Wolverine/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


With the revelation about Wolverine, Sabretooth, and all other wolf-like mutants actually being Lupines, is Origin still considered canon?

A lot of the information that it gives about Logan's backstory seems to contradict this idea (not that it was all that plausible in the first place). It shows Logan living a relatively mundane life before his powers manifest--most mutants experience this, but if he was from a parallel species that evolved from wolves, shouldn't he have had his wolf-like abilities since birth? Also, it establishes that neither of his biological parents have any mutant abilities whatsoever--obviously it's possible for normal humans to carry the X-gene and give birth to mutant children, but how the hell could two people who evolved from apes give birth to a baby who evolved from wolves?

    • The Lupine thing is from the Earth-X series, which is an alternate universe.
    • Ah, no...it was revealed in the spin-off series Wolverine: Origins, which takes place in Earth-616. The same series where Daken made his debut.

If Logan's healing factor was the root cause of his amnesia, why didn't he regain at least some of his memories when his powers were turned off in the first Genosha arc or when his healing factor shut down after Magneto ripped all his Adamantium out?

  • If he lost his memories due to his healing factor re-arranging his brain, then there's no reason why he'd get those memories back if they were turned off. They're already lost.
    • (Keeping in mind I've only seen the movie) He lost his memories due to a .45 adamantium slug rearranging his brain, not due to the healing factor. The healing factor put enough of his brain back together that he can walk, talk, and dress himself, but for some reason couldn't do the rest of his memory.
      • That's only in the movie. In the comics, it's explained that his healing factor "healed over" his bad memories as a way of protecting him. Which was most of them.

If Adamantium poisons the blood and Wolverine's healing factor was the only thing keeping it at bay, why haven't Cyber, Lady Deathstrike and Bullseye dropped dead already?

  • Possibly they would in a possible future. Wolverine is very old, while the others have less that a decade of adamantium parts. Oh, and being dead already.
  • Bullseye takes pills for it. Lady Deathstrike is a cyborg who might not have enough fleshy bits left for it to affect her. I don't know who Cyber is.
    • If I remember correctly, Cyber is a cyborg with an adamantium skin and a neverending hate for Wolverine, until offed by another villain.
    • Cyber had a Healing Factor of his own.
    • It was only the first version of adamantium that was poisonous. They all now have the less-poisonous secondary adamantium. And shards Bullseye has in his body are small enough and placed so that they do not interfere with his body.
      • But while Cyber originally had healing factor, his mind now inhabits a new body that while does contain some kind of superpower at least in form of super strength, it doesn't have healing factor. Yet he has his skin again covered with adamantium and survived. Why?
        • Didn't Cyber's new body die extremely soon after he got the adamantium skin? Not immediately after and not related to the adamantium itself, but before it would have become an issue?
  • In the novelization for the third movie, it says that the implants cost him a lot of bone marrow, and his healing factor kept him alive by boosting the blood cell creation in the marrow that was left.

If adamantium is indestructible, it would have to be chemically inert. How could it possibly poison anyone in the first place?

  • Maybe it's not actually poisoning him but messing with his bodily processes nonetheless by being in the way.
  • The first version of adamantium was both poisonous and interfered with his body. The one he has now is non-toxic and allows his body to function normally

That Logan didn't try harder to stop Victor's Face Heel Turn.

Why did Logan and Victor insist on fighting in every major war together... even if it wasn't at all Canadian?? In the montage you can even see Logan start giving Victor "WTF Dude?" looks, so he must have realized he was not handling it well. Why not just sit a few out on some balmy beach and get into barfights with sailors if they're bored? I realize the plot kind of falls apart if the two don't have a horrendous falling out, but as is the Alternate Overt Character Interpretation is that Logan either did not know about Victor's slow sanity slippage, or was unwilling, unable or indifferent to steering Victor away from the sociopathic path he was walking down. These are two near immortal brothers who have spent a century living together and caring for each other. How could Logan not try a little harder than simply "quitting" his by then co-dependent brother?

  • Sabertooth can't hold back. What starts as "barfight with a couple sailors" ends up as "we slaughtered the entire town." At least in war, you're supposed to kill people. Well, kinda, you're supposed to neutralize their ability to fight, but whatever.

Where does that "best I am at what I do" quote come from?

I've seen it referenced everywhere, but when does it first appear?

  • It's the first line in practically every Wolverine comic. I don't know if it predates that.
  • Uncanny X-Men #162. The original quote is "I'm the best there is at what I do. But what I do best isn't very nice."
  • If memory serves, Frank Miller came up with it. Could be wrong, though.

Why doesn't Wolverine have adamantium teeth?

Someone could like, punch him in the face and instead of taking out teeth hurt their hand and it'd be really cool and stuff...

  • Wolverine doesn't use his teeth in battle. Having his teeth be adamantium would create the implication that he uses them, which makes him into a feral savage rather than the evolving Warrior Poet Thing that he's going for, berserker rages aside. Besides, the artists would have to remember to metal up his teeth every time he opened his mouth, which is quite often.
    • I assumed he did, and they just have white paint on them to look normal.
  • Teeth are not bones, nor are they completely anchored to the skull's bones. So, either he never had adamantium teeth, or he had and shallowed all of them the first time the Hulk punched him in the snot. Later, he regrows normal ones.

Alright I get that Hugh Jackman's Wolverine is 6 feet tall, but how would comic book 5'3" tall Wolverine have foot long claws? I'm 5'6" & my forearms are only 8.5 inches long, so how does a guy who's shorter than me have foot long forearms for his claws to retract into?

  • On a side not, how far do they retract to? Seeing how long they are, he either shouldn't be able to bend his hand from either wrist or elbow.
    • His claws would presumably be no longer than his forearm, so as not to obstruct with the motion of his joints. This brings up the question of what would happen if he had his wrist bent when extending his claws...
      • They come through from either part of his hand that happens to be at front at the moment.
      • While I can't remember the issue it comes from, someone once noticed that Logan's wrists lock in place as he extends the claws to prevent that from happening. As for thr 'foot long claws', I always took that to just be hyperbole.
  • While that whole From a Single Cell thing seems overpowered to me, I can deal with it giving Logan nigh-immortality. But I've heard tales of Wolverine being nuked and surviving. Even the Fat Man dropped on Hiroshima had a tendency to make people evaporate, so how on earth did he survive? It's not like adamantium's a perfect insulator or anything, all that should have been left of him is a skeleton-shaped adamantium structure and some steam.
    • After the nuke incident, fan complaint forced Marvel to scale back the healing factor back to "takes time and shuts off under too much use/two days without drinking and eating.
    • While I agree that the nuke-survival think was overdoing it, Wolverine's skeleton isn't pure adamantium. It's adamantium bonded with the organic tissue of his bone, and still preform's the bone's natural functions to the body. So if he's reduced to a skeleton, there's still tissue there, though I'd have to agree that it shouldn't be enough for him to regenerate from.
  • Is the "foot-long claws" thing meant to be taken literally, or is it just meant to get the point across that the guy has three long blades in each forearm?

Wolverine's bone claws: before, whenever Rogue touched him, she didn't get the claws (because the writers hadn't thought about it) but then when Rogue recalls some of the mutations she'd previously absorbed, she gets Wolverine's claws. How? Why?

    • I can't speak for all the times Rogue has touched Wolverine, but I imagine she generally did it to gain his regeneration, and therefore wouldn't have needed the claws.
    • Doesn't that take for granted that Rogue can control her power-stealing? This troper is fairly sure that that is a very recent change for her.
    • I don't mean that she only chose to grab the healing factor. I meant that she grabbed both, but just didn't use the claws because she didn't need them.
    • True enough, that could well be the case but since when would any comics writer miss the opportunity to let someone else use those awesome claws?
    • Rogue's power-theft comes with less control over the original power than the person she stole them from. The claws would've popped out on their own just like they did when he was little.
    • Healing is Wolverines ONLY mutant power. The claws whatever they came from and however he got them aren't a mutant ability. Which is WHY Rogue only absorbs his healing and when ever they lose their powers be it Savage Land, power cancelling collars (or mutants) come around Wolvie still has his claws. Often times surprising the villians who thought they had rendered him helpless.
    • It's a Retcon. The claws were originally implants given to him by Weapon X (and in his early appearances in The Incredible Hulk, it was implied that they were actually in the gloves). Then "Fatal Attractions" happened, and Marvel realized they had effectively de-powered their most popular character.
    • It might be also because up the point, they didn't know they were organic so she didn't know to pop them out.


Continuity screw-ups

Does anyone else feel like our everslicing canuck just might be in too many different comics? This one troper is trying to figure out how to square away the fact that he's both a vampire now as well as somehow ruling a corner of Hell. That's without taking into account his numerous guest appearances all over the place even though it's been lampshaded in one of the Avengers comics (sometime during the Civil War debacle when he was on, what, three teams or was it more?).

    • not to mention jaunting off into another dimension with the combined powers of the newest Avengers iteration and supernatural elite to do battle to the death with the source of said magical elite's power?
      • Isn't Wolverine friends with some really powerful mutant teleporters? That'd explain some of his many guest appereances.

Why cant somone with super strength pull wolverines arms by there socket? Then his arm would grow back without the adamantium

  • It's happened before, Wolverine usually just grabs his arm and holds it in place for it to merge back together somehow.


His hair bothers me.

Nitro reduced Wolverine to a skeleton, and he was able to regenerate from that. Okay, fine, whatever -- but his unique hair configuration managed to "heal," too, right down to the sideburns and Perma-Stubble. How the hell did his hair know how long it was supposed to be? Shouldn't he have regenerated with a full beard, or with no hair at all? Does Wolverine have some sort of unconscious control over his healing factor that allows him to determine how superficial aspects of his appearance will regenerate, like the length of his hair and fingernails?

  • Also, why is his hair always shaped like that? I think there was a comic in the 90s where Wolverine got a buzzcut. It's probably been forgotten.
    • Not by me. The comic in question is Wolverine #163.
  • I have a friend who grew his hair out once and for a while it had the Wolverine look because he kept pushing it back out of his face and it more or less adapted to that shape. So Wolverine's hairdo could just be the thick wavy hair swept back.

Why do secret goverment organizations and the like always try to copy/clone Wolverine.

Sure the healing factor is useful, but when you think about it, their are so many mutants with, well better powers. A lot of Logan's badassness doesn't come from his powers, but rather his vast ammount of experience. If you think about it, their are a lot of mutants who could totally own someone wh has an adamantium skeleton, and healing factor. Magneto could just tie their bones into knots and leave them in agony. Any telekinetic could just lift him into the air, where about about all they could do is make angry faces. Iceman could just freeze them solid. Anyone with air or water manipulation powers can suffocate them. Why not clone someone like Magneto, or Iceman?

Are the claws really part of his mutation?

This is the same kinda thing as Spider-man should shoot web from his ass. Why the wrists/knuckles and why doesn't he have natural holes in his hands?

  • The claws were originally given to him by the Canadians who gave him the metal skeleton. Marvel changed it to be part of his mutation because the old origin made too much sense. Even then, Wolverine's claws used to extend from his knuckles, the canuk did have a more sensible opening. Then the live action movie happened and the claws now come out the way they do now.
    • And as to the holes...Healing factor, remember?

Hulked Out Heroes

  • In the Fall of the Hulks /World War Hulks storyline, Logan is one of several heroes who get Hulked out by the Leader, becoming Wolverage. He grows considerably larger and his claws become several feet long. Shouldn't the adamantium in his skeleton prevent him from changing size like that?
    • It is possible that the technology reshaped the same amount of bone into a larger form; since the adamantium is attached to the bone, this would just have the same amount of adamantium over that larger form. Or additional bone was 'created'. The same amount of adamantium would be present on the same areas, but it could have developed a shape that provides stability (like a spiral).
    • Haven't seen that comic, don't know if the new claws were still adamantium, but the first thing that comes to my mind is that the new bones grew over and around the adamantium bones. Like an onion.
  • Silly comicbook "science". Same way when part of Venom-symbiot bonded with him and turned him into Eddie Brock-sized with claws to match

I'm surprised nobody has asked this question already.How can you kill Wolverine? On Wikipedia it said that Professor X has plans on how to kill any of the X Men,for Wolverine it said cut his head off with a powerful laser and keep his head seperated from his body.There has to be a way to kill him

  • 1. Depends on how powerful his healing factor is in that story. 2. IIRC there is a sword out there in the Marval universe made of some rare uber-metal that will negate any sort of healing factor's effectiveness on wounds it inflicts.
  • His healing factor doesn't give him immortality anymore, therefore he can be (presumably) killed by:
    • Drowning / Suffocation
    • Sufficient blood loss
    • Removing his head (you don't need to cut the bones, just the meat around it)
    • Since the brain controls all functions, logically damaging it enough should disable the healing
      • That last one has some merit; during World War Hulk : X-Men, Hulk claimed he couldn't kill Wolverine so he decided to neutralize him by punching him in the head until his brain was effectively mush from the concussion. Later on, Xavier mentions that another punch or two actually might have killed Logan, they were just fortunate that Hulk was going Technical Pacifist on their asses.
  • In the original 'Nightmares of Future Past', Future-Logan was killed by a direct hit with an Omega Sentinel plasma burst. If you burn everything to ash and just leave the skeleton, apparently there's nothing left to regenerate. At least on that and comparable versions of Wolverine.


  • Would Wolvie heal if his brain was destroyed?
    • Depends on the level of damage. Sabertooth survived getting his brain impaled by Wolverine's claws. It gave him temporarily a personality change but he survived.
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