Editor's Desk 
Saladin Ahmed would dial back Wolverine’s healing factor: ‘I’d probably reset him’
Wolverine has survived some truly absurd injuries over the decades, but if current Wolverine writer Saladin Ahmed had complete control over Logan’s healing factor, he’d make those wounds matter a whole lot more.
Speaking on the AIPT Comics podcast about his ongoing Wolverine run, Ahmed discussed the challenge of creating genuine danger for a character whose healing factor has grown increasingly powerful over the years. His solution has often been to attack Logan emotionally, but Ahmed admitted he’d happily dial back Wolverine’s regenerative abilities if given the opportunity.
“If I had total control, I’d probably reset him to, like, a guy that needed a weekend to recover from a sword,” Ahmed said. “That kind of stuff.”
That would be quite the change for the modern Wolverine, whose healing factor has allowed him to recover from increasingly catastrophic damage. For Ahmed, that power creep can make the physical stakes harder to sell, forcing him to find other ways to make Logan hurt.
“To me it’s always about hurting him emotionally, breaking not just physically,” Ahmed explained.
That approach has been particularly important as Ahmed has stripped away another seemingly permanent part of Wolverine. Logan recently had one set of his adamantium claws shattered, a development that grew out of the Adamantine storyline Ahmed began establishing all the way back in Wolverine #1.
Wolverine #21.
Credit: Marvel
Ahmed sees that loss as more than a way to make Wolverine’s next fight harder.
“I think because he can grow back an arm in a few hours or whatever the hell, that’s not canon, guys, I think I need to show what does hurt him, usually on the inside,” Ahmed said. “That’s what I’ll always do with tough-guy characters.”
Ahmed previously discussed the emotional ramifications of Logan losing his claws with AIPT’s X-Men Monday, questioning whether the adamantium forcibly bonded to Wolverine should truly be considered part of him.
His current run has also returned to one of the darkest parts of Logan’s past through Mastermind and Wolverine’s mother. For Ahmed, revisiting that trauma offered another opportunity to find the wounds Logan cannot simply regenerate from.
Wolverine may still be one of Marvel’s hardest characters to physically kill, but Ahmed seems far more interested in figuring out what can actually hurt him.
Listen to the full chat wherever you get your podcasts, or stream it below!
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