by Thomas Anderson

Created on: July 04, 2009   Last Updated: July 05, 2009

Many people are familiar with Superman's extraordinary abilities, but I'm guessing that only very few of you have ever wondered about what lies beneath some of them. What is Superman really capable of? And how is it that his abilities are similar with Wolverine's? In the text that follows I am going to attempt to analyze certain speculations that I have made by comparing these two legendary superhero figures.

It all came to me when I began to look beyond Superman's invulnerability. Superman is indeed invulnerable, but does he also possess the ability of spontaneous tissue regeneration?

It seems at first glance that such a question is pointless, since why would Superman need to have such an ability when he cannot get hurt in the first place. The truth is though that this ability would come quite in handy for him since the times that he has been hurt (because of Kryptonite related incidents for instance) are not quite so limited.

Somebody that makes a little dig in into this matter will discover that in several episodes of the television series that feature the adventures of Superman, he has found himself without any abilities on numerous occasions. The interesting thing though is that as soon as he gets his powers back, whatever cuts or wounds he had suffered are instantly healed. Therefore, it is beyond any doubt that Superman has indeed the ability of spontaneous tissue regeneration.

But it does not stop here. Having this power also means the possession of indeed another remarkable ability. We are quite familiar with Wolverine's ability of spontaneous tissue regeneration, but the thing is that the benefits of this ability include more than just the healing of obvious cuts and bruises. Because of this ability Wolverine cannot grow old. He doesn't age, at least not with the same rate that ordinary people do. He can live possibly for many centuries, and theoretically he could even achieve immortality.

Assuming that Superman's ability is the same as Wolverine's, then Superman can also manage to live for a significant amount of time, way beyond normal age boundaries. This means that tissue regenerationis indeed a useful ability for Superman as well, despite the fact that he is also invulnerable.

It is kind of ironic in a way to notice such similarities between two superhero figures that seemingly seem to be so different. Superman is a flawless alien hero, when Wolverine is more of an animal-like fighter, not to mention the fact that either one of them is part of a different comic book company. Having said that, it is interesting to think about the common ground that can be found. And if we were to look into it a little bit further, we might be able to learn a little bit more about other comic book superheroes as well.

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