John Hamann is famous for walking through Milwaukee with his shirt off. He’s been nicknamed “The Milverine” because of his resemblance to Wolverine, the X-man who like John, is strong, tall, and bears powerful mutton chops. John has never left Milwaukee, but he is recognized by tourists and locals alike as a mascot for the city itself. There's a Facebook group with over 10k followers dedicated to spotting him in the wild, he has a theme song, there is a beer emblazoned with him on the label, and a bobblehead of him is being inducted into the National Bobblehead Museum. He has a yelp page, and there’s a Google Maps page devoted to tracking sightings of The Milverine. He was so commonplace that when he stopped being spotted around town in 2017, news outlets went looking for him. Where did he go, and what does the life of a local legend look like from the inside?
