WOLVERINE

In 1988, the world believed the X-Men were dead — they'd sacrificed themselves on live television in Dallas during the Fall of the Mutants, then quietly let everyone keep believing it. So when Logan set up a second life on the pirate island of Madripoor, he needed a name that wasn't Wolverine. His solution, debuting across Marvel Comics Presents #1–10 (1988) — "Save the Tiger," by Chris Claremont and John Buscema — was a white tuxedo, a cigar, and a single eyepatch over a perfectly healthy eye. In Madripoor's Lowtown, everybody just called him "Patch."

Patch wasn't a costume Logan wore for one caper — it was a whole life. A dying man's last words, "save the Tiger," pulled him into a gang war between crimelord Roche and the upstart Tyger Tiger (Jessán Hoan). Logan backed Tyger's takeover, installed himself as her conscience, and became a silent partner in the Princess Bar alongside O'Donnell — the Lowtown watering hole that first appeared in Marvel Comics Presents #1. As Patch he brokered information, called in favors, and settled problems in a dinner jacket; when a job genuinely needed Wolverine, he ditched the patch and worked in an all-black stealth outfit instead.

Here's the joke the comics were always in on: the disguise could not possibly work. Patch kept Logan's unmistakable pointed hair, mutton-chop sideburns, short stocky build, and cigar — and his healing factor means the eye under the patch is flawless. It worked anyway, because Patch was a reputation, not a mask: in Wolverine (vol. 2) #8 (1989), two words — "I'm Patch" — empty a crowded room, while gamblers in the corner calmly lay odds on "Patch vs. Fixit" (the Grey Hulk). The identity stuck for years of his first solo series, and Marvel has returned to it since, most recently in Wolverine #8–10 (2021) and Larry Hama's Wolverine: Patch #1 (2022).