Wolverine is the best at what he does, and what he does isn’t very nice. It’s also a little confusing how he does it.
Since his appearance in The Incredible Hulk #180 in 1974, Wolverine has gone through some major changes and retcons. Wolverine burst onto the scene with a simple premise-- he was short, Canadian, had claws, and was temperamental.
With no real plans for Wolverine’s future, Marvel could not have predicted how monumentally popular Wolverine would become. Wolverine has not only been a valuable member of the X-Men and Avengers, but he’s also a cultural icon.
Although his past has always been a little murky, his powers seemed straight forward-- he has an accelerated healing factor and retractable claws. This seems simple enough, but after 44 years the Ol’ Canucklehead’s abilities have evolved beyond the grasp of most fans.
Due to the nature of comic books, there have been many different timelines and alternative versions of the yellow spandex wearing Canuck.
Some of those versions include having evolved from an actual wolverine or becoming a blood sucking vampire. In any case, his abilities are far more complex and varied than even Wolverine himself knew.
With that said, here are the 15 Things About Wolverine's Powers Even True Fans Get Wrong.
15. He Still Feels Pain And It Haunts Him
Superheroes always seem invincible, or at least immune to pain. Sure they get injured every once in a while, but their recovery time is half that compared to the average person.
You’d think that pain would have little impact on Wolverine – what with his healing ability and all – but you’d be wrong.
Although Logan is extremely tough and resilient, his powers do nothing to dull the pain.
Not only does he feel everything inflicted upon him, but he struggles with phantom pain from his more serious injuries.
In X-Men: Unlimited #12, Logan hides the true nature of his injuries from his teammates – that the pain haunts him indeterminate time. “Bad wound like this — it burns itself into your brain. I’ll be feelin’ phantom pains for months,” he says.
Considering all of the battles he's fought in, Logan’s body must be in a perpetual state of agony.
14. Carbonadium Is His Kryptonite
Carbonadium, a Cold War ere knock off of Adamantium, is a resilient metal manufactured by the USSR.
It is less durable than Adamantium, but, on the other hand, it is more malleable and nearly indestructible.
Even more interesting is its ability to slow or even stop healing capabilities such as Wolverine’s.
Battling rogues like Omega Red, whose coils are made from the toxic metal, can be pretty problematic. In Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe #3, the Merc with a Mouth uses Carbonadium katanas to destroy and decapitate Wolverine along with the rest of the X-Men.
We have seen other uses of Carbonadium in Doctor Octopus’s tentacles, Moon Knight’s armor, a chip placed in the back of Peter Parker’s neck while possessed by Doc Ock, and, of course, bullets -- because why not?
13. No Long-Term Effects From Substances And Alcohol
This is where Logan gets the best of both worlds. Unlike Captain America, Logan can get wasted. Much to the disappointment of Professor X, Logan enjoys a good bender.
He has the ability to enjoy a temporary intoxication while keeping all of his braincells. He does have to drink an exhaustive amount, though, to achieve a worthwhile buzz. Logan is often depicted drinking his sorrows away, even if it is a momentary fix.
Further, most poisons and substances are rendered ineffective against his mutant powers, unless administered in large quantities. I
n order to remove HYDRA programming from his mind, S.H.E.I.L.D. pumped 80 milliliters of an anesthetic per minute into his system to keep Logan sedated. That is roughly 8,000 times the recommended maximum dosage of the common anesthetic Propofol.
He must rack up one hell of a tab.
12. Without Super Human Strength, He Wouldn't Be Able To Move
With every bone in his body covered in Adamantium, Wolverine is the most heavy metal thing since Metallica.
Reed Richards once observed that if Logan didn’t have enhanced strength, he would be unable to move when bonded with the rare metal.
Although it is true that having a metallic skeletal structure enhanced his strength and effectiveness in combat, he would still need to have superhuman strength in order to be as agile and quick as he is.
Whether or not he already had super strength as an additional power is unclear. However, due to the added strain on his muscles from the weight, coupled with his healing factor, Logan can push himself beyond the physical limits of any human. This, in turn, increases his strength.
It is the ultimate form of resistance training – it is never over.
11. Adamantium Was Preventing His Mutation From Turning Him Into An Animal
This is a strange one. After Magneto viscously ripped all of the Adamantium from Logan’s body through every pore, he started to devolve into a primitive, feral beast. Why? No answers were ever given.
Logan begins to display a more feral and animalist side to him following the loss of his metallic bones.
Xavier and Alpha Flight leader, Guardian, theorized that when the Adamantium was in Logan’s body, it must have suppressed part of his mutation to devolve into some sort of beast.
Perhaps this is a way to bridge the retconned concept that Logan is actually an evolved wolverine.
Whatever the reason, Logan’s transformation was accelerated when Genesis attempts to infuse the Adamantium back into Logan’s body in Wolverine #100.
The experiment fails and Logan turns into a feral, noseless behemoth, destroying everyone. Then, after teaming up with Electra for a few issues, he is inexplicably normal again.
10. His Healing Factor Is Adaptive And It Evolves
Through the years, Wolverine’s healing factor has increased in effectiveness and ability. When Logan first hit the scene, he was only able to heal most wounds in a short period of time.
From there, he has survived atomic bombs and regenerated from a single cell. This isn’t just something off the whims of the various writers over the past four decades, though. This is part of his ability.
Logan’s healing factor can adapt to his lifestyle.
Since Logan is constantly in battle and suffering one injury after the next, his healing factor has evolved to repair most anything.
However, this phenomenon isn’t uncommon for mutants. Many mutant powers can continue to evolve and adapt with constant use.
Xavier understands the evolutionary ability of mutant powers, which is why he constantly pushes his students to explore their abilities.
9. His Claws Were Not Originally Part Of His Mutant Power
Wolverine’s claws are one of the most iconic superhero traits in pop culture, but their history is probably the most confusing.
The original intention of the claws was to be part of his gloves and not his body. Later retconned, numerous instances show Wolverine using his claws when all other mutant powers have been deactivated.
The reasoning behind this is murky. One explanation is that Weapon X initially created the claws as a body enhancement and they therefore not technically a power.
Others find that the coating of Adamantium shields them from any type of power disruption.
Regardless, for many years, it was assumed that the healing factor was his only power, and the claws were body modifications.
It wasn’t until 1993 when we saw the bone structure of Wolverine’s claws and learned that he was born with them, thus becoming part of his mutant powers later on.
8. He Can Survive An Atomic Blast... But He Struggles With Drowning
Getting shot? No problem. Stabbed? Child's play. Atomic Bomb? Doesn’t hurt after the first 10 seconds. Drowning? Now we have problem.
That’s right folks, drowning presents quite the predicament for our titular hero. Wolverine has admitted that drowning would be the worst way to perish.
Logan’s fear of drowning isn’t necessarily a fear of passing away as he isn't scared of perishing at all. Rather, if his healing factor is able to sustain him while under water, it would only serve to keep him in perpetual agony.
In the two-part story arc, Drowning Wolverine, Logan is trapped under water for a prolonged period of time, seriously weakening his healing factor.
His drowning experience coupled with contracting an intelligent virus from the microverse caused Logan to lose his healing factor all together. He is left susceptible to injury, disease, aging at a normal rate, and eventually passes away.
7. He’s A Genius
Logan is about 130 years old – give or take a few years – and he has lived quite a life. He has traveled the world, fought in countless wars, and he even became a samurai and secret agent.
In that time, he has acquired a vast array of skills and knowledge.
Logan knows 18 different languages and is proficient with virtually every weapon.
During a Danger Room training session while monitoring Wolverine's vital signs, Forge observes that Logan's physical and mental state is "equivalent of an Olympic-level gymnast performing a gold medal routine while simultaneously beating four chess computers in his head."
Unless he encounters brain damage or a traumatic experience, Logan’s healing factor allows him to keep his memory and intellect sharp and able.
However, this is a little contradictory since his brain has been destroyed several times while his memories have remained. We guess that Marvel hoped that our memory wouldn’t be so sharp.
6. Adamantium Makes His Attacks More Effective
It is estimated that Wolverine can lift anywhere between 800 lbs to 2 tons. Although this does involve some super strength, this ability is also attributed to his Adamantium skeleton.
The metal alloy reinforces his skeletal structure, allowing him to achieve feats off strength that would otherwise crumble a normal skeleton. For instance, he once lifted almost a dozen men over his head with one arm and tossed them aside like it was nothing.
Wolverine’s blows are far more effective since every punch or kick is essentially getting hit with a sledge hammer. Ouch. This means that trying to counter-strike him is no better.
Many have broken their fists while punching his reinforced skull.
Colossus and other allies even use Wolverine as a cannonball, throwing him at high speeds through the air in a maneuver called the Fastball Special.
5. Berserker Rage Is Like Going Super Saiyan
Wolverine is famously short tempered and is known for bouts of rage. However, when he is really pissed off, his animalistic nature rears its savage head and he enters into his Berserker rage.
All reason is out the door with Logan and he destroys with a ferocity, speed, and strength that seem beyond his baseline ability.
On top of renewed energy and intensity, Logan’s mind becomes more resistant to psionic attacks. He recedes so far into his mind that not even he can predict his next move.
Although this has saved his life – and his teammates' lives – on more than one occasion, Logan wants to control his rage and avoid this animalistic state.
He attempts many times to learn how to check his rage, but never seems to successfully rid himself of the possibility of going Berserk.
4. His Mind Is Almost Entirely Psychic Proof
On top of Logan’s physical invincibility, his mind is also well protected. Through the years, several telepaths, even Emma Frost, have failed to psychically attack or probe his mind.
There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that Professor Xavier implanted psionic shields in his mind throughout the years for added protection. However, the other reason is due to – you guessed it – his healing factor.
Over the course of his lifetime, Wolverine experiences a lot of tragedy and pain, which develops into what Logan refers to “mental scar tissue.”
This scar tissue supposedly gives his mind a natural defense against most telepaths.
He isn’t completely invulnerable to psychic suggestion or attacks, but any telepath will have to work at it to get what they want from him.
3. His Healing Factor Suppresses Memories To Heal The Trauma
Wolverine has developed “mental scar tissue” due to trauma and pain that he has endured in the past.
How does one obtain such a thing? Well, that goes back to Logan’s ability to heal all wounds, even mental.
The healing factor can amend psychological wounds from traumatic experiences by suppressing the memories. This creates the amnesia baked into Logan’s very character and arises in almost every story arc.
We are often led to believe that Logan’s memories were all wiped out during the Weapon X experiments, which did play a role.
However, Logan had been suppressing memories long before they had even found him and definitely before X-Men Origins: Wolverine shot him with adamantium bullets.
The countless trauma that Logan has endured has certainly added up, so it’s no wonder he has developed mental scarring. However, at least he can shield himself from those telepaths.
If only we had the same power to suppress our memory of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
2. His Immortality Is Supernatural
Technically speaking, Wolverine seems immortal because he can’t perish. However, this has nothing to do with his abilities.
In fact, he has probably passed away more than any other superhero.
Lazaer, one of Marvel's numerous alter-egos for Death, unsuccessfully battles Logan in purgatory every time Wolverine has suffered a fatal wound.
After Doctor Strange leads an investigation into Wolverine’s assumed immortality, he concludes that the body will heal itself after a battle, but his soul was a different story.
He says, “...To keep [Logan’s soul] from passing into the afterlife that is eternal twilight. Defeat [Lazaer] in battle, defeat him again and your soul would return to your physical body.”
This deal originates during World War I, when Wolverine is the lone survivor after a skirmish. He surprises and defeats Lazaer, entering into an agreement that if Logan can best Lazaer in combat in purgatory, then his soul would not move on.
1. He Is Not, Nor Was He Ever, Immortal
If Wolverine returns from the dead because of repeated battles in purgatory with Lazaer, then this means that Wolverine isn’t actually immortal.
In Wolverine #61, Logan needs his soul repaired. To achieve this, he must enter into another deal with Lazaer with the stipulations that once his soul was repaired, Logan would accept death the next time it came knocking.
Logan loses his healing factor after contracting a microverse, vulminating in the 2014 story arc – aptly named Death of Wolverine – where he did in fact perish.
Of course, he eventually comes back to life because… comic books. However, now we know that Wolverine is not as invincible as previously assumed.
He must be more cautious in his decisions and actions, and we must invest more, knowing we could lose him at any moment.
Take the movie Logan for example. Oh the tears.
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What is your favorite aspect of Wolverine’s powers? Are there any other facts about them that we forgot to mention? Sound off in the comments!