Dominic Monaghan isn't playing the part of a comic-book snob when he says he grew up reading comics most Americans have probably never heard of. Grabbing a bite between shots on the Los Angeles set of VH1's improv-comedy series Free Radio, the English actor rattles off some beloved comics from his youth--Whizzer and Chips, Buster, Whoopee!--then shrugs knowingly when this visiting Yank admits that not a single one rings a bell.

 

Today Monaghan his as fond of the American stuff as he is of the British: His friend Elijah Wood introduced him to Batman and The Fantastic Four while they were filming the Lord of the Rings movies, and this month Monaghan appears in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a prequel to the megapopular X-Men films in which we see how Hugh Jackman's character, Logan, became the titular superhero. Monaghan plays Barnell Bohusk, whom he calls "a guy with the ability to control electricity, which proves beneficial to Logan. "He's reluctant to go into any more detail about the film's plot, citing a confidentality agreement "more strict than on any other movie I've ever done in my life." Threats of death are not out of the question.

 

The son of a science-teacher dad who drove home "the idea that knowledge and information are important," Monaghan has been drawn to the fantastical and the otherworldly for as long as he can remember. "The movies that turned me on as a kid were Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Dark Crystal," he says. "I've always wanted to be abducted by aliens or given a mission only I can do. If there was a bright light at the end of my garden and I thought there was a chance I might be beamed up and carried away, of course I'd go."

 

As an origin story, Wolverine proved especially attractive. "Ultimately, that's where the interest lies for me," he says. "How does a normal person start to take responsibility for an extraordinary ability?" That tension between the unusual and the everyday--the pressure that uncommon circumstance can put on the average Joe--has driven much of Monaghan's work, from his role as a Hobbit in Lord of the Rings to his breakout role as a plane-crash survivor Charlie Pace on TV's Lost. It also explains why he never cared for Superman. There's no sense of jeopardy with Superman," says Monaghan, "because he's invincible. The only time you know he could be in any harm is when they bring Kryptonite in. That bores me. I like a real guy. I like the trials and tribulations of people like Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne." The Man of Steel is also a little too American for Monghan's taste; in his view, Superman embodies the United States' own inflated superhero complex. "It's that thing of 'Oh, there's some shit going down--here come the Americans to take care of business!" he says with a laugh. "I get a big kick out of this country.  I think the can-do approach is a fantastic element that you guys have in your personality. Your bias [regarding] world history is just bizarre."

 

Glenn McQuaid, who directed Monaghan last year in a droll indie feature about grave robbers called I Sell the Dead, says that Monaghan balances his inclination toward the supernatural with an analytical approach to acting. "Dom came in and really scoped out the character," McQuaid says. "He was really interested in the nuances. It was a pleasure to hand it over to Dom and watch him blossom."

 

For Monaghan, that behind-the-scenes work is part of a lifelong thirst for information. A committed bookworm, he recalls a friend from school wondering aloud about the point of reading after graduation. "I was astonished," he says. "It's like, do you honestly think your brain needs to relax?"

 

stylist: aristotle circa. grooming: cheri keating at the wall group. shirt by diesel. his own gloves.