If you recall, at the end of The Wolverine, Logan (Hugh Jackman) and Yukio (Rila Fukushima) supposedly went traveling around the world for a year before the end credits stinger where Wolverine reunites with Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen). Perhaps Mangold and Jackman will use that one year gap to do another stand alone film or perhaps not. But with Mangold being so adamant about not connecting his Wolverine film to any of the previous X-Men films, it's more than likely he'll stick to that recipe for his sequel. If that holds true, here are six comic book storylines perfect for Mangold to tackle in a third solo-Wolverine film.
Old Man Logan X-Men Origins: Wolverine and
The Wolverine mean that stories like
Weapon X,
Origin,
Wolverine: Logan and of course
Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's Wolverine miniseries are off the table. Breathing the same rarefied air as those stories, is
Old Man Logan from Mark Millar and Steve McNiven.
"Nobody knows what happened on the night the heroes fell. All we know is that they disappeared and evil triumphed and the bad guys have been calling the shots ever since. What happened to Wolverine is the biggest mystery of all. For 50 years, no one has heard hide nor hair from him...and in his place stands an old man called Logan. A man concerned only about his family. A man pushed to the brink by the HULK GANG. A man forced to help an old friend--the blind archer, HAWKEYE--drive three thousand miles to secure his family's safety. Get ready for the ride of your life, Logan." Sure there are quite a few stumbling blocks here, namely the fact that Hawkeye and Hulk are characters that belong to Disney/Marvel. But you could easily make some substitutions like Nightcrawler instead of Hawkeye and Sabertooth instead of Hulk and you'd get the same effect - MAYBE. While comic book purist will probably never get over such wholesale character swaps, the basic plot structure is still very much doable within the X-Men and Fantastic Four character rights owned by Fox.
Wolverine: Enemy of the State What's better than Wolverine slashing through bad guys? Wolverine slashing through the good guys! That's the premise here as Wolverine is mind controlled and becomes an instrument of The Hand and the powerful super mutant Gorgon.
"Brainwashed by the ninjas of the Hand, Wolverine slices and dices his way through foes and friends alike, ultimately resulting in the death of an X-Man! Captured and reprogrammed, Wolverine is sent against his former masters - but amid an orgy of death and destruction, is even the fiercest mutant alive a match for the deadly stare of the Gorgon?!" Another Mark Millar tale, this storyline involves one of Wolverine's few weaknesses. Someone finally figured out that if you can't stop the unstoppable, you control it! Again, this storyline involves key characters owned by Marvel but The Hand could be retrofitted as an extension of the Yakuza or ninjas Logan just fought in
The Wolverine. And Elektra's role in the story could easily be filled by Yukio.
Daken [Wolverine Origins Vol. 3] We've seen many sides of Wolverine over the years but we've never seen him as a parental figure. With Jackman getting up in years, introducing Daken and then having him take over the mantle of Wolverine would be a great way to pass the torch to a younger actor. Introducing Daken is also a means of introducing Romulus as a primary antagonist - the man who has orchestrated many of the events in both Wolverine and Daken's life. Although it's probably best if Fox loses the ridiculous lupine, convergent evolution element.
"Like father, like son?! Having finally seen his face, Wolverine sets out to rescue his son from the grasp of the shadow society that once enslaved him. But Logan's son doesn't want to be saved -- he wants revenge against Logan, the father who abandoned him!" Like
Wolverine: Enemy of the State, a
Daken [Wolverine Origins Vol. 3] story would potentially keep the majority of the film in Japan, a setting that worked very well in
The Wolverine and would allow Mangold to reuse many of the same characters and themes. There's also the fact that Daken is bisexual but who knows if Fox would want to tackle that touchy subject matter in a summer popcorn flick.
Lady Deathstrike Bryan Singer was originally going to bring Kelly Hu's Lady Deathstrike back in
X-Men: The Last Stand but when he departed the film for Superman Returns, Brett Ratner stepped in and that idea fell by the wayside. It's a shame really because Lady Deathstrike is one of Wolverine's more interesting foes and she was criminally underused in
X2: X-Men United. But the fact that she kind of appeared out of nowhere in X2 could be an advantage as a solo Wolverine film could dive into her connection to the Weapon X program and her father's role in giving Wolverine his adamantium skeleton. And with her Wolverine-like healing powers displayed in X2, technically she'd still be alive, just incapable of moving. That would be a great way to transition the character to her cyborg roots through reconstructive surgery.
"Yuriko Oyama was born in Osaka, Japan. Her father was Kenji Oyama, something of a mad scientist who invented the process by which adamantium can be bonded to bone structure. Yuriko seeks to track down and destroy anyone connected with her father's research in an effort to restore her family's honor." With the Japanese setting of
The Wolverine and the extensive use of cybernetics for the Silver Samurai, it would be quite easy to weave Lady Deathstrike's origin into an extension of that tale. If opting for that route would Kelly Hu return or would the studio hire another actress?
Wolverine: Blood Debt This storyline ties directly into Wolverine's previous dealings in Japan so that's a plus. The story has a very basic plot but that would allow Mangold to inject his own ideas into the story much as he did on
The Wolverine.
"Wolverine has always had a strong tie to the country of Japan, for it was there that the once uncontrollable feral fighting machine learned to control his berserker rage and temper his fierce fighting spirit with the honor code of the samurai. But Logan, the man known as Wolverine, has not returned to the land of the rising sun to retrace his history. Amiko, a young girl Logan has sworn to protect, and her guardian Yukio, are being held prisoner in a blood feud between Lord Haan and Gom of the Clan Yashida. Wolverine becomes a reluctant participant in this bloody war that will likely have no victor. A story of honor and betrayal, Blood Feud is told in stunning visuals, with cinematic artwork that evokes the work of John Woo and the Wachowski Brothers, who tapped artist Steve Skroce to do story boards for the multi-million dollar blockbuster, The Matrix. The same jaw-dropping fight scenes that made The Matrix such a popular success are on full display here, showcased in a moving story that is richly detailed in Asian-influenced costume and tradition." A basic kidnapping plot. For the film, Yukio [or even Mariko] could be the damsel in distress and Wolverine returns to Japan to rescue them. What keeps this from being too similar to
The Wolverine is that the kidnappers have a series of tasks for Wolverine to execute and he reluctantly but efficiently gets them done. This is where Mangold could really have some fun as Wolverine could be sent on missions to steal something from the Baxter Building or the X-Mansion.
Wolverine and the X-Men The most recent Marvel Comics idea on the list, I present to you Headmaster Wolverine! With Jean Grey and Professor X dead, Wolverine decides to start his own school for mutant children and names it The Jean Grey School For Higher Learning. In the X-Men movies, Jean is indeed deceased and from what Bryan Singer has teased about X-Men: Days of Future Past, the school at 1407 Graymalkin Lane is closed sometime after the events of The Last Stand.
"Born different? The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning is the place for you! A staff of experienced X-Men will teach you everything you need to know to survive in a world that hates and fears you. And your headmaster is none other than Wolverine - the best there is at what he does. Hope you survive the experience!" Wolverine has taken half the X-Men back to Westchester to start over with a new school and a new mission. Schism tore them apart, but can Wolverine lead the new Children of the Atom into the future? Only if they survive the new Hellfire Club and the return of another classic villain!" The X-flicks are typically serious, dark and moody but this would be more of a comedy, right? Imagine Wolverine running a school...maybe that would be too comedic?