When it comes to questions of anatomy, one would think that Wolverine would be far more on the normal side as far as superheroes go. Whereas Superman is an alien from a whole other planet, or Spider-Man has arachnid characteristics, Wolverine is basically just a clawed Canadian who heals really well.
However, things aren’t as simple as they seem. Once you start teasing out the logic behind Wolverine’s anatomy there are some pretty disturbing (and gross) implications. Let’s look at the five strangest aspects of Wolverine’s anatomy that put the “ick” in “snikt.”
1) Does Wolverine Have Bone Claws?
Naturally, any question about Wolverine’s anatomy is going to address his metal bones. Laced with unbreakable adamantium by an experimental government procedure only possible with someone of Wolverine’s immense regenerative capabilities, the adamantium skeleton may seem pretty straightforward at first. It makes Wolverine heavier than normal, protects him from greater damage than he otherwise could and all in all, proves a pretty handy tool time and again.
Since Wolverine can heal from almost any wound, his adamantium skeleton is on the front lines of keeping him in a fight so that the mutant can minimize the time it takes for him to recuperate. Bullets that would scramble his brains just bounce off his skull, and it takes far less time to heal the flesh on his head than the brain matter inside it. The value the metal adds to his claws is incalculable as well, allowing him to cut most anything while also preventing them from opponents crushing them. His skeleton may be sturdy and his claws naturally sharp all on their own, but there’s just no competing with adamantium.
2) Why Is Wolverine So Hairy?
Wolverine is one of the hairiest mainstream superheroes to appear in films and comics. Whereas most heroes’ physiques tend toward the lean and the hairless over time, something about Wolverine’s animalistic connection allowed him to maintain a shaggy mane not many other heroes share. What many people might not realize is that the signature look comes part and parcel with his powers.
While Wolverine doesn’t have the Rapunzel problem of perpetually growing infinite amounts of hair, his follicles do tend to regenerate to roughly the same length even after they are burned or torn off. Wolverine has walked away from third-degree burns across his entire body, and as the skin comes back the hair comes with it, always at roughly the same length.
Part of the reason for the healing factor’s application to his hair could come from its bestial origins — in one comic it is explained that Wolverine is actually a homo lupine rather than a homo superior, putting his ancestral relatives closer to wolves than humans. Many other mutants with healing factors, like Sabretooth, grow a pretty thick mane themselves and this could be the common factor linking them.
3) Can Wolverine Die?
While it’s not normally easy to compete with the mainstream Wolverine when it comes to feats of sheer survival, the Ultimate iteration of the character from Marvel’s 1610 universe gives Logan a run for his money. Ultimate Wolverine once survived a fight with the Hulk and S.H.I.E.L.D. detonating a nuclear weapon in the middle of their fray only to wake up in a lab where the organization was keeping his body parts separate. Nick Fury spoke with Wolverine’s decapitated head and explained that they just couldn’t kill it.
When S.H.I.E.L.D. separated Ultimate Wolverine’s head from his body he simply started breathing oxygen through his skin, realizing that when they put it in an airless vacuum the skin started making its own air. A survivor through and through, Logan’s sheer refusal to die may have been the reason Nick Fury just resigned to letting Wolverine go about his business.
4) What Is Wolverine’s Connection to Deadpool?
A natural thing to wonder about Wolverine’s healing factor is whether or not he can extend it to others. There’s obviously a great amount of suffering in the world, and if the gritty hero with wanted to atone for his past sins, is it possible for him to literally cure the world of its ills through blood transfusion?
Well, the situation has come up, but it’s an insanely hard thing to pull off. In Powers of X, Wolverine was able to save Moira Mactaggart with blood transfusions, but the recent Wolverine #1 provided an infographic that explained how Logan’s healing factor becomes inert within his blood once it leaves his body. Getting it to successful transmit to another body is an incredibly difficult task.
That’s not to say it hasn’t been done before. Most famously, Deadpool was a member of the same Weapon X program that produced Wolverine. Using Wolverine’s blood, Weapon X was capable of reproducing his healing factor within Deadpool, but at a terrible cost. Deadpool’s own lethal cancer fights a constant war against his healing factor, and the end result is that his skin became scabby and scarred. He may have a good sense of humor about it, but there’s definitely a curse attached to that gift.
5) What Are the Cons of Wolverine’s Healing Factor?
This is where things get a little sappy because we’re not talking about his actual heart. Instead, it’s worth explaining the toll Wolverine’s healing factor has had on his mental and emotional health over the years. Since his senescence is so much slower than a normal human’s, Wolverine has spent the past century watching many of the people around him die or get older while he has largely remained the same.
And that’s to say nothing of the psychological horror of enduring the countless physical tortures inflicted upon him. Even just the process to coat Wolverine’s skeleton in adamantium was described as immensely painful, and it’s a process he has had to undergo multiple times. At one point Magneto even ripped the metal straight off his bones, no anesthetic or preparation at all. The process nearly killed him, and in fact, burned out his healing factor so that for a brief period he was mortal.
But underneath it all Wolverine has an indomitable will that never allows such constant suffering to get the best of him. While he certainly has his fair share of mental problems, part of what makes Wolverine such a hero is that he is able to undergo such severe physical and emotional pain over time without it ever truly changing who he is. As interesting as the anatomy of the X-Man is, at the center of it all is the heart of a truly great character.
About The Author
For all the latest Comics News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
