The exact origin of Wolverine’s unique powers and abilities was a mystery when he debuted, but the last decade of X-Men comics has finally answered a lot of questions.
Wolverine’s got a pretty confusing backstory, but that’s by design. The character’s memories were muddled for much of his publication history, which he assumed was thanks to meddling from the sinister Weapon X Program.
His memories were restored following the House of M event, a side effect of Scarlet Witch restoring the proper timeline. That origin was revealed to fans in the mini-series Wolverine: The Origin.
Wolverine’s powers were often a source of speculation as a result of that. Was he a mutant? An evolved wolverine? Or just the result of Weapon X’s genetic tampering? The answers are spread over 50 years of history, but many have only become clear in the past decade or so.
How Wolverine got his powers
What are typically considered Wolverine’s powers are things he was born with. As a mutant, he possesses an extra gene, the X Gene. As with most known mutants, Wolverine presumably received his X-Gene from his mother. There are a few exceptions of mutants receiving the X-Gene from a male figure, but they’re specific – such as Wolverine’s clone, Laura Kinney/X-23.
Wolverine’s most notable mutant ability is his claws – three retractable bone claws on each hand. It actually was believed for years they were grafted onto him by Weapon X, but they were revealed to be a natural mutation when Magneto ripped the adamantium off his skeleton.
But perhaps the power that makes him the most dangerous is his regenerative healing factor. Originally, this just meant he healed faster and survived when he normally wouldn’t. Over the years, his healing factor has increased to the point that he can heal from almost anything – including a nuclear explosion.
How Weapon X changed Wolverine
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Long after his healing factor had manifested, Wolverine became involved with the mysterious Department K. Logan actually worked for Department K off and on for years until they decided to make him a test subject.
Wolverine was beaten, kidnapped, and experimented on with a new process of bonding the indestructible adamantium to bones. The goal was to create a perfect weapon, but most subjects died.
Surprisingly, the memory blocks that plagued Logan for much of his life weren’t from Weapon X’s experimentations. He received them willingly while he was part of a black ops squad working for the CIA.
Does Weapon X still exist?
Weapon X, as Wolverine knew it, no longer exists, though no versions of the program have occasionally popped up. The most notable in recent history would be an independently run project by Cornelius, the scientist who created Wolverine’s adamantium grafts, which Logan destroyed in Death of Wolverine.
The biggest revelation in recent years has been that the project was not Weapon X, but rather Weapon Ten, a subset of the Weapon Plus program. Since the reveal, Logan has faced deadly foes of similar backgrounds, like the enigmatic Fantomex and the Hulk/Wolverine hybrid Weapon H.
The iteration of the projects that created Weapon H is the last known version to have been seen in operation. Since then, Weapon X has remained dormant.