When the September 1982 cover-dated first issue of the original Wolverine limited series hit comic shops, it was something of an arrival statement for the character.  

Since the re-launch of the X-Men franchise with Giant Size X-Men #1, much of the storytelling emphasis had been put on Nightcrawler, a favorite of artist Dave Cockrum. Conversely, much of the fan focus had been on Wolverine.

Writer Chris Claremont had capitalized on that well before Cockrum’s departure from Uncanny X-Men, but it accelerated when John Byrne and Terry Austin took over the art duties. By the time Claremont teamed with Frank Miller for the four-issue Wolverine – what today seems like a no-brainer was at the time only a calculated risk – the character was becoming the most popular of the X-Men.

In the course of researching material for next year’s thirty-eighth edition of The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, though, we stumbled across a six-page story in Marvel Treasury Edition #26 which featured The Rampaging Hulk and was published in 1980.

Written by Mary Jo Duffy, penciled by Ken Landgraf and inked by George Pérez, this six-page tale followed the traditional Treasury-style reprints of Reprinted Incredible Hulk #167-170. On the cover, it is clearly billed as a Hercules and Wolverine team-up, but by content weight it’s clearly a Wolverine story co-starring Hercules.

Former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter confirmed our understanding that many aspiring writers and artists were given short story assignments to ply their crafts. A large number of such pieces never saw the light of day, but some of them were used to fill out annuals, specials and Marvel Treasury Editions.

In the case of Duffy, Shooter said that the former Assistant Editor wanted to move into writing and got the chance with Wolverine.

So, was Marvel Treasury Edition #26 the first Wolverine solo story or can you think of something that predates it? For a character that would go on to multiple volumes of his own series, Marvel Comics Presents, and a boatload of specials, one-shots, team-ups and so on, this actually could turn out to be a pretty interesting collectible.

After all, when was the last time you saw a Marvel Treasury Edition in 9.8?

Let us know what you think at samanda@gemstonepub.com!