X-Men’s Wolverine to have big 2009

WORD BALLOONS

Wolverine, the clawed Canadian who is the most recognizable member of the X-Men, is at the forefront of “Wolverine and the X-Men,” an animated series premiering at 7 tonight on Nicktoons.

It’s part of a big year for the mutant, who will appear in a live-action film, an animated series, a direct-to-DVD film and scores of comic books in 2009.

“Wolverine and the X-Men” features Wolverine re-forming the X-Men a year after a mysterious explosion destroyed the Xavier Institute and broke up the X-Men. With Professor X and Jean Grey missing, it’s up to Wolverine to get the X-Men back together to prevent a nightmarish future. Included in this “X-Men” roster are Cyclops, Storm, the White Queen, Beast, Rogue and Nightcrawler.

Wolverine will make his big-screen debut as a solo star in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” with Hugh Jackman reprising his role from the “X-Men” films. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” is scheduled to debut May 1.

And Wolverine comes to DVD on Tuesday, as part of the “Hulk Vs.” DVD. Hulk fights Thor and Wolverine in separate portions of the direct-to-DVD feature. Co-writer Christopher Yost said at Comic-Con International in San Diego that the creative team was given a lot of leeway in developing “Hulk Vs. Wolverine.”

“The only thing was, Hulk had to be in it and Wolverine had to be in it,” Yost said. “We really had a chance to delve into the two characters, like Wolverine’s entire past and rogues’ gallery. We tried to bring the comic book to life. Everything the fans like about the comic books, the action and the edge, we tried to put it in there. You’ll see a lot of things directly from the comic books.”