Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Ben Percy, HRL, marvel, podcast, stitcher, wolverine, wolverine: the long night

Wolverine to Star in Serialized Audio Drama from Marvel and Stitcher Next Year

Published Tue, 05 Dec 2017 11:39:07 -0600

Wolverine has only been back from the dead for a couple of months, but Marvel's favorite Mary Sue is already rapidly expanding his multimedia presence. According to a report from Mashable, Marvel has teamed with premium podcast network Stitcher to create an audio serial podcast starring the stabby mutant.

Called Wolverine: The Long Night, the podcast will run for 10 episodes, available exclusively on Stitcher in Spring 2018 before being released on other podcast outlets in the Fall. The story teams two government agents with a local deputy in Alaska as they investigate Logan as a murder suspect. It's easy to see why they might suspect him, considering his razor sharp adamantium claws, penchant for beserker rages, and habit of murdering his own children. Presumably, though, since this is Marvel, Wolverine will turn out to be innocent (of this particular murder) and he'll team up with the cops to bust the real killer while at the same time lecturing everyone around him about morality, like he has any room to talk.

Cast members include Celia Keenan-Bolger, Ato Essandoh, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Scott Adsit, Bob Balaban, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Chris Gethard. Richard Armitage will voice the hairy Canuck himself.

Writer Ben Percy said of the project:

"It's very easy to turn up the volume on reality [in Alaska]. In addition to the crime investigation into the serial killer on the loose, there are also elements of the fantastic. And some of them have to do with Wolverine as his legend grows in this area, as people observe him bounding through the mists with packs of wolves; as they witness him save and end lives. I'm also drawing from the Native legends in the area and from cultish mythology. There is a compound set up outside of the town of Burns, Alaska, where the Aurora cult is located. And it's unclear at first whether they are implicated in the murders that are occurring here and whether they might have powers, as they purport to — a connection to and a control over the fabric of light that plays over the winter skies."

Previously, it was reported that Wolverine will be ramping up guest appearances in comic books in 2018, as part of Marvel's initiative to return him to his sales-sustaining pre-death glory. While Wolverine was absent from Marvel comics, sales plummeted, as his guest appearances were previously propping up about half of the publishing line and multiple team books.

During Wolverine's absence, at least six other Wolverines tried to fill in, including a time-displaced older version of Wolverine, two female clones of Wolverine, Wolverine's son (one of the few he hasn't murdered), Wolverine's on from an alternate dimension, and an actual Wolverine named Jonathan. Clearly, that wasn't enough, but all will soon be made right again as Wolverine slices through 2018 with podcasts, guest appearances, surely multiple ongoing solo books, and a central role in whatever super-mega-crossover event involving the Infinity Stones Marvel is planning for 2018.