Wolverine is a heavy guy - literally. His hands are heavy from all the figurative blood on them and from the literal metal fused to his bones. So how does he swim in water with that dense skeleton he’s hauling around everywhere?

Wolverine is the stocky mutant Canuck with a rapid healing factor and metal melded to his bones made with the nearly unbreakable metal alloy Adamantium. A traumatizing experiment grafted the metal to his skeleton, which, paired with his healing factor, means he is nearly indestructible. But that makes swimming a challenge. 

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Wolverine is so dense that he just sinks to the bottom of whatever body of water he is plopped into. His healing factor keeps him from drowning, repairing oxygen-deprived organs and tissues almost as soon as they are damaged. But he still lives through the horrifying sensation of drowning over and over. It’s not an experience he likes to relive, so he doesn’t spend much time in the water. And it’s a good way for villains to take advantage of his healing factor, sinking him without the need of concrete shoes.

Wolverine Drowning

X-Force #16, by Benjamin Percy and Joshua Cassara,  put Wolverine in charge of finding out where a parasite was originating after it cropped up on the shores of the mutant haven on Krakoa and seems to be stemming fro the ocean. The idea to put the super heavy mutant into the water may not have been the brightest. Wolverine is outfitted with a diving suit that protects him from the pressure and aids his breathing. But it doesn’t make him any more buoyant. He jumps in and sinks straight down like he was carrying an anvil with him.

X-Force #16 doesn’t bother itself with explaining how Wolverine is capable of swimming back up, Logan just starts paddling his way towards the surface with relative ease. Wolverine’s muscles are strengthened constantly by having to hold up his dense skeleton, not to mention from his swinging a lot of punches and stabbing a lot of people. This constant strength conditioning has given him near super strength. He’s used to running and jumping despite his bones being laden with metal. But swimming has to be a lot tougher since he doesn’t have the benefit of floating at all. 

Wolverine is never seen stopping speeding trains or anything like that. But constantly carrying around a super dense skeleton has greatly increased his muscle power. It stands to reason that this constant conditioning would translate to the ability to swim. Since his muscles are already used to holding up a metal skeleton and walking it around. Then swimming shouldn’t pose much of a strain or overwork his muscles. As the comic shows, Wolverine can swim when needed, but he still has to counteract his sinking bones. It’s a matter of will and strength, but he probably can’t tread water forever. 

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