Marvel's Wolverine Is Rated M: Gore, F-Bombs and, Yes, Logan's Bare Backside

Honestly, I laughed out loud at this one - and then I got properly excited. The ESRB rating for Marvel's Wolverine is out, and among the expected warnings about gore, intense violence and strong language sits one gloriously specific line: the game will briefly show "a character's exposed buttocks" across "a handful of sequences."

So yes, partial nudity is officially on the box. And if I had to guess whose backside we're talking about, well - Logan does have a long comic-book history of waking up in labs and snowbanks wearing considerably less than his suit. The rating doesn't name names, so I'll leave that mystery to September.

Joking aside, this rating tells us something real about the game Insomniac is making. This is the studio that gave us the warm, teen-friendly Marvel's Spider-Man games, where the worst thing Peter Parker says is a flustered quip. Wolverine going full M - blood, gore, swearing, the works - means they're not softening the character to fit the family-friendly superhero mold. Berserker rage with actual consequences on screen. That's the version of Logan fans have been asking for since the first teaser, and it sounds like that's exactly what we're getting.

A quick word for parents

I say this with love, because I know how many households picked up a PS5 largely for Spider-Man: this is not that. Don't let the Marvel logo fool you when your kid puts it on the wishlist. The M rating exists for a reason, and based on this description - intense violence, gore, strong language and a bit of skin - Marvel's Wolverine is squarely an adults' game. My nephew will be sitting this one out, and he's going to be very dramatic about it.

For the rest of us, though? A studio at the top of its craft making an unrestrained, claws-out Wolverine on PS5, arriving this September. I wasn't sure Insomniac would really commit to the mess and the rage that make Logan who he is. This rating reads like they did, and I can't wait to see it.

Image: Pat Loika / CC BY 2.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SDCC_2012_-_Wolverine_(7574554846).jpg