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In X-Men Annual Vol. 1 Issue 11 from 1987, Wolverine is regenerated from a drop of his blood.

You can see his skeleton on page 37:

X-Men Annual Vol. 1 Issue 11, page 37
Click images to enlarge.

Which means he hasn't got his Adamantium skeleton and claws left, but in X-Men Annual Vol. 1 Issue 12 he seems to have them back:

X-Men come to the High Evolutionary's aid however none of their attacks have any effect on the creature -- except for Wolverine's Adamantium claws

I've not seen any reference to Adamantium between the two either.

How does he get it back?

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  • 1
    This is a flow up question to scifi.stackexchange.com/q/263358/3804
    – AncientSwordRage ♦
    May 18, 2022 at 20:13
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    @Valorum He is being regrown from scratch from a single drop of blood. In the first panel of the second row, you can clearly see the old, dead body of Wolverine in the foreground. Which presumably has his skeleton inside it!
    – Jahan Claes
    May 19, 2022 at 0:10
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    @Valorum In addition, you can see the skeleton in the last panel of the first row (1) Is colored like bone and (2) does not appear to have claws.
    – Jahan Claes
    May 19, 2022 at 0:12
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    @IvoBeckers my guess is the gem gave him 'godlike' powers which also fixed metal bones, memory issues and any continuity errors
    – AncientSwordRage ♦
    May 19, 2022 at 11:41
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    @AncientSwordRage - In the comics his brain has been extensively damaged and it never results in memory loss. In the films, that happened, but that's a different continuity
    – Valorum
    May 19, 2022 at 21:09

2 Answers 2

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Wolverine pops his claws two pages after the one you posted, and they still appear to be coated with metal, presumably adamantium.

X-Men Annual Vol. 1 #11, page 38

X-Men Annual Vol. 1 #11 (November, 1987)

I checked the issues of Uncanny X-Men immediately following the annual, and while I didn't notice a specific reference to adamantium until Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #227 (March, 1988), which was published a few months later, his claws still look metallic in every issue they're visible in around that time, and his bones were stated to be unbreakable.

The fact that he had claws at all is a significant clue that he still had the adamantium, as around the time X-Men Annual Vol. 1 #11 was published (November, 1987), it was thought that his claws were made of solid adamantium, having been implanted during the Weapon X program. Note that the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry quoted below was published the same year as the annual.

Apparently at the same time that Adamantium was bonded to his skeleton, Wolverine was also equipped with his solid Adamantium "claws." The claws are each roughly a foot long, the length of Wolverine's forearm. He is equipped with three claws on each of his arms. The claws are connected directly to his skeleton and to his nervous system.

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol. 2 #14, page 65

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol. 2 #14 (January, 1987)

It wasn't revealed that he had bone claws beneath the adamantium until Wolverine Vol. 2 #75 (November, 1993), published six years after the annual in question.

WOLVERINE: Darlin', there's things about myself I ain't got clue one about... like, if these claws o' mine are bone -- then I must've been born with 'em! How come I can't remember them before they was bonded with adamantium? How come I always thought they were implants?

Wolverine Vol. 2 #75, page 34

Wolverine Vol. 2 #75 (November, 1993)

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  • Just worth noting, probably not enough for an answer in itself, but the adamantium is bonded to Wolverine; somewhat becoming a part of him. The quote Wolverine gives in the annual "Given sufficient power, my entire body could be regenerated from the genetic data encoded in a single cell, or drop of blood. Looks like the crystal had the power-- to restore body and mind both." Perhaps the bonded adamantium, at this point in time, was also in his genetic data.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    May 19, 2022 at 8:20
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    Or because it also restored mind it wasn't just a base level recreation, but had the power to revert to back to what was most desired/last form rather than "basic" Wolverine.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    May 19, 2022 at 8:20
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    Wolverine was also supposedly omnipotent at the end there: "I can transform... shape... create...". Perhaps he willed the adamantium to be restored himself, either consciously or subconsciously. As far as he knew at the time, the claws were solid adamantium, so if he wanted to use his claws to shatter the crystal, he needed the adamantium to do so.
    – LogicDictates
    May 19, 2022 at 14:31
  • @TheLethalCarrot Which begs the question - if Wolverine were to bleed into a cup or something, could the data encoded in that blood grow into another Wolverine? What's to stop him from using that technique to make unlimited Wolverine clones? (I guess "sufficient power", but it seems like that could be arranged...)
    – Darrel Hoffman
    May 19, 2022 at 20:43
  • @DarrelHoffman there is a Deadpool comic where they make a new Deadpool out of his chopped-off parts. So yes, that can happen. Wolverine also has a couple of clones like Laura and Gabrielle
    – Sandra
    May 25 at 12:57
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While I can't say why he got his adamantium back between being regenerated and popping his claws two pages later, going back to that issue it seems that destroying the gem reset time and undid the effects of the entire issue. This must be true, because Psylocke was killed during the issue, but after destroying the gem she is alive and well. So even if Wolverine lost his adamantium during the fight, this was undone when he destroyed the gem.

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    Do you mean the big gem he destroyed with his adamantium claws?
    – Clockwork
    May 19, 2022 at 6:48
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    I don't think time was strictly reset, because Storm waking up in costume in her bed at the end was not a recreation of a panel or scene from earlier in the issue. Also, the X-Men all remembered what had happened, at least initially, and the Citadel was still destroyed after they were returned home, albeit, it rebuilt itself. However, it is true that the damage to their home was fixed, and Betsy Braddock was restored to her normal self, after having been turned into an android of sorts in the story. Storm credited Wolverine for having brought the X-Men home.
    – LogicDictates
    May 19, 2022 at 14:09

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