Highlights
- Wolverine has killed various rivals and allies in Marvel Comics, including Lady Deathstrike, Moira MacTaggert, Jean Grey, Mariko Yashida, Daken, Sabretooth, The Hulks, Omega Red, and Deadpool.
- Some of these characters’ deaths were due to Wolverine’s adamantium claws or other unique abilities, while others were a result of specific plot devices, such as the Muramasa Blade.
- Wolverine has also killed characters like Daken and Sabretooth after years of conflict and violence, while other deaths, like Jean Grey and Mariko Yashida, were a result of Wolverine fulfilling their dying wishes.
Wolverine is one of the most beloved antiheroes in the Marvel Universe, and he is not afraid to get his hands (and claws) bloody. Over the years, this complex superhero has encountered a multitude of powerful rivals and has had no other choice but to permanently do away with them.
Serving as a member of the X-Men, Avengers, and The Fantastic Four in Marvel Comics, he usually combats his enemies, though he sometimes has also gone head-to-head with allies in a battle of wits. The following are the the characters who have faced the wrath of Wolverine’s claws, and did not live to tell the tale.
10 Lady Deathstrike
X2 (2003)
Professor Kenji Oyama, a Japanese scientist, is credited for having created the adamantium bonding method that Weapon X used to coat Logan’s bones. His daughter, Yuriko, was named Lady Deathstrike, and her death was depicted in X2. She was a brainwashed mutant working for William Stryker and had the same restorative powers and adamantium claws as Wolverine.
Her death was ironic – she died when Wolverine decided to give her more adamantium than she could handle. He injected her with a fluid version, filled her up to the eyeballs, and killed her painfully, thus defeating her in the most gruesome way.
9 Moira MacTaggert
House Of X And Powers Of X
As a mutant herself, Moira joined Apocalypse in building an army of mutants who would go against the humans; humanity fought back with Sentinels led by the Super-Sentinel Nimrod. When the last few mutants were on a suicide mission to take down Nimrod, Apocalypse sent Logan away from the battle.
Finding Moira in a balanced pod, Wolverine uses a device designed by Apocalypse to upload the information on Nimrod’s origins into her mind so that they have a fair chance of stopping this future from coming to pass. Then completing the plan, she spent one of her allotted lifespans; Wolverine killed her so that she could carry her knowledge into the past and thus protect the mutant race.
8 Jean Grey
X-Men: Phoenix-Endsong & X-Men: The Last Stand
In X-Men: Phoenix-Endsong, the Shi’ar makes the decision to terminate the Phoenix Force, which, in order to survive, flees to Earth to bond once again with Jean Grey. To save the world, Jean asks Logan to kill her.
Wolverine first killed her in another storyline, to save her from the pain of burning alive while she was in an asteroid flying into the sun. Here, he kills her almost 6 times. With each death, the Phoenix kept on reviving her, but she got weaker each time until she completely faded away. Logan also kills Jean at the conclusion of the movie X-Men: The Last Stand, although this moment is far more anti-climactic, especially with James Marsden’s Cyclops having already been killed off earlier.
7 Mariko Yashida
Wolverine – Marvel Comics
Mariko Yashida’s death was a devastating event for Wolverine. For the first time in his life, he had found peace, all thanks to his bride, Mariko. An assassin, Reiko, was the one who caused her death – he used toxins from a blowfish to poison and kill her, as ordered by Matsu’o Tsurayaba.
To prevent her from suffering through a long, agonizing death, Mariko pleaded with Logan to kill her, and he honored her dying request. After that, his demeanor turned evil and bitter – every year, on his wife’s anniversary of death, he would cut off parts of Tsurayaba’s body as pennance for Mariko’s death.
6 Daken
Wolverine: Origins
Wolverine had no idea that he had a son named Daken, who grew up to hate him. Born in 1946, his mother was killed, and the baby was cut out of her womb; he was then raised by a wealthy Japanese family.
However, his new family did not care much about him, and he eventually murdered his adoptive baby brother. He then went on to become a version of Wolverine when he went in search of his father. After years of violence and conflicts, the father battled his son to death – Wolverine apologized for not being there for him, and then drowned him.
5 Sabretooth
Wolverine: Vol.3 #55
Sabretooth made it a tradition to show up each year on Wolverine’s birthday and attack his longtime enemy. This, of course, was just for sadistic pleasure, as they both always stopped short of killing each other.
Bigger, very powerful, and much more primal than Wolverine, Sabretooth regularly hunted Logan down, only to remind him that he could never really win a fight against him. However, this changed entirely because of the Muramasa Blade. Using it, Wolverine chopped off Sabretooth’s head, finally killing his long-time tormentor.
4 The Hulks
Old Man Logan
This event occurs in an alternate dystopian world where Wolverine kills The Hulk in the most unexpected way. It happens in the Old Man Logan series, where Bruce Banner happens to be insane and unhinged. The majority of the United States was being run by supervillains, and The Hulk moved to the West Coast and began his own family with his cousin, She-Hulk.
The Hulk gang (Banner’s grandkids) were a wild bunch who went around murdering people with absolutely no repercussions. However, trouble found them when they killed Wolverine’s family. In retribution, Logan killed The Hulks and then fought Bruce Banner, who killed and ate Logan. The mutant regenerated inside of The Hulk and ripped his way out, killing Banner in the end.
3 Omega Red
X-Men: Vol.2 #4
Omega Red, also known as Arkady Rossovich, was a Russian serial killer who later became a mutant. He shared multiple things in common with Wolverine, one of them being that his armor was made of carbonadium, the Soviet version of adamantium. With time, he was known to be one of Logan’s greatest rivals.
Additionally, he had the ability to secrete Death Spores and could absorb life from those he touched, which in turn helped him sustain himself. Omega Red and Wolverine’s battles somehow always came to a standstill, but the latter finally did away with his opponent using the help of the Muramasa Blade, which invalidated Omega Red’s healing powers.
2 Deadpool
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Wolverine killed a version of one of the most well-known characters in Marvel comics, in Deadpool’s first on-screen appearance. What makes it so impressive is that, as much as Marvel fans love Deadpool, this version of him was altogether different – in hindsight it was a mercy killing, because nearly everyone disliked this take on the character.
Deadpool’s death occurred in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and this Deadpool is not the Merc with a Mouth, but rather Weapon XI, as named in the movie. Wolverine and Sabretooth fight him and kill him by chopping off his head.
1 All Of The X-Men
Old Man Logan
This is another storyline from the Old Man Logan series, and it starts off with a cataclysmic tragedy, one that forces Wolverine to withdraw his claws and stay in seclusion for years. As a member of the X-Men, Logan always went out of his way to ensure that the students of Xavier’s school were protected, and was even willing to sacrifice his life more than once to help them survive.
Coming back to the beginning of Old Man Logan, a bunch of unknown villains attack the X-Men, and Wolverine fights them without a thought. He defeats every one of them, only to later become aware that Mysterio had cast an illusion, causing Wolverine to slaughter all of the X-Men by accident.
Leave a Reply