11 Comic Book Characters Who Underwent Horrifying Transformations
Some character changes are difficult to stomach.
Every few years, comic book characters are revised to stop them from getting stale. Their costume might receive a mild redesign or the character may get a whole new look. But there are other times where a superhero or supervillain isn't just tweaked a little bit; they are practically unrecognisable.
Either through cybernetics, mutation, genetic tampering, disfigurement, or even death, some comic book characters have suffered horrific changes over the years.
Sometimes, a change, even a bad one, can be great for a character. It can make a story more compelling watching an iconic hero struggling to come to terms with a dramatic change in their body or appearance.
Since comics must stand by the status quo, these alterations always reverse themselves. But that doesn't mean the heroes and villains are out of the woods yet. A person can suffer a metamorphosis which is so horrific, their mind may never be the same. Some of the characters in this list experienced their change years ago but still feel the effects of it to this day.
Some of these changes are cool. Others may across as silly or gimmicky. But one thing that we can all agree on; every one of these transformations were utterly horrific.
11. Wolverine Loses His Nose
While the X-Men were battling Magneto, the Master of Magnetism used his powers to rip the adamantium skeleton out of Wolverine. This injury overloaded Logan's system, causing him to lose his healing factor. Not only that, the trauma of Magneto's attack reverted poor Wolvie's mind to a primitive state.
Because Weapon X mind-wiped and brainwashed Wolverine, he has always struggled to keep his feral instincts in check. But after what Magneto did to him, he was terrified he would lose his last shred of humanity.
Wolverine is a great character but his stories can lack suspense since he can heal from almost any wound. However, this arc was great as readers have not seen Wolverine acting this vulnerable in years.
Unfortunately, Wolverine's digression had a mild side effect. After he took on more animalistic characteristics, he lost his nose. Why? No idea. (Do the artists think wild animals don't have noses?)
It doesn't matter if Wolverine is supposed to look vulnerable, depressed, angry, or vicious during this story arc; he looks absolutely ridiculous without a nose. This tiny change made a potentially dramatic story hard to take seriously.