Marvel Comics is launching a new run of X-Men Legends with a new issue #1 and a new story by writer Roy Thomas, set after his final run on the series in the 1960s. In the two-part story, Thomas and artist Dave Wachter go back to the early days of Wolverine, revealing new information about his pre-X-Men life as an agent of the Canadian government and new details of his battle with the Hulk in Incredible Hulk #181-182, as well as the secret behind his costume.

X-Men Legends #1 will be released on May 18 with a main cover by Kaare Andrews and variant covers by Dan Jurgens and Niko Henrichon. 

Thomas had two runs on X-Men in the 1960s, and after his final issue, the series went into reprints until Len Wien and Dave Cockrum revived it with Giant-Size X-Men #1. As the Marvel Editor-in-Chief, Thomas sketched out the idea of Wolverine to Wien, and the character made his first appearance in 1974 in the last panel of Wien and Herb Trimpe’s The Incredible Hulk #180, followed by a full-scale battle in issue #181. 

The new story is the one Thomas wishes he had written: “After some thought, it occurred to me that what would really be fun would be to write a story that took place right after the crashing of Wolverine into the Marvel Universe in ‘1974’—since, after conceiving the character in broad outline (and some specifics), I turned him over to the considerable writing skills of Len Wein, but have long kinda wished that I had scripted that story myself,” he said in a statement in Marvel’s official announcement. “This is the closest I'm gonna get—so I'm having a ball with it! (Artwork's pretty great, too!)” 

Marvel launched X-Men Legends in 2020 as a vehicle for former X-Men creators to return to the series and write new, in-continuity stories and wrap up loose ends (see “Marvel Writers Revisit Classic ‘X-Men’ Continuity with ‘X-Men Legends’ Miniseries”).

Click Gallery for covers!