Wolverine has proven to be one of the hardest people in comics to kill. For years, Logan seemed unkillable, with a healing factor that allowed him to resurrect from any injury. He seemed so durable that it took What If…? stories to find a way to finally kill him. However, between those alternate Earth stories and the main timeline, Logan has died more than once.

  • In what was arguably the best movie in the X-Men universe, Logan saw an older Wolverine working to protect Professor Xavier, and possibly keep him from losing control of his powers. All the X-Men were dead, and by the end of this movie, Wolverine was dead as well. However, no good Marvel hero stays dead. In a huge announcement, Ryan Reynolds revealed that Hugh Jackman would return as Wolverine in Deadpool 3 for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This will clearly not be the Wolverine who died since that movie took place in the future, but Wolverine dying and coming back to life is nothing new for Marvel Comics fans, as it has happened countless times.

Wolverine’s main weakness is drowning, but that was only something that he used to kill his son, Daken. While that is his main weakness, Logan has died by having all his flesh melted off his body, by suffocating in adamantium, and he even killed himself once to end a threat to the world.

Exiles: Wolverine Dies Stopping Jean Grey

In 2001, a new mutant series called Exiles launched with Judd Winick and Mike McKone as the creative team. This was a little different because the members of the team were mutants from different Earths in the Multiverse. The team’s job was to fix things that went wrong in different realities.

They had to do something that was tough for Wolverine. They were sent to make sure Jean Grey died on the moon to fulfill the Dark Phoenix Saga, or else she would become the Dark Phoenix. They failed, and while Jean was becoming Dark Phoenix, Wolverine went in for the kill. He ended up killing his fellow X-Men member, but he died along with the rest of the X-Men to save the world.

Marvel Zombies

Some fans might not remember that the Marvel Zombies originated in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. In Ultimate Fantastic Four #21, the Ultimate Fantastic Four seemed to meet the 616 Fantastic Four. However, they realized too late that this was not the 616 world, but one that ended up infested by zombies.

This happened when a variant of Sentry showed up on that Earth and had a virus that quickly spread among the heroes. They then turned into zombies and began eating the world’s population. One of the first heroes to go down was Wolverine, and he quickly died and returned as a zombie.

X-Men Forever Alpha

The Hand killed Wolverine in the main Marvel Comics storyline and then resurrected him as a weapon of mass destruction. This was a story that occurred after Marvel removed the legendary Chris Claremont from the title he elevated to the top. This was also a Claremont idea that he never got to write.

Marvel made it up to him years later when they gave him a chance to write X-Men Forever Alpha Vol. 2, which allowed him to write the stories he had planned when Marvel let him go. This included Wolverine’s death in the first issue. What was shocking was that Storm turned evil, and it was she that killed Wolverine. After this Wolverine death, he never returned to life in the series.

Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe

Deadpool battled Psycho Man and when the villain messed with his brain, it released a sadistic personality. Since Deadpool knows he is in a comic book and is a character in this fictional world, he decided he would end it on his own terms. He set out and killed every hero in Marvel Comics and then even came out of the book and killed its creators as well.

When it comes to Wolverine’s death, Deadpool knew him well enough to know how to beat him. Deadpool blew up Avengers Mansion, but Wolverine survived. Deadpool then kidnapped his kids - X-23 and Daken - and when Wolverine showed up to save them, Deadpool had a carbonadium katana, which offset his healing factor, and he decapitated Wolverine, killing him for good.

Magneto Killed Ultimate Wolverine

Things were different in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. Characters had different origins and different versions of their powers. They also could die, and not return like they always did in the 616. In both universes, Magneto ripped out Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton, but he only survived one of those attacks.

In the 616, Wolverine’s healing factor saved him, but he went feral for a short time. However, in Ultimatum #5, all the world’s heroes were trying to stop Magneto, who had already killed countless people. Wolverine impales Magneto through the chest, but then Magneto blasts the adamantium out of his body, and Wolverine dies, leaving nothing but charred bones.

Days Of Future Past - Sentinel Blast

The X-Men have helped create several alternate Earth timelines, many of them proving catastrophic for mutants in the world. The first was the Days of Future Past timeline, which saw the world devastated and Sentinels killing mutants without remorse. This included Wolverine.

While this Wolverine variant was one of the last remaining mutants in this timeline, he sacrificed his life along with Storm and Colossus as they fought to help Kitty Pryde travel back in time to stop the assassination that caused this apocalyptic future. A Sentinel blasted all Wolverine’s flesh off his bones, meaning he couldn’t regenerate.

Fall Of The Mutants - Killed By Adversary

Fall of the Mutants was an X-Men storyline from 1988 by Chris Claremont and Marc Silvestri. This included the Mutant Registration Act and changed everything about the mutants’ place in the world. The X-Men went to find their leader Storm in Dallas and ended up attacked by the government-sponsored Freedom Force since the X-Men had not registered.

At this time, the Adversary showed up and threatened the world. The X-Men, including Wolverine, sacrificed themselves to stop this being from destroying everything. This is where everything changed, because Roma resurrected the X-Men, but they let the world think they were dead, so they could live in peace.

Death Kills Wolverine

In 1999, the X-Men had broken up and a new group of young artificially-created mutants arrived known as the Mannites. They had a friend in Professor X and when they needed help, some old X-Men members reconnected to help them. This included Wolverine.

There was a big problem here. Apocalypse wanted these Mannites gone and sent his newest horsemen Death after them. The X-Men fought Death and the battle had a shocking conclusion. Death killed Wolverine. There was a twist though. The Wolverine that Death killed was a Skrull, and Death himself was the real Wolverine.

Wolverine Dies Trying To Stop Dark Phoenix

One of the best What If…? issues ever released asked what would have happened if the events of The Dark Phoenix Saga had never happened and Jean Grey lived. What happened was that the Dark Phoenix took over Jean anyway and destroyed Earth.

The X-Men tried to stop her and Wolverine was doing anything he could to save her. However, Dark Phoenix played dirty and turned a charging Wolverine against Colossus, who she then turned back into flesh and bone. After Wolverine accidentally killed Colossus, he gave up and let Phoenix drag him into the fire where he died.

Here Comes Tomorrow - Wolverine Dies To Save Jean Grey

Grant Morrison and Marc Silvestri created the X-Men storyline Here Comes Tomorrow in the pages of New X-Men. This is another alternate Earth storyline where Wolverine leads his team into a dystopian future where a villain named Sublime rules.

The goal here is to bring Jean Grey back from the dead, and they succeed. Wolverine tells Jean what has happened since she died, but then Sublime strips Logan of his healing power and kills him. With this Wolverine death, he knew that he saved the world by bringing back Jean, and she will help build a new future.

Enemy Of The State - Gorgon Killed Wolverine

One of Wolverine’s most famous storylines was Enemy of the State, where he was reprogrammed into a killer. Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. started the story in Wolverine #20 when Logan went to Japan to help find a kidnaped boy. It was a trap, and Gorgon killed Wolverine by impaling him with a sword.

This was done so The Hand could resurrect Wolverine before he could regenerate, and then brainwash him to kill for them. By the time Wolverine got his mental capabilities back, he joined up with S.H.I.E.L.D. to hunt down and kill every member of The Hand. This was easily one of the most powerful versions of Wolverine in comics.

Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe

In 1995, Marvel released the one-shot Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe. This series saw Punisher’s origin story change drastically. Instead of mobsters killing his wife and children, his family died in the middle of a giant superhero battle. When Cyclops apologized to Frank for his family’s death, the Punisher shot him in the head.

Punisher then killed every superhero in the Marvel Universe. When it came to most of the X-Men, Punisher tricked them into going to the moon and then nuked them. Wolverine wasn’t with them, so Punisher electrocuted him, frying all the flesh from his bones.

Young X-Men: Dust Kills Wolverine

As the Days of Future Past storyline has shown, Wolverine can die when his skin is frayed from his bones. There is a mutant who has the powers to do just that, and she killed Wolverine during the End of Days story arc.

The mutant is Dust, who has the power to turn herself into sand and use it as a weapon. The story jumped to the future where Dust eventually lost control and killed all the X-Men. She used her power to blow all the skin off Wolverine’s body, killing him instantly.

Age Of Ultron - Wolverine Kills His Alternate World Self

Believe it or not, Wolverine once killed himself. In Age of Ultron, the world was destroyed by Ultron, who succeeded in his goals to rid the world of most humans. The first plan that Wolverine decided on was to use time travel to fix things. He went back in time and killed Hank Pym before he could create Ultron.

That made the world worse, and Wolverine realized he needed to change things again. This time around, he went back before he could kill Hank Pym to stop himself. They found a way for Pym to place a kill switch in Ultron, and then the Wolverine who saw the horrible future he caused asked the other Wolverine to kill him, which he did with his own claws.

Death Of Wolverine - Wolverine Suffocated By Adamantium

In 2014, the Wolverine death was legit. The story took place in the miniseries Death of Wolverine by Chris Soule and Steve McNiven. This started when Logan lost his healing factor. He never got it back and started wearing armor for his protection. However, this all came to an end when Dr. Cornelius from the Weapon X project targeted Wolverine.

He wanted to steal the healing power, not knowing it was gone. In anger, he decided to kill Wolverine by covering him with molten adamantium. It worked. Wolverine killed Cornelius, and then he was suffocated by the molten adamantium and stayed dead until someone went to Hell and dragged him back.