Marvel Teases Wolverine's Adamantium Armor Suit

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Wolverine #47.] Adamantium, the near-indestructible steel alloy that coats Wolverine's skeleton and claws, makes the X-Man the best there is at what he does. But it's his mutant healing factor and regenerative powers that have helped Wolverine survive his decades-long feud with his arch-nemesis Victor Creed, a.k.a. Sabretooth — until the blood-spilling Sabretooth War. After slaughtering Wolverine's family and friends with his army of alternate-reality Sabreteeth, Creed used Quentin Qire's severed head as a psychic tool to trick his old friend-turned-foe into infiltrating Forge's secret underwater lab beneath Orchis-controlled Krakoa.

It was there that Creed ripped Toad to shreds and had Wolverine kill the mutant Melter of the Exiles. Creed then shot Wolverine using a weapon stolen from the lab: Forge's depowering gun that once stripped Storm of her mutant powers. Wolverine #46 ended with a depowered Wolverine at the mercy of Sabretooth... without his healing factor.

This week's Wolverine #47, from writers Benjamin Percy and Victor LaValle and artist Geoff Shaw, began with a SNIKT as Wolverine unsheathed his adamantium metal claws to fight Sabretooth — possibly for the last time. But Creed had yet another secret weapon: Orchis technology that turned the disembodied Quentin Qire into a psionic gun capable of causing brain death with a single shot.

"Putting you down like this is not what I had in mind," Creed told Wolverine, who survived the blast because Quentin resisted Creed's control. "I wanted you kicking and screaming. I wanted you raw and rough." But it's Creed who went kicking and screaming as the Exile Nekra, empowered by her hatred, avenged Toad and Melter with the seed that Doug "Cypher" Ramsey entrusted her with back in Sabretooth #5. ("That seed won't kill him," Doug told her. "He'll wish that's all it did.") And then the seed swallowed Creed into the pit he once escaped.

But with one Creed defeated temporarily, another returned: Sabretooth's son, Graydon Creed, who was exiled to another dimension after slaying Sabreteeth across the multiverse. The cyborg then told Camo Sabretooth (of Earth-33441) and Savage Sabretooth (of Earth-1912) that he had to "become someone new, something new to survive," and that he no longer recognized the name Graydon Creed. "I'm the child of Sabretooth and Mystique," he said. "What else could I turn out to be? I'm the Bad Seed."

Meanwhile, Nekra, Oya, and Third Eye extracted Wolverine from Krakoa while Wolverine's daughter, Laura Kinney, hacked and slashed her way through Orchis Station Five, the Sabreteeth space station. Once safely aboard Ship, Wolverine told Oya that there's more Sabreteeth that need to be stopped. Now without his powers, Wolverine replied: "I'm gonna need a new suit. And a weapon."

Marvel has been teasing that Wolverine will don the Adamantium Armor created by Forge in Wolverine #49. The issue, which hits stands May 8, is the penultimate chapter of Sabretooth War. On May 22, the 10-part epic will end with a final showdown between Sabretooth and the powerless Wolverine in the volume-ending Wolverine #50, an extra-sized issue celebrating 50 years of Wolverine.

ARMOR UP FOR THE PENULTIMATE PART OF SABRETOOTH WAR! WOLVERINE is powerless – but not defenseless. FORGE made LOGAN one last invention, and with the lives of the X-MEN and all mutants on the line, it's time to unleash the ultimate weapon! COLLECTORS' NOTE: Featuring the full debut of the Adamantium Armor!

WOLVERINE #49
Written by: Victor Lavalle and Benjamin Percy
Art by: Geoffrey Shaw
Cover by: Leinel Francis Yu
On Sale: 5/08