Wolverine’s adamantium claws are famous for being able to slice through practically anything. In the past, Logan has gotten the X-Men out of several tough scrapes by ripping through solid steel, scores of armored soldiers, and countless prisons. Even opponents like Iron Man might wind up with a torn up and mangled suit if Wolverine turns those indestructible weapons on him.
Only a handful of items, including Captain America's shield, have been known to stand up against Wolverine's claws. However, one Marvel superhero found a way to restrain Wolverine in a very different substance that even the mutant’s adamantium claws couldn’t cut through. Even weirder? That substance was the hero’s own body.
Related: Shang-Chi Showed Wolverine How To Become Even Deadlier
In Fantastic Four #374, Wolverine found himself up against Marvel’s First Family when Spider-Man and Doctor Strange recruited Logan, the Hulk, and Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) to bring the Human Torch into custody. The Torch had accidentally burned down Empire State University during a fight and had fled from the authorities. While this seemed a minor dispute in the grand scheme of things, Doctor Strange believed it heralded something much worse and decided to help Spider-Man assemble a team of “Secret Defenders” to capture Johnny Storm. With the help of Wolverine’s animal senses, the Secret Defenders tracked Johnny Storm to a run-down building where Spider-Man tried to talk the Torch into surrendering peacefully. Instead, the Torch decided to fight – and ended up getting some backup of his own when the Fantastic Four came to help him. A fight broke out, with the Thing trading blows with the Hulk and Spider-Man facing off against the Thing’s super strong girlfriend Sharon Ventura.
At one point, Wolverine threatened Mr. Fantastic with his adamantium claws, warning the super scientist that they could cut through anything “including your squirmy self.” The Invisible Woman promptly surrounded Logan’s hands in invisible force fields, preventing him from slicing up her husband, but Wolverine soon broke free and lashed out, forcing Mr. Fantastic to envelope him in his elastic body.
To Logan’s surprise, Mr. Fantastic could actually make his body so soft and malleable that even his claws couldn’t penetrate his skin. Moreover, by wrapping himself around Wolverine, Reed Richards kept the mutant from gaining the leverage he needed to get free. While this was an impressive feat, a moment later, the Hulk grabbed Mr. Fantastic and threw him off Wolverine, rendering the makeshift prison ineffective.
Wolverine would soon show how dangerous his claws still were when he took a swipe at the Thing’s face and left Ben Grimm with some very ugly facial scars. Yet the fact that his earlier attack against Mr. Fantastic failed so completely thanks to Reed’s unorthodox strategy is a testament to Mr. Fantastic's creative thinking. Most people would want to come up with a substance harder than adamantium to fight Wolverine, but Reed Richards showed that soft substances can be even more effective in these situations when applied correctly.