A burgeoning campaign to honor Wolverine with a life-size statue in Edmonton, Alberta, has received the endorsement of at least one city official.

“The first reaction is, this is kind of funny,” City Councillor Andrew Knack, who says he's a fan of the Marvel character, told CTV News. “But then you realize they’re taking this very seriously. I think it’s a great idea, assuming we go about it the right approach, can’t be taxpayer dollars to fund a statue of Wolverine.”

Edmonton residents Jesse Seitz and Christopher Olivier launched the petition last week on Change.org, lobbying Mayor Don Iveson to pay tribute to one of Alberta's native sons with a statue in City Hall, Churchill Square or the grounds of the Legislative Assembly. Although the character was long ago established as a Canadian, the Origin miniseries pinpointed his birthplace as Alberta.

“Wolverine has been a staple of Marvel Comics for the last 40 years, the X-Men film franchise for 15 and is now considered as popular as The Avengers and Spider-Man," Olivier wrote. "We believe a statue of the X-Man will only draw more people to the city if not just to see it and would make fans of the character beam with pride.”

Knack likely won't be alone in his stance that no public money be used for the statue, which means Seitz, Olivier & Co. would have to turn to private backers. I'd recommend they begin with Nexen Energy, which just set a Guinness World Record for the Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Batman, but I imagine the company would want the statue in Calgary.

The petition has 2,425 supporters to date.