# Wolverine - X-Men Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 8, 2003, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719 "2003-12-08T07:24:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/21 "2003-12-09T15:46:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cckerberos \* > \*\*FWIW, the Marvel website states that Wolverine is “a man of more than 120 years.” > > I agree that they should stop retconning him. \*\* So, I guess they should discard the script suggesting that Logan is one of the [Dunedain](http://t-o-m-e.net/docs/r_dunad.php?tome_current=0)? > [@](#): > > **Dunedain are a race of hardy men from the West. This elder race surpasses human abilities in every field, especially constitution. However, being men of the world, very little is new to them…** 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/22 "2003-12-09T21:23:04Z")
> [@](#): > > And in X-Men 2, the bullet was stopped by his skull. You can hear the dink when it hits. Again, though, from what I’ve seen, that shouldn’t have laid him out at all, just pissed him off. I think that that may have been deliberate on his part. Right from the outset, he was making it clear to the cops that he was the mutant, so as to distract attention from the kids. Then, when he was shot, he deliberately fell, so the cops would figure that the mutant threat there was taken care of, and leave the kids alone. Until Pyro decided to be an idiot. I read somewhere (though I can’t remember where) that Wolverine’s healing works like a normal human’s, just much quicker. So wounds can close, but lost limbs and organs can’t regrow. Of course, he can still recover from wounds that would kill a normal, since he won’t bleed to death while waiting for his wounds to close, but kill him and he’s dead. Of course this rule isn’t consistently followed, but it probably should be. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/23 "2003-12-09T22:30:10Z")
So what was the explanation for the alternate future that I saw, I forget the title, where he’s just got metal over the stump of a hand? Were they following that rule there? ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/24 "2003-12-10T02:10:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hydrocortisone \* > **How much damage can Wolverine take and still live?** 45 hit points. ---
**Author:** ![Sanscour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f475e1/32.png) [@Sanscour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sanscour)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/25 "2003-12-10T02:11:06Z")
I would make the argument that Wolverine’s mutation goes beyond accelerated healing, because I think if you just healed really really fast, Wolverine would be covered with scar tissue. Comics are the soap operas of the world, they kill people, they bring them back, they kill them again…I’m still pissed that Magneto yanked out Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton. That’s one of those big HELLO MCFLY, why didn’t he do that a long time ago? Sanscour ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/26 "2003-12-10T03:50:40Z")
> [@](#): > > So what was the explanation for the alternate future that I saw, I forget the title, where he’s just got metal over the stump of a hand? Were they following that rule there? I think you’re talking about Age of Apocalypse, where Cyclops blasted off one of his hands and Wolvie poked out one of Cyke’s eyes. I don’t remember exactly how that worked, but hey, alternate reality. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/27 "2003-12-10T07:29:55Z")
Turns out Wolvie still had his claws, too…they just happened to be retracted when Cyke blasted them out. Nobody’s mentioned, BTW: Wolvie can also apparently survive without white blood cells, since having an adamantium-coated skeleton would prevent his body from getting new ones. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/28 "2003-12-10T08:43:25Z")
> [@](#): > > having an adamantium-coated skeleton would prevent his body from getting new ones Why? The skeleton is coated and the WBCs are made in the marrow inside the bones as well as in the liver. Can’t see any massive problems gven that he can presumably produce WBCs at a fantastic rate in the liver alone, as well as at a huge enough rate on the marrow that some can get out. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/29 "2003-12-10T09:22:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > **I think that that may have been deliberate on his part. Right from the outset, he was making it clear to the cops that he was the mutant, so as to distract attention from the kids. Then, when he was shot, he deliberately fell, so the cops would figure that the mutant threat there was taken care of, and leave the kids alone. Until Pyro decided to be an idiot.** I dont buy that, myself. It looked to me like the bullet stunned him for a few seconds. Rung his bell, as it were. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/30 "2003-12-10T13:02:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Nobody’s mentioned, BTW: Wolvie can also apparently survive without white blood cells, since having an adamantium-coated skeleton would prevent his body from getting new ones. I believe they would simply have to leave some holes at the vein junctions. And with his regeneration ability he may not even need that. > [@](#): > > Comics are the soap operas of the world, they kill people, they bring them back, they kill them again…I’m still pissed that Magneto yanked out Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton. That’s one of those big HELLO MCFLY, why didn’t he do that a long time ago? I think he just didn’t care to. Wolverine was not a major threat to Magneto, for the exact reason that he _could_ do that. And Magneto was never really into killing people. At least usually. ---
**Author:** ![cstamets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@cstamets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cstamets)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/31 "2003-12-12T00:54:07Z")
It’s been a long time, and I haven’t been keeping up since, but wasn’t Wolverine still alive in the era of the Guardians of the Galaxy, which was something like 30th or 31st century? I thought Rancor was his descendant and he showed up in a storyline somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/32 "2003-12-12T03:53:39Z")
I don’t know if Wolverine ever showed up in GotG, but… it DID eventually turn out that Dr. Doom (who, along with several dozen OTHER characters from the 20th century, survived into the 30th) skinned Wolverine, and transplanted his brain into Wolvie’s skeletal remains. He became an adamantium cyborg of sorts, and clashed with Rancor in one of those foil-embossed covers that drove the price of the book up by 2 bucks. Let it not be said that the Guardians book from the 90s was not a complete and total travesty. I’m sure the Guardians DID, on occasion, appear in their own title… ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMule](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@MonkeyMule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMule)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/33 "2003-12-12T05:43:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sanscour \* > **I would make the argument that Wolverine’s mutation goes beyond accelerated healing, because I think if you just healed really really fast, Wolverine would be covered with scar tissue.** Well if you buy that he heals very quickly then you can just assume that his scars fade just as fast. As you know, that strawberry on your knee from when youwere six isn’t as big when you’re 16, and even smaller when you’re 26. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/34 "2003-12-12T11:53:38Z")
> [@](#): > > As you know, that strawberry on your knee from when youwere six isn’t as big when you’re 16, and even smaller when you’re 26. Which is all down to skin becoming thicker and more fibrous with age. OTOH a scar I obtained at 16 is just as big and prominent 16 years later as it was 12 months after I got it. Adult scars don’t fade. They become flatter and more skin toned with time, but they remain just as prominent. If Wolvie’s scars are fading by any scientific mechanism then his skin should now be about 3 feet thick and the same texture as a 6-ply radial. Besides, we all know that he doens;t get scars. Even seconds after healing his skin is baby smooth. Well maybe not quite. ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/35 "2003-12-12T11:58:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by El Elvis Rojo \* > \*\*I’ve hated pretty much every character retcon they’ve done of him since they ripped out his adamantium in the first place. That little device could have lead to some great character developement, but then they developed bone claws, made him animalistic, created a really shitty origin story, and things just get worse and worse from there. Basically, I’m expecting that story to be a load of shit as well. \*\* I will never forgive them for the stupid idea of f’ing _bone claws_. _grrr_ ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719/36 "2003-12-12T11:59:01Z")
The lead character in the computer game **Planescape Torment** has an almost identical superpower to Wolverine’s (he heals really really fast) but he scars. It makes for an …interesting look. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wolverine-x-men-question/217719.md?page=1)