For most of his forty years in comics, Wolverine has been nearly immortal thanks to his healing factor. Comic fans have seen Wolverine regenerate from barely any skin and tissue left on his bones and beat the angel of death!
But since the beginning of Marvel NOW, Wolverine’s healing factor has been gone and the injuries have been piling up. This weekend at C2E2, Marvel will talk up the “3 Months To Die” storyline in Wolverine. And over at Entertainment Weekly, Marvel has revealed that the storyline will lead into September’s four issue Death of Wolverine miniseries written by Charles Soule with art by Steve McNiven.
“[Wolverine is] reflecting on his own life as he’s reflecting on his own death,” explained Soule. “We wanted to have the reader do that at the same time. In each issue, we’re focusing on a different aspect, or a different quintessential Wolverine.”
Marvel Executive Editor, Mike Marts added that “For a long time, no matter who Wolverine was battling, he’s been the eternal victor. He almost always comes out on top. Now he finally comes up against an adversary that he cannot win against, he cannot fight. What does that mean for this character who’s been around for hundred years?”
Of course, death is easily overcome in the superhero realm. Nightcrawler just came back from the dead in Amazing X-Men, and there have been many, many resurrections. However, Marvel is trying to play Wolverine’s demise as a death “from a standpoint of finality, of closure,” according to Marts. “You’re gonna be entering into a world without Wolverine. That affects not only his teammates, but also the Marvel Universe at large. We’ve got a lot of things in the works already.”
Ordinarily, I’d say that Wolverine will come back to life right before his next movie. But Wolverine is one of Marvel’s cash cows. He’ll be back inside of a year if not sooner.
