The teaser poster for 'The Wolverine' exceeds many others on a number of principles. Firstly, it stands out significantly from the rest by not being a photo-shopped rush job but an artistic design that demonstrates there has been a lot of thought and hard work put into the creation of it. It stands alone as a piece of art, in my eyes, and even adorned my bedroom wall for a period due to its sheer artistic beauty. The artist behind it has been inspired by Japanese culture and its art style, consistent with the setting of the film and therefore providing the audience with an idea with what they should expect. Secondly, it is very iconic. It does fall into the usual expectations of a poster by having the lead character in an overly stylized pose - in this case Wolverine's classic crossed claws (which have been successfully used in promotion of previous X-Men films) - however here this is used remarkably well. The classic pose represents the character's strength and prowess and will attract a wide variety of demographics. Interestingly, the size of his claws are slightly exaggerated, as in they are much longer than one would expect from prior films with the character, however this is probably to ensure they are recognisable.
Overall the image's simplicity and minimalism does it a number of favours by making it memorable. It presented in complete monochrome with only a splash of colour - the red of the release date's lettering and the Japanese symbol in the lower left of the poster - and Wolverine himself is engulfed in shadow. The details of his face are left much to the imagination of the viewer and this helps retain the sense of mystery that surrounds the character. The aforementioned Japanese symbol could perhaps be a clue of sorts to the film, but as someone who is not familiar with anything associated with the Japanese alphabet or the like, I do not understand its denotation, however it could just be something to further establish the Japanese style of the poster and setting of the film. At the bottom of the poster where one would expect cast and crew credits or at least a title, the designers have chosen to neglect either and simply present a date. This is sometimes seen on teaser posters as the studio want to maintain a sense of secrecy about the film instead of banking on the film's title, but with a character such as Wolverine who is instantly recognisable to most, whether they be young or old or even unaware of comic books, it is not important to show the film's title. In any case, the title is the name of the character so it could, perhaps, seem superfluous.