Most superheroes need backstories, to explain their motivations and the origin of their powers. X-men don't. That's why there's a billion of them, they all have the same explanation for their powers (mutant gene) and motivation (kill the bad humans trying to oppress them/ stop the mutants trying to kill the bad humans).

Magneto and Xavier as sort of exceptions because they define the sides the mutants line up on. But Wolverine never needed a backstory. He's a mutant. You wanna tell us he got his claws from an experiment, fine, although we'd have just accepted them as a mutant power. But a guy with amnesia literally has no need for a backstory explaining him.

Jumping into the conversation. Just gimme a sec while I put...on...my...beard...

Ah! Okay. Beard is on: I agree. To add my 2 cents, Wolverine was already cool as the cliche rebellious anti-hero bad ass. Cock teasing that Wolverine's origin likely involved him going through something completely horrible and traumatic, that his amnesia may be self imposed, was great. Even better when it was suggested he may be incredibly old and has seen centuries worth of horrible shit. His origin should have never been told, because tickling the audience's imagination and letting them fill in the gaps themselves is a good thing.

Or use to be. Now everything needs to be explained. Don't wanna know where the creature from Alien came from? Fuck you and your imagination, here's Prometheus.

@Nikon - Yes. That was the dumbest thing ever done in comics, but Marvel has a track record with that (Spider-Man One Moment In Time & One More Day come to mind).

@IrishWhiskey - SOrta, but the backgrounds were pretty essential to all the team dynamics and what not. You can call it soap-opera if you like, but Claremont's X-Men run was great because of all the attention he gave to the characters, their relationships and growth depended on knowing that stuff. Rouge wouldn't be nearly as cool if we didn't know she was raised by Mystique, nor Storm going from thief to goddess to mohawk leather sporting Cyclops ass beater. Wolverine is sort of the crux of all that, as his whole character sort of epitomizes the mutant condition with the experimentation, hero anti-hero approach to the world, and being so different that people just don't get you. It all boils down to storytelling devices, and Wolverine's background provides a whole lot of story, which worked out really well imo...at least it did before they actually did that ridiculous Origin story.

@sosage - Yes again. Only let's not kid ourselves, Wolverine is like the original rebellious badass, everyone else hence is a cliche. I couldn't begin to count all the Wolverine clones from 90's Image, let alone the ones that continue to show up.

Much as I hate to admit it, this video is sorta right-ish. Though I'm gonna be hipster about it, and loathe that this is a joke that everyone can get these days. Calling it now: X-Men DOFP is gonna be the last good superhero movie rant over.

The Wolverine movie was just flat to me. The ending didn't make a lot of sense. I would much rather they took a real risk and told a historical epic, starting with the mid 19th century and jump forward a number of times to WWII and then maybe finish up with the self imposed amnesia. It would have been less tedious.

While I'm complaining, I've really had it with the shitty theme of superheroes who DON'T want to be superheroes anymore because WAAAH IT'S TOO HARD. How many movies like this are they going to make? Stop it!

"While I'm complaining, I've really had it with the shitty theme of superheroes who DON'T want to be superheroes anymore because WAAAH IT'S TOO HARD. How many movies like this are they going to make? Stop it!"

Agreed. I'm kind of a fan of superhero origin movies because they show us why the guy would spend his free time in a unitard fighting thugs -- that question needs to be answered if I'm going to buy into the hero. In general, it's the willingness, not the reluctance, that makes the hero work for me.

I don't mind Peter Parker briefly giving it up because that's kind of his thing, but there are far more heroes it doesn't work on.

ROUS - I'm talking about Wolverine Origins the comic book, not that shitacular movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Wolverine's bisexual half-Japanese son who is also evil isn't even in the movie.

because you have a sense of humor?