Throughout his incredibly long life, Wolverine has endured a wide array of traumatic moments that would come to define the character during his publication history. Whether surviving the experiments of the Weapons Plus program or losing his family at a young age, Wolverine has had a harder time than most heroes at Marvel. Perhaps the most traumatizing event Wolverine experienced was when Magneto brutally ripped the adamantium coating from his skeleton, which would transform him into something more beastly following this.
During the 90’s event Fatal Attractions, the X-Men were forced to assault Magneto’s new asteroid base, Avalon when he attacked the earth with a large electromagnetic pulse. Afterward, it was estimated that thousands of lives were lost due to the damage caused by the pulse, which also temporarily disabled all electronics on Earth. Because of this, Professor X acted hastily, creating an attack team that included Wolverine, Jean Grey, Gambit, Rogue, Quicksilver, and Bishop. By using a Shi’ar exoskeleton to allow him to walk, Xaiver accompanied the X-Men as they invaded Avalon.
Teleporting aboard Avalon, the X-Men made their way towards Magneto, carefully taking out any of his Acolytes they came across along the way. Having dispatched all of the Acolytes, the X-Men were caught off guard by an attack by Magneto. As an intense fight ensues between the X-Men and Magneto, Professor X and Jean telepathically assault Magneto with horrific memories of his past. While being attacked on both the mental and physical plane, Magneto attempts to kill his son Quicksilver, but before doing so, he was wounded by Wolverine. Enraged, Magneto retaliated in one of the most horrific panels in X-Men history.
By manipulating the adamantium that laced Wolverine’s skeleton, Magneto ripped the metal out of his body, almost tearing him apart in the process. After the metal resolidified, Wolverine was left incapacitated with large aluminum spikes sticking out of his body. With Wolverine close to death, Xavier completely wiped Magneto’s memory, leaving him in a vegetative state. Both characters would be forced to live in this new status quo for a decent period of time, causing Wolverine to leave the X-Men, while Magneto was taken care of by Colossus, who recently joined Acolytes after losing his sister. Following these events Wolverine’s, life became even more bizarre as he started to devolve into a more beast-like creature due to the adamantium not being in his system.
The time in which Wolverine was in this strange state is often considered one of the worst periods within the character’s history. Wolverine became more savage as his transforming took place while becoming less interesting as the arc continued. This was made even more confusing due to the inconsistency of the art depicting him; when some artists, in order to make Wolverine look more animal-like by drawing him without a nose. As this Wolverine became increasingly unrecognizable, readers found the character less interesting. Fortunately, this would all be undone in 1999, when the villain Apocalypse equipped Wolverine’s skeleton with adamantium, reverting him back to his normal state.
Though this story was published a long time ago, its repercussions were long-standing as it led to one of the darkest periods in Wolverine’s history. It’s also unfortunate that the new status quo created in Fatal Attractions led to such a hated story arc. Regardless, the moment in which Magneto caused the adamantium to burrow out of Wolverine’s skin is unforgettable due to the sheer horror of the artwork. It’s just a shame it led to an arc so creatively bankrupt.
