7 Wolverine Fights Where the Wrong Character Won

Wolverine is the best there is at what he does and what he does is extremely entertaining. His stories are known for a lot of things, but the most important has always been the fights. Fights in his books have often been something else; while the various volumes of Wolverine might not get the attention of other heroes’ solo books, it has gotten some of the best creators out there. They’ve been able to give readers the kind of big action they crave from the ol’Canucklehead. Sometimes, these fights are perfect, visual feasts where the right person wins. Other times, though, you read the story and you know that there’s no way the person who won should have.

Logan has had some fantastic battles, but there have been plenty of them where the wrong person won. Sometimes, the hero shouldn’t have been able to beat the villain and others he won and there should have been no way. The wrong character won these seven Wolverine fights and after reading this, you’ll never see these fights in the same way.

7) Wolverine vs. Veranke, Secret Invasion #8

Secret Invasion was the big ’08 Marvel event, paying off several years of New Avengers stories. Spider-Woman was revealed to be the Skrull Empress Veranke and the story ended with her leading the Skrulls in battle against the heroes of the Earth. Wolverine jumped forward – he and Jessica Drew had been friends for years and Veranke had imprisoned her – and somehow she was able to dogwalk him. You know, the guy with decades more combat experience than her who is deadly against anyone without a healing factor at close range. It’s an honestly annoying fight, one that Logan should have easily won.

6) Old Man Logan vs Hulk, Wolverine: Giant-Size Old Man Logan #1

“Old Man Logan” is a harrowing Wolverine story, one that takes him across the US on a job to get the money to save his family from the Hulk Gang. He fails, as they got tired of waiting and kill them anyway, leading Logan on a rip-roaring rampage of revenge against the gang. It all ends with the Hulk and let’s be real: Logan should never have won the fight. Bruce was his superior in every way and could have just pulled him apart like he was a particularly tough chicken. Plus, as far as it goes, Logan almost certainly shouldn’t have been able to regenerate from being eaten. Him popping out of the Hulk is an awesome scene, but it makes zero sense.

5) Wolverine vs Gorgon, Wolverine (Vol. 3) #20

“Enemy of the State” is an awesome Wolverine story, but it begins with a fight that Wolvie should not have lost. Or, at least, not this easily. Logan is tricked into going to Japan and attacked by Gorgon and the Hand. The Japanese mutant sneaks up on him and stabs him in the back, then kills him with overhead strike. We’ve watched the ol’Canucklehead fight entire battles with swords sticking out of his back, so this shouldn’t have laid him as a low. The fact that this fight is somehow only two moves from Gorgon is such a travesty; Logan should have been able to do better in this fight.

4) Wolverine vs. Sabretooth and Viper, Death of Wolverine #2

Death of Wolverine is a mystifying book. It takes one of Marvel’s most important and popular characters and kills him in the most milquetoast way possible (one that would have killed with or without his healing factor, making its loss two years earlier useless). The book rarely lives up to its potential and no place is this more evident than in the second issue, where Logan faces off against Sabretooth and Viper. Wolvie did take Regenix, so he had a short term healing factor, but the fact that this fight was one page and Wolverine won it easily is such a let down. ‘Tooth shouldn’t have killed Wolverine, but he’s steamrolled him in fights so many times, it’s a shame that doesn’t happen here, for old’s time sake alone.

3) Wolverine vs Shiva, Wolverine (Vol. 2) #50

Wolverine (Vol. 2) #48-50 saw the hero trying to find out the secrets of his past, leading him to an abandoned Weapon X facility. He finds all kinds of clues there and a big problem – the killing machine known as Shiva. It was created by Weapon X to destroy any of the subjects if they get out of control and after a hard fought fight, Wolvie wins. However, Weapon X made him who he is. They should know more about his weaknesses than anyone, so the fact that Shiva lost – and his only special weapon was messing with Logan’s memory implants – feels like a huge disappointment. The story would have worked better with Logan faking his death or some such, with Shiva still out there hunting.

2) Wolverine vs Nitro, Wolverine (Vol. 3) #44

Civil War saw Wolverine hunt for Nitro, the human bomb who had destroyed the school at Stamford in the event’s first issue. He finds him in Wolverine (Vol. 3) #44, featuring a fight that has gone down in Wolverine lore. Nitro explodes and burns the flesh, muscle, and organs off Wolvie and he regenerates. Somehow, one of the greatest trackers in comics and a trained ninja can’t sneak up on a Z-list villain and take him down quickly. It’s always been one of those fights that doesn’t really make any sense, and only happened the way it did to move the story forward.

1) Wolverine vs Sabretooth, Wolverine (Vol. 2) #145

Wolverine and Sabretooth have had plenty of knock down, drag out fights and almost every time, the right person won. However, an argument can be made that Logan never should have beat Creed in Wolverine (Vol. 2) #145. The two were fighting to see who would be Apocalypse’s Horseman of Death; ‘Tooth had an adamantium skeleton and Wolverine didn’t, but he was able to win the fight. However, 19 issues before in issue #126, the two fought for the first time since Victor got the adamantium and he wiped the floor with the ol’Canucklehead. This fight should have went the same way, but it existed to put the adamantium back on Logan, so he had to win.

What Wolverine fights do you think should have gone differently? Leave a comment in the comment below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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