Word: manness
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...James Howlett: little howler, or wolf boy - names are destiny in superhero stories. As a man, James, alias Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine, has a gigantic torso and bulging veins; he might be a late-'90s home-run hitter after a visit to BALCO. And since he's Hugh Jackman, he's blessed with the winsome stare of a beautiful boy who mistakenly thinks he's done wrong. Anyway, he looks great for someone who's about 160 years...
...their confirmation of what any young reader may have thought about himself as his body changes and his mind reels: I'm a freak. To this Lee adds the fantasy: But your weirdness is a sign of preternatural abilities; you're odd because you're a hero. Spider-Man emits goo from his fingers, and he can fly. The Hulk gets mad and becomes bigger and stronger. Wolverine's Dragon Lady fingernails make him the toughest guy on the block. It's the outsider's ultimate dream. Use what's different, the Marvel gurus teach their readers, and you could...
...Origins: Wolverine is an O.K., not great, Marvel movie that tells the early story of the prime X-Man, and attempts to make it climax in a perfect coupling with the start of the known trilogy. In doing so, the film tears off a bit more than it can devour. The whole enterprise now spans a century and a half, runs backward and forward in time and expands the number of characters in the mythology, so they'll get their own prequels and sequels...
...Marvel, you see, is working on another Origins take, Magneto, about the early lives of Eric Lensherr (who in the trilogy was played as a middle-aged man by Ian McKellen) and Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart, who makes a guest appearance here). It's not surprising, then, that the movie has the harried feel of a personnel officer with too many people to manage, too many plates to keep spinning. Wolverine lacks the simple narrative drive and character pizzazz of Iron Man, the Marvel movie that launched last year's summer blockbuster season...
...TIME's top 10 films of 2008: Iron Man, Speed Racer and the rest