‘Wolverine’ Creator Len Wein Made More Money From ‘Dark Knight’ Trilogy

Wolverine creator Len Wein made more money from the Dark Knight trilogy than he did from the X-Men franchise.

Christopher Nolan apparently did it right: He directed the biggest money-making super hero franchise Len Wein ever made a character for. Len Wein is the writer behind the Canadian mutant berserker Wolverine as well as the minor character Lucius Fox from the Dark Knight trilogy. A minor character from a franchise of only three movies has earned the writer more than a character who has starred in five movies and had a cameo in a sixth. It could be argued at that point that Wolverine is a character that pretty much writes itself, but the lack of even a writing credit has left Len Wein feeling disenfranchised.

In all reality, the biggest sum of money Len Wein has seen from his Wolverine character came from the last film simply titled The Wolverine, which was based on a miniseries. On the bright side, however, Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, the people behind said miniseries, were never credited for the film either.

Apparently, 20th Century Fox isn’t as generous as Warner Bros. when it comes to paying the original writers. Len Wein stated for The L.A. Times, “It’s less frustrating for the characters I created at DC. Money comes with the anonymity, at least. I have contracts that guarantee me some small piece of the action. Lucius Fox has earned me a great deal more money than Wolverine ever has, although I will say that for the latest film Marvel did send me a nice [check].”

It could be argued that Christopher Nolan’s Batman films were just better written in general than the X-Men films, leading to a bigger return audience. On the comic book side, Batman’s solo adventures were usually better written than those of Wolverine, whose first appearance was in The Incredible Hulk issue 180.

In general, the fact that comic book super hero movies are such hot property is proof that, as Len Wein says, “The geeks have inherited the Earth.” But don’t get us started on the rights to Ghostrider…

What do you think of Wolverine creator Len Wein earning more from the Dark Knight trilogy?