Why Wolverine Versus Lobo Isn't Even Close

Wolverine versus Lobo pits two unbeatable, unkillable characters against each other, and when I break it down, Lobo wins. It's not even close. Both men love nothing more than killing and beating everything in their way. Both are the best at what they do, and they have actually fought each other before. But in a real fight between the two, the Main Man comes out on top, and the reasons come down to strength, weapons and a durability that goes well beyond even Logan's.

First, though, there is the matter of that earlier fight, which Wolverine won. As I explain further down, that result is not quite what it seems.

Wolverine's strength and speed put him alongside Captain America

James Logan Howlett is Wolverine, a mutant and one of the most important members of the X-Men. Born in the 1800s with a remarkable healing factor, Logan has lived a lot of life. He has been a soldier, a samurai, an outlaw and a living weapon. Now, though, Wolverine is at his best as a hero, working with both the X-Men and the Avengers to protect humanity and mutant kind from all sorts of threats.

One of his mutant powers is superhuman ability, such as strength and speed, and in a lot of ways he is comparable to Captain America himself, the original super soldier. Logan has been able to overpower and throw around Spider-Man and Sabretooth, and he has literally thrown around Colossus before. He can easily tear through metal and snap steel chains, and he routinely picks up hundreds of pounds or even a few tons with relative ease. He has no problem throwing superhumans around with his punches, up to and including the likes of Vision and Namor. Wolverine is surprisingly strong.

He is also surprisingly fast. Wolverine can move far faster than his opponents can keep up with, and that includes other superhumans. Spider-Man, who is maybe the fastest and most agile character at street level in Marvel, is routinely surprised and caught off guard by Wolverine's speed and reflexes. Logan can dodge or block bullets or laser blasts, even after the bullet has been fired or at point blank range.

To be fair, he doesn't always use this kind of speed in fights. He can when he needs to, but he very rarely needs to dodge, because he knows he can simply take the attack and heal from it. Sometimes he likes to take a few hits at the start of a fight to get the blood flowing and get amped up. Other times he simply presses the attack and goes all offense, with no need to worry about defense at all.

Wolverine's adamantium and healing factor make him very nearly impossible to put down

That leads into Wolverine's greatest power, his healing factor and durability. His skeleton is covered entirely in adamantium, which means he literally cannot be cut or torn apart, and plenty of people have tried. The metal also greatly increases his durability. Wolverine has been kicked clean around the world and been just fine. He has taken punches and attacks from some of the strongest beings on Earth, ranging from Hulk to Thor and plenty more, and walked away fine.

Bullets are no problem and barely faze him. He can keep fighting while stabbed up or turned into a pincushion. He has kept fighting after having his heart destroyed on multiple occasions, he can heal and come back from literal disintegration, and he has even survived nuclear bombs several times over. He might be injured, but Logan is always going to heal from it, and he is always going to come back, no matter what.

Wolverine's claws and skill rank him among Marvel's best fighters

Wolverine is not just a raging brute who relies solely on his healing factor, although he definitely acts like one from time to time. He is actually one of the most skilled fighters and best warriors in the whole Marvel Universe. His adamantium claws can shred through anything in their path. They can pierce Hulk, Thor, Thanos and Gladiator, and less durable opponents he can slice into little pieces in an instant.

He is said to be an extremely deadly fighter, renowned across the universe for his skill. He can casually defeat master martial artists and hold his own against, or even beat, the likes of Captain America, Black Panther, Iron Fist and Shang-Chi. Those are literally some of the best fighters in Marvel.

He only gets more dangerous in his berserker rage, where he becomes hyper violent and even more powerful and deadly, instantly overwhelming almost any opponent in his path. It is like compressing days of continuous fighting into a few minutes or seconds. In short, "Wolverine is the best at what he does. And what he does isn't pretty."

Lobo wiped out Czarnia and called it a science project

Lobo, whose name means one who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoys it, is the last of his people for one reason: he killed them all. He hails from the planet Czarnia, a virtual paradise that knew nothing of war, where the Czarnians were almost immortal. When Lobo was born, he knew he was one of a kind, but he wanted even more.

Inspired by the idea of genocide, Lobo created a swarm of lethal scorpions and set them on his people, wiping out his entire species except for himself. He claimed it was a science project and gave himself an A. Since then, he has travelled the galaxies collecting bounties, meeting and fighting plenty of different superheroes along the way.

Lobo's strength lets him rival and even beat Superman

Lobo has some insanely impressive superhuman stats. He is ridiculously strong, surprisingly fast and has one of the best healing factors in all of comics. At his best, he is strong enough to overpower pretty much everyone he has ever come across. He can easily break and shatter Green Lantern constructs, he has knocked around Martian Manhunter and Shazam with his punches, and he has regularly fought Superman, even beating him on a few different occasions.

He doesn't go all out all the time, but when he does, he can do some cartoonishly crazy things. He has taken trillions of tons of an entire city, crushed it down into a ball and eaten it. He has grabbed an alien supercomputer the size of a star with his chain and pulled it down to the planet. These are some of the best strength feats in all of comics. He is also surprisingly fast in a fight, able to catch both Superman and the Flash off guard with his speed.

Lobo's arsenal includes guns that can destroy planets

Lobo loves his guns, his bombs and his weapons. His explosives and firearms range from bombs that could take down Looney Tunes characters to guns that can literally blow up planets, and as you might expect, he is an expert with all of them. He is an army of one who can beat literally anyone in his way.

He has taken down whole armies. He can fight the Justice League or some of the best sorcerers on Earth. He killed Santa Claus because the Easter Bunny paid him to. He has fought demons down below and angels up above. Literally, no one is safe from Lobo.

Lobo's layers of immortality mean he cannot be killed

The biggest thing going for Lobo is that he is quite literally unkillable. He can take punches and attacks from the strongest heroes in DC, from Superman to Green Lantern to Shazam, and barely be fazed. He has survived inside black holes, has no problem with the heat of a sun, and was once hit with lightning that literally tears apart reality and spacetime, and he was just fine. He has even been reduced to just a skeleton, or even a soul, and kept on fighting.

There is a reason for this crazy durability: Lobo has several different layers of immortality. For starters, only a Czarnian can kill a Czarnian, and since Lobo is the last one left, there is really no one out there who can kill him. Even if there were, Lobo has been banned from entering both heaven and hell, so his soul will remain. He will just get a new body and keep going.

On top of that is one of the best healing factors in all of comics. He can heal from literally any injury within seconds, and he can come back from just a drop of blood on the ground. Along the way, he can create copies of himself too. Really, nothing is able to keep the Main Man down.

Wolverine's crossover win over Lobo was a popularity contest

In one of the Marvel and DC Comics crossovers, a lot of characters from each publisher fought each other. Wolverine and Lobo were one of those matchups, and Wolverine won. We didn't see much of the fight, but we know Logan came out on top. It might seem obvious, then, to say Wolverine wins here too.

Not exactly. The winners of those fights were decided by fan votes, so it was basically a popularity contest, and obviously Wolverine is more popular than Lobo. As for who should actually have won, we have to work that out for ourselves.

Why Lobo outlasts and overpowers Wolverine

Wolverine has regularly taken on some of the toughest and strongest characters in Marvel: Hulk, Red Hulk, The Thing, Wendigo and Juggernaut. He takes their punches, feels their attacks, keeps fighting and even puts them down. So Lobo isn't necessarily anything new to him. His healing factor is good enough to let him take Lobo's attacks, and Logan will definitely make sure Lobo feels his claws, given he has carved up Thor, Hulk, Gladiator and even Thanos. Doing the same to Lobo would be no problem.

Here's the thing, though. Lobo arguably has an even better healing factor than Wolverine, and he is more than durable enough to take everything Wolverine throws at him. He has brushed off attacks from people far stronger and far more powerful than Logan. As for the claws, Lobo can heal from any injury within seconds and regrow limbs in an instant, and he can keep fighting while missing some pretty key body parts. Every slice also risks creating more Lobo clones. It is really hard to say Wolverine could do any lasting damage.

Lobo, on the other hand, is more than strong enough to do serious damage to Wolverine. He is a rival to Superman, so he is definitely strong enough to knock Wolverine out of the fight. That is kind of what happens when Wolverine fights these guys: if he can't put them down with his claws fast enough, they get their hands on him and knock him out with their punches.

Basically, this fight is just another version of Wolverine versus Hulk. Except instead of the Hulk, you have an absolutely insane alien bounty hunter who is as strong as Superman, has a healing factor better and quicker than Wolverine's own, and literally cannot be killed. He also has weapons powerful enough to blow up the planet they are standing on, and he is just crazy enough to do it. Lobo far outclasses Wolverine in pretty much every way. Logan might be a difficult man to kill, but I'm pretty sure Lobo would find a way. "If they didn't become drinking buddies first, of course." Lobo wins. It's not even close.

Should that crossover result be overturned, or does Logan have a path to victory against the Main Man?