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In the 1990s X-Men animated series, there is a two-part story called "Savage Land, Strange Heart." In this land, Sauron has a dampening field that nullifies mutant powers for those who don't have a special device. 

When the team of X-Men arrives, their enemies say it is pointless to fight because they don't have their powers. Wolverine pulls out his adamantium claws and says, "There's nothing mutant about these." 

Since Wolverine retained the artificially implanted adamanium, shouldn't he have died in the Savage Land? He didn't have his healing factor, so how did his body extract the blood from his encased bone marrow?

Even if he didn't immediately die, he should have been poisoned by heavy metal toxicity. Also, without the superhuman strength granted by his mutant powers, he should have been unable to move, or at least severely encumbered, due to the sheer weight of the adamantium.

galacticninja
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Jack B Nimble
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  • Related: Why Doesn't the Adamantium Bone Covering Kill Wolverine? – gnovice Feb 28 '12 at 22:28
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    Good question, but I'd focus on a different aspect; as the related question Gnovice mentions addresses, the blood/bone issue may not have been a problem, as the bones aren't covered, but rather laced with adamantium (except for the claws).. HOWEVER, the adamantium was still very toxic. Minus the healing factor, it should have quickly poisoned him. – K-H-W Feb 28 '12 at 22:42
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    For heavy metal toxicity to occur the metal in question needs to accumulate in the soft tissue of the body. Since the adamantium doesn't go anywhere there is no danger. – Legion600 Feb 28 '12 at 23:59
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    @Legion600 - Reasonable; the original stories said that it was toxic and constantly dealing with it kept his healing factor from being as powerful as it could be.. but on checking, I find that this was later ret-conned, so that it instead treated it as a foreign material and was just trying to expel it. (I'd assume that minus his powers, his body ignored it like any internal and non-reactive implant.) Meh. I can never keep up with the current status of these explanations :) +1, anyway. – K-H-W Mar 05 '12 at 02:07

2 Answers2

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The substance surrounding Wolverines bones is not True Adamantium (TM).

According to the Marvel Wiki Wolverine's mutant healing factor induced a molecular change in the adamantium causing it to become Adamantium Beta. This new metal acts like True Adamantium but doesn't inhibit the biological process of bones.

Even though his bones are encased in metal they still function properly.

Wolverine has no super strength according to his Marvel bio. He does however have a limited immunity to the body's fatigue poisons. This would have caused him to tire more easily when his power was shut down but given that even without the healing factor he is in prime athletic shape it wouldn't have been overly noticeable.

Legion600
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Wolverine's strength is high because his healing factor increased his natural muscle mass and capabilities to deal with the weight of the metal he carries. If he lost his powers he would still be just as strong and fast as it wouldn't affect the permanent healing caused by his body having regenerated to a point where it could move so easily and effectively with over 300lbs of Adamantium in him.

However, he would have likely eventually died from the Adamantium, depending on which writer was in charge of how it affected him.

Sandriff
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    Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – fez Jan 27 '23 at 18:16