Wolverine’s Claws Were EATEN By Carnage (Yes, Really)

The heroes of the Marvel Comics Universe are renowned for their incredible powers and abilities. Whether it’s Spider-Man’s spider-sense, or Captain America’s enhanced strength, or even the Incredible Hulk’s immense strength and power, most of these heroes enjoy enhancements that truly make them incredible. Sometimes, though, those amazing abilities fall to the wayside when an equally amazing villain acts unpredictably, surprising everyone involved.  One such move occurred during a fight with two unlikely foes, to the surprise of both, when the psychopathic symbiote Carnage went head-to-head with the berserker mutant, Wolverine, of the X-Men.

It all goes down in the pages of the mini-series X-Men/Spider-Man #3 back some years ago. In prior installments to this miniseries, we’ve learned the X-Men and Spider-Man had teamed up some years prior in order to take on the Blob, and Kraven the Hunter. The villainous team-up was in actuality a ploy by the evil Mister Sinister to steal some of the X-Men’s DNA in order to grow clones to serve his nefarious means; the X-Men confronted the villain, and managed to destroy his New Jersey-based underground lab. Although Sinister escaped the fray, the X-Men had discovered that he had instead planned on freeing the psychotic Carnage out of Ravencroft Institute, and, using a small portion of the Carnage symbiote, instead clone a deadly army of Carnage symbiotes.

While the X-Men try to recruit Spider-Man–not Peter Parker, the Spider-Man with whom they’d fought the Blob and Kraven, but clone Ben Reilly — Mister Sinister has broken into Ravencroft, and, using his mind control abilities, locked the entire staff in the building’s cafeteria. While Wolverine concludes Reilly is no different–biologically speaking–from Parker, there still remains a trust issue: Reilly has no memory of Parker’s past exploits with the X-Men, and must be brought up to speed as to what might be Sinister’s plans. Parker, at this point in time, has lost his spider-powers; and he is not the only hero lacking powers, as Wolverine has had the adamantium stripped from his skeleton. This being a plot in which clones are involved, Reilly feels a personal justification in wanting to stop Sinister, as well as keeping the insanely violent Carnage locked away.

Offering the symbiote villain freedom in exchange for a sample of himself, Sinister breaks Carnage out of his holding cell. Suddenly, the teamed up superheroes arrive, ready to do battle. Mister Sinister, up until this point all too content with running away from a fight, instead stays to indulge the team in battle. While Spider-Man, Iceman, Archangel, Storm, and Cyclops take on Sinister, Wolverine takes the battle to Carnage. After a fierce back-and-forth between the mutant and symbiote, Wolverine goes in for a stab–barely missing the villain–and Carnage counters by chomping down on Wolverine’s bone claws, biting them cleanly in half. It’s a move so surprising, both characters seem caught off guard that it even worked.

Eventually, Wolverine’s bone claws quickly grow back (gotta love that enhanced healing factor!), and while Mister Sinister manages to escape to continue his cloning experiments, Carnage is encased in ice by Iceman. As far as unique attacks go, again, it is one of the less expected, and completely catches the mutant off guard, even though its effect is temporary. Carnage, and Venom, are nothing if not known for their unpredictability and viciousness, and while Carnage himself is prone to eating his opponents and victims, seeing such a move in action against such a well-known mutant hero as Wolverine is still pretty unnerving. Whereas there are still pretty vicious Spider-Man, and X-Men, villains, this just goes to show that when push comes to shove, Carnage and Wolverine have plenty of surprises for each other.

Next: Wolverine Stole Magneto’s Helmet (Using His SECRET Weakness)