...it's time to talk about the Marvel comic book character known as Wolverine. Over at Chizumatic, Steven says:

Wolverine has always struck me as being an odd one to be part of X-men, because he isn't really a mutant -- at least according to the Marvel origins. Canadian scientists operated on him and replaced essentially all his bones with metal replacements, and also installed those wonderful claws of his.

I spent nigh on two years working at a comic book/gaming store back in the early-mid-90s (which, coincidentally, is where I caught the anime bug). While I read a wide variety of comics when I was there, I 'specialized' in the X- series: X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Generation X, Cable, Excalibur, X-Force... and Wolverine.

In the Marvel Universe, Wolverine's bones weren't replaced by metal, but coated with unbreakable adamantium. And indeed, he thought that his claws WERE implanted by the Weapon X program scientists (his life before then was, at the time, completely unknown... he didn't even know if his name, Logan, really WAS his name).

In the classic Fatal Attractions storyline, it's revealed that his claws are actually made of bone covered with adamantium. This was as big a shock to Wolverine as it was to the readers; he assumed they had been implanted. Unfortunately, he found out the truth in a most uncomfortable way: Magneto, in the event that ultimately led to the creation of Onslaught, yanked the adamantium out of his body through his pores.

Ow.

It was his healing factor (which was his one acknowledged mutant power) that kept him alive, though grievously injured, during the end of the Fatal Attractions saga. Apocalypse eventually (2000) stuck the metal back onto Wolvie's skeleton, though if my memory serves, Logan wasn't thrilled about it before it happened (and the process turned him feral for a while).

So that's a somewhat long-winded way of saying "Wolverine's claws are made of bone." Yeesh.

Please understand that any of this information may be out of date. I haven't picked up a comic book probably in five years; knowing Marvel, it's entirely possible that it was discovered that Wolverine's bones are actually made out of cottage cheese or something.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:17 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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