'Logan' Helped Boys Turn Into Men Who Embrace Vulnerability

Self-discovery through Hugh Jackman's Wolverine

As young boys, when we first saw Logan in X-men in 2000 — played by 31-year-old Hugh Jackman — we knew he was troubled. We were barely teenagers, born in the late 80s, subconsciously seeking characters we could identify with. Logan seemed angry, broken, and lonesome. But, he also looked strong and dangerous with adamantium claws between his knuckles and a self-healing ability. So along with millions of other boys at that age, we were sold in two seconds.

Logan wasn’t the strongest mutant with the most powerful supernatural skills, yet he immediately became the coolest one of all. He was our outsider — a fictional big brother we could look up to and wished to be anything like him.

Logan’s journey mirrored every struggling boy’s life who was yet to find his identity.

But Logan, or Wolverine as we called him, was never whole, never happy. He constantly fought — in and outside of his body — and sought ways to explore his unknown past. To discover who he really was. That’s something twelve-year-old boys do, too. At an age when nothing is certain, in a body that’s continually changing, we looked at superheroes for direction. We often acted out; one day, we played football on the streets, and on the next, we smoked cigarettes we stole from our parents.

Like Logan, we were crippled with insecurity but tried copying the cool guys in films, and in real life, who were older than us. His journey mirrored every struggling boy’s life who was yet to find his identity. If we failed to get answers, that was ok because he did too. But despite his failures, he never stopped trying to be a better person and beat the odds stacked against him. It was reassuring to see that even a grown man with superpowers had his own issues if it came to self-integrity. Boys like me, who grew up in broken families, often felt like they didn’t belong. We went out of our ways to connect with people we could trust our most painful secrets with. Logan has done the same, but he needed guidance to do that.