Fans of the X-Men’s Wolverine like to brag about Logan’s fabled adamantium skeleton. Thanks to experiments by Weapon X and Apocalypse, Wolverine’s bones – along with his retractable bone claws – are now coated with the strongest metal in the Marvel Universe.
This renders his bones unbreakable and his claws capable of slicing through practically anything. While there is a definite mystique to having an indestructible skeleton, this does not mean Wolverine has the strongest bones in the Marvel Universe.
Power can be measured in ways other than durability, after all, and there are a number of disadvantages to having a metal skeleton. Disadvantages, incidentally, that the bone structures of other powerful beings in the Marvel Universe do not have.
Why Wolverine’s Adamantium Skeleton ISN’T A Great Power
Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton has helped him survive massive impacts and inflict plenty of damage. But when you get right down to it, having an insane amount of metal directly bonded to your bones comes with plenty of problems that get in the way of both civilian and superhero duties. For one thing, Wolverine will always have a problem with metal detectors and similar security devices. In some stories, he manages to get around this by posing as a war veteran with metal fragments in his body (which isn’t too far from the truth) or by using gadgets to fool the detectors. Nevertheless, it’s a massive inconvenience (especially with all the metal detectors in modern society) to set off alarms every time you walk through a door.
Then there are Wolverine’s issues with water. Although some comics have shown that Wolverine can swim and even fight underwater, the truth is his bone density should make him sink like a stone. Logan has admitted in some stories that swimming is like moving with a cast iron strapped to his back – showing that this apparently unkillable mutant is actually very vulnerable to drowning.
Considering that the X-Men’s main villain is a mutant who can control metal, Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton also puts him at a severe disadvantage whenever he fights Magneto. Practically every film in the X-Men film franchise spotlights this – with Magneto regularly bending and twisting Logan into horrible positions with a mere hand gesture. Even a normal human could probably get the drop on Wolverine with a strong electromagnet.
Finally, as powerful as Wolverine’s skeleton makes him, having so much metal in your body is extremely hazardous to your health, healing factor or not. In the comics, Wolverine suffers from frequent body pains as his healing abilities attempt to reject his metal skeleton. In Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine movie Logan, Wolverine’s healing abilities weaken and he finally succumbs to severe adamantium poisoning, essentially dying a slow, painful death through the entire film. His gruesome end likely had a lot of fans questioning the merits of having an adamantium skeleton – which is why they might want to consider one of the alternate choices below.
Marrow: A More Versatile Skeleton?
When it comes to bone structure, the former Morlock and X-Man Marrow may actually edge out Wolverine in sheer versatility. Where Wolverine’s bone-based weapons are limited to his claws, Marrow (aka Sarah) has the mutant ability to grow bony protrusions from her skeleton. She can then break off these bones and use them as weapons – creating everything from knives to clubs to even body armor.
Possessing an insanely high pain threshold as well as a healing factor, Marrow is a skilled and versatile fighter. While her skeleton may not be as durable as adamantium, her bones are still sturdier than a normal human’s – and the variety of shapes and forms she can grow her bones make her a living Swiss Army Knife in combat.
Ghost Rider: Bad to the Bone
Wolverine may have a powerful skeleton – but he still hides it under skin and muscle. Ghost Rider, on the other hand, literally rides into battle skull-first – showing just how much confidence he has in his bone structure. Infused by mystical hellfire, virtually every version of Ghost Rider has possessed an insanely powerful skeleton capable of taking (and giving) punishment to sparring partners like the Hulk and Mr. Hyde. And in the rare cases where Ghost Rider does dislocate his jaw or get a hairline fracture, his hellfire regenerates his bones instantly.
In one storyline that ran in Marvel Comics Presents #65, Wolverine actually attempts to slice through Ghost Rider’s skull with his adamantium claws – only to discover that when adamantium connects with hellfire, it produces a massive explosion. As this basically means Wolverine’s claws can’t even touch Ghost Rider’s hellfire-infused skeleton, it’s pretty clear which character has the stronger bones.
King Cobra: Unbreakable ELASTIC Bones
“Superhuman durability” doesn’t always mean having hard bones. In fact, sometimes the opposite can make you even more powerful. Klaus Voorhees gained snake-like powers from an experimental anti-venom and a bite from a radioactive cobra (yes, really). The result granted him superhuman strength, agility, reflexes, reactions – and an elastic skeleton that’s impossible to break.
Thanks to his superhumanly flexible form, King Cobra can squeeze into drainpipes and slither through cell bars. He’s been slammed into the ground by Mr. Hyde (a villain strong enough to injure the Hulk) and survived. And while he might not be able to break an opponent’s jaw with his bones, King Cobra can constrict his flexible body around others like a python, crushing them to death.
In terms of sneakiness, King Cobra’s unbreakable skeleton affords him the advantages Wolverine can only dream of. Not only can he get through metal detectors easily, he once squeezed into police evidence lockers and stole confiscated goods – essentially making the police do all his stealing for him. He’s a powerful man who at one time led Marvel’s snake-themed team the Serpent Society. Nevertheless, he isn’t as well-known as other super villains – but that’s often the way he likes it.
Iron Man: Bleeding Edge Armor
Tony Stark’s hidden his armor in some pretty weird places – but his Bleeding Edge Iron Man armor actually stored parts of his armor in his bone marrow! In The Invincible Iron Man #25, Tony developed a new technology that could literally “bleed” out of his body and cover him with his armor. Problems with the tech eventually forced Tony to get his armor out of his bones, but for a while, the power of Iron Man was literally in Stark’s bones! MCU versions of Tony Stark experimented with less-gross versions of this armor by having Stark experiment with a prehensile suit he could call to him with body implants in Iron Man 3, or having him wear a chest housing unit for his nanotech armor in Infinity War, but hiding his armor in his bones had to be one of the strangest things Tony has done (which is saying something).
In the end, Wolverine may be “the best there is at what he does,” but that doesn’t mean his skeleton is the best weapon, or the most powerful. The wide variety of superhumans in the Marvel Universe guarantees new and innovative uses for superpowered body parts… all the way down to the bone.
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