Wolverine: Inside the World of the Living Weapon by Matthew K. Manning

Wolverine has lived over 100 years, fought in numerous wars, made, killed and outlived many enemies, but he's still going strong. What's his secret? Or actually, secrets.

This book attempts to answer those questions, laying out Wolverine's life, allies, romances and foes, giving readers a chance to know Wolverine in his own words. This all starts off with a two-page spread of five things you should know about Wolverine: 1) His real name is not Logan, it's James Howlett. The name Thomas Logan belonged to the groundskeeper of the estate. 2) Wolverine is over 100 years old, but his mutant healing factor keeps him looking like he did in his 40's. 3) Wolverine's claws are bone, and part of his own skeleton. The Adamantium coating they boast only makes them stronger and harder. 4) Wolverine is highly intelligent, but falls prey to Berserker Rages, over which he has no control. 5) James Howlett had a friend named Rose from the time he was young. He later loved her, but she ended up dying, impaled on his own claws in a tragic twist of fate.

In addition to the story of Wolverine in the comics, this book tells us about the evolution of his character. For example, Wolverine was never intended to be fully human- he got the name "Wolverine" because he was a Wolverine turned into a human by the High Evolutionary. Luckily, that background for his character was quickly discarded. Later, they made it so that Sabertooth was Wolverine's father. That was also discarded, but apparently, in the upcoming movie, he'll turn out to be Wolverine's older brother, thought dead in the comics (We are shown the gravestone for John Howlett- his death, in the comics, drove Wolverine's mother insane, and her affair with Thomas Logan led to the death of Wolverine's father at the hands of Thomas Logan, and the groundskeeper's death at the hands of the young Wolverine.).

This book came into the library I work for tagged as a Juvenile book, and that's a good thing, because Juvie (or "J" books as they are designated) are always easier to read and generally laid out in a more straightforward, less confusing fashion than adult books. And this is definitely one of the better Wolverine books I've seen, with abundant illustrations to drool over (in some cases literally! The blue pencil sketch of Wolverine that graces the page of his sayings looks like a real human being rather than a comic book creation- and bears a strong resemblance to Hugh Jackman as well as the comic book Wolverine. Hot stuff!)

It's also interesting to be able to read parallels into the story. Wolverine likes to work with young women- and while it's funny to point out that such a connection would usually be seen as inappropriate, due to #5 in the list of things to know about Wolverine, I wondered if he was re-creating his friendship with Rose in those working relationships with young girls... I mean, Wolverine may not have remembered her for most of his life, but the emotional connection must have seemed right to him in some way. And being a close-lipped kind of guy, he probably wouldn't have said anything even if he felt that way.

I liked this book a lot, and while there have been a huge number of Wolverine Books being reprinted because of the movie, this one has been the best non-fiction one I have seen so far. Highly recommended.