Aloha CHUniverse, and welcome back to the Oldest Trick In The Book. This week we tackle the actual oldest trick in the book 1st Wolverine. Hulk #180 and #181 started off the era of disputed 1sts and has been argued for the ages ever since.
In Hulk#180 we get a last panel full shot of Wolverine he is snarling in the panel before drawing the attention of Hulk and Wendigo pictured above. For a long time Hulk #180 was the book to have and held a higher price than #181. No getting around #180 predates #181 and this is the first published picture of Wolverine he is named and we even get Weapon X in his description. We call this a cameo now but just as key if not more than Hulk #181.
In Hulk #181 we get Wolverine from title page on, pictured above. This is his first full appearance and the go to Wolverine book to own.
In the last panel that Wolvie appears in #181 pictured above we first find out about Wolverine’s healing abilities but we don’t know his claws are retractable at this point as he is pictured with claws throughout.
Enter Giant Size Xmen #1 2nd full Wolverine when we get down to brass tax this book is probably more key than Hulk #180 and #181. We get the Wolverine we know and love as the character design is tweaked with the longer mask flares we find out Wolvie’s claws retract and we get our first SNIKT! Pictured below. Wolverine also joins the X-men in this issue not to mention the major first appearances contained in this book. The keyness of Giant Size Xmen #1 is off the charts. People will try and trick you with Xmen #94, but #94 picks up where Giant Size #1 leaves off. People use to call it first Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Tbird, Colossus in title but Giant Size is really just like an annual of the X-men series running at the time and with hundreds of different X titles now, first appearance in series is a laughable kind of first appearance. So outside of second appearances of Storm and company no keyness to #94 in my opinion. I do own all 4 books though.
