So my hopes are smashed by brutal corporate reality: Wolverine will still be an Avenger when the post-Siege Avengers lineup is unveiled. I’ve read nearly every issue of New Avengers and cannot understand why Wolverine is on this team. Originally the rationale was to have a psychopath on the team who could so some of the bloodier stuff that, say, Captain America won’t do. That’s why Cyclops has Wolvie helm X-Force — a team, a comic book, and a treatment of Wolverine that succeeds wildly. But the Avengers?

It’s easy enough to understand why Tony or Cap would want Wolverine on the Avengers. What’s much harder to grasp is the upside for Wolverine. This is a dire moment for mutantkind. He’s not the outreach sort anyway, so he’s not exactly out to raise the profile of the few remaining mutants in the eyes of Homo Inferior. Even if he was, that would defeat the stated rationale for having Wolverine on the team. And he wouldn’t even like it, as evidenced by the difficulty the Avengers have prodding Wolvie out for the inaugural press conference. Why is he on this team?

Please, Marvel: what makes Wolverine so great is on display in X-Force. Reluctant-NCO-trying-to-hold-team-of-emotionally-damaged-killing-machines is a good call. But the 2010 Avengers are kind of shaping up as just as a team with an overabundance of franchise players, a superhero version of the Denver Nuggets or something.

*That said: please — also — don’t put Moon Knight on any Avengers team.