“Such a Shame That A Little Fame And Attention Began to Get to Len’s Head…” On Roy Thomas’s Erasure of The Real Creators of Wolverine

2024 is upon us which means we’ve also got one more gruesome event to look forward to in the new year: the 50th Anniversary of popular mutant antihero Wolverine which will, inevitably, lead to anniversary-centric convention appearances and interviews with “Rascally” Roy Thomas himself, ostensibly to further the rather recent perception of himself as the Co-Creator of that lucrative and influential character.

Sadly, Thomas is not. He never was, he never could be but the massive remaking of Thomas’s image and career that has taken place over the last half-decade, notably after his former employer Stan Lee passed on, has cemented this image in the minds of devoted MCU fans and convention attendees. It’s a financially lucrative grift as well as an ego pleasing one, so it shan’t stop anytime soon. Therefore, all we can do is continue to share actual documented facts as to who created this overrated character.

Wolverine appeared in 1974’s Incredible Hulk #180, scripted by Len Wein. It’s been established that Thomas gave Wein the assignment of developing a “Canadian character” whose name was Wolverine- at times, Thomas has added that his directive included that the character would be fierce, short, and/or angry- but this does differ based on account and when the account was given.

So, we will, at minimum, concede that Thomas brings the name and the nationality of the character. This is not in doubt.

We’ve gone over this before but, for any new readers, let us remind everyone about the story of one Andy Olsen. Olsen was a teenaged fan who submitted an entry to Marvel’s “Create a Character” contest in 1973– Olsen’s character was a government agent named, you guessed it, The Wolverine, who had a- you guessed again- a metal skeleton.

• “Excited, I mentioned this to my uncle, who was an established commercial artist on Madison Avenue who replied: “You did WHAT?? You idiot! Don’t you know what these guys did? They pulled ideas from you kids, make money off it and paid you nothing!” – Andy Olsen, 2014

It is highly plausible that Thomas takes the name ‘Wolverine’ from the character contest submission, especially when you consider his prolific habit of simply taking existing names and applying them to properties he has a hand in developing: taking the Golden Age character Crimebuster’s real name of Chuck Chandler and applying it to 3-D Man (himself an homage to Kirby’s Captain 3-D, per Thomas himself), naming Thundra after Golden Age jungle character Thun’da, and on and on the list goes… but the inclusion of a metal skeleton further incriminates Thomas, Wein etc. and adds to Olsen’s claims.

Otherwise, what level of coincidence would this be? Are there “animal names” prevalent in comic books, as Thomas says? Absolutely. But with metal skeletons, to boot? Two out of two- thats quite a miracle.

• “Could Marvel claim plausible deniability? Perhaps. They did add their own scratchy claws and scruffy beard. Nice they kept the metal skeleton I roughed out.” – Andy Olsen, 2014

As there’s no definitive proof that Thomas and Wein took Olsen’s distinctive elements consciously- I mean, besides common sense– we’ll go to the documented origins of the character. Again, I do not believe that directing others to create characters constitutes CREATING or CO-CREATING. And- again- since Thomas, and also Marvel do not agree that Martin Goodman is a co-creator or creator of the Fantastic Four, I seem to be correct in my logic.

Thomas has been a busy and celebrated figure at conventions for the last half a decade, and which character is most prominent in his numerous “creations” prints that he sells and signs? Which relationship does he play up, even chiming in on Hugh Jackman’s upcoming-at-the-time-of-this-writing comics-based outfit in his upcoming film appearance as Wolverine in Deadpool 2? It’s Wolverine, naturally. A character Thomas had little to no involvement with and barely wrote. Ever.

• “I very rarely wrote Wolverine — I think I wrote him in Secret Defenders in the ’90s and once or twice in Avengers West Coast. But I didn’t really write him much and that was a decade or two after he’d been established. I never had any desire to write Wolverine, but now that I’ve become kind of identified with him, it occurred to me that I should and that’s it.” – Roy Thomas, 2021

“Now that I’ve become kind of identified with him…” yeah, how did that happen? Also, note Thomas’s admission that he “never had any desire” to write Wolverine.

• “Marvel, DC, and the other companies back in the ’40s and ’50s had never had a Canadian character. So I thought it was about time. I was always trying to expand things one way or the other, so a Canadian character made a lot of sense.”

• “So then I started thinking about what should we call it? We named a lot of things after animals. So I thought about different animals. You couldn’t have a moose — that wasn’t very glamorous. And besides, Archie had a Moose. So I thought of a couple of possible names. Badgers and wolverines are a couple of animals that lived in the northern United States, but also in Canada, so those would make sense.”

• “But wolverine had that kind of wolfish sound to it. And Dave Cockrum had drawn a character called Wolverine back then and showed it to me once, I guess. I don’t remember it, but he said he did. I think it was going to be a Legion of Superheroes character once, but it didn’t matter. I mean, I knew what a Wolverine was since I was 5 or 6 years old.” – Roy Thomas, 2021

Incidentally, and a minor if amusing (to me) part of all of this is that Thomas mentions in different interviews that he “already knew” what a wolverine was since his childhood, almost in a defiant and bragging way. In some retellings he points out the number of nature books he had as a little boy. Okay.

• “I resented his existence for a long time because I had come up with a Wolverine and shown it to Roy before this Wolverine. I had a series of characters I suggested could be X-Men… how could I put this? I did a montage piece of art with a lot of brand-new characters I suggested could be X-Men… anyhow, two of them were a brother and sister. He was a vulpine type; animalistic, bestial, feral, whom I called Wolverine.”

• “He had fangs and he was a nasty son of a bitch. He had almost the same haircut that Wolverine has now. In the interim, somewhere along the line, Roy suggested to Len, “How about a Canadian mutant called Wolverine?” I assumed Roy just forgot that I showed him my Wolverine. I was kind of miffed about the whole thing, but it seemed kind of pointless to carry it on.” – DAVE COCKRUM, 1982

Cockrum had presentation art of his Wolverine character that was widely reproduced in the fanzines of the time, so Thomas would have seen them.

• (THOMAS): “The X-Men should have a character that I suggested called the Wolverine because that animal inhabits Canada as well as the Northern United States… He could be a Canadian and be very fierce. …a very fierce character worth his weight in wildcats, a little like Wildcat or Atom, only with more power.”

• Peter Sanderson: “Cockrum says he had come up with a Wolverine character before that and told you about it.”

• THOMAS: “It very well could have been. On the other hand, I don’t have any conscious memory of his doing that. And of course, it doesn’t take much brains for either of us to come up with a name like Wolverine anyway. Animal characters are a big thing.” – 1982

• “I’m told one of the designs he showed me was for a guy he called The Wolverine—though, if so, I don’t feel it had any influence on my conceiving a Marvel character of that name a bit later, since I’d been intrigued by animals since childhood and was as knowledgeable as Dave about what a wolverine was. “ – Roy Thomas, 2018

Once again, Thomas makes sure that we know he was this close to becoming a veterinarian! He’d been intrigued by animals since childhood, damn you!

While Thomas undoubtedly gave the directive towards creating a Canadian character with the name and elements that a young reader gave us less than a year ago to Len Wein, it is truly Wein who shaped that up into the marketable character we know today- and we know this often by Thomas’s own account.

• “I brought in Len and it worked out very well. He was about to do some stuff that would take Hulk to Canada. That ended up being that Wendigo story. I said, “I want a character called Wolverine who’s short and Canadian.” I liked the way Len did accents.” – Roy Thomas, 2021

• “It’s a collection of different things. It starts with Roy. Actually, no it doesn’t… it starts with Brother Voodoo… which was set in the Caribbean which I loved writing… I loved writing accents, and I would write the accents in… Roy calls me in, “look I’ve been reading Brother Voodoo, and I hate you! I just can’t write accents, I’ve never been able to do this and I really admire your ability to write accents… I would like you to write a Canadian accent. So I have a name- Wolverine- and, give me a Canadian character.” – Wein, 2014 (obviously simplifying the story for a panel audience)

• “And after that, John Romita was asked to design the character. And I don’t think either Len or I had much input on that.” – Roy Thomas, 2021

• “I just turned it over to Len and I never thought about it again. You know, I kind of vaguely proofed the story when it came in, but otherwise, it was just another character. So now we had a Canadian character and we made a couple of ads in the book, plugging the fact we had the first Canadian superhero in the United States. Other than that, I left it to Len, who did a good job. And then, of course, it really took off a couple of years later when Len decided to put him in the X-Men right after I had left my role as editor-in-chief.” – Roy Thomas, 2021

• “Actually, the name “Wolverine” was Roy’s suggestion; he suggested ‘Do a character called Wolverine’, gave him to me to create, and most of the rest of the details as to who and what he was were my own.” – LEN WEIN, 1982

• “It was also Len who came up with the idea of making Wolverine a mutant and his claws made out of Adamantium (which I liked, naturally, since I’d invented that metal), John Romita designed the look/costume pretty much independent of Len and me. But certainly, Len did a great job. I knew he would. That’s why I had him do the first story rather than someone else. At any rate, in the long run, the most important writer of Wolverine was Chris Claremont, not Len or me… but we were the first.” – Roy Thomas, 2018

• “Well, Len created Wolverine.” – Dave Cockrum, 1982

Its notable to me that Wein often spoke of himself as the main creator of Wolverine and Thomas had nothing to say to counter it during Wein’s lifetime- more on that soon- but for Thomas, a prolific whiner whenever he feels wronged, the fact that he never challenged Wein on this- OR ever took credit for “co-creating” Wolverine until just a few years ago- really does need to be recognized. This is a recent development, stemming purely from the retconning of Thomas’s career as Stan Lee’s lackey and Golden Age enthusiast to somehow being the other part that generated the Marvel Universe. It is transparent as it is pathetic.

• “When I first created Wolverine, I created him as a Canadian mutant specifically so that whoever ended up with the assignment of writing the new X-Men book, should it ever occur, would have a Canadian mutant handy if he wanted him.” – LEN WEIN, 2013

• “That was entirely Len’s idea. I think he mentions adamantium at the very beginning of that first story, doesn’t he? The claws were Romita’s contribution.” – Roy Thomas, 2021

• “I created Wolverine; I created Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Thunderbird…” – LEN WEIN, 2008

Andy Olsen sends in a very distinctive character submission. Thomas sees it and takes those elements and gives it to Wein with the instruction that the character is Canadian. Thomas contributes absolutely nothing else.

• “…it wouldn’t have been exactly the same character. He would’ve looked the same because Romita would’ve drawn him, he would be Canadian, he’d have been short, he’d have been called Wolverine, and he’d have been mean. But other than that, it would’ve been a different story. And he probably would’ve had different powers. The claws wouldn’t have necessarily been adamantium. He would’ve been a different character…“ – Roy Thomas, 2021

• “And suddenly I thought, hey, I’m the guy that had the original idea for Wolverine and I haven’t written the character that much.” – Roy Thomas, 2021

So, in Len Wein’s lifetime- Wein passed away in 2017- there is no public debate over who was the primary composer, if you will, for Wolverine. The rise of Thomas as a significant force is a relatively new development, as I’ve stated. Therefore, I was very surprised (though I shouldn’t be) to stumble upon some truly disgusting comments made a few years ago while researching this story. Those comments are made by lifelong failure and obnoxious man-child John “MEGO Stretch” Cimino, and they were made on YouTube videos featuring Wein.

Until today, preparing this article, I was completely unaware of them. Perhaps there are numerous such videos that Cimino passionately comments on in the movement to properly defend his liege, Roy Thomas.

• “Len was calling himself the creator of all those characters because his 2nd wife was a copyright lawyer and he was trying to make bank. Everyone should know he didn’t make a dime on Wolverine.” – Lifelong Poseur and Legit Pussy JOHN CIMINO, 2020

I was legitimately struck by how oblivious Cimino was and how ironic his comments were regarding someone “intentionally putting out false information” regarding creatorship. And wouldn’t you know- Cimino knows because he’s had experience with licensing! No need to doubt!

• “Len calling himself the CREATOR of Wolverine is an insult to Roy Thomas and John Romita Sr. (whom he CO-CREATED Wolverine with). When Wolverine started getting mass media attention Len would conveniently leave the “CO” out of CO-CREATOR when talking about his contributions. Same can be said about Swamp Thing who he CO-CREATED with Bernie Wrightson. Such a shame that a little fame and attention began to get to Len’s head. And fyi, he got called out on it from his peers. SKINT!!..” – CIMINO, 2019

I’d be very curious as to when Wein got “called out” by his peers- unless Thomas was already taking exception with being left out in 2017? I also should like to point out that the famous “SNIKT!” sound effect- misspelled here- that Cimino pretentiously cites to make his point was, itself, taken from JACK KIRBY (as most things were), who introduced a variation on it as a claw-popping noise in 1972’s Mister Miracle #12.

Cimino is a real bold figure, to ambush an elderly Steve Ditko with another man (and then giggle about it), and then insult Len Wein- whom I’m not even a fan of, but- after Wein has died. I guess Cimino, a coward like his idol, the Lindsey Graham of comics- can only act tough to dead guys, guys in their eighties, and in pretentious photos of his terrible band (since Cimino has not one ounce of actual musical talent).

• “Len Wein didn’t CREATE Wolverine, he didn’t even come with the idea or concept! That was Roy Thomas, who Len CO-CREATED Wolverine along with John Romita. The THREE of them are EQUALLY credited as official “co-creators” by Marvel and I know this as a FACT because I’ve dealt with Marvel on character licenses.

• It was Roy Thomas that conceived of the Wolverine character because he wanted to attract more Canadian readers and came up with the name, nationality, attributes and oversaw the overall project as editor-in-chief. Johnny Romita designed the character and gave him the claws. Len contributed the Adamantium to the claws (which is a metal Roy created in Avengers #66), made Wolverine a mutant and gave him his voice. And you should know it was Roy who chose Len to write the story because he liked the way Len wrote accents.

• As Wolverine’s fame grew, so did Len’s ego as he was soon calling himself the “CREATOR” of Wolverine (his custom convention banner stated this), and that’s a shame because he was intentionally putting out false information that people like most picked up on. He even got called out on it by most of his peers because Len was trying to take ALL the credit on Wolverine and disregard Roy and Johnny. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that his wife was a copyright lawyer…” – Fuckboy Cimino (and I don’t know why, but I crack up at his emphasis on him knowing for a fact because he dealt with Marvel on character licenses)

What we’re witnessing in this is yet another erasure, enabled by Marvel, of the proper credit and the proper respect given towards those that deserve it. In Thomas, Marvel has another figure that will ensure the company line is both towed and reinforced so that they can continue to protect their corporate hold on properties that were borne out of other’s imaginations- Thomas, as Kirby always saw him, is an opportunist with no credibility, who didn’t pay his dues, who is the first to latch onto others’ work in order to further himself. His recent reclaiming of being Wolverine’s creator is further proof of this. He is a terrible, corrupt little man whose legacy will undoubtedly continue after he shuffles on from this mortal coil in another few short years.

Unfortunately, he’s cultivated a buffoon to keep pumping out the same bullshit propaganda in order to exist in the afterlife as an eternal figurehead for stunted dorks everywhere.

• “There’s that first story that Len did where they introduced Wolverine and it sells for a zillion dollars. I wish I had taken home 10 or 20 copies of it. He tosses in this character, Wolverine, and he’s a good-looking character and Len writes him well and everything. But he just kind of comes in and he fights the Hulk. And the interesting thing about it is probably the fact that he’s got this Canadian organization behind him, which is a nice thing Len came up with to tease that it was more than just a guy showing up to fight the Hulk.” (emphasis mine)

• “Len did his part, which included developing the Wolverine. I consider that I, Len Wein, John Romita, and Herb Trimpe are all the co-creators of the Wolverine, in that chronological order–no one else was involved, unless you want to count the colorist.” – ROY THOMAS, 2018

Roy Thomas is one of the last relics connected to the intellectual property theft that ran rampant in comics publishing in the last century. As certain things progress in the medium and in the industry, that connection is his TRUE legacy. A villain who steals because he is entitled, a scoundrel that whines at perceived slights, a journeyman who inflates his contributions because he lacks that intangible to truly be special: this is who and what Roy Thomas was, and always will be. He surrounds himself with sycophants and fans to keep that illusion going. But it does not mean the rest of us should tolerate his blatant dishonesty in regard to who created what.

Decide for yourself, based on what you read here. What constitutes a “creator”? Is it really someone giving a two-sentence description? Thomas himself disagreed with Lee about that- why don’t the same rules apply to him? I suppose because there are prints to sign and signatures to certify… and a lonely old man, not far from death, needs to be assured as he goes into that dying light. At the expense, as ever, of everyone else.

This post is dedicated to Roy Thomas’s barber.