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Marvel's Wolverine costume as we know it was based on Batman (his ears at least), according to X-Men legend Dave Cockrum
It turns out there’s a reason Wolverine’s cowl looks like Batman
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Have you ever noticed that Wolverine’s cowl looks similar to Batman? It turns out this is intentional.
When you look at Wolverine’s introduction in The Incredible Hulk #180-181 (1974), you’ll notice that his cowl had whiskers and the black ears were noticeably shorter. However, when the character returned for Giant-Size X-Men #1 the whiskers were gone, and his ears have tripled in size.
We can thank Gil Kane for that.
When Kane was penciling the cover for Giant-Size X-Men #1, he accidentally gave Wolverine larger ears, and Dave Cockrum (who penciled the interior pages) loved the look.
"Gil Kane drew [Wolverine’s mask] wrong at some point and we thought, ‘Gee, he looks sort of like Batman. That’s kind of neat.’ So, we kept that look,” Dave Cockrum said during an interview for Fantagraphics’ The X-Men Companion.
Giant-Size X-Men became a big hit, cementing the team’s place in the Marvel Universe, and Wolverine’s new look stuck.
There is a bit of irony that Batman was co-created by an artist named Bob Kane, while an entirely different Kane is responsible for Wolverine looking like the Caped Crusader.
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