Wolverine will be re-adopting his suave gangster persona of ‘Patch’ for a new five-issue series set in the ’90s.
In the upcoming series Wolverine: Patch (opens in new tab), the iconic X-Man returns to Madripoor and his humble bar, the Princess (famously making its MCU debut in The Falcon & Winter Soldier) for an adventure that reunites him not only with Nick Fury, but also his old running buddy Archie Corrigan.
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So what’s the story about Wolverine-as-Patch? The idea of ‘Patch’ came at a time when the X-Men were presumed dead, and Logan wasn’t keen on letting the secret come out so stopped wearing his Wolverine outfit and holed up for a time in the island nation of Madripoor. To throw people off his scent, he slicked back his hair, and donned a white suit and an eye-patch in a seeming montage to Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca and his old pal Nick Fury.
(Heck, if Superman can pass as a civilian Clark Kent with just some glasses, Wolverine would practically be invisible without his trademark hair – and seemingly without his eye, especially since he’s known to have a massive healing factor.)
Wolverine: Patch will be written by someone who knows him well – Larry Hama, who had an eight-year run on the main Wolverine title in the ’90s, including a portion of the Patch-era adventures. Hama will be working with interior artist Andrea Di Vito and cover artist Geoff Shaw.
Check out this unletted preview of Wolverine: Patch #1:
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Wolverine: Patch #1 preview
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Wolverine and Nick Fury previously teamed up for a Madripoor adventure – Patch and all – in writer Archie Goodwin and artist Howard Chaykin’s 1989 graphic novel Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection (opens in new tab).
Geoff Shaw has drawn the primary cover to Wolverine: Patch #1, and will be joined with variant covers by John Romita Jr./Scott Hanna/Dean White, Dan Jurgens/Brett Breeding, and Skottie Young. Check out the ones released so far here:
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Wolverine: Patch #1 variant covers
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Wolverine: Patch #1 (opens in new tab) (of 5) goes on sale on March 16.
While you wait, make sure you’ve read all the best Wolverine stories out there.