Wolverine is a scripted podcast serial featuring the Marvel Comics character Wolverine. The show is Marvel's first scripted podcast produced by Marvel New Media and Stitcher. Marvel had previously done some other audio only formats in 1974 with a Fantastic Fourradio series and a Spider-Man: Rock Reflections of a Superhero concept album. It was dubbed one of the Best Podcasts of 2018 by Apple while also winning the 2019 iHeartRadio Award for Best Scripted Podcast. A comic adaptation was published by Marvel due to its success.
Federal agents are led to the fictional town of Burns, Alaska working a serial murder case. Logan is the main suspect. The agents will uncover Logan's dual identity and the corruption in the small town. Logan is attempting to escape from society and over the course of the series recover some of his lost memories. He is, however, drawn to execute "frontier justice." Located nearby is the Aurora cult, who may or may not have power or be involved in the murders.
The second season, The Lost Trail, finds Wolverine in New Orleans, Louisiana looking for an ex-lover when humans and mutants start disappearing. Assisted by a young boy, Logan investigates the disappearances which brings them to encounter "biker gangs," "Cajun thieves", one of which is Gambit, and "a world of wonders that defies explanation." The duo find a refuge called Greenhaven lead by a powerful mutant, Jason Wyngarde.
Marvel New Media and Stitcher announced on December 5, 2017 Wolverine: The Long Night was in production for a spring 2018 launch on Stitcher Premium. In Fall 2018, the podcast series would be widely released. Some of the recording would take place outside in the appropriate terrain. Also, actors would interact and move with other actors. Producers are Daniel Fink for Marvel and Jenny Radelet for Stitcher. The first season's first two episodes debuted on March 12, 2018 on Stitcher with two episode per week to follow; it ended its first season with ten episodes in early May. A teaser trailer for the podcast was also released to promote it. On November 5, 2018 Marvel and Sticher announced that second season called Wolverine: The Lost Trail has started production with Gambit and Mastermind being added to the story for a first quarter 2019 debut. With the release of its trailer, Marvel indicated that the release date for the second season to be March 25, 2019 with Percy and Baker returning as writer for the season with associate director Chloe Prasinos.
Reception
After listening to three episodes, Beth Elderkin of Io9 found the podcast to be "... off on a promising note." "It might not be perfect, and some of the characters and setups might verge on the ridiculous, but it's exciting to experience a comic book universe story in this format." In 2018, Apple named it as one of the "Best Podcasts of the Year" while being in their Top 25 Most Downloaded Podcasts of the Year and Top 25 Most Downloaded New Podcasts of the Year. During the 2019 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards, it won the Best Scripted Podcast.
Adaptation
Due to its success, a comic adaptation was written by the podcast writer Benjamin Percy. Joining Percy on the adaptation is artist Marcio Takara and cover artist Rafael Albuquerque for issue 1 released in January 2019. The adaptation was a five issue mini-series in which two chapters were truncated to fill an issue.
Future
Benjamin Percy teased in a 2017 interview with Mashable that Wolverine: The Long Night could be the start of a whole new interconnected universe, which he called the Marvel Podcast Universe. On August 14, 2019, Marvel and Stitcher announced that a 10-episode podcast adaptation of Kurt Busiek's Marvels will premiere in Fall 2019 with the first season focusing on the aftermath of the Fantastic Four's battle with Galactus and Phil Sheldon and his crew exploring the world of superheroes.
