Here is an archive of all the past top five lists I've done over the years.
We've done the top fastball specials WITH Colossus, so let's count down the top five Wolverine fastball specials WITHOUT Colossus!
Quick recap - a "fastball special" is when a fellow hero (most often his longtime teammate, Colossus, but it could be anyone) picks up Wolverine and throws him really hard at a bad guy, like a baseball pitcher throwing a fastball. It was a set maneuver that Wolverine and Colossus worked together on during their training in the Danger Room.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
During the Secret Wars tie-in mini-series set during the X-Tinction Agenda (by Marc Guggenheim and Carmine DiGiandomenico), Rogue tosses Wolverine...
In New Avengers Annual #1 (by Brian Michael Bendis, Olivier Coipel and Mark Morales), Ms. Marvel and Wolverine pull off the maneuver "Avengers style"...
In Avengers vs. X-Men #11 (by Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, Jason Aaron, Jonathan Hickman, Olivier Coipel and Mark Morales), the Hulk fruitlessly tries to throw Wolverine at Phoenix-possessed Cyclops...
In Astonishing X-Men #26 (by Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi), Armor takes a crack at it...
And in Marvel's Free Comic Day 2009 comic book, by Brian Michael Bendis and Jimmy Cheung, Luke Cage does the maneuver...
Cage would do it again in a later issue of New Avengers (New Avengers #14 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato - Mike was kind enough to send me the art for the issue so I could use it here):
Go to the next page for the start of the top five!
5. Uncanny X-Men #194
I think I just dig how nonchalant it is for the X-Men to throw their teammate like Rogue does in this issue by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr. and Dan Green...
Honestly, there's no big difference between this one and the above Avengers ones, I just figured the X-Men one has a LITTLE more meaning to it.
4. Herc #7
This Fred Van Lente, Greg Pak, June Brigman and Roy Richardson use of the fastball special between Storm and Wolverine was adorable (they were fighting Hercules, who had gained Spider powers during Spider Island)...
3. X-Men #1
Jim Lee marveled a generation of fans with his artwork during the early 1990s, and his work in X-Men #1 (the highest-selling comic book of all-time) definitely made a huge impression. So I'm sure many fans are familiar with this Beast/Wolverine fastball special (Chris Claremont scripted the issue and Scott Williams inked Lee)...
Go to the next page for the top two!
2. New X-Men #153
The conclusion to Grant Morrison's X-Men run was the future storyline, Here Comes Tomorrow, where Wolverine must lead a ragtag team of X-Men against a Sublime-possessed Beast. One of the members of the team is Tito Bohusk Jr., the grandson of Wolverine's former teammate, Beak. Tito is a huge fan of the X-Men's history, so when he got a chance to do a fastball special, well, it was a very special moment for him (Grant Morrison, Marc Silvestri and Joe Weems did the issue)...
1. She-Hulk #16
This hilarious moment by Dan Slott and Rich Burchett has got to take the top spot on the list...
