Warning! This article contains spoilers for X Lives of Wolverine #3
As Weapon X brainwashing becomes rewritten by Marvel Comics. While Wolverine’s most traumatic event wasn’t undone by his time-traveling mission, the extent of how negatively impactful the brainwashing was for him finds a whole new meaning. Instead of being something that weakened Logan due to the removal of key memories from his life, Weapon X’s mind-wiping experimentation has actually become something that made him stronger.
In X Lives of Wolverine #3 by Benjamin Percy and Joshua Cassara, Wolverine’s consciousness is being sent into the bodies of his past selves throughout history in order to save the life of Professor X from the murderous Omega Red who is using his own method of time travel to kill Charles. In the process, Wolverine is reliving memories he didn’t know he had, or at least those that haven’t been with him for many years during and after his time with Weapon X.
While Wolverine’s body isn’t negatively impacted during each brutal fight he has with Omega Red during his mission, his mind is taking a beating as it is being stretched across time to points in his memory that go back to the late 1800s. Wolverine’s brain is weakening from the emotional strain as he is being thrown into one traumatic event after another. As he is being telepathically monitored by Jean Grey, she comes to a conclusion that reveals Weapon X’s brainwashing was actually a gift to Logan and one that made him stronger. During a telepathic conversation between Jean and Charles on Wolverine’s progress, Jean tells him, “Healing factor doesn’t apply to his emotions, of course. He’s hurting. His body is strong, but his mental defenses are down. Sometimes… Sometimes it’s better to forget”.
The traumas of his life that Weapon X made him forget are all coming back to Wolverine in this storyline. Not only that but he is being forced to relive those moments while simultaneously battling against one of the greatest villains in the X-Men’s history. When Weapon X erased most of his memories in order for him to have a clean slate as their living weapon, they inadvertently did Wolverine a favor as he was no longer weighed down by the many traumas of his long life.
While Weapon X only erased trauma to replace it with more trauma, they still got rid of a lot of emotional pain that Wolverine was freed from thereafter. According to Jean Grey, Weapon X’s actions were the best thing for Logan especially as she is looking at him suffering because of his past. Wolverine’s famous Weapon X brainwashing has just been rewritten by Marvel as Wolverine, but rather made him stronger.
