11 Years Later, Readers Are Still Scratching Their Heads About this Marvel Death

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During the 2010s, Marvel became known for taking big risks and making bold changes. The previous decade had been about restoring classic characters and teams after a period focused heavily on X-Men and Spider-Man. By the 2010s, the Marvel Universe felt a bit predictable, especially after the fast-paced events of the 2000s. To shake things up, Marvel started moving characters around, introducing new heroes to established roles, and even killing off popular characters. While some of these changes worked well, one death in particular—Wolverine’s—never really felt justified.

As a huge Wolverine fan, I always thought the 2000s were a golden age for the character. We got some truly amazing storylines, and it was awesome seeing him become a key member of the Avengers. Then, in the early 2010s, Logan really stepped up as a leader within the X-Men, even opening his own school for mutants! He was a massive part of the Marvel Universe for so long, so it was a shock when he seemingly died at the end of 2014. But honestly, things got weird fast. Less than a year later, there were multiple Wolverines and Logans running around! It was totally confusing then, and if I’m being honest, it still doesn’t really make sense to me even now.

Death of Wolverine Came Out of Nowhere and Left Fans with Questions

Wolverine has long been a beloved Marvel character, but in recent decades, Marvel Studios really focused on elevating his status to be among its biggest heroes. While Wolverine was always popular with readers, within the Marvel Universe itself, he wasn’t traditionally seen as being on the same level as icons like Spider-Man, Captain America, or Iron Man – despite often outselling their comics. The 2000s and 2010s saw a deliberate effort to make Wolverine a more central figure, and it proved successful.

By 2014, when Wolverine died, he’d become a prominent figure in the Marvel Universe. He led his own team of X-Men, ran a school for mutants, and was a valued member of the Avengers. He was well-respected among heroes and had truly established himself as a major force for good. That’s why the sudden decision to remove his healing ability and kill him off felt so unexpected.

The situation gets even more confusing when you consider what happened next. While it was expected that Laura Kinney would eventually take on the role of Wolverine, 2015 also saw the return of the Old Man Logan version of the character in a limited series connected to the Secret Wars event. This wasn’t unusual in itself, but the series concluded with Old Man Logan entering the main Marvel universe (616). Essentially, Marvel killed off Wolverine while simultaneously expanding the character’s potential, introduced a replacement, and then brought back another version of Logan. To make matters even stranger, this returning Logan was given prominent roles in major X-Men titles, despite not being the Wolverine.

Looking back at everything that happened, it’s hard to see any logical reason for the choices made. It seems Marvel didn’t have a clear plan and reacted when a particular character, Laura, didn’t gain the popularity they expected. The most plausible explanation is that Marvel wanted to shift focus to the Inhumans, and removing their most popular X-Men character was a way to encourage readers to check out the Inhumans comics. There’s no other satisfying answer. They built up this character only to kill him off in an unremarkable story (despite good artwork), then replaced him, and then replaced that version with an older iteration. It remains one of the biggest head-scratchers from that decade of Marvel comics.

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2026-01-01 18:14