It’s a good day for fans of mutants and Mangolds alike, as a slew of new images from James Mangold’s forthcoming The Wolverine have appeared on whatever the nerd news equivalent of Cerebro is. Included in this delightful deluge of advance photos are our first looks at Wolvie’s leading ladies – Viper, Mariko and Yukio – plus two new posters AND a thrilling six-second Vine preview. So, unless you have an adamantium heart, then prepare to fill your body with enough endorphins to paralyze even Logan himself with unbridled giddiness.

Not even a funeral or cosplaying as anyone from the Underworld movies can slow our Wolvie down.

[HT: EW]

Wolverine attracts two kinds of nemeses: giant, hairy dudes with super-strength and deadly femme fatales. Svetlana Khodchenkova’s The Viper is the latter, an assassin immune to toxins who has no qualms about employing them to deadly effect.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Mangold said, “Viper views Logan like a great hunter might view hunting a lion in his quarry. There’s kind of an admiration, a desire to destroy and a desire to consume and to have and to hold.”

According to Mangold, the film is set amongst a backdrop of  “a kind of gangland war going on between law enforcement and the Yakuza, and there’s been a lot of kidnappings and extortion.” Tao Okamoto’s Mariko, seen above with Wolverine, is “someone who’s under threat.”

Rila Fukushima’s Yukio serves as Wolverine’s female pal throughout the film. Less immediately grating than Jubilee and twice as deadly? We give her six claws up.

Seriously, Gogo Yubari, either join up with this bad mamacita and do a buddy cop film or eat your heart out – your call.

[HT: ComingSoon]

Well, this is certainly more exciting than the first accidentally-suggestive teaser poster.

[HT: The Wolverine‘s UK Twitter]

So, now that you’ve had a little taste of what’s to come, are you excited? Let us know in the comments below.