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In X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Wolverine is able to decapitate Deadpool, who if I understand correctly, had a bone structure made of adamantium.

But later in The Wolverine (2013), which, correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume it's part of the same continuity, Wolverine fights Silver Samurai, who pilots a robot made of adamantium. When Silver Samurai attacks him with his adamantium sword, he's able to hold him back, but as soon as Silver Samurai turns one of his sword in a burning sword, Silver Samurai is able to cut through Wolverine's adamantium claws with his adamantium burning sword.

Later, when Wolverine has the chance to attack Silver Samurai again, instead of attacking him with his other intact adamantium claws, he looks for one of the Silver Samurai sword that this last dropped, and in desperation screams "come on!", expecting the sword to start burning, like if that was the only chance he had to harm Silver Samurai. Then, with the burning adamantium sword, he is able to cut the robot head made of adamantium.

Why didn't he use his adamantium claws to cut/harm Silver Samurai? Can cold adamantium cut through adamantium?

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  • Wasn't the Silver Samurai's sword tachyonic, rather than super-heated?
    – Möoz
    Feb 2, 2022 at 0:54

3 Answers 3

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Adamantium can't cut Adamantium

However, note that Deadpool's neck also contains cartilage:

diagram of the human neck showing bone and cartilage

Wolverine only needs to hit one of those soft points to sever the neck.

Whereas the 'Silver Samurai' has no such weak point.

Otherwise we see that the franchise doesn't treat heated Adamantium consistently.

It has to be super heated before infusing Wolverine's bones, then when it sets it's 'indestructable' (as per William Stryker, various movies). However the superheating seen in The Wolverine at least goes against this logic, in that not only is the Adamantium able to be melted after setting, but it's the heated sword does the cutting not the cold Adamantium of Wolverine's claws.

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    It doesn't seem likely that Logan only hit the soft points in Wade's neck, since he drove not one but three of his claws through Wade's neck at the same time. Also, his claws were super-heated at the time, and his fight with the Silver Samurai proves that super-heated adamantium can cut through adamantium in this universe. Furthermore, adamantium bullets can also penetrate adamantium in this universe.
    – LogicDictates
    Jan 31, 2022 at 20:05
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    @Logic these are all excellent points
    – AncientSwordRage ♦
    Jan 31, 2022 at 20:07
  • It's not just heat that works though - Silver Samurai also later taps into Wolverine's powers by drilling into the stubs of his severed claws. I guess drills produce some heat via friction, but nothing like the glowing red-hot we saw in his sword earlier.
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Feb 1, 2022 at 15:41
  • @DarrelHoffman that makes even less sense...
    – AncientSwordRage ♦
    Feb 1, 2022 at 15:46
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In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Logan's claws were super-heated by blocking Weapon XI's optic blasts, just before he used them to decapitate Weapon XI, so that doesn't seem inconsistent with what was shown in The Wolverine.

It should be possible for Logan's claws to cut through adamantium without being super-heated, provided they're propelled with sufficient force. William Stryker was able to pierce Logan's skull with adamantium bullets in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

However, the fight with the Silver Samurai suggests that Logan himself isn't strong enough to generate that much force. The Silver Samurai exoskeleton was likely stronger than he is, and it couldn't cut through his claws until it super-heated its swords.

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  • I had completely forgotten about how the claws get heated in Origins.
    – AncientSwordRage ♦
    Jan 31, 2022 at 20:05
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    @AncientSwordRage - I didn't recall that part myself until I reviewed the scene.
    – LogicDictates
    Jan 31, 2022 at 20:10
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    Having also forgotten, and reviewed the scene, I shall now proceed to repress that memory in order to personal dissatisfaction. This comment serves purely as a warning, to future-me, that I don't want to see it again.
    – David Thomas
    Feb 1, 2022 at 22:53
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I believe he used the sword because he didn't want to damage his claws. going by real world logic a material can cut things with the same hardness, and since adamantium is just as hard as adamantium it should be able to cut adamantium.

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