Wolverine Has A Weird Relationship With Vampires

Not the vampires themselves, necessarily. The undead can still claw, tear, and otherwise rip Logan’s soft tissue like anyone else in the Marvel Universe. Wolverine’s healing factor specifically protects him from the effects of a vampire’s bite.

Theoretically, the bloodsuckers could feed off of Logan for days nonstop, and he still wouldn’t become one of them. Not that Wolverine would let many vampires get close enough to test this theory.

A wooden stake may be the only weapon that can kill a vampire, but we’re willing to bet being sliced into tiny pieces by a set of adamantium claws would still suck.

So why bring up Wolverine’s rare ability to fend off vampires now? Well, currently, the big event at Marvel is “Blood Hunt,” a summer crossover affecting everyone in the Marvel 616, including old’ Healy McStabclaws.

Being one of the few Marvel heroes immune to vampirism, makes Logan a powerful asset for the good guys during this event.

To put it in the simplest terms, half-vampire Blade has sided with his bloodsucking brethren and is currently leading an army of nosferatu bent on global domination. All light from the sun is currently blocked out on Earth-616 and vampires can now attack at any time of day.

This is bad news for the human residents of the Marvel Universe because while Wolverine might not be affected by vampires, everyone else is.

Oddly enough, Wolverine doesn’t have the same immunity to zombies that he does vampires. Something about the zombie virus apparently sidesteps his healing factor in a way vampirism can’t. Thank God the new crossover wasn’t named “Brain Hunt.”

It’s currently unknown if this immunity to vampire bites extends to Wolverines from other universes or if it’s an ability only the 616 version possesses. We do know, however, that there’s at least one Logan variant that isn’t exempt from becoming a vampire: the Wolverine of Earth-9140.

This version of Wolverine appeared in What If…? #24 (February, 1991) where he fought Dracula alongside the other X-Men.  The entire team—including Wolverine—was turned into vampires.

But unlike the other mutants, Wolverine wasn’t content to be one of Dracula’s underlings and challenged the Count for the title of Lord of the Vampires. 

Not only did Wolverine win, but he drained Dracula of blood and then decapitated him for good measure.

This version of Wolverine eventually killed himself and his hordes of vampires when Kitty Pryde was killed during a fight between the Vampire X-Men and the Punisher—under the guidance of Doctor Strange’s ghost, of course. Aren’t comics fun?

Meanwhile, back in the main 616 universe, “Blood Hunt” is just heating up. While we don’t know Wolverine’s exact role in the crossover quite yet, we can safely assume it will be a fairly big one.

We wouldn’t be surprised if Wolverine’s genetic code is somehow used to create an antidote for vampire bites at some point, but that’s just a guess on our part.

Now that we know Wolverine can’t be turned by vampires, the next logical step is to find out if he’s immune to facehuggers. You own the Alien franchise now Disney, make it so!