a turf war between his acquaintance Jessán Hoan and the local crime lord Roche. Hoan, acting as the vigilante Tyger Tiger, is looking to depose Roche as Madripoor’s top cat.
In “Save The Tiger” chapter 4, Logan is injured fighting one of Roche’s men. He starts wearing an eyepatch while his healing factor does its work. Chapter 6 opens with a single-page spread of Wolverine sailing on the bow of a small wooden sail ship. The imagery and eyepatch make him look like a pirate; Logan certainly has the untamed spirit of one.
Marvel ComicsOnce Roche is disposed of, Logan decides that he’ll be staying in Madripoor; the country is his kind of place. He buys half ownership in the local Princess Bar and debuts his new “Patch” look (white suit, black bowtie, and eyepatch) to Hoan. (The alias is because the X-Men, including Wolverine, are assumed dead by the world at the time, but that’s another story.)
In Madripoor, The X-Men meet Casablanca
Claremont only wrote nine issues of “Wolverine.” (#1-8, then #10. #9 was a fill-in written by Peter David.) But in that limited time-frame, he established a Madripoor-supporting cast for “Patch” that could’ve sustained many more issues. This cast included:
Roan/Tyger Tiger, who soon faced plots to usurp her as she had Roche.
O’Donnell, co-owner of the Princess Bar.
Captain Tai, Madripoor’s chief of police.
Archibald Corrigan, a cargo pilot and Princess Bar patron.
Jessica Drew, the former Spider-Woman turned private eye.
Lindsay McCabe, Jessica’s former roommate and small-time actress/singer.
General Coy, Roan’s rival in Madripoor’s underworld.
Prince Baran of Madripoor.
Claremont’s “Wolverine” issues featured Wolverine playing different angles in gangster power plays (Madripoor is a hot spot of opium and human trafficking). He never wears his yellow X-Men costume during action scenes, but rather a sleeveless black outfit. (He still brings out the claws when he needs to, though.)
These early “Wolverine” stories and their Madripoor setting are a giant homage to “Casablanca.” Patch even has the same white suit as saloon owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart). Like Casablanca was in that movie, Madripoor is a hub of lost souls and underworld trade. Claremont tips his hand in “Wolverine” #8, where Logan/Patch sits in the Princess Bar and narrates: “In ‘Casablanca,’ in the good ol’ days, everybody went to Rick’s. Where deals were cut and hearts were broken. In Madripoor, it’s the Princess Bar.” Tai especially feels modeled on Captain Renault (Claude Rains), being a French-speaking policeman and frenemy of the rogueish lead.
Claremont was never shy about using his favorite movies as inspiration for “X-Men.” The parasitic alien Brood are basically Xenomorphs from “Alien.” After Jean Grey dies in “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” her lover Scott Summers/Cyclops meets and falls for her doppelganger, Madelyne Pryor. That character (and her name) homages the identity twist in “Vertigo.”
Does Wolverine still play Patch?
Claremont himself would revisit Madripoor in 1990’s “Uncanny X-Men” #268 (“Madripoor Knights,” drawn by Jim Lee.) The issue has a dual timeline; during World War II, Logan and Captain America saved a young Black Widow from being turned into an assassin for ninja cult The Hand. In the present, Wolverine (plus Psylocke and Jubilee) meet the grown Black Widow in Madripoor.
After Claremont left “Wolverine,” later writers moved Logan away from Madripoor and Patch. Larry Hama (who wrote Wolverine from 1990 to 1997) began his run with Wolverine as Patch but took the story in another direction. He brought back Madripoor in “Wolverine” #98, where Logan awakens in the middle of the destroyed Princess Bar, with several of Patch’s supporting characters (Archie and O’Donnell) lying dead — the mystery is what happened to them.
Marvel Comics haven’t forgotten about Patch or Madripoor, though. In 2022, Hama wrote the five-part mini-series “Wolverine: Patch” (drawn by Andrea Di Vito), set in Madripoor before his original run on “Wolverine.” The story features Logan rescuing a family of Russian mutants who are being pursued by SHIELD, the KGB, and Madripoor’s crime bosses (including Coy and Baran.) Archie Corrigan and Tyger Tiger play supporting roles. Most of “Wolverine: Patch” is set not in Madripoor’s Lowtown urban center but the island’s jungles, recalling “Wolverine” #1 and #5 (Logan plays a moonlight swamp slasher in both.) The global espionage angle likewise makes it feel like a proper Wolverine-Madripoor story.
Marvel ComicsClaremont recently finished the mini-series “Wolverine: Madripoor Knights” (art by Edgar Salazar), set immediately after “Uncanny X-Men” #268 and featuring Wolverine as Patch. It took 24 years, but Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine finally got Patch’s eyepatch and white tux too.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” is now playing in theaters.
Source link
