hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) (09/06/84)
<Biggie-Wiggie!! (teeny-weeny)> Before I make any comments, a request. LAURIE, PLEASE!!! put the NUMBER of the issue you are reviewing so I we can tell which week's haul you are talking about. | Zot: Who caught Zippy the Pinhead in this one? Which one? Zippy has been in nearly every issue of ZOT! along with several other characters, including a foozle of some kind. So, does anyone know WHERE they got the idea for the foozle? I have a real vague recollection of a "foozle-like" creature in a science fiction throwaway that I read in 1977. However, I didn't pay enough attention to it to recall the title. (Yes, I know, what has this to do with ZOT!) | X-Men | annual: I am always happy to see Wolverine in a different light (re: the | story at the beginning). The man is turning out not to be the | brainless psychotic of a few years back. | Laurie | pucc-k:afo He never WAS the brainless psychotic. That was his problem. When he showed up in the Hulk-Wendigo story WAAAAAAY back in ?67 ?68 he was never allowed to show any real personality of his own. (Enter armchair psychoanalysis mode) His real problem is his father. All we know about his father is that he is (probably still) the supervillain Sabretooth. But this is added to by the fact that Wolvie has these interesting super-senses. He can SMELL the emotions on people. Just like Daredevil sometimes does, when the writer remembers that it is convenient. He also has several other animal traits. I bet he has to constantly fight down the automatic reactions like, for instance, smelling a fertile female, or getting into dominance fights with various aggressive males. The trouble is, despite what a lot of pop-psych types like to foist off on us, humans are NOT wolves, we are NOT socialized great apes, and we don't interact in the simplistic, formalized way that those animals often do. Wolverine, saddled with these instincts, would react the way the animals did, however. When a wolf or an ape fails to give the right submission signals, the pack-leader or sometimes the whole group will KILL or MAIM the deviant. Logan likely had several such reactions in his early life, added to which he had a certifiably crazed father who really IS psychotic. He also has human intellect and understands the outward rules of civilized behaviour. So, he would react to the fear and revulsion that his animal behaviour provokes by feeling guilty and hating himself, which makes his actions even worse because he "feels" himself to be deviant and starts acting the role. His recent improvement comes from several directions. First, the time he spent with the Hudsons. They accepted HIM and yet were able to let him learn acceptable behaviors. He had already learned how to behave acceptably in JAPANESE society but that formalism didn't work for him in the western culture and undoubtedly broke down. Second, he has been around a functional telempath. Xavier has spent considerable time in training the Xmen. He also spent specific time with each member. The training he developed for Wolverine was intended to make him more stable, more in control of himself, and could be keyed to affect him in a very deep way, since Xavier could SEE how Wolvie reacted to everything. (End armchair diagnosis) This is getting too long again. See you in the funnies. Hutch
lmaher@uokvax.UUCP (09/09/84)
#R:shark:-103400:uokvax:11900032:000:496 uokvax!lmaher Sep 9 15:47:00 1984 shark!hutch's points about Wolverine's childhood are well taken, although it hasn't been confirmed that Sabretooth is his father. If he is, Byrne suggested in an interview that Wolverine was an abused child to the nth degree, considering his healing ability and his father's savagery. Eventually Wolverine is supposed to have a showdown with Sabretooth and kill him (now that they've got plenty of Canadian villains :-). Carl, President of the Deadly Midget Fan Club ..!ctvax!uokvax!lmaher