Wolverine is well-regarded as one of Marvel Comics’ most durable and dangerous heroes. With an incredible healing factor and an unbreakable Adamantium skeleton, Logan is one of the toughest customers around, and notoriously hard to kill. But not invulnerable, provided you know his weaknesses.
Wolverine’s impressive abilities don’t make him entirely impervious to harm, and despite his largely 'unkillable' reputation, there are more than a few superpowers that can kill Wolverine, meaning sooner or later, any one of them could spell doom for the fan-favorite X-Men icon.
10 Reality Manipulation
Like most of Marvel Comics’ other iconic heroes, Wolverine isn’t immune to the whims of the reality warpers of the House of Ideas. On more than one occasion, this Merry Mutant found himself at the mercy of beings who can alter the very fabric of being, and he’s especially had his fair share of trials against the likes of powerhouse world-benders like Proteus.
Wolverine: Killing Made Simple by Christopher Yost, Koi Turnbull, and Sal Regla highlights this weakness, as Logan himself notes that they could a reality warper could turn him inside out or erase him from existence altogether. But seeing as this isn’t a weakness specific to the Wolverine, it doesn’t rank too highly compared to the other, more targeted threats that Logan may face on a more-or-less regular basis.
9 Magic
As with reality-warping, magic-s like Doctor Strange or Selene are another general threat to the Wolverine that isn’t unique to his specific powerset. That being said, this doesn’t make the occult any less dangerous for the ol’ Caknucklehead, and he’s had more than a few close calls with sorcerous skillsets to know how much of a threat they pose to him and his fellow X-Men.
One surefire way to end the Wolverine using magic, however, is the vaunted Muramasa Blade. A magical sword created by Logan’s mentor of the same name, this is one of the few weapons that entirely negate Wolverine’s healing factor – meaning any death involving the Blade is one Wolverine won’t come back from – and it’s even been used on other characters, like a clone of Sabretooth, with healing abilities comparable to Logan’s.
8 Sensory Interference/Manipulation
Wolverine’s healing factor may be his most famous ability, but it’s far from the only power he brings to the table thanks to his incredibly heightened sense. Unfortunately, those senses can be as much of a liability as they are a boon considering just how sensitive they are and how harshly they can be manipulated.
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Much like Daredevil, Logan’s enhanced sensorial abilities provide him with a heightened perception of the world around him, and anyone or anything that can skew said perception like hypersonic weapons and even common mace or tear gas – as shown in Wolverine #4 by Greg Rucka and Darick Robertson – can seriously put a damper on Wolverine’s perceptions and combat capabilities. Logan’s engagement with his surroundings depends largely on his animalistic senses, and if these are off the table, then he’s at a severe disadvantage.
7 Super Strength
Considering his first appearance featured a battle with the Incredible Hulk – and the iconic rivalry that followed – it’s somewhat surprising that superhuman strength can present such a threat to the Wolverine, especially considering his supposedly unbreakable Adamantium skeleton. But, unfortunately, it’s this same skeleton that actually makes super strength such a threat for Logan.
World War Hulk: X-Men #2 by Christos Gage, Andrea Di Vito, & Laura Villari reminds the mutants that the Jade Giant is the strongest one there is while providing one of the Hulk’s most brutal bouts against Wolverine to date. Using his unparallelled strength to repeatedly punch Logan in the face, Hulk turns his opponent’s Adamantium skull into a disadvantage as Logan’s brain is repeatedly smashed against its own surroundings – taking a battered Wolverine out of the fight for good.
6 Heat Generation
While Wolverine’s mutant healing factor works incredibly quickly, it still needs something to work with. Against a sufficient blast of intense heat/energy, like that of the mutant hunting Nimrod or another sufficiently advanced Sentinel or enemy, Logan’s hopes for victory are incinerated as quickly as his flesh.
Fans have seen Logan burnt to his death on more than one occasion. From the classic X-Men: Days of Future Past storyline by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, to Wolverine: Killing Made Simple by Yost, Turnbull, and Regla, and even most recently in Inferno #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Valerio Schiti, and David Curiel, total incineration is one of the most effective ways to take down the Wolverine for good, and it’s worked more times than most of the other entries on this list.
5 Nanny's Aging/De-Aging Powers
The armored harridan called Nanny may be one of the X-Men’s more obscure adversaries, but she presents one of the most pressing – and most disturbing – threats that the Wolverine could ever possibly face. Obsessed with “safe-guarding” mutant children, Nanny has a habit of de-aging her adversaries down to a childlike state, as she’s done to X-Men like Storm on more than one occasion.
Wolverine: Killing Made Simple by Yost, Turnbull, and Regla explains just how such a power would affect Wolverine, and it’s absolutely horrifying. One of the gristlier ways he could die, Wolverine’s Adamantium skeleton would once again present a major disadvantage as his flesh and internal organs would be de-aged while his skeleton remains unchanged. And even if he survived the trauma, his flesh would be forced to heal incorrectly, mutilating him beyond all recognition.
4 Phasing
One of Wolverine’s closest allies and former apprentices, Kitty Pryde herself, ultimately presents one of the greatest threats that Wolverine could ever be forced to face. Gifted with the ability to phase herself through solid objects, including unbreakable Adamantium skeletons, there’s nothing to stop Kitty from killing Logan if she suddenly wanted to.
What If...? Wolverine: Enemy of the State #1 by Jimmie Robinson, Carmine Di Giandomenico, and Robert Camla shows fans just what would happen if the two were forced to face off as a beleaguered Shadowcat is pit against her mind-controlled mentor in a fight for survival. Phasing her hand into Logan’s skull before solidifying, Kitty sacrifices the appendage to keep it lodged in Wolverine’s brain – preventing his healing factor from bringing him back when nothing else could.
3 Magnetism
Considering all the times that the X-Men faced off with their most famous frenemy, Magneto, and all the times that Logan has been humbled by the Master of Magnetism, it’s no surprise that Erik’s powerset is one of Logan’s greatest vulnerabilities. At the mercy of someone like Magnus or even his daughter, Polaris, Wolverine is little more than an Adamantium-laced puppet as their powers give them total control over his entire skeletal structure.
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Not only does this mean that they can bend and break Logan into any direction they wish, but they can even rip the very Adamantium from within his body just as Magneto demonstrated in X-Men #25 by Fabian Nicieza, Andy Kubert, Matt Ryan, and Joe Rosas – a traumatic event that nearly killed Logan right then and there.
2 Hydrokinesis
Wolverine’s body is capable of healing from a great many things, but one of Logan’s greatest weaknesses has been a vulnerability to drowning. Thanks to the weight of his Adamantium skeleton, swimming isn’t something that comes easy to the Beclawed Berserker, and Logan still needs to breathe as much as anyone else, and drowning has been shown to successfully kill mutants with similar healing functions, like Wolverine’ own son, Akihiro.
Wolverine’s healing factor can restore his organs to working condition from just about any attack, and this does include his brain, but should he remain underwater for an extended period, Logan’s brain won’t have the chance to recover from hypoxemia – and even if it does, it’ll be trapped in a hellish cycle for as long as he’s submerged. This makes water-wielding opponents like Hydro-Man incredibly dangerous to the likes of Wolverine.
1 Power Theft
Wolverine’s healing factor is his greatest strength and it’s a major part of why he’s so dangerous in combat. This healing factor has singlehandedly saved him from death more times than anyone cares to count, but without it he’s incredibly vulnerable. Against the likes of a power thief like Rogue or the Morlock, Leech, Logan is just as vulnerable as anyone else, if not more so.
After all, fans have seen what happens to a depowered Wolverine as his Adamantium skeleton would and has poisoned him to death without a healing factor to counteract it in more than one story. Wolverine is the Best There Is At What He Does, but he needs his healing factor in order to do it. And if any opponent has the ability to permanently rob Logan of his powers, then the Wolverine won’t be coming back.
