Wolverine’s Entire Comic Origin Was Retconned For an Illogical Reason, Changed His Arc To Give Him a Tragic Backstory
Wolverine is a character that has been popular with comic lovers for decades. His aggressive fighting style, claws and adamantium bones, healing ability, and the animalistic approach to fighting make him one of the most favorite anti-heroes in the Marvel Universe.
Since his first appearance in comics in the edition of Incredible Hulk #180 to his roles in the X-Men series, Wolverine has undergone a fair amount of ret-conning that has helped define his origin and character arc.
Wolverine Did Not Have Claws in His Body Initially
At first, Wolverine’s claws were just a part of his costume and not a consequence of his mutant power. Although this concept was more practical, it stripped the character of his uniqueness. It turned the claws into mere props that anyone could use.
But as Wolverine grew popular among readers, the creators of X-Men comics realized the need for a deeper relationship between him and his claws. Co-creator of Wolverine, Len Wein, earlier mentioned in his blog that he wanted Wolverine’s claws to be attached to his gloves only.
In 1975’s Uncanny X-Men edition, Chris Claremont introduced the adamantium claws in Wolverine as a result of the Weapon X program, where Logan was designed for a mission to attack Hulk. Wolverine’s claws were once again retconned during 1993’s X-Men #25 series. In an act of rage, Magneto ripped out Adamantium from his skeleton. Later, in Wolverine #75, when the mutant forced himself to act after being weakened by Magneto, his bone claws pierced through his knuckles. It was shown at this time that his claws were always present in his body.
Wolverine realized that the Weapon X program had erased his memories while fusing his skeleton with adamantium. Later in the Wolverine Origin story, his retconned backstory revealed that his bone claws were always a part of his mutant genetics. Since then, it has been Marvel‘s official backstory for Wolverine.
How Was Adamantium Actually Fused to Wolverine’s Skeleton?
The method by which Wolverine got his adamantium skeleton and claws has always intrigued fans and has been explained in pseudo-scientific ways. But in writer Marc Cerasini’s 2004 novelization of the Weapon X graphic novel, readers learned that there was far more to the mutation than the simple injection of genetic material.
The Weapon X miniseries in 1991 briefly talked about how Wolverine became a part of the Weapon X program. However, when writer Marc Cerasini made a novel out of the miniseries, he explained the science behind the adamantium fusion in detail.
According to Cerasini, the process was divided into two parts. First, nanobots were injected inside Wolverine, and these hooked themselves to his bones and opened several pores so that nutrients could be supplied in order to keep the cells alive before adamantium was fused into them.
The second stage was to quickly pour liquid adamantium as the liquified metal turned to a solid state in eight minutes. However, Wolverine’s healing factor became an issue in the procedure. His body tried to expel the substance before it agreed to be fused by adamantium forever.
During this process, the excess adamantium was attracted to Wolverine’s retractable bone claws, which were coated with the indestructible metal that gave him his iconic claws. However, even though adamantium made him indestructible, it was also the reason for his death due to metal poisoning.
