Created by Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and John Romita Sr., Wolverine is a fierce Canadian mutant known for his animal-like senses, enhanced physical abilities, a remarkable healing factor, and three retractable claws in each hand.
But I’m sure none of this is new to you. After all, Wolverine is one of the most iconic X-Men—one of the coolest characters in the franchise—who captivated readers and secured his place in pop culture with his unforgettable role in X-Men: The Animated Series and Hugh Jackman’s portrayal in the X-Men movie franchise. He’s also the only X-Men character to have maintained a solo comic series consistently since his debut in 1988.
Over the years, many writers have written celebrated stories for the character, from Claremont and Miller’s first mini-series to Barry Windsor-Smith’s Weapon X, Jenkins’ Origins, Millar’s Enemy of the State, and more. Today, we take a closer look at Jason Aaron’s run on the iconic mutant, written before his epic run on Thor. It’s hard to think of Jason Aaron’s time at Marvel without Wolverine, as his journey started after winning a writing contest, which helped launch his significant run on the character.
Wolverine before Jason Aaron: Wolvie made his debut in 1974 and lived a lot of solo adventures trying to unpack his complicated past and much more. To discover more about him, see the Complete Wolverine reading order.
Collecting Wolverine by Jason Aaron in Omnibus and Hardcover
Part of Jason Aaron’s work on Wolverine has been collected into three Omnibus editions, with both volumes being reprinted in 2025 after being difficult to find at a decent price for years. For the remainder of his run on the character, you will need to look for the hardcover editions as Marvel has not yet collected this part in Omnibus format.
- Wolverine By Jason Aaron Omnibus Vol. 1 [2025 Edition]
Collects Wolverine (2003) #56 and #62-65; Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1-4; Wolverine: Weapon X #1-16; Dark Reign: The List – Wolverine; and material from Wolverine (2003) #73-74, Dark X-Men: The Beginning #3 and Wolverine (1988) #175. - Wolverine Goes to Hell Omnibus [2025 Edition]
Collects Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine #1-6; Wolverine (2010) #1-20, 5.1, 300-304; X-Men: Schism #1-5; Material From Wolverine: Road To Hell. - Wolverine: Wolverine vs. the X-Men HC
Collects: Wolverine (2010 series) #5.1 and #6-9. - Wolverine: Wolverine’s Revenge HC
Collects: Wolverine (2010 series) #10-16. - X-Men: Schism HC
Collects: X-Men: Schism #1-5. - Wolverine: Goodbye Chinatown HC
Collects: Wolverine (2010 series) #17-20. - Wolverine: Back In Japan HC
Collects: Wolverine #300-304 - Wolverine & the X-Men by Jason Aaron Omnibus
Collects Wolverine & The X-Men (2011) #1-35, 38-42; Wolverine & The X-Men Annual (2013) #1. The omnibus doesn’t collect the issues from the Battle of the Atom crossover. - Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted Hardcover
Collects 13-issue web series by Jason Aaron.
Finally, let’s note that Amazing X-Men: The Quest for Nightcrawler is only available in trade paperback.
Wolverine by Jason Aaron Complete Collection
Marvel has also reprinted Jason Aaron’s run in the Complete Collection, a trade paperback collection containing 300–500 pages per volume. It covers most of his work on the character prior to Wolverine and the X-Men.
- Wolverine by Jason Aaron Complete Collection Volume 1
Collects Wolverine (2003 series) #56, #62-65, material from #73-74, Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1-4, and Wolverine: Weapon X #1-5 - Wolverine by Jason Aaron Complete Collection Volume 2
Collects Dark Reign: The List – Wolverine #1; Wolverine: Weapon X #6-16; Dark X-Men: The Beginning #3, and All-New Wolverine Saga - Wolverine by Jason Aaron Complete Collection Volume 3
Collects Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine #1-6, Wolverine #1-9, #5.1, and Wolverine: Road To Hell - Wolverine by Jason Aaron Complete Collection Volume 4
Collects Wolverine (2010 series) #10-20, #300-304
Wolverine by Jason Aaron Reading Order: The Classic Trades
And now, we take a closer look at Jason Aaron’s run on Wolverine, from his first story in Wolverine (2002) #175—written at the start his career—all the way through Wolverine: Weapon X, Wolverine (2010), and Wolverine & the X-Men, where Logan served as headmaster of the Jean Grey School.
The first Wolverine stories by Jason Aaron (2003-2008)
This part has been collected in Wolverine By Jason Aaron Omnibus Vol. 1. Jason Aaron’s first Marvel writing assignment came with Wolverine (1988) #175 after winning a talent contest. It would be five years before he wrote the character again, first with Wolverine (2003) #56, then in Get Mystique (Wolverine #62-65), which explores the long and violent history between the two mutants. He followed that with Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1-4, part of the X-Men: Manifest Destiny event.
- Wolverine Vol 2 #175 (A Good Man)
It was Jason Aaron’s first writing assignment for Marvel after he won a writing contest. - Wolverine: The Death of Wolverine
Collects Wolverine (2003 series) #56-61. Jason Aaron only wrote issue #56, The Man in the Pit. - Wolverine: Get Mystique
Collects Wolverine (2003 series) #62-65. Happens mostly in parallel to the Messiah Complex. - X-Men: Manifest Destiny
Collects: Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1-4, X-Men Manifest Destiny: Nightcrawler #1, and X-Men: Manifest Destiny: Iceman, Nightcrawler, Boom-Boom & Avalanche.
Wolverine: Weapon X (2009-2010)
This part has been collected in Wolverine By Jason Aaron Omnibus Vol. 1. To coincide with the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Marvel launched the ongoing series Wolverine: Weapon X, with Jason Aaron at the helm after writing several one-shots and limited series featuring the character, and Ron Garney as the main artist. Running for 16 issues, the series introduced new threats such as the Adamantium Men and Dr. Rot while setting the stage for Aaron’s later work on Wolverine (2010) and Wolverine & the X-Men.
- Wolverine: Weapon X Volume 1: Adamantium Men
Collects Wolverine stories from Wolverine #73-75; Wolverine Weapon X #1-5. - Wolverine: Weapon X Volume 2: Insane in the Brain
Collects: Wolverine Weapon X #6-10. - Wolverine: Weapon X Volume 3: Tomorrow Dies Today
Collects: Wolverine Weapon X #11-16 and Dark Reign: The List – Wolverine.
Wolverine Vol. 4 (2010-2012)
This part has been collected in Wolverine Goes to Hell Omnibus. After 16 issues, Wolverine: Weapon X was relaunched as Wolverine. It is during this run that Wolverine goes to Hell and back, forced to confront his past. This new volume is also tied to the Schism event, which saw Wolverine and Cyclops split over differing views on how to lead the X-Men. (see our X-Men Reading Order Part 4 for more details).
- Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine
Collects: Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine #1-6. - Wolverine: Wolverine Goes To Hell
Collects: Wolverine (2010 series) #1-5. - Wolverine: Wolverine vs. the X-Men
Collects: Wolverine (2010 series) #5.1 and #6-9. - Wolverine: Wolverine’s Revenge
Collects: Wolverine (2010 series) #10-16. - X-Men: Schism
Collects: X-Men: Schism #1-5. - Wolverine: Goodbye Chinatown
Collects: Wolverine (2010 series) #17-20. - Wolverine: Back In Japan
Collects: Wolverine #300-304.
Wolverine Vol. 4 didn’t end immediately after the end of Jason Aaron’s tenure. Issues #305-317 were written by Cullen Bunn, with the title concluding in the wake of the Marvel NOW! initiative.
Wolverine and The X-Men (2011-2014)
This part has been collected in Wolverine & The X-Men Omnibus. Following the recent events in X-Men: Schism, Wolverine’s philosophy shifted, and he became headmaster of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning in Wolverine and the X-Men, written by Aaron and penciled by Chris Bachalo. The X-Men: Battle of the Atom crossover took place during this period with Wolverine and the X-Men #36-37 having ties to it, though it’s not hugely significant to Aaron’s overall story.
During these years, Wolverine also starred in Savage Wolverine by Frank Cho and Wolverine Vol. 5 by Paul Cornell.
- Wolverine and the X-Men Volume 1
Collects Wolverine and the X-Men #1-5. - Wolverine and the X-Men Volume 2
Collects Wolverine and the X-Men #5-8. - Wolverine and the X-Men Volume 3
Collects Wolverine and the X-Men #9-13. - Wolverine and the X-Men Volume 4
Collects Wolverine and the X-Men #14-18. - Wolverine and the X-Men Volume 5
Collects Wolverine and the X-Men #19-24. - Wolverine and the X-Men Volume 6
Collects Wolverine and the X-Men #25-29. - Wolverine and the X-Men Volume 7
Collects Wolverine and the X-Men #30-35. - X-Men: Battle of the Atom
Collects X-Men: Battle Of The Atom #1-2, All-New X-Men #16-17, X-Men (2013) #5-6, Uncanny X-Men (2013) #12-13 And Wolverine & The X-Men #36-37. - Wolverine and the X-Men Volume 8
Collects Wolverine and the X-Men #38-42 and Wolverine and the X-Men Annual #1.
After Jason Aaron finished his run, a new volume of Wolverine and the X-Men was launched, written by Jason Latour. The two writers also collaborated on Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted (with art by Adi Granov), part of Infinite Comics, an imprint dedicated to original digital stories.
- Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted Hardcover
Collects 13-issue web series by Jason Aaron.
Finally, Amazing X-Men by Jason Aaron continues a storyline from Wolverine and the X-Men, where a team of X-Men searches for the deceased Nightcrawler in the afterlife. Aaron wrote the first six issues before being replaced by Kathryn Immonen (issue #7), followed by Chris Yost and Craig Kyle (issues #8-19).
- Amazing X-Men: The Quest for Nightcrawler
Collects Amazing X-Men (vol. 2) #1-6.