There are as many super-powers as there are superheroes in the comic book world, with at least one character having pretty much any power that can be thought up. However, there's a limit to how many truly unique powers creators can come up with. While there's a huge range of different powers within the Marvel universe, there are way more characters than there are unique abilities. To combat this problem, Marvel grants its heroes and villains unique combinations of powers at varying strengths, but it’s still possible to group the Marvel characters into ‘umbrella’ power categories: the super-strong, the super-fast… and the super-healers.
Healing factors are surprisingly common within the comic book world – characters who recover in an instant are capable of continuing an epic battle across page after page, can be counted on to return from the dead, and when coupled with a more offensive weapon-power, can become near-unbeatable. That’s what makes these guys so fun – watching the attempts to take them down, when there is almost nothing that they can’t shake off. With origins ranging from mutations to gamma radiation, here are 15 of the Most Powerful Healing Factors In The Marvel Universe.
15. Maverick
A mercenary, a mutant, and a perfect soldier, Christoph Nord started out his superhero career working with Wolverine and Sabretooth for Team X, before being taken in by the Weapon X Project and experimented on. Like many other mutants kidnapped by the program, Maverick was genetically enhanced – including the addition of a healing factor. Although his initial mutation allowed him to absorb impact and blast it back out tenfold, he was ‘enhanced’ specifically to take down Wolverine, so he was given some other healing-factor-related powers as well.
On top of his own healing factor, Maverick can damage the efficacy of other mutants healing abilities, using a corrosive liquid that shoots from his fingers. This liquid is a specially designed enzyme that reverses the effects of a healing factor. When shot into a wound, any attempt by the body to heal that wound will actually worsen it. Obviously, this doesn’t impact Maverick’s own healing factor the same way.
14. Morbius
Michael Morbius is this list's vampire representative, as the Marvel universe is host to a whole slew of vampire characters, all of whom have a healing factor to some extent. Morbius, however, is one of the best-known and most powerful of the Marvel vamps. Unlike other vampires, however, Morbius wasn’t sired by another vamp, but gained his powers using the genetic material of a vampire bat in an attempt to save himself from a rare blood disease.
Because of this, he doesn’t have the identical strengths and weaknesses to other powerful Marvel vamps (such as Dracula, another functionally immortal character), but he does have the ability to heal from almost any wound. Bullets, cuts, and injuries are healed rapidly, although his healing factor isn’t as powerful as that of many others, and is dependent (along with most of his powers) on how much blood he has consumed, as he needs blood to maintain them.
13. Feral
Maria Callasantos has a tragic past, a childhood spent in poverty and dealing with abuse, a tendency to rage, and an inability to control her heightened emotions that only worsened as she grew older. By the time Maria’s animalistic mutation developed fully, she had already killed more than one person, and ran away to live in the sewers with the Morlocks as Feral. Mutated into a cat-like creature, most of Feral’s mutation is similar to Wolverine’s (and Sabretooth’s, for that matter). She has enhanced senses, instincts, and agility as well as a cat-like appearance (including claws, fangs, and a prehensile tail).
Feral also has a healing factor, that has been shown to help her heal wounds and recover her health at a faster than human rate. However, her healing factor is much less powerful than that of Wolverine or Sabretooth, and it is not known whether she would be able to recover from major damage using it.
12. Lady Deathstrike
The samurai warrior Lady Deathstrike was turned into a cyborg assassin with an adamantium skeleton by Spiral. While it was assumed for some time that the original Lady Deathstrike must have had a healing factor to allow her to "survive" this (such as she did), it was later revealed that Spiral used magic to create the new Lady Deathstrike, and that she did not have a natural healing factor.
However, her new body does have a cybernetic healing factor of sorts, added as an enhancement by the Reavers. This is a self-repair and regeneration program within her cybernetic system, allowing her to “heal” damage done to both cybernetic and organic parts. This isn’t a true healing factor however, being essentially a computer program, and the more damaged Lady Deathstrike is, the longer it takes for her to fully "heal". Still, it functions as a healing factor, and is one of many similarities the cyborg has to Wolverine.
11. Mystique
The Mystique of the comics may not be too familiar to fans who came to her through the recent movies – especially when it comes to her age. In X-Men: First Class, Mystique is seen aging at a relatively normal rate, as she enters the life of Charles Xavier when they are both children. In the comics, however, Mystique has been around for over a century (at least!), thanks to the healing element of her shape-shifting mutation.
Although she has a strikingly unique natural appearance (with blue skin, vibrant red hair, and yellow eyes), she can shift the cells of her body to make herself appear to be anyone she chooses. She is able to mimic clothing, voices, and even tiny details like fingerprints or retinas (very useful for scans). This talent for rearranging herself on a cellular level now also allows her to heal her own injuries, age almost imperceptibly, and even move around her internal organs to stop them being damaged by weapons.
10. Wild Child
One of many feral mutants on this list (mutants with atavistic or animalistic powers, usually with some physical animal traits and senses, and often with a healing factor), Wild Child’s powers are a combinations of experimentations and natural mutations. After his mutation caused him to develop an increasingly wild and strange appearance (and violent temper), he was kicked out of his home and ended up taken in by the Secret Empire, who were the first to conduct experiments on him. Injected with DNA from Wyre, his mutations were enhanced, but he was driven to near-insanity by it.
Later, after gaining control of himself as serving in Alpha Flight, he fell into the hands of the Weapon X project, who tampered with his DNA further. The combination of experimentation and his own original mutations have given him his own set of powers, including a strong healing factor. However, it seems that his healing factor is inconsistent – the majority of wounds heal rapidly, but specific wounds haven’t at times (such as Sabretooth’s severing of his vocal cords).
9. Blade
A human-vampire hybrid of sorts, Blade’s powers come from the supernatural circumstances of his birth. Eric Brooks was born in the 1920s to a prostitute. During a complicated labor, she called for a doctor… and instead got a vampire who was posing as a doctor to kill without consequence. He murdered Eric’s mother, but as he drank her blood, he passed his own enzymes through her to her child as he was being born. Blade himself escaped death this day as his mother’s friends rescued him, leaving him to be raised with the strengths and powers of a vampire, but not as a true vampire himself.
One of his vampiric powers is his healing factor – vampires are unable to be killed by normal means, and heal from any injury other than beheading or a stake (or silver) to the heart. Blade has this same ability, allowing him to heal from any wound, including regenerating limbs.
8. Spider-Man
Everybody is familiar with the origin story of one of Marvel’s most famous heroes! Peter Parker, a shy teenager, was bitten by a radioactive spider, which granted him “spider powers”. These include his more obvious wall-crawling, web-slinging, super-strength, and spidey sense, but also include a healing factor. This isn’t as flashy as the healing factors that allow other superheroes to re-grow limbs and heal within seconds, but it does allow him to recover from his injuries in a much shorter than usual time span. Very minor cuts and bruises heal within moments, and even severe injuries such as broken bones set in days, rather than months.
His healing factor has also allowed him to recover from extreme blood loss incredibly rapidly, with few injuries taking more than a couple of days to heal completely. Spider-Man’s healing powers also affect his eyes to a noticeable degree. When Peter was first bitten by the spider, his eyesight became perfect overnight, although he had previously worn glasses. He has even managed to heal from being blinded at one point.
7. Lizard
Dr. Curtis Connors was an Army surgeon until he lost an arm in the line of duty. Back home, he turned to research, and was a talented scientist until his desire to recover his arm became his undoing. Connors started working on a way to heal himself, based on the way that lizards re-grow missing limbs. His work was a little too successful, however, and the serum he injected into himself didn’t just re-grow his missing arm. He was transformed into a hideous reptile-human-hybrid, with a prehensile tail… and a powerful healing factor.
He has re-generated lost limbs multiple times – unsurprising, given that this was the original effect Dr. Connors wanted from the Lizard serum. He also has the ability to recover from other major wounds incredibly quickly, although we have not seen these powers tested to the same limits as some other characters on this list. Like the rest of the Lizard’s powers, his healing factor only works when he is transformed into the Lizard, and can be negatively affected by the cold.
6. Sabretooth
Although Sabretooth is connected to the Weapon X project (like so many others on this list), his healing powers aren’t the result of the project’s experimentation. Instead, he (like Wolverine) has a natural healing factor. A feral mutant, his other powers include increased strength, speed, animal senses, and large claws and fangs. The majority of his powers have been enhanced over the years due to Weapon X tampering.
Sabretooth’s original healing factor was nowhere near as powerful as Wolverine’s, although it is also a mutation, functions in a similar way, and also keeps him functionally immortal. However, with multiple enhancements from Weapon X, Sabretooth now has a healing factor that is nearly as powerful as that of his nemesis. He heals almost immediately, even from multiple gunshot wounds, extensive and severe burns, and broken bones. He is also largely immune to illness from pathogens and poisons, and functionally immortal.
5. X-23
Laura Kinney’s healing factor is almost identical to Wolverine’s – in fact, she herself is almost genetically identical to the famous clawed X-Men member. Laura was created by the Weapon X project as part of an attempt to clone Wolverine. The DNA sample that they had was damaged, and the project was unable to clone an exact match – so they compromised, completing his DNA sequence by duplicating the X chromosome. A female clone was the result.
X-23 has a tragic past and was raised as a weapon before breaking free of Weapon X and joining the X-Men where Wolverine becomes her mentor. Because she is genetically near-identical to Wolverine, she has a healing factor almost as powerful as his – but she hasn’t yet had to heal from nearly the same kind of damage as her genetic "father" has. She has been seen to re-grow limbs and have the same ability to heal minor wounds near-instantly (including those made when her claws are unsheathed). Her healing ability may eventually be shown to be even more powerful than Wolverine’s, but we will have to wait and watch her adventures as the all-new Wolverine to find out.
4. Hulk (and She-Hulk)
One of Marvel’s most famous heroes, the Hulk is best known for turning into an enormous green monster who will smash everything in his path. His transformation is the result of a nuclear accident that flooded the body of the mild-mannered Bruce Banner with gamma radiation. As the Hulk, Banner has super-strength, speed and stamina, and he is also super-durable. However, should that durability fail and the Hulk become injured (for example, he can be cut with adamantium) he also possesses the ability to heal incredibly quickly thanks to his mutated cells.
Like the rest of his abilities, his healing factor is linked to his rage and the stress that he is under – the angrier he is, the faster he will heal, and his healing factor is theoretically unlimited. She-Hulk, AKA Jennifer Walters, has the same ability, thanks to the blood transfusion that gave her Hulk powers. Both characters are unable to heal unless they are transformed into Hulk or She-Hulk, however, as their powers are dormant in their human forms.
3. Mister Sinister
The villainous Minister Sinister has accumulated many powers over the years, using the genetic material of other mutants to enhance himself to an incredible extent. These powers include telepathy, telekinesis, super-strength, shapeshifting, and the ability to release energy blasts. Originally, however, his powers were a gift from Apocalypse to a man called Nathaniel Essex. After a series of personal tragedies, Essex allowed Apocalypse to change him, giving him functional immortality and enhanced durability as well as taking away his ability to feel regret.
This original gift included some form of healing factor that allowed Essex to increase his lifespan almost infinitely, but his healing factor was boosted immensely when he experimented with the DNA of the mutant Courier. Courier is a shape-shifter who can control every cell in his (now her) body, and when Mr Sinister used Courier’s DNA, he gained the ability to shape-shift regenerate body parts, making him now virtually indestructible.
2. Deadpool
Another super-healing hero connected to the Weapon X project, Wade Wilson’s healing factor saved his life – and ruined it at the same time. Wilson agreed to join the Weapon X project when he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer, and they told him that they could find a cure. In reality, the project was attempting to re-create Wolverine’s healing factor on willing test subjects. As one of these subjects, Wade was tortured and abused as a ‘failed’ experiment – until the day that his healing factor kicked in, and he became Deadpool.
He has the ability to heal from almost any injury or illness, including his cancer, but the healing factor is flawed. It simply allows his body to heal faster than the cancer can kill him, rather than removing the cancer entirely, which leaves him horribly disfigured (hence the mask). It also leaves his cells in flux, including his brain, which is part of the cause of his unique brand of madness. Despite these flaws, Deadpool’s healing factor is immensely powerful – so much so that he was once able to heal from decapitation, and regenerate his entire self from a dismembered hand.
1. Wolverine
Everybody thinks of Wolverine when it comes to super-healing super-heroes, and with good reason. Logan’s power is a mutation, one that allows him to heal almost instantly – and which also happens to give him retractable claws and enhanced animal senses. One of the oldest known mutants, Logan’s healing power first revealed itself in the 1800s when he was still very young. Since then, his healing ability has made him virtually immortal, and seemingly ageless (although he does actually age, just very slowly).
Wolverine’s is one of the most powerful healing factors in Marvel, and he has been sought by the government for experimental purposes more than once because of it. He has healed after being torn in half by the Hulk, having his face ripped off and being run over by a steamroller driven by the Punisher, and having the adamantium ripped out of his body by Magneto. Although it’s incredibly powerful, his healing factor is not completely infallible. In 2014, he lost his healing factor to a virus, and finally died.