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Theoretically speaking

Hmm...well, his healing factor couldn't protect him from saturated lungs, so I guess it's possible.

Can he starve to death?

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I don't think so.

I don't disagree with the move Rob, but shouldn't this be under ASK THE EXPERTS?

As for drowning, Wolverine can probably remain without oxygen much longer than your average human. Plus imagine how hard it would be to hold him under the water that long!

And as a follow up to my starving question, I remember in one episode of HIGHLANDER (or was it one of the later craptastic movies?) that an immortal was stranded on desert island, and he would repeatedly starve to death, only to wake up and starve to death again. The problem is I can't imagine it would be that hard for Wolverine to find food. His hands are freakin' fishing spears!

he was in that postition before and just ate his own flesh for a while

The healing factor could probably fix him up after he's been rescued after drowning. He could probably be deadlined longer before being resuscitated without getting brain-damage unlike the rest of us. But if he was in there for a long-while, he's probably toast. You can't heal if the water never goes away, and his blood and brain need oxygen like the rest of us.

-Nate-

This was actually brought up in the last issue of Ultimate Wolverine versus Hulk. I know this is the Ultimate Universe so it is a little different, but Nick Fury tried to drown him and they couldn't because his healing factor adjusted so he could filter oxygen through his skin. They then cut his head off and seperated it from his body. After a couple of days Fury was having full conversations with this head.

Just some recent writing to chew on.

That seems a little ridiculous... I understand he has a healing factor and all but having his head cut off should seal the deal. Being held under water for a long period of time might kill him, but then he would revive only to die again.. its a never-ending cycle!

Seems that the Ultimate Wolverine is more like Darwin with his powers, that is what they opened up here. Darwin can "survive" no matter what, and that is how it would work.

Treating this as if it was a real thing, the "eating his own flesh and healing" was done in comics (while he was trapped under a boulder for a long period of time), but the science doesn't work on that unless he can actually "produce" energy. Constant regrowth would require lots of energy, and sustaining it on himself doesn't work alone. So assuming he can "produce" energy (which is a might big leap, but just playing with what I was dealt by past writers), then theoretically he could turn water into Oxygen and Hydrogen, and sustain. If you think of his healing factor as a "Mr. Fixit", then it would do what it needs to survive.

But this is all a very large stretch. By default, treating it just as a healing factor, then you would think he would die, and not revive until oxygen was found. it has been shown that he can revive himself, so that part isn't a problem.

Fury actually stated that it seems Ultimate Wolverine's powers are more geared towards survival than healing and maybe they had it wrong

This thread is taking on a weird Jeffrey Dahmer-like quality.

I second this

i think from what i have read that his healing factor would adjust to being drowned/held under water. as for the head removal that should do it imo.

Keep in mind that we've seen Logan burnt all the way down to bare skeleton and come back perfectly fine, multiple times. And this ain't the ultimates. I remember this as recently as civil war. If his lungs could be completely chared out of existance and he's still a live, I'm sure a little moisture wouldn't hold the badass down.

I understand Wolverine's healing factor to be about 10X better than, say, Spider-Man's, but about 20-30% of what Deadpool's is. Obviously these stories use a kind of made-up science that can change to fit a particular story, but I would assume that Wolverine should be able to drown. He isn't immortal, he isn't invulnerable, he can be hurt like any person, he just heals, but he WON'T heal if he isn't given the opportunity. I would assume that means he needs rest and sustenance, obviously much less than most of us to heal, but if he were to be mortally injured (like beheaded, or drowned), then he would be dead, and so would his healing factor. Also, I thought that regrowing limbs would be more than his healing factor could manage, and it would just heal over as a stub instead (this wouldn't be a factor in a continuity when he had an adamantium skeleton).

I don't know, though, I'm not a Wolverine expert, that's just what I think based on what I have read.

I really have a hard time believing he could just eat himself and heal himself. I mean, it has to come from somewhere. It would be inefficient to eat himself, because his body probably has to work pretty hard to heal that quickly, he's probably got a pretty high-protein high-calorie diet, so using something that took a lot of energy to make to make more energy, he'd be at a deficit and it would eventually kill him.

But let's say he DID die, and he was buried, and then like 3 months later his healing factor had been slowly at work the whole time, and then he came back to life in his coffin!! Wouldn't that be awesome?!?!

This one made me dig out some old comics and in issue Wolverine vol 2 issue 20 Wolverine fights Tiger Shark under water. During the course of this fight Tiger Shark rams Wolverine claw first into a chunk of coral shelf basically "trapping" him. Wolverine basically makes it seem that his healing factor can not counter drowning, maybe only prolong as he puts it "the suffering". It seemed for a long time after that issue that drowning or taking away his oxygen supply was the only true way to kill him. Then again things are always changing.

Currently, the only way to kill Wolverine is to decapitate him with a specific sword (as seen in Wolverine Origins series). This sword was made from the hate he felt after the death of Daken's mother, and is the only thing that can kill the healers of the Marvel Universe (he killed Sabretooth with it, it can kill Wolvie and Daken, etc.)

I'm not sure where the info that Deadpool has a better healing factor is from. Not saying it is untrue, but my understanding was that Wolverine had the best healing factor around, and that Deadpool's was a knock off engineered by Weapon X.

I think we analyse fictional characters WAY TOO MUCH.



.. I'm off to snuggle with my real life (and very naked) wife. I couldn't give a rat's azz if Wolverine drowns or not right now.

Hey, its this type of analysis that defines us as comic nerds. I might add, that by you having a girl, you are almost banned from the club!

But seriously... I think Wolverine would drown and probably theoretically "die" (as he does with fatal bullet wounds), but he probably goes into some sort of suspended animation until he resurfaces and his body can gain access to oxygen again.

Just like with a fatal wound, his body is dead until it heals itself and resuscitates him