5 Wolverine Moments That Might Be Too Dark For The MCU
Comics Marvel
It's already known that "Deadpool & Wolverine" is set to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first R-rated entry, but as fun and bloody as the titular team-up might be, there are events from Wolverine's long history in Marvel Comics that we doubt will ever make it to the big screen. He's known for being the best at what he does, but what he does isn't very nice, occasionally verging on flat-out bleak. That's what comes with the life of Logan, though. The Canadian cutlery set with an invulnerable five-o'clock shadow has gone to some dark places in the past, and they'd certainly turn the MCU a dark and bloody shade of red if Kevin Feige ever gave them the go ahead.
When the X-Men or the Avengers don't have the mettle to tackle a task, Logan has, on a number of occasions, stepped forward to put his to the test. The challenges he's faced haven't just taken a toll on him physically (given that he can just recover). There have been all manner of horrors that left a mark on our poor hero's mind, leaving him with an unimaginable amount of years to reflect on. From assassinating children to never having a good birthday because of one old rival, Wolverine really has faced some dark times, and these are some that we doubt will never see light after the Marvel Studios logo.
Wolverine's decapitated head being examined by Nick Fury
The Ultimate Universe's Logan has a similar encounter with the Hulk that the original had in 1974, when Wolverine's yellow suit first appeared in Marvel Comics. However, this version is a lot messier; in "Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk," the rage monster rips Logan in half and throws his torso over a mountain, forcing him to crawl back and recover his legs. Eventually, he wakes up and finds himself under the confines of General Nick Fury, and has been cut down to only his fully conscious and rather grumpy decapitated head.
It might be something more akin to an issue Wade Wilson would encounter, but it's the conversation and detail of the experiments that Logan has been unknowingly privy to that are the most disturbing. Fury goes into great detail about Wolverine's nightmarish autopsy, first by moving his lungs seven floors above where his head is after dumping his nogging in a depressurized room with no oxygen at all. Even if "Deadpool & Wolverine" is able to make gross-out jokes in the MCU, there's something about this body horror happening that could be just a little too much for the franchise ... even if we'd love to see Samuel L. Jackson chatting with Hugh Jackman's severed head.
Wolverine killing a child
When someone needs to be taken out with lethal efficiency, no matter the age, that's when Logan steps in. One such occasion is in the Ultimate Universe, in the pages of "Ultimate X-Men" #41, when Wolverine is tasked with checking in on a young mutant boy who wakes to a living nightmare. Found alone hiding in a cave, this teen has the ability to vaporize anyone within range, leading him to kill over 265 people. It's a lot to process as an innocent kid, but the fact of the matter is that Wolverine won't give him enough time to do so, or even reach adulthood for that matter.
In this brutal one-on-one, Logan explains that the teen isn't leaving the cave, because if he does and his power is revealed, the effort to sell the idea to humanity that mutants aren't a threat will all be for nothing. It's a grim encounter with the former Weapon X that consists of a teenager wondering about the life he could've lived and accepting the stranger that's going to take it. "Like one chromosome or whatever to the left and I woulda been one of the X-Men." "Maybe," Logan responds, before leaving the cave alone and a secret left in the dark behind him.
Wolverine's birthday being ruined by Sabertooth
Standing as one of Logan's longest rivals and most monstrous enemies is Victor Creed, aka Sabretooth, who gets his kicks out of the horrible stuff he does to our metallic one-man army. Chief among Sabretooth's grisly activities is his annual tracking down of Wolverine that happens on a day Logan would rather forget — his birthday. This torturous tradition began in 1989's "Wolverine" #10, when he rapes and kills Logan's love, Silver Fox. Her murder is also used as a plot point in one of the worst superhero movies ever made, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," and while it might have been tamed down for the big screen adaptation, there were other occasions that would be far too grim for the MCU.
Another birthday encounter between the two ends in family tragedy when Wolverine discovers his recently reacquainted son, Akhiro aka Daken, cut to pieces and carefully organised in piles for a "Happy Birthday" message. Ultimately, Wolverine goes to war with Creed in the massive Marvel event, "Sabretooth War," leading to even more bloodshed. Admittedly, after the likes of "Logan," a story like Wolverine and Sabretooth's long and bloody rivalry would make for a great watch if handled better than before, but chopping up Wolverine's son and turning him into a birthday card might be a little too much.
Wolverine getting steam-rolled by The Punisher
It's well established in multiple mediums that Wolverine can take a licking and keep on ticking (but potentially even angrier than he was before). However, there is one particular occasion that leads to Logan being parked on the bench for some time after a run-in with no-nonsense vigilante the Punisher. In "Punisher" #17, as part of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's brutal run with Frank Castle, the former military man turned criminal killer takes on the Wolverine and lives to tell the tale, but only after literally rolling over the X-Man in gruesome fashion.
After blowing off Logan's face with a shotgun to result in a "Terminator" like-appearance of our hero, Frank ensures that he puts his opponent down for as long as possible by running him over with a steamroller. This is also after he aims the shotgun a little further south of Wolverine's face to slow the mutant down even more.
Even though Jon Bernthal is set to make an enthusiastic return as his R-rated iteration of The Punisher on "Daredevil: Born Again," we somehow doubt that he'd be permitted to do this to Logan in the MCU. Perhaps in that universe, two of the toughest superheroes around actually end up on the same side, rather than have one turn the other into an adamantium-flavored pancake.
Logan killing his own children in a brutal twist
In a point in Wolverine history that reads like a bleak horror twist from a Ben Wheatley movie, Logan from Earth-616 is hunted down by a group trained by the Red Right Hand known as the Mongrels. This masked team of mercenaries are set upon our hero with a goal to cause as much misery to Wolvie as possible, even torturing those closest to him. However, they're no match for our hero, who dispatches most of them and leaves the others to resort to suicide rather than continue the battle.
Job well done, right? Well, this is Wolverine, folks. He's one of the unluckiest heroes in history and unfortunately, to his absolute horror, the Red Right Hand reveals a brutal truth — the Mongrels were comprised of Logan's own illegitimate children. Forgotten offspring of his former flames, they grew up to fight their father only to die at his hands. It's one of the most unsettling twists in Wolverine's long, long life story, and one that we doubt would make it into the MCU. Between jokes about Wong watching "The Sopranos" and Shang-Chi doing karaoke, there's something about Wolverine killing his own offspring that no post-credit scene could alleviate.