I was just watching The Wolverine and I was wondering about that little electronic probe wrapped around his heart. Now we all know that that's what caused his healing factor to stumble... But why? Does he get his healing factor exclusively from his heart? Is that canon in all of the comics? And if not then where does he get his healing factor from?
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2scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/57086/… and scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/16525/… delve into your question.– CherubelCommented Jan 16, 2015 at 9:48
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1I didn't get it while watching the film either, but someone's interpretation was that the spider kept damaging his heart and so his healing was "too busy" fixing it continuously to fix anything else.– George TCommented Jan 16, 2015 at 9:49
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Could be the healing factor, wherever it originates, is carried by his blood. Which means the heart is crucial in the distribution of the factor, even if it isn't itself producing it.– Misha RCommented Jan 16, 2015 at 10:16
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Both very valid points, but if he does get it from his heart or if his heart is crucial to it, then that would contradict mainstream canon Wolverine and what we both know he can withstand. If that's the case then Wolverine would die if he got sniped through the heart with an Adamantium bullet, or if he got ran through the heart with a sword maybe. But I highly doubt he would die from either.– Y.G.Commented Jan 16, 2015 at 10:36
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@MishaRosnach I like your idea of how the blood carries it so the heart would be the organ distributing it. But we both still don't know where the healing factor originates from :/– Y.G.Commented Jan 16, 2015 at 10:38
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1 Answer
If damage to his heart means his regenerative abilities are stunted, it means one of two things: either the factor originates in his heart, or his blood carries the factor and the heart is necessary to pump it around the body.
The latter makes more sense. After all, even if the factor did originate in his heart, how would it get to all the other organs? It still needs to be in the blood.
So, something which produces chemicals that end up in the blood is probably a factor-production candidate. Which, by the way, isn't the heart. The heart doesn't produce anything, it's just a pump.
Bone marrow produces almost all the blood. However, that isn't too good a candidate, as his own bones got removed. So it has to be an organ that produces something that ends up in the blood, but not necessarily the main components of blood itself.
For instance, the adrenal glands. Top of the kidneys. He still has those, right? They pump adrenaline into your blood, and they often kick in during great stress and/or body damage. I'm putting my money on the adrenal glands.
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Yeah but what if this only happened in this movie and is not canon at all? Either way I think the adrenal gland is a good idea, so is the idea of the "factor" being carried by his blood. He's one tough cookie, that's for sure.– Y.G.Commented Jan 16, 2015 at 11:42
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Why wouldn't he have bone marrow? His bones didn't get removed; they were 'treated', 'bonded' or 'laced' (depending on citation) with adamantium. When the adamantium was removed from Wolverine he still had a skeleton X-Men Vol 2 25– DreCommented Jan 17, 2015 at 14:27
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I thought about that. If he still has his original marrow, then it could be the bone marrow that produces the factor. If he doesn't, however, his regenerative abilities would be a fraction of what they were. And even though they were, in fact, reduced after the enhancement, as far as I understand it's because of adamantium's toxicity rather than lack of bone marrow. And even if the marrow's still there, natural bones are really very well suited to do what they do. Metal - especially toxic metal - would really impede that function. In other words, maybe - but unlikely.– Misha RCommented Jan 17, 2015 at 23:00