Warning: Contains spoilers for Wolverine: Deep Cut #1!!

If there’s a mutant standing at the end of the world, the odds are that it will be Wolverine. His extraordinary healing abilities allow him to bounce back from every imaginable injury and overcome battles that would usher anyone else into the afterlife. Losing his sight to Sabretooth proves that he has more going for him than his healing factor, however, and his heightened senses make him truly formidable.

In Wolverine: Deep Cut #1, Sabretooth corners Wolverine, initiating their annual “battle to the death,” which occurs on Logan’s birthday each year. Rather than stay in hiding, Wolverine locks claws with Creed in an effort to spare his love, Mariko Yashida, from being the target in his place. True to form, Victor pulls out every dirty trick in the book, including viciously blinding his opponent.

What he doesn’t count on is the incredible way Wolverine’s body adjusts by honing all of his senses. Losing his sight makes him deadlier rather than turning him into easy prey.

When Wolverine Loses 1 Of His Senses, His Healing Factor Supercharges The Others To Compensate

Wolverine Deep Cut #1 – Written By Chris Claremont; Art By Edgar Salazar, Carlos Lopez, & Travis Lanham

Wolverine’s ability to withstand brutal fights and literal torture is well known, and Creed is well aware that he’s can’t kill him permanently. He only seeks to inflict the highest amount of pain possible as he tears out his eyes. Logan’s capacity to compensate eludes even his greatest enemy, however, and Sabretooth isn’t prepared for the fallout. Wolverine notes that he’s “fought blind before and always won”, but it isn’t just intense training that makes it possible. Instead, his body heightens other senses when one is compromised; blinding him only sharpens everything else.

Mutant physiology encompasses an enormous range of abilities, but Wolverine’s particular power set makes him one of the most resilient beings in the Marvel Universe. Not only can he heal from extreme amounts of damage, but he becomes more dangerous when injured. He’s able to fully defeat Sabretooth for the first time in their extensive history, all because his opponent eliminated his sense of sight and unlocked a new level of ferocity and deadly accuracy. Essentially, the further he is backed into a corner, the more his genetic makeup fights for his survival, making him as tenacious as his animal namesake.

Wolverine’s Training Accentuates His Natural Abilities

Ready For Anything

Although Logan’s X-Gene does a lot of heavy lifting in this scenario, allowing him to “see” his targets even without using his eyes, his combat training also works to his advantage. He’s shown training Kitty Pryde to fight while blindfolded, proving he’s already mastered the art long before Creed’s attack. It’s the perfect scenario to use everything he has at his disposal, and the combination of methodical training and his mutant abilities becomes undeniably lethal. Wolverine has one of Marvel’s strongest healing factors, but it’s his ability to keep his senses at peak capacity that makes him a deadly opponent.