Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Wolverine #48Wolverine is The Best There Is At What He Does, and his adamantium claws are a major reason why. With an incredible healing factor and an unbreakable skeleton supplementing his natural mutation, Logan has fought the good fight for decades using every tool at his disposal – including those iconic claws. But as his personal war with Sabretooth continues to heat up, Wolverine has traded in his claws for an even deadlier weapon – the Muramasa Blade.
Wolverine #48 by Benjamin Percy, Victor LaValle, Cory Smith, Oren Junior, Alex Sinclair, and VC’s Cory Petit finds Logan and the Exiles searching for a way to permanently stop Sabretooth’s army. With the Exiles’ help, a de-powered Wolverine raids his emergency bunker, retrieving both a suit of adamantium armor and a legendary Muramasa Blade.
Debuting his new tools to his team, Logan says, “This is adamantium armor. That is a Muramasa Blade. I’m still hard to kill. Let’s go find a fight.” And with a muramasa blade in hand, odds are, Wolverine is going to win whatever fight he enters.
There have been more than a few Muramasa Blades, but all are incredibly deadly. Forged by Wolverine’s former master, the mad swordsmith for whom the weapon is named, the Muramasa Blade is one of the few weapons in the world that can actively disrupt and negate a target’s healing factor. In the past, Wolverine has used the Blade to take the fight to Sabretooth – confusing a clone for the real deal and seemingly killing his lifelong foe for the final time. But this time, Logan is going to have to cut through more than just a single Creed duplicate.
With a multiversal army of Sabreteeth bearing down on Logan and his allies, the fan-favorite X-Man would have his work cut out for him during the best of times. Without his healing factor, popping his claws is far too risky, and would ultimately hurt him just as much as it would hurt his opponents. By once again taking up the Muramasa Blade, Wolverine evens the playing field, giving him the edge he needs to overcome the negation of his legendary healing factor while also reestablishing himself as a credible threat against an army of Creeds.
Wolverine and Sabretooth’s rivalry has lasted for as long as either mutant can remember, but the Muramasa Blade may finally settle their feud once and for all. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time that Logan has intended to use this weapon on Victor Creed and other hyper-healers, but if he has his way, it will surely be the last. Logan may be The Best There Is but even Wolverine knows how important it is to use the right tool for the right job.