Destructoid Checkpoint: There Will Be Blood

Few games in development have tantalized me quite as much as Insomniac’s upcoming Wolverine. As a child of the ‘80s, I have very specific views about what the characters should be. Most people who enjoy Logan’s adventures will have their own little version of him that they prefer, but one thing will always be important, and that is the violence.

Call me a caveman if you will, but I just love seeing comic book heroes get into ridiculous fights. Physics-defying scuffles that involve the kind of blows that would instantly kill a normal human being, beautifully drawn from panel to panel, were what really drew me into comics. Yes, as I grew older and began to grasp concepts like narrative, subtext, and character, I started to understand comics as an art form, not just pictures. But for young me, it was just cool to watch Batman, Superman, or Judge Dredd punch a dude in the nose.

Wolverine has always been interesting in that respect because of the claws. Superman can, theoretically, pull every punch and not turn someone into pink mist, but you cannot pull a stabbing. Claws and fighting usually mean blood, and lots of it, but when he strays outside of the comics, there can be precious little of that on the screen. 

Ultimately, people want Wolverine to be a likable character. Not nice, mind you, but likable. The audience loves a surly rogue, someone of dour demeanour who feels removed from most of society, yet oddly superior to them. A drifter who gets into trouble, but only ever when it means teaching a bully a bit of a lesson. 

Yes, small-town tough guy, you might be dangerous in this place, but I, the hero, am dangerous in all places. 

The cathartic nature of watching someone else get their comeuppance has been a major factor of popular entertainment for, dare I say, centuries. It is especially prevalent in nerd culture, where the ability to dish out your own brand of justice can be somewhat lacking. 

And, of course, the bigger the villain, the bigger the comeuppance you want to see. The greater the violence inflicted upon them. It is only natural to wish for such things, especially with a hero like Logan, who will no doubt utter an impressive, guttural scream as he dives forward, driving exposed adamantium claws into the chest of an enemy, pinning them to a wall, tree, or even another enemy. 

Sorry, bub. 

I had somewhat written off the idea of getting this from a Wolverine game. No shade to Insomniac whatsoever, who are wonderful and talented developers. Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance, Spider-Man. They have made a lot of very good games, but maybe not the kind of titles that I associate with overt levels of, well, face-choppery. 

I was convinced we would be dealing with some form of alien invasion storyline, or perhaps robots. Robots are always a safe bet in X-Men-related media, thanks to the presence of the Sentinels, used by the '90s cartoon to allow all manner of violence with no actual blood being involved. 

So, imagine my delight when the recent Sony State of Play revealed a Wolverine gameplay trailer, and within mere moments, he had rammed his claws through someone’s face and out the top of their head! Oh my! It takes a mere four seconds for the trailer to hit the point where Logan shanks a human being through the brain for the first time. 

Now, I will grant you that some of the folks that Logan is slicing and dicing in the trailer do have robotic body parts, but that’s fine, because they still have plenty of blood locked away in their fleshy bits, waiting to come out. I guess, deep down, I just wouldn’t have seen the point of a Wolverine game if he were not doing violence to other actual people in it. 

It would be akin to trying to do Macbeth without the murder. Wolverine is, ultimately, less a person than he is a creation. A creature of violence and rage, awash in a sea of violent intent, yet he is cursed with loneliness, guilt, and sorrow. He’s trapped by his own nature, aware that there is a fine line between him and the people he fights, the people he kills. 

Wolverine wouldn’t work without the anguish the same way he doesn’t work without the blood. To pull from Macbeth, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multiudinous seas incarnadine.”

Macbeth’s guilt after killing Dunance is so great that it torments him with ghoulish images. He knows he cannot wash away the blood, and he fears that it stains him so utterly, has pervaded his flesh so irrevocably, that an attempt to wash it away in the sea would turn the whole ocean crimson. 

Wolverine is the same, although not for the same reason. Macbeth is aware that he has betrayed his loyalties and has ultimately damned himself through the murder of an innocent man who did not deserve to die. Wolverine, depending on the particular comic book run, has done some heinous things, but his foundational guilt is not that he does violence, but rather that violence is necessary at all.  

In Old Man Logan, he is manipulated by Mysterio into wiping out a considerable number of heroes. There are a couple of runs where he acts as the sharp end of the blade for Professor Xavier, willing to do the things that other people just won’t do when such things are necessary. However, he is rarely, if ever, outright villainous in his intent, and when he is, it is usually shown to be someone else's doing through trickery or manipulation. 

The source of most of Wolverine's guilt is trauma from the experiments and wars he has endured, pain and anguish from all the loss he has suffered, and just being emotionally intelligent enough to understand that the need for a man like him to exist at all is really not a strong indicator that the world is a fair or just place. Despite all that, Logan, as a human being, is just he kind of man who can do violent things when he feels those things need to be done. This doesn’t spare him from the cost of doing them; he just feels it is worth paying.

Wolverine being haunted by all the blood and violence is not him feeling sorry for himself; it is him feeling sorry for everyone else. He wraps it all up in a surely demeanour, but if he truly didn’t care, he would stay in the woods. He feels bad that he is necessary, that someone like him has to even exist in the world, as real innocence is so incapable of protecting itself against evil. 

This is why the blood in the game is so important, because it lets me know that each bad guy's death means something. Each time Wolverine lets his claws loose has real weight for our dour hero. He’s not just out there chopping up robots.

The irony is that all the violence gives me reason to believe the story will have real weight, explore heavy themes, and hopefully add yet more heft to Wolverine and his place in the X-Men universe. It’s funny how all it took was a little bit of blood. 

If it’s good enough for Shakespeare, it’s good enough for me.