Wolverine has created quite a reputation for himself over the years. He has become one of the most formidable heroes in the Marvel Universe, even if he doesn’t exactly look it. Logan is all of 5’3″, with his adamantium skeleton making him much heavier than he otherwise would be (it used to balloon his weight up to 285lbs; when it was gone, his weight in various supplemental material was established as 185lbs). He was short, hairy, and unloved, an ugly soda machine of a man with foot-long blades blossoming from his claws like the world’s most evil flowers petals. He’s not much to look at, but the heroes and villains of Earth-616 knows just how dangerous he is.
The ol’Canucklehead likes to repeat something, telling everyone who’ll listen that he’s the best there is at what he does and what he does is anything but pretty. He’s proved this thousands of times over the years, getting into some of the most brutal fights you can imagine. He doesn’t look like much, but Canada’s most feral man has defeated some of the most powerful Marvel characters out there. Wolverine proved that he was the best by defeating these five Marvel powerhouses, including one X-villain no one ever would have expected.
The Wendigo is a piece of Native American/First Peoples lore from the Algonquian-speaking tribes. The Wendigo was a curse put on anyone who ate human flesh, transforming them into a ravening beast that would haunt the woods. The Incredible Hulk #162 would see the first Wendigo appear in the Marvel Universe, with Logan’s first appearance seeing him battle a Wendigo and the Hulk at the behest of the Canadian government in issue #180-181. The Wendigo’s curse on Earth-616 makes cannibals in the Canadian wilderness into a Hulk-level beast, a massive mountain of monstrous muscle with nothing human holding it back. It’s one of the most terrifying forces in the Marvel Universe and Wolverine defeats them all the time.
Logan is able to use the Wendigo’s animalistic fury against it, out-thinking the feral monsters whenever they show up. He’s since become the first person that anyone calls when one shows up; sure, Alpha Flight actually gets the first call but they just fly to wherever Logan is to pick him up to deal with the actual Wendigo. His adamantium claws are sharp enough to cut through its invulnerable skin and his own ferocity has proven to be more than a match for the power of the curse.
Sometimes, I think the fact that Omega Red as a Wolverine villain means that a lot of people forget just how powerful he really is. Arkady Rossovich is a Russian mutant who was born with a “death factor”. His body produced an aura that gave anyone who walked into several debilitating diseases. The suffering of others made him stronger and he had a healing factor and superhuman physical attributes. The Soviets made him into a super soldier, implanting carbonadium tentacles into his arms to give him a built-in weapon. He ended up battling Logan and Team X, defeated and placed in hibernation, before being brought back by Matsuo Tsurayaba and battling the X-Men.
Wolverine’s healing factor meant that the death factor didn’t affect him, but the rest of the X-Men weren’t so lucky. Omega Red was able to trounce the Blue Team and would be able to do the same to just about any hero out there without a healing factor. He’s way more formidable than he gets credit for being and the fact that Wolverine can beat him shows just how tough he really is. Most of Marvel’s street-level would fall to Red flawlessly, so Logan being able to beat him says a lot about the ol’Canucklehead.
I know the title to this list says “Marvel villains” and the Hulk isn’t a Marvel villain. However, I’ve always been of the opinion that the Hulk isn’t actually a superhero. He’s a person cursed with great power that just wants to be left alone. He does fight monsters and bad guys, but if it was up to him, he wouldn’t be using his gamma powers to save the Earth; he wouldn’t be using them at all. Hulk has battled all of the major Marvel superheroes, with him and Wolverine having an especially fierce rivalry. The two of them have fought so many times that they just don’t really like each other and are constantly looking for another reason to restart their fight.
Wolverine and the Hulk have fought a lot, and the Jade Giant has one hundred percent won most of those fights. However, Wolvie has been able to challenge him in every single one of their fights and has even been able to defeat the Hulk many times. The Hulk is the strongest one there is, so the fact that Logan can beat him in a fight proves that he really is the best at what he does.
So, even I’ll admit that you can argue whether the next two count for a variety of reasons, but I’m still including them both. We’ll start with Magneto. Mags is the X-Men’s first arch-foe, the Holocaust survivor believing that mutants could never trust humanity and that they needed to enslave humans before they were destroyed. He battled the team many times over the years, with Wolverine often on the front lines of those fights. Now, Magneto’s powers means that Logan being out in front of their fights is one of the dumbest things that you can imagine, but the ol’Canucklehead has always been someone willing to get hurt to help his friends.
Wolverine and Magneto’s fights have often gone badly for the hero, with X-Men (Vol. 2) #25 underlining just how dangerous it was for the hero, when Mags tore out Wolvie’s adamantium. However, there have been plenty of times over the years when the clawed mutant played a key role in defeating the mutant master of magnetism. Wolverine has been able to defeat Magneto – there have even been some alternate timelines where he killed the mutant villain – despite having a massive handicap.
Apocalypse quickly grew into a legendary X-Men villain, vaulting to the top of the X-Men’s villain roster. He’s one of the most powerful mutants of them all; his Omega-level powers include complete control over his molecular structure, mental powers, energy manipulation, super-strength, invulnerability, and numerous others, all enhanced by Celestial technology. He’s a bad guy that takes the entire team to fight and Wolverine is usually just one of the grunts. His claws can cut through Apocalypse’s armor and flesh, but he’s like a mosquito attacking a tank. However, technically, Logan has a win over the Egyptian mutant.
In Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure, Logan ended up finding one of the villain’s plans in the Savage Land, eventually battling the big A himself. He was able to win and save a tribe of Savage Land cavemen, but it would be revealed that he never actually defeated Apocalypse. Instead, he battled a robot created by the villain to carry on the experiment while he was doing other stuff. So, Wolverine does have a victory over Apocalypse, or at least a very convincing Apocalypse-alike.
What other powerful villains has Wolverine beat? Sound off in the comment section below.
