Warning: contains spoilers for Avengers Tech-On #1!

Wolverine, the most famous of the X-Men, is dying - and he can't even heal his wounds. Wolverine is no stranger to injury - his line of work as a superhero and a champion of mutant's rights often puts him in mortal danger, after all. But in Avengers: Tech-On #1, written by Jim Zub with art by Jeffrey "Chamba" Cruz and letters by VC's Travis Lanham, Wolverine encounters a threat he can't possibly fight: his own metal skeleton.

Avengers Tech-On #1 begins with Thanos, the Mad Titan, defeated by the Avengers after a long struggle; his oft-used Infinity Stones were successfully destroyed in the battle. As Captain America gives a speech before grateful civilians, the Red Skull suddenly emerges through a hellish portal. He's collected the scraps of the Infinity Stones - called Infinity Mirror Shards - and though he can't murder half the people in the universe as was Thanos' goal, he can still wreak havoc enough - by muttering "No more powers" and watching as every Avenger loses their super-abilities. Captain Marvel can no longer fly, Captain America turns back into his pre-World War II self, and Wolverine immediately loses his potent mutant healing factor.

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The Avengers barely escape the Red Skull and take stock of the battle. They all lost their powers, but Wolverine is the only hero who's been immediately placed in mortal peril from the Red Skull's actions. Princess Shuri outlines the situation: "Without his mutant healing factor, Logan's body cannot function properly with the adamantium fused to his bones." Shuri's placed him in a medically induced coma in the interim; he won't be much good in a fight until the problem can be solved. It appears that even with advanced technology from Wakanda, Logan's odds are quite grim: Shuri places his chances of survival at less than ten percent.

Adamantium poisoning is depicted as a very painful experience for Wolverine in the issue. He doubles over on the battlefield, and the remaining Avengers have to carry him to the quinjet during their retreat. This isn't even the first time Logan's experienced adamantium poisoning: in 2017's Logan, an aging Wolverine (well over one hundred years old at this point in the X-Men film series) finds that his healing powers aren't as potent as they once were, and the metal that coats his bones is slowly leaking into his bloodstream. The process is irreversible and will eventually kill him.

Iron Man eventually provides armored suits for the entire team, not unlike 2021's Avengers: Mech Strike series (just on a much smaller scale), but the suits are only a stopgap measure and cannot return the Avengers' lost powers. Logan has died before, but this appears to be a slow and painful death - something he would certainly despise. Wolverine is a survivor and a fighter at heart; if the most popular of the X-Men had any say in his death, he would prefer to go down swinging.

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