Can Wolverine die? All the ways the X-Men hero can be killed

Wolverine’s the best there is at what he does, and there doesn’t seem to be anything that can stop him. What does it take for Marvel’s Wolverine to die?

Since his introduction, the most unique factor about Wolverine has been his sensational healing factor. While other X-Men were formidable foes, Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton and healing factor combo made him a literal tank. 

Wolverine has gone from tank-like to nearly invincible as the healing factor has evolved. It makes stories hard; what threat is Wolverine under if he can shrug off his strongest foes? 

Despite that, Wolverine has fought foes who could kill him; some stories even show how he can die. It is possible to kill Wolverine – but it’s not something your average villain could pull off. 

Can Wolverine die?

Wolverine can die, as seen in the appropriately titled Death of Wolverine. Granted, in that story, he didn’t have his healing factor, but he is suffocated and burned to death by molten adamantium. 

Killing Wolverine usually means attacking him so quickly and powerfully that it overwhelms his healing factor. The most infamous would be the Sentinel attack in Days of Future Past. Wolverine is implied to have met a similar fate in Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect. 

Beyond that, Wolverine is assumed to be, to some degree, immortal. His oldest known incarnation is Old Man Phoneix, a version that has merged with the Phoneix Force to roam the cosmos for eternity. 

Can Wolverine drown?

Yes, Wolverine can drown, and it’s a major concern of his. The reason is because of his adamantium skeleton. The added weight of the metal on his bones makes Wolverine’s weigh around 300 pounds. Naturally, this has long made Wolverine afraid of water. 

The concern is that the extra weight from the metal makes Wolverine too heavy to float. So if he were fighting someone and they were to fly him out and drop him in the middle of the ocean, he would sink straight to the bottom. Wolverine can heal, but he’s got to breathe – and the weight means he would run out of oxygen before he could get out of the water. 

An exception to this may be the Ultimate Universe version of Wolverine. His power was not, in fact, a healing factor but a survivability adaptation, as demonstrated when Nick Fury cut off his head and put it on a desk, having a conversation with it. 

Can Wolverine regrow limbs? 

Wolverine can regrow limbs, though his adamantium skeleton means he rarely loses a limb. Wolverine’s healing factor is actually pretty crazy in how far it can go. 

Wolverine’s healing factor originally didn’t make him invincible; he could shrug off and quickly heal from wounds, but an injury still knocked him down. Today, his powers have developed so that he can recover from most injuries with relative ease, including regrowing limbs. 

The most extreme example comes from Civil War, when Wolverine was chasing down Nitro. An explosion reduced Wolverine to just his skeleton, but enough of his flesh remained that he regrew his entire body.