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According to the Marvel wiki on adamantium ,

A sufficient amount is capable of surviving multiple nuclear explosions with no damage.

And an answer on another question here says that Wolverine can regenerate with only his skeleton left (the other, IIUC, says he doesn't even need his whole skeleton).

So, does wolverine have enough adamantium arranged in such a way that he could survive even a nuclear strike? And if even "nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure" doesn't work, can he be killed?

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    Seems to me that there's a dependency on his nearness to the blast itself. While his skeleton should be able to withstand the blast, I believe there are weakness at points allowing marrow and joints to operate as needed and, probably most importantly, he has orifices in his skull that would leave his brain incredibly vulnerable to the power of a blast if too near.
    – Josh
    Mar 19, 2012 at 13:59
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    If Indiana Jones can in a refrigerator smh, I'm betting Wolverine can...
    – NominSim
    Mar 19, 2012 at 14:08
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    Of what yield and at what distance?
    – Random832
    Mar 19, 2012 at 16:41
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    He survived the bomb at Hiroshima. :)
    – Gabe Willard
    Mar 19, 2012 at 17:14
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    It would all depend on how close to the bomb he was. After all regular humans survived the bombing of Japan :)
    – Brian Boisvert
    Mar 19, 2012 at 22:58

8 Answers 8

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I remembered this comic after mulling over this discussion. Here is a summary from comics.ign.com:

In Brian K. Vaughan's mini-series Logan, the titular hero is a prisoner of the Japanese. He escapes along with a fellow prisoner and finds solace and love in a local girl. Unfortunately, the girl's hut happened to be in Hiroshima, and thus Wolverine became a survivor of the atomic bomb.

From what I remember, this is before Logan had the adamantium skeleton. It is safe to assume that he would survive an atomic bomb after he had obtained his skeleton.

Additionally, In Venom #8, I believe, Venom and Wolverine are in a town called Voici, and a nuclear bomb is dropped. In Venom #9, Wolverine wakes up in the rubble, and his only injury is a missing shirt.

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    Very interesting. Is it mentioned how far he is from the epicenter?
    – Kevin
    Mar 19, 2012 at 17:48
  • @Kevin he had just finished being with said Japanese love interest when the flying V formation of bombers flew overhead in the last panel of book one. Then it cuts back in time for book two, he fights a guy, and in book three, it starts out with that frame, so fairly close, I would assume.
    – Gabe Willard
    Mar 19, 2012 at 18:01
  • @Kevin Also added to my answer a second time when Wolverine survives nukage.
    – Gabe Willard
    Mar 19, 2012 at 18:09
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    Not sure why I've bothered to sign in to say this, but the bombers at Hiroshima did not actually fly in a V formation during the bombing. There were only 3 flying over Hiroshima while the bomb was being dropped, and one of those was the observation/photography plane which should have been following a short ways behind the other two.
    – Mannimarco
    Mar 20, 2012 at 7:59
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Short answer: No. If he were standing directly near the epicenter of a nuclear weapon, his organic materials would be incinerated and destroyed, even as his skeleton survived relatively undamaged.

His organic flesh having no special invulnerability to fire, radiation, radiated energy and blast over-pressure would certainly be destroyed completely at ground zero. His survival at Hiroshima was due to the weapon being detonated 500 meters above ground with the fireball ending only 100 meters from the weapon's detonation.

More detailed answer and comic references: Wolverine's ability to survive a nuclear weapon is directly related to these forces:

  • Yield of nuclear weapon. Since no particular weapon was specified we cannot be certain of his survival rate. Relatively speaking, both Fat Man and Little Boy were approximately 18-20 KT yield weapons. Since both of these weapons were detonated at 500 meters above sea level, the thermal fireball would not have reached the ground (area of that thermal effect was approximately 100 meters) so Logan risked only the secondary burning effects of the weapon, commonly called the flash effect. This would give him third degree burns but not completely destroy the tissues of his body. Both Fat Man and Little Boy would be considered tiny by modern nuclear weapon standards in terms of yield or area affected by the blast, fire, and radiation effects.

enter image description here

  • His distance from the epic-center of the explosion: Today's modern nuclear weapons are measured in Megatons yields of TNT. If we are to assume that Wolverine's power is purely a physical one (which is a matter of debate considering the amazing regenerative process he undergoes, particularly when his body is supposedly nearly destroyed) we have to inquire how it is that his highly regenerative but otherwise unremarkable flesh could survive at the point of detonation of a nuclear blast, when temperatures greater than 3000 degrees Fahrenheit can be reached. At such temperatures, flesh is completely vaporized. And while his adamantium skeleton would not be harmed, his flesh, organs, blood, and non-metallic elements of his skeleton would certainly be consumed by the conflagration. If he were standing on top of either of the nuclear weapons even as relatively low yield as the two weapons used in Japan, while his adamantium skeleton would be intact, all other organic matter would be immediately and completely vaporized. If he were within the actual blast fireball radius all organic matter would be incinerated. If he is able to return to being Logan as long as a single cell of him remained, implies there is another component to his regenerative process as all of his memory would be lost, since his entire brain was lost as well. You can see the yields of famous nuclear weapons below.

enter image description here

  • Explanation of his survival at Nagasaki: Logan was able to survive Nagasaki because he would have had a very tiny area in which to have been caught by the actual fireball to risk total dissolution. This area would have been less than 100 meters. Since the weapon was detonated at 500 meters, he did not risk any direct effects of the fireball. Outside of that area, he would risk shockwave damage, being blown across the area and smashed into any objects that survive the explosion, flying debris and over-pressure damage (which includes embolisms in his lungs and brain) but as long as enough of his organic matter remained he would survive.

enter image description here

  • The most potent effect on whether Logan can be killed is whether the writer wants him to be able to survive or not. Alternative timeline Wolverine was killed by forces much less potent than a nuclear weapon.

enter image description here enter image description here

The blast from that timeline's Sentinel was sufficient to reduce him to his skeletal remains in the Days of Future Past series of story arcs (X-men #142). The most powerful representative of those Sentinels is the time-traveling X-man enemy, Nimrod.

enter image description here

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    Whoa! Now thats an answer! Even if wolverine were to survive, he would believe he shouldn't if he read your answer.
    – Alexander
    Mar 20, 2012 at 4:16
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    I'm especially happy with this answer as it bring up not only excellent science but the first thing that came to my mind: ISSUE 142 of UNCANNY. Possibly the only time the 'Cover Blurb' doesn't mislead the reader; Everybody DOES Die including Wolvie.
    – 22nd Century Fza
    Dec 4, 2013 at 5:28
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No.

Wolverine can regenerate from BIOLOGICAL skeleton... Not from Adamantium skeleton. As biological part of his skeleton will be vaporized by Nuclear bomb, there's no point of his regeneration from Adamantium based skeleton.

His mutant power isn't attached with Adamantium part of his body!

Even if you consider Adamantium could block heat to protect biological stuff inside it, its impossible to regenerate from that. If there's no gap for heat to reach there.. means, its fully isolated from rest of body. And, for regeneration to work, there's need to break Adamantium shield which is impossible...

This comic strip attached with linked answer displays temperature of mere 500 degrees C which can't take guarantee to wipe out entire organic lump thru small gap. There's high chance of super burn residues. But, condition of this question is fully different. Heat produced by Nuclear bomb can't leave residue!

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    If the adamantium completely sheathes his bone structure, wouldn't it shield his organic skeleton from the blast?
    – Beofett
    Mar 19, 2012 at 14:47
  • @Beofett updated my answer.. see last paragraph..
    – user931
    Mar 19, 2012 at 14:50
  • I think you should read the linked answer in his question. Your answer is clearly wrong in light of it.
    – Gabe Willard
    Mar 19, 2012 at 14:53
  • @Gabe Yes, I read that question.. This situation is different. Even a small gap would allow heat to vaporize organic stuff.. And, this will happen if you take that question in account.
    – user931
    Mar 19, 2012 at 14:59
  • @Gabe The comic stripe from that question displays 500 degrees C on which organic stuffs would not be guranteed disappear. That's like super burn residue..
    – user931
    Mar 19, 2012 at 15:06
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YES.

There are many documented cases of ordinary people surviving nuclear bombs; even the military uses probability charts to estimate percentage of people killed as a function of distance to the blast. Therefore, it is certainly possible for Wolverine to survive.

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I believe he can, if we consider the events of the X-Men movies canon. Jean has the ability to disintegrate matter completely, but when her powers are directed at Wolverine (last battle of X-Men: Last Stand, I believe), he continually regenerates.

While this is not directly supported by canon sources (I confess I haven't read many comics), it appears that Wolverine would begin regeneration even before the nuclear blast has started to subside. Perhaps the organs covering the orifices in his skull (eyes, ears) will continually regenerate as the blast bears down on him, protecting his brain. There should be enough bone marrow inside his adamantium protected skeleton to regenerate the rest of him.

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    Not gonna downvote, but the X-Men movies are yet another universe with some substantial changes made - it's not one I'd use as support.
    – Ian Pugsley
    Mar 19, 2012 at 15:00
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    wolverine could regenerate with the left over matter after the rest is disintegrated by jean, so it has nothing to do with jeans ability to disintegrate matter. He can just simply regenerate from wounds that are slow damaging, unlike nuclear bomb which could vaporize him almost instantly.
    – MozenRath
    Mar 19, 2012 at 18:30
  • @MozenRath My point was that the same power when applied on other people just vaporized them instantly. Wolverine's tissues remained.
    – HNL
    Mar 20, 2012 at 1:21
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Yes. I believe he has actually but I can't find the reference. Here is a link to an article on i09.com The article is from April 30th 2009 and it goes into more specifics. But basically Wolverine has come back from a single drop of blood before so if just his skeleton was around there would still be marrow. Wolverine has suffered from the same thing that eventually killed interest in Superman, basically his powers keep escalating until he's basically unstoppable.

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It depends how and where the bomb hits. Wolverine sitting on a bomb when it explodes would destroy him irreversibly, but nukes are usually deployed as air-burst against cities. A few lucky humans can survive that, so Wolverine would probably have a good chance in that case.

Of course, the writers can write anything, so this assumes they don't come up with something ludicrously insane, which violates all physics and logic... as we can see, Wolverines regeneration abilities got already elevated many times in newer and newer versions.

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Yes, at one point in the comics Wolverine is reduced to only his metal skeleton, yet he is able to come back from that state. Admuntium is described as several times denser than lead which probably means it hols its radioactivity adsorption. The heat most likely will not last long enough to flash burn his skeleton.

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