The Marvel Universe officially has a newWolverine, complete with lethal claws, animal senses, and an unbeatable healing factor. However, Logan’s successor may actually betoopowerful, and his healing is actually more of a curse than a gift, especially as mutantkind faces a twisted new challenge.
Wolverine has powerful healing, but there are plenty of ways to kill him. The same can’t be said of his new successor.
In a recent press release, Marvel revealed the upcoming seriesThe Last Wolverine. The comic is part oftheAge of Revelationevent, andsees Logan’s former protégé Leonard take his codename and costumein a world ruled by a mutant dictator.
Cover Artist:
Martín Cóccolo and Matt Wilson
WHAT HAPPENED TO WOLVERINE? X YEARS LATER, the people of Vancouver cheer a new hero: the WONDERFUL WOLVERINE, A.K.A. the WENDIGO, Logan’s last student. But what happened to Logan? A secret from Wolverine’s past will set the Last Wolverine on a mission to uphold his mentor’s legacy… unless a dire threat burns it all down first!
This October, Marvel’sX-Menline will showcase theAge of Revelationevent. For the foreseeable future,Marvel’s timeline is jumping ten years ahead, revealing a world where the villainous Revelation has founded a new nation ruled by mutants. However, this paradise is rotten under the surface, uniting new and old heroes in a fight for freedom.
The New Wolverine Is a Wendigo
That Means His Healing Comes from Magic, Not Biology
Starting in 2024,Wolverine volume 8has introduced Leonard - a runaway teenagerinfected with the curse of the Wendigo. In Marvel lore, anyone who eats human flesh within Canada’s borders becomes a Wendigo - a towering monster with a hunger for human flesh. Thankfully, the sixteen-year-old Leonard had Wolverine on his side, andLogan gradually trained him to overcome the bloodlust of his monstrous form, bringing back his human identity.
AsAge of Revelationjumps ahead ten years, an adult Leonard will take on the ‘Wolverine’ codename, asLogan seemingly gives up his heroic identity to become Revelation’s brainwashed chief assassin. However, Leonard isn’t just honoring Logan with this name - he also has a dark take on the hero’s powers.
The Wendigo Curse Is a Living Nightmare You Can’t Escape
The New Wolverine Has None of Logan’s Limits
In Marvel lore,Wendigos are mystically immortal. The Wendigo form is magic laid down by the Elder Gods, and it’s intended to eternally punish those who engage in cannibalism. Wendigos are immune to all disease and aging, and theOfficial Handbook of the Marvel Universestates that they are"virtually impossible to kill.“That’s borne out by past adventures, where Wendigos have survived maximum strength blows from the Hulk and being sliced to pieces by Wolverine’s claws. The only way to truly kill a Wendigo is to first lift the curse - a tall order, given the magical potency of the Elder Gods.
Wolverine has powerful healing, butthere are plenty of ways to kill him. Logan’s healing factor relies on his calorie intake, and is distributed around his body by his blood. Starve Wolverine, bleed him out, or simply overtax him with constant damage, and eventually he’ll fall, not to mention skewering him with the Muramasa Blade or just drowning him.As the new Wolverine, Leonard has none of these vulnerabilities - his healing isn’t biological, it’s magical, and intended to curse him to an eternal life of craving human flesh.
While Leonard reclaimed his human side thanks to Wolverine’s training, he’s still afflicted with the curse, meaning he’s doomed to fight off the monster insideforever. Immune to aging and essentially all forms of injury, the newWolverineis literally unstoppable, dooming him to a life of struggling against his animal side, just like his mentor before him.
