by Rick Newton

Created on: March 25, 2009   Last Updated: July 22, 2011

Wolverine, the X-Men, and the Watchmen could have been footnotes or possibly lost in the detritus of comic book history! Wolverine was a throwaway nemesis for the Hulk. The X-Men series was cancelled about 40 years ago. The Watchmen were born from characters few had heard of until DC purchased their rights from Charlton comics. What this amounts to is that the best comics in the marketplace can't be determined by the title or the characters in a given book. What matters is in the smaller print. The writer(s) and artist(s) who create the story and the visuals are the most important elements in finding the best comic books. All comic books, except possibly limited series will have changes in writers, artists or both. Each change in creative personnel will change the book, for better or worse. The aforementioned characters have gone far beyond comic books because a small group of creative people pulled them from obscurity through stories that resonated with readers. This has turned into quality characters and stories, name recognition and sales.

The Claremont/Byrne X-Men is a multi-layered example of creators making the comic book and the characters. Sifted from the mists of obscurity and cancellation years earlier, the X-Men were scheduled for a re-launch. Chris Claremont was selected as the writer and Dave Cockrum as the pencil artist. Dave had just moved to Marvel from DC comics where he had worked on the Legion of Super Heroes (another book that has been cancelled and restarted, though never with the acclaim of the X-Men). Dave brought with him the characters: Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus, who were rejected as additions to the Legion. They ended up with starring roles in one of the greatest selling comic book franchises of all time. Dave left the book after about a year and John Byrne took over as the pencil artist. Mr. Byrne quickly became an integral part of this mutant phenomenon and the series really took off. When people refer to the rebirth of the X-Men, the names of Claremont and Byrne are attached to it.

Another character was added to the X-Men, probably to create some conflict. His name was/is Wolverine. Wolverine or Logan as he is also called, became a franchise unto himself, although he was a minor villain and homicidal maniac who fought the Hulk in his "previous life".

Claremont and Byrne fleshed him out, making the edgy loner within the group a fan favorite. Because of the creative attention he received, Wolverine has appeared in many other

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