Wolverine, the unkillable mutant, had his Adamantium skeleton ripped out by Magneto in X-Men ’97 Episode 9, “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 2.” Things sure look bad for everyone’s second favorite Canadian (love you, Justin Trudeau!), so did Magneto kill Wolverine? Did Wolverine die?
There’s a sneaky clue I hinted at in the first paragraph where I called Wolverine “unkillable” that you might be able to figure out if you think about it, but let’s explore this idea anyway based on what happens when Magneto rips out Wolverine’s Adamantium skeleton in the comics. Plus, what are bone claws? And what do you need to know about Feral Wolverine?
All those questions answered, and more, in this very article you’re reading — right now!
Did Magneto Kill Wolverine? Did Wolverine Die?
No and no. But let’s do a quick bit of recap first. In the episode, Professor Xavier (Ross Marquand) leads an all-out assault on Magneto’s (Matthew Waterson) Asteroid M base in order to convince his old friend to reverse the magnetic damage he’s done to Earth. In 12 hours, if Magneto doesn’t undo the magnetic pulse he unleashed in Episode 8, “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 1,” everyone on the planet — humans and mutants alike — will die.
During the fight, Magneto’s helmet, which blocks Professor Xavier’s mind powers, gets knocked off… So Xavier takes over Magneto’s mind and starts to reverse the damage. At the same time, Cyclops (Ray Chase) sees that Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale) — who is on another mission — is fighting Mister Sinister (Chris Britton). In order to give her team enough time blasts the Professor with his eye beams.
Realizing Magneto can’t stop, won’t stop, Wolverine stabs him through the back with his claws… Magneto responds by ripping the adamantium skeleton right out of Wolverine’s body, in a moment straight from the X-Men comic book crossover Fatal Attractions.
It certainly seems like Wolverine dies in X-Men ’97 — but in fact you just can’t kill James “Logan” Howlett. It’s literally impossible to do.
Meet Bone Claws And Feral Wolverine
In the Marvel Comics source material, Magneto rips out Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton in exactly the same way, down to the graphics looking parallel on TV and in the books. Rather than turning into a fleshy blob, what actually happened here is that Wolverine’s skeleton is adamantium-laced, not made of metal. Magneto pulled the metal that was put into his bones by the Weapon X program, out.
What’s left is regular ol’ bones, including what is revealed to be bone claws. Those metal claws Wolverine has? Yeah, they were actually part of his body, the whole time.
Logan spends exactly one issue near death before his healing factor — his actual mutant power — compensates for the loss of the metal. After that things were pretty much the same for a short while, other than having a far more breakable body, including the bone claws. However, to be clear, even those eventually grow back.
There’s one more wrinkle, though… The comics introduced the idea that without Wolverine’s healing factor compensating for the metal in his bones, he was able to evolve into his ideal form: Feral Wolverine, essentially a large dog with no nose that lived outside the X-Mansion in the woods. Seriously. The ’90s were wild, man.
Eventually, all this was put right later on when X-Men villain Apocalypse ripped the adamantium out of Sabretooth’s bones and gave it to Wolverine. I have questions about constantly ripping metal out of people’s bones and giving it to other people and how sanitary that is, but I digress.
When Wolverine Dies He Goes To Hell And Fights A Mysterious Demon To Return To Earth
Actually, there’s a second, wild wrinkle that I do not think they will include on the show in any way, but I’m going to mention it here regardless. In the comics, Wolverine encountered so many seeming death or near-death scenarios that Marvel introduced the idea that every time he “dies” he goes to a limbo-esque dimension where he fights a man with a giant sword named Lazaer. If he beats Lazaer in a battle, he gets to return to Earth.
This was introduced in Wolverine #48 by writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Humberto Ramos, and it is so bonkers we all try not to think about it too much. You also should not think about it too much, but now you probably will during the next episode of X-Men ’97. Sorry!
X-Men ’97 Season 1 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
X-Men ’97 doesn’t have a one-a-day schedule like What If…? Season 2, or all-at-once like Echo. Instead, the series is getting a more traditional release schedule of two on premiere day, then one a week thereafter.
The release time is also typical. Versus what has now become a run-of-the-mill primetime “early” release for big movies and TV shows, new episodes of X-Men ’97 will be released on Wednesdays at 3 am ET / Midnight PT.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Marvel’s X-Men ’97 Season 1, and when they premiere:
- Wednesday, March 20, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 1 – “To Me, My X-Men”
- Wednesday, March 20, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 2 – “Mutant Liberation Begins”
- Wednesday, March 27, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 3 – “Fire Made Flesh”
- Wednesday, April 3, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 4 – “Motendo / Lifedeath – Part 1”
- Wednesday, April 10, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 5 – “Remember It”
- Wednesday, April 17, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 6 – “Lifedeath – Part 2″
- Wednesday, April 24, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 7 – “Bright Eyes”
- Wednesday, May 1, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 8 – “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 1”
- Wednesday, May 8, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 9 – “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 2”
- Wednesday, May 15, 2024: X-Men ’97 Season 1, Episode 10 – “Tolerance Is Extinction, Part 3” *Season Finale*
