Warning: mild spoilers for X-Men #17!While Wolverine may be known for his unbreakable adamantium claws, he's not the only X-Men hero who boasts the iconic weapon. In fact, one of the most powerful mutants in existence just got their own. What's even more surprising is that they're only the latest mutant in the last few months to use their powers to fashion their own take on Logan's claws, suggesting Marvel may be setting up a team of different X-Men, all using their powers to mimic Wolverine's iconic blades.
Wolverine's claws are a natural part of his mutant physiology, though they were perfected by the cruel experiments of Weapon X. The organization coated them in unbreakable adamantium along with the rest of Logan's skeleton, creating the deadliest living weapon the planet has ever seen, with an incalculable body count to his name. As a mutant hero, Wolverine's claws have become iconic both to Marvel's fans and within its world, and now his friends and allies seem to have become obsessed with creating their own.
In X-Men #17 by Gerry Duggan and Joshua Cassara, the mutant inventor Forge is attacked by Serafina, one of the hyper-evolved Children of the Vault. To fight off his attacker, Forge shockingly pops his own version of Wolverine's claws, formed from lasers but still providing the iconic SNIKT sound effect. That Forge could construct his own Wolverine claws is no surprise - his mutant power allows him to build literally anything he can imagine, including a handheld grenade capable of wiping out a planet - but the fact that this is the weapon he chooses for one-on-one combat shows just how respected Wolverine is as a killing machine.
X-Men's God-Tier Inventor Makes His Own Wolverine Claws
Forge created his claws for a routine (for the X-Men) rescue mission, however they also match a pattern in recent comics of some of the world's most powerful mutants getting their own claws. In Kieron Gillen and Valerio Schiti's A.X.E.: Judgment Day #6, Jean Grey formed her own Wolverine claws out of focused telekinesis, while in X-Men Red #8 from Al Ewing and Madibek Musabekov, Cyclops' time-tossed son Cable constructed his own claws out of his techno-organic arm. These comics came out within a month of each other, begging the question of why ultra-powerful mutants are all suddenly growing their own claws.
X-Men Is Handing Wolverine Claws Out Like Candy
While these stories each come from different creative teams, Marvel's X-Office keeps the X-Men franchise cohesive by staying in constant contact - something which is even truer in the new Krakoan Era, where all mutants are part of the same island nation, known as Krakoa. While it's possible that all these new Wolverine claws came from shared inspiration or casual discussion, it seems more likely that specific mutants are being singled out for a future team-up, in the same way Marvel rounded up sword-wielding mutants for 2020's X of Swords event. Given the incredible power levels of Cable, Jean Grey, and Forge, this team of power-clawed mutants would theoretically be one of the most powerful in X-Men history.
Only time will tell if Marvel actually has plans to assemble a team of counterfeit 'Wolverines,' each with claws that draw on their particular powers, but if not, Wolverine should be very flattered that all across Marvel's X-Men titles, some of the most powerful heroes in the world are apparently dying of envy over his powers.