Was Wolverine the first superhero to have a “healing factor”?
Was it explained in his first appearance that his claws and skeleton were made of adamantium?
Also-- how much stronger than a normal human is he supposed to be?
It has been a very long time since I have followed the X-Men comics, and the books that I need are a bit hard to retrieve at the moment (going through my collection is like participating in an archaeological dig!). Can someone please refresh my memory about Wolverine’s abilities/skills?
No. In his original appearance, it was assumed that his claws were just weapons attatched to his suit (the old brown n’ orange number). They expanded the character history considerably after that, deciding the Canadian slicin’ machine was pretty cool.
I forget what issue it was, but he was trying to stop the Hulk, along with Spiderman, who though he played a little too rough.
He’s not supposed to be abnormally strong. He’s just touch as all get out and goes through regular strenuous excercise. He’s not at olympic level.
In his first apprance, in the hulk the ol’ knulehead was wearing his yellow and blue suit. Ears weren’t as pronuced. In fact, in many ways his current suit is the closet one hes ever worn to that one.
He’s the best there is at what he does, and what he does isn’t pretty.
I think the Hulk’s healing came at the point when everyone and their cousin got a “healing factor” so they could get cut up for those dramatic panels and then be fine later that issue.
However, I think I have to point to Spider-Man as the original “healing factor” kid. At several points in the early run Spider-Man notes that he heals much faster than normal. Not Wolverine fast, but it was commented on…
I think the Creeper might be the earliest character with super-fast healing (as in, he’d heal a sucking chest wound faster than I type this, not Spidey’s lack of soreness in the morning).
I get the feeling his stronger than olympian level for a couple of reasons:
He is carrying around a bucket load of weight with the adamantium bones, and is still able to move around at the same speed as everyone else.
Cyclops is meant to be at Olympian levels in terms of fitness, as are most of the originals.
he is able to slice through metal etc. even if his claws are super sharp, thats gotta take a lot of power behind it
I think it’s in The Savage Land, but I could be wrong, that an airport metal detector scan shows that the adamantium in Logan only weighs about 10 pounds.
The official Marvel stance on Wolverine is that his abilities (strengh, agility, reflexes) are enhanced beyond conventional human levels (in other words, as good as a normal human can be, not “average” human ability), but not superhuman. The usual comparision between the two levels is Captain America vs. Spider-Man.
The Wolverine page on Wikipedia seems to capture most of the details of his backstory pretty well. Plus it has a small picture of his first appearence in Incredible Hulk #181.
One complaint/question about the entry though…the paragraph which discusses Giant-Sized X-Men #1 says “the then-defunct X-Men comic book series”…was Uncanny X-Men really out of publication for a time before they brought in the new team, or is the better word “moribund”…
Urg…let me clear that clear as mud statement up. I meant to say that Olympian ability falls within “conventional human level” and that Wolverine lies somewhere beyond that…
The official Marvel word: 300lbs with Adamantium, 195 without. Regarding strength: when his skeleton is reinforced with Adamantium (hasn’t always been), he is able to withstand high levels of physical pressure that give his muscles “sufficient force to briefly lift/press several hundred pounds.”
Personally, I figure his healing factor helps him become stronger and more muscular than a regular guy who does weight training. From what I understand, the building of muscle is in the healing, basically, right? Muscle tissue gets torn when stressed and when it heals, builds more muscle? Seems like he’d have a natural advantage, there.
Even if his strength isn’t “super”, he has other superhuman powers. Aside from his healing factor, there’s the super-acute senses. Figured I’d mention that, since gytalf2000 asked about abilities.
And no, it wasn’t apparent right away that Wolverine’s claws were part of his body, as was mentioned earlier. It wasn’t until Uncanny X-Men #98 (2 years after Hulk #181) that we see the SNIKT without the costume on.
That can’t be right, can it? Briefly lift/press several hundred pounds?" That seems as though it would mean the “below 500 pounds” range. Isn’t the average person of half-assed decent physique supposed to be able to repeatedly bench his own body weight (which would often be 180-200 pounds)?
I doubt the average half-assed person can repeatedly bench 180-200lbs. I almost never see an average person who does not lift weights regularly be able to bench repetitions of their body weight, much less max rep it. 200lbs is a lot for a guy not in shape.
Interestingly enough, according to an interview with (IIRC) Len Wein, the creator of Wolverine for his first appearance, the original concept for him was that of a Canadian teenager (to go along with the teenager aspect of the new X-Men) as agile and strong as Spider-Man. The claws were built into his gloves, and he had no healing factor.
This is a bit of a hijack, but in a recent issue of the X-23 mini, one of the doctors mention that having an adamantium-covered skeleton seems to retard the healing factor. During the period in which Wolverine had lost his adamantium, did he have an exaggerated healing factor?
Yes, after Wolvie had his Adamantium stripped out by Magneto, there was a period of time when his healing factor was overwhelmed, but after that it kicked into high gear and it was found that his healing abilities (as well as his enhanced senses and physical abilities) were greatly increased. In some instances he was able to heal completely mere seconds after being run over and “flatlining” with severe trauma to his entire body.
As for his strength: I remember one scene in the Frank Miller limited series Wolverine where Wolvie is in kind of a barroom wrestling match with a pretty huge guy (was it a sumo, even?) and he pretty much lifts the big guy over his head with relative ease.
Addendum: the time when Wolvie’s healing factor kicked into really high gear was after a failed attempt to re-adamantiumize Wolvie’s skeleton. Wolvie supposedly willfully rejected the adamantium that the bad guys were trying to give him, and the trauma of that event temporarily turned Wolvie into a more beastial form with the greatly enhanced senses and physical abilities and healing factor. Also somehow he temporarily lost his nose. and had eyebrow hairs that were braidable. Even with all that, he managed to get laid by Elektra. Animal magnetism, I guess.
Both? Neither? The title was strictly reprints from #67 through #93, which came out the month before GS #1. Publication was erratic (the Grand Comics Database says #92 was published five months before #93), but it never ceased publication.