Can Wolverine drown?

[Hermiod]

^Typically a mutant's powers are a natural function of their body so they would probably mostly be dependent on their general health, fitness and nutrition. However, we've pretty much already agreed that the regrowth from a few cells idea is patently ridiculous.

Every time he took a shower the skin cells he washed off would grow in to new Wolverines.

 

[Hicks]

Personally, as others have already said, I think they go way too far with his ability. My interpretation is that his ability should simply be a hyper-fast working healing ability/immune system. Meaning it's not more powerful per se than any of our bodies, but it can do its thing much, much, much faster. That would allow Wolverine to die (by several means; including drowning), but still allow him to heal whenever possible from something that it is possible to recover from.

 

[Hermiod]

^I tend to agree. A rapid healing factor is enough. He's got his virtually unbreakable skeleton to go along with that too.

More interesting to me is his mastery of various fighting skills.

 

[Norrin Radd]

Hulk's got a better healing factor than Wolvie.

If Hulk got chopped up into four pieces, would each of them grow into a Hulk?

 

[Mr Light]

I just read CIVIL WAR WOLVERINE which is mentioned up above, and I did find it ridiculous. All the flesh is blasted from his skeleton and he grows back in like an hour! The only possible excuse I can think of is the adamantium skull preserved his brain, shielding it from the blast, and the brain regrew the rest.

As for where he gets the energy, I just read on wikipedia that in the Marvel Universe, mutants access some kind of general unified energy field for their powers and don't produce the energy themselves.

 

[Captain Craig]

I was watching X-Men: the Animated Series tonight and I had a very interesting thought...Could Wolverine drown?

No, its been answered.
Way back in December '89/Jan'90 in vol.1 of Wolverine's first ongoing series. It was during the Acts of Vengence storyline. A villain called Tigershark got the jump on Logan and managed to drown him. He thought he had won which explains the cover art to issue #20.

Wolverine vol.1 #19 - Tigershark drowns Wolverine at issue end

Wolverine vol.1 #20 - his return from drowning

I also miss this tan on brown outfit. I really liked it and think he should go back to it. It was much more suited for stalking and hunting at night than they flashy yellow/blue outfit.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

I just read CIVIL WAR WOLVERINE which is mentioned up above, and I did find it ridiculous. All the flesh is blasted from his skeleton and he grows back in like an hour! The only possible excuse I can think of is the adamantium skull preserved his brain, shielding it from the blast, and the brain regrew the rest.

Actually that is the reason they came up with is that his skull is completely encased with adamantium, protecting his brain (the central nervous system), which in turn could regrow his body.

 

[Silvercrest]

I believe in one issue, where all that was left of him was one drop of blood. I think it was some annual from about 15 years ago. And no I don't know the issue, but it was when Longshot and Dazzler were part of the X-Men.

He gets a bye in that particular case because he was in contact with some super-powerful gemstone that gave him godlike abilities. Or more accurately, the drop of blood struck the gemstone after he was killed, and regrew him.

I was watching X-Men: the Animated Series tonight and I had a very interesting thought...Could Wolverine drown?

No, its been answered.
Way back in December '89/Jan'90 in vol.1 of Wolverine's first ongoing series. It was during the Acts of Vengence storyline. A villain called Tigershark got the jump on Logan and managed to drown him. He thought he had won which explains the cover art to issue #20.

Wolverine vol.1 #19 - Tigershark drowns Wolverine at issue end

Wolverine vol.1 #20 - his return from drowning

I also miss this tan on brown outfit. I really liked it and think he should go back to it. It was much more suited for stalking and hunting at night than they flashy yellow/blue outfit.

I miss that outfit too.

I have those issues at home and haven't read them in a long time. However, I believe that Tiger Shark had pinned him underwater and he really was at risk of drowning. Tiger Shark had jammed his claws into a rock or something and he didn't have enough leverage to get them out. He managed to do it just before he blacked out.

 

[General Kang]

There is something silly, if you ask me, about debating whether Wolverine's healing ability is realistic enough, even for a comic book universe.

Those that said that Wolverine's brain case is "completely sealed" and would therefore protect his brain from immolation forget that there has to be an opening for his spinal cord, and that temperatures hot enough to burn his flesh completely off his skeleton would also burn the brain out of the skull.

This entire conversation makes it clear that the comics have pushed Wolverine's power way way WAY too far - regenerating from a completely toasted skeleton, from a single drop of blood, from being drowned, etc.

 

[Silvercrest]

Err, my last post was to say that the comics have shown he can die from drowning, and the drop of blood thing was a fluke. Two of your three examples aren't valid. Have to agree with you on the toasted skeleton thing, though.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Johnny Storm ought to be able to kill him in just a few seconds, no matter how crazy they make Wolvie's healing factor.

 

[Silvercrest]

Not quite on-topic, but do we know whether Johnny's nova flame could damage adamantium?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I always thought when Lobo resurrected from a drop of blood that it was a parody of Wolverine, I didn't realize they actually had gone to that extreme.

I'm not in a position to easily dig up those issues of Wolverine above (they're a bit buried at the moment) but I thought Wolverine was worried about drowning from what I remember. I was one of the few who liked those Madripoor stories where Wolvie dealt with somewhat smaller-scale villains.

It probably depends on the story though, his healing factor varies quite a bit sometimes. Sometimes a single bullet will put him out of commission for a while and sometimes you can shoot him for days with a machine gun.

 

[Forbin]

I'm not a huge comic fan - most of what I know about Wolverine is from tv and the films - but where does the energy needed to regrow him from a few cells come from? Conservation of matter/energy doesn't seem to allow that.

Beer. I betcha.

 

[A beaker full of death]

So if he can be down to one drop of blood and regenerate -- and he keeps getting slashed, blown up, hacked up, etc... should there be about 15 million wolverines walking around?

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Not quite on-topic, but do we know whether Johnny's nova flame could damage adamantium?

It should. It goes up to a million degrees. I know adamantium is supposed to be tough, but if it could withstand that sort of temperature, it could never be molded.

 

[Roshi]

He survived being torn apart by the Hulk so I guess yeah, water won't kill him either.

 

[Vanyel]

Wasn't Wolverine killed in Belasco's realm? And years later only his skeleton remained?

 

[ManOnTheWave]

Yes, but that was back in Claremont's era when his powers had some reasonable limit.

 

[Holdfast]

I was going to say that his healing factor shouldn't work if his brain is killed, but then I recalled hearing about one time when he was almost vaporized but for a few atoms and regrew from them.

No idea if that actually happened. I hope not.

No he actually was completely vaporized - and he regrew around his skeleton - without any organic material present....

This is just beyond silly.

(I almost respect it for the sheer chutzpah of its silliness.)