How Did Wolverine Get His Powers - And How Did He Lose Them?
Wolverine has long been one of the world's most popular comic book heroes, appearing across all forms of media, including movies, video games, and comics. With Hugh Jackman bringing the iconic yellow suit to "Deadpool 3," it's as good of a time as ever to be a Wolverine fan, but many may not be familiar with the character's backstory.
The answer or how Wolverine got his powers is relatively simple. Logan was born with the mutant gene, giving him extraordinary abilities. At a young age, he developed beast-like abilities through the bone claws protruding from his knuckles, an extreme healing factor, and heightened senses. However, Wolverine's story is a bit more complicated than most mutants, as many know him for his metal claws, but those technically aren't part of his mutant gene.
As an adult, Wolverine became the test subject of a cruel experiment called Weapon X. Most notably, scientists coated his entire skeleton with adamantium as part of the experiments. This indestructible metal turned his bone claws into the familiar weapons everyone knows and has imitated at some point in their lives, sticking objects between each finger.
Multiple iterations of Wolverine have lost their power
A superhero losing their powers is a familiar storyline for the industry, and unfortunately for Wolverine, it's happened a few different times. In the "Death of Wolverine" comic-book story arc, Logan came into contact with a virus from the Microverse, which shut off his healing factor. With the help of S.H.I.E.L.D., he was able to eradicate the virus from his system, but it had already done its damage, robbing Wolverine of his healing factor permanently. Unfortunately, without his healing factor, Wolverine wasn't long for the Marvel world, dying soon after and paving the way for Laura Kinney, X-23, to inherit the Wolverine mantel.
Hugh Jackman's Wolverine from the Fox Universe suffered a similar fate, but while the films depicted him losing his powers, they took a different approach. "Logan" picks up with an older Wolverine who's a shell of his former self, and his healing factor is sharply declining. The loss of his powers is because the adamantium covering his skeleton is slowly poisoning his body, slowing down his healing factor until he eventually loses it completely, resulting in his death. The movie takes a unique approach to the "Old Man Logan" story, depicting a more realistic version of what would happen to someone if metal covered their entire skeleton.