Captain America 4 Keeps Hinting at a Major Wolverine Connection
Captain America: Brave New World introduces the element that makes Wolverine the best at what he does. Could this mean we'll see the X-Man cameo at some point in the movie? Our theory...
Get ready, bub. Wolverine.
The trailers for the film have shown that Brave New World pits Cap and the various belligerents in a fight over the hand of Tiamut, the Celestial who began breaking through the Earth’s crust at the end of Eternals. As if proving once and for all that Eternals was incredibly boring, everyone in the MCU seemed to forget about the hand in the years after that presumably catastrophic event. But now, they’ve taken notice again, in large part because it contains a super-metal called Adamantium.
As most Marvel Comics readers can tell you, Adamantium is the indestructible metal that covers the bones and claws of Wolverine. As strong as Black Panther‘s Vibranium, Adamantium is incredibly difficult to use and poisonous to most. Yet, thanks to his increased healing ability, Wolverine can survive having it inside of his bodies, making his claws all the more deadly. So does this movie’s Adamantium plot mean we’ll get at least a nod, if not an outright appearance, by the Logan at some point in the film? Perhaps even in its post-credit scene?
Of course, we’ve seen a variant of Wolverine already in the MCU thanks to Marvel would like a new, younger actor in the part when the X-Men do arrive in earnest in the MCU. Brave New World could provide a way to introduce this new version.
On first glance, a Captain America movie might seem like a strange place to debut a Canadian mutant best known for killing people with his razor claws. Why not start him off in the Stranger Things‘s Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, then the film may be going for a teenage team, which fits the team’s original conception as students and Professor Xavier’s school. But a character who first appeared as a minor antagonist to the Hulk and later was imported to the X-Men books, Wolverine was always older than the others, never a student. So it follows that he would pop up before the other X-Men.
Furthermore, Wolverine has a long history of dealing with secret government programs and black ops missions, which has brought him into the orbit of Captain America more than once. Uncanny X-Men #268, written by Chris Claremont and penciled by Black Widow) from Nazis and ninjas.
Later, Deadpool, into a continuation of the Super Soldier program that created Captain America. Calling Rogers “Weapon I,” the program continued experimenting with possible variations, reaching Logan in its 10th incarnation, dubbed Weapon X.
The Weapon Plus program wiped Logan’s memory and turned him into a killing machine, sending him on black ops missions for the U.S. Government and for Department H, the superhuman division of his native Canada. Eventually, Logan broke free from Weapon X and went his own way, later getting recruited to the X-Men by Professor X. Through the professor’s tutelage, Logan slowly regained his sense of self (including learning his true name James Howlett) and became more than a animal.
Wolverine’s character arc is long and complex, too big for a single movie, especially one with a whole team’s worth of characters. By starting Wolverine’s story in Captain America: Brave New World, Marvel can give the beloved character the attention he deserves, while also letting him serve as a dark reflection of the super soldier program that the human Sam rejects, thereby building his heroism.
And if the Wolverine connection lets Captain America build an as Anthony Mackie himself pitched to Den of Geek, all the better.
Captain America: Brave New World flies into theaters on Feb. 14.
Written by
Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!