Ta-Nehisi and Matt Yglesias are on to something with Wolverine. TNC:
I think we actually are curious about his orgins, but that’s the appeal–it’s in what you don’t know. How, exactly, does Wolverine know Sabretooth? How did he get admantium bones? Why is he so prone to rage? That negative space is where you put your imagination. This could be generational–I read comics mostly in the 80s, and these were still questions. But I think in story-telling, period, there something be said for letting the consumer wander.
And now you know why the Star Wars prequels were, from the beginning, doomed to suck. They filled in a space that was best left to the imagination.
— A. Serwer
