Wolverine has been orphaned. And, like him, many other Marvel superheroes with the death of John Romita. The legendary cartoonist and artistic director of the publishing house has died at the age of 93, as has reported his own son (and also iconic cartoonist) John Romita Jr.
Known to an entire generation for his long stint in ‘Amazing Spider-Man‘, where he had to replace Steve Ditko, was the one who completely transformed the style of the spider hero during the adventures scripted by Stan Lee as well as, as artistic director of the publishing house, co-creating one of the great heavyweights of Marvel superheroes: Wolverine.
A creation that, as often happens, comes with anecdotes included. With his first appearance for the number 180 of ‘The Incredible Hulk‘, where the emerald colossus entered the Canadian forests, screenwriter Len Wein approached John Romita, then art director of Marvel with a commission: a new character called Wolverine (Wolverine).
Turns out she’s not a wolf
“Then I thought a wolverine was a female wolf!”, admitted the cartoonist with a laugh in an interview for Frank Lovece. With Stan Lee’s “Marvel Method”, Romita was used to receiving only a name and, without any indication, having to fully design a character. So he took the encyclopedia from the office, he saw that it was not a wolf but another type of animal:
“A ferocious little creature with catlike features and claws. So I went to the drawing board and started drawing sketches. Since I wrote “small” in my notes, I suggested in the original sketch to make it 5.4, 5.5 [1,64-1,67 metros]. I said, “he’s fierce and he’s small” so you make him a little pissed off guy.”
Although he assured that perhaps his memory fails him, Romita assures that he also designed what is perhaps the most characteristic feature of Wolverine: his retractable claws. And, the truth is that the idea that this was the case was purely logical:
«When I do a design, I want it to be practical and functional. I thought, “If a man has claws like that, how does he scratch his nose or tie his shoelaces?”
although it was Herb Trimpe in charge of drawing Wolverine in his first appearance In the mentioned number 180 of ‘Incredible Hulk’ and, in fact, he is usually credited as a co-creator, he assures that he had nothing to do with the design of the hero.
“The way I see it, those two guys [Romita y Wein] they sewed the monster together and it was the scare of my life.”acknowledges Trimpe, who also admits that for him It was one of those many secondary and tertiary that swarmed the series like Hulk. One of those that appear and perhaps you never know again.
Fortunately, it was not to be, and soon the short-tempered Canadian would be brought back to revive a comatose, to put it mildly, comic book series. Own Len Wein would take old and new characters like Wolverine for a new generation of ‘X-Men’… And the rest is history.
Wolverine is not the only design we owe to Romita. Under her pencils passed the main staff of the Marvel superheroes of the sixties and seventies, including some features as characteristic as the giant skull on the T-shirt of Punisher or the very Bullseye. There was one man at Marvel who did (almost) everything. Goodbye, John Romita.
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