After 40 years of creating Adamantium-enhanced mayhem, Wolverine may finally be heading (however temporarily) to the bone orchard in a new September-shipping 4-issue weekly miniseries The Death of Wolverine, which will be written by Charles Soule and drawn by Steve McNiven.  While the timing of the current "3 Months to Live" storyline in the monthly Wolverine comic may have been off by a couple of months, it appears that Marvel was deadly serious about the impending demise of Logan, who has lost his ability to heal himself in the current "3 Months" storyline.
 
As is Marvel’s way with these big comic book "events," the publisher gave the story of Wolvie’s demise to a mainstream media outlet, in this case EW.  Mike Marts, the editor overseeing the project, told EW: "For a long time, no matter who Wolverine was battling, he’s been the eternal victor.  He almost always comes out on top.  Now he finally comes up against an adversary that he cannot win against, he cannot fight.  What does that mean for this character who’s been around for hundred years?"
 
Charles Soule, who is writing the 4-issue weekly Death of Wolverine miniseries, which debuts on September 3rd and ends on September 24th, explained to EW that he saw the four final issues as a way to create of mini-retrospective of the iconic character’s long Marvel career: "He’s reflecting on his own life as he’s reflecting on his own death.  We wanted to have the reader do that at the same time.  In each issue, we’re focusing on a different aspect, or a different quintessential Wolverine."
 
There will be plenty of nods to Wolvie’s storied past throughout the 4-issue Death of Wolverine series, starting with the cut-out Wolverine silhouette on the cover of The Death of Wolverine #1, which deliberately recalls the character’s first appearance in the last panel of The Incredible Hulk #180 in 1974.
 
Taking a dirt nap is a heck of a way to spend your 40th Anniversary in comics, but "death" in the comics is an amorphous concept (unless you are Uncle Ben or Batman's parents).  Still it does appear that Marvel is planning for Wolverine-less Marvel Universe, at least for a while, as Marts put it to EW: "You’re gonna be entering into a world without Wolverine.  That affects not only his teammates, but also the Marvel Universe at large.  We’ve got a lot of things in the works already."