How can Wolverine appear in so Many Issues?

[Mark Caringer]

I thought I shed some light on the talk about how Wolverine is in many places at once, especially when he was in most X-books, the fact is that we are dealing with fictional characters, but even in real life it is very possible for Wolverine to have many adventures in a single month, think about it you can have a different adventure everyday.

Saying that Wolverine's adventures sometimes take place in many different places including around the world, so when Wolverine was appearing in several x-books, like Astonishing, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Wolverine and Wolverine Origins he had people with flight powers, common transportation and of course a freaken' SR-71 that was most likely upgrading with alien or futuristic technology.

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird is a fast airplane. A regular blackbird's Absolute Speed Over a Straight Course record of 2,070.101 mph. That record was set on May 1, 1965. Talk about extreme speed! and I'm sure they have made improvements.

The circumference of the Earth is 24,901.55 miles (40 075.16 km) at the equator. If we were measuring around the poles, the circumference would be a bit shorter.

so with that in mind Wolverine could be travel around the world twice in 1 day, that means he could be on opposite sides of the world in a single day. that means he could be in 60 places in an average month. since at the time he was only in 5 books that would let him have up to 6 days worth of time in each book, but if you reed any of those books most of the time he was a panel or two and half the time it was at the x-mansion, which required no travel.

In conclusion Wolverine is very easily able to appear in 5 books, in fact he could appear in several more with out any problem travel wise. I haven't even discussed his other ways of travel such as futuristic travel teleportation(cable, Forge), hand teleportation, Inter dimensional travel(LL&L), SHIELD, magic(current new avengers), phasing(shadowcat), and his good ol' classic scoot(Harley).

please tell me I'm wrong ;D

P.S. for those criers out there Wolverine currently only appears in Wolverine Origins, Wolverine, Astonishing X-Men and New Avengers, which is less then it was. Ultimate does not count since that is a different character. I do agree with people that don't want wolverine wh0red out to sell books, but there was a bunch of people that said it was impossible for him to appear in these issues based on travel.

[wolverinelimited]

The impolite acronym you are searching for is "PFM".

[Mark Caringer]

There are alot of acronyms for PFM, but the polite one that is most used and would work her is "Pure Freaking Magic" is this the correct one you were talking about?

[Megalictis]

Yeah, the SR-71 is the fastest plane on earth, setting the record for a non-stop flight from LA to Washington DC (just under an hour).

Because Wolverine makes so many "guest appearances" in mini-series and other titles (not so many in recent months), you can almost put half the Marvel stories into chronological order just by putting Wolverine's appearances in order. (And if you put Spider Man's appearances in order, you get most of the other half).

Gugenheim even made a joke about it in Wolverine (vol 3) #42:


But remember that the problem of "Where's Wolverine" is not just about travel time between adventures, but also how much time elapses in each story, and what consequences result. For example, the scar inflicted by the Muramasa blade on Wolverine's chest that didn't heal for several issues of Wolverine: Origins. Also there are situations where one story arc in one title leads directly into the next with no break in between. For example, Wolverine (vol 2) #51-65 all take place between X-Men #7 and #8 (according to the Marvel Chronology Project).

[Mark Caringer]

megalictis said:

But remember that the problem of "Where's Wolverine" is not just about travel time between adventures, but also how much time elapses in each story, and what consequences result.

ya thats a bit true, but since you said that it got me thinking about story arcs, so if he is in 4 books right now and say each one of those is having a 6 issue story arcs that means, in an average month there is thirty days times that by 6 months thats 180 days and if there is 4 arcs going on, then I would say that each arc can have 45 days of story, but i would say from experience its rare to have a story span that long, I would say a 6th month story arc is worth about a week in real time it just depends on the writer.

so in a year worth of a comic(usally 2 arcs and 1 filler) it about a month in marvel time. Plus many stories are told out of order. an exception to this would be millars run, I think his year added up to a couple of months ans maybe his filler issues was a week, but it took place in his past.

it just seems very clear that Wolverine is more then able to be in several issues

PS Wolverine's muramesa blade cut has not healed yet

[Megalictis]

Yes, it's probably not impossible for Wolverine to fit all his activities over several years of Marvel-time into a single calendar year of real time. The perception of many readers when they buy several Wolverine stories in one month and see Logan in Berlin (Origins) , Wakanda (Wolverine) , and in space (Astonishing) all in the same month - well, it just looks like he's in all those places simultaneously due to "continuity lag."

The real question should be what is the chronological sequence of these events? When does the current arc in Astonishing X-Men take place relative to Civil War? What about the whole story in Origins (from Way's "Origins and Endings" to the end of the current mega-arc about four years form now)? Does that all take place over a couple months? Are there breaks between arcs (not apparent in the storyline, which seems to be non-stop) where things like Wolverine's Civil War arc take place? And where do all his guest-shots fit in? Was the Wolverine/Black Cat mini-series set before or after Decimation?

[Mark Caringer]

megalictis said:

The perception of many readers when they buy several Wolverine stories in one month and see Logan in Berlin (Origins) , Wakanda (Wolverine) , and in space (Astonishing) all in the same month - well, it just looks like he's in all those places simultaneously due to "continuity lag."

exactly people think that these stories all take place at the same time and thats not the case most of the time.

I agreed with you, the most important part is how all these stories fit together in continuity