The Dark Wolverine, Daken is one the best villains and occasionally anti-hero mutants
that we have in the comics.
Wolverine’s son is known as being the iconic bisexual bad boy who doesn’t apologize for
who he is or what he does, even when it means he has blood on his hands.
He’s gorgeous, ingenious, devious and he always gets what he wants.
Or well most of the time.
Today we’re going to examine just how Daken does that as we count down the top 10 super
powers you didn’t know Daken had.
Because he’s so much more than just Wolverine’s son when it comes to his powers and abilities.
If you love the sassy bad boy Daken as much as I do, be sure to show some of that love
by giving this list a thumbs up.
And be sure to stick around till the end of this list where I will have some bonus content
coming your way.
Alright, let’s get counting.
10 Slowed Aging
Despite being born in 1946 to his parents Logan, and Wolverine’s wife, Itsu, Daken
barely looks a day over 25.
In reality he is almost mid 70s.
But he certainly doesn’t look it.
This seems like an obvious power in truth.
I mean, Wolverine obviously is over 100 years old.
So it shouldn’t surprise that his son is also almost ancient.
However we also all think of Daken as being Wolverine’s son and therefore just think
of him as being younger.
I actually forgot myself just how old he is.
So just because he looks and often acts quite young, doesn’t mean that he is.
It is likely that his lifespan will echo that of his father, meaning he’ll likely live
well beyond 100.
Whose read for the Old Man Daken series?
I bet he’ll still be as sassy and broody as he is now.
9 Built In Muramasa Blade
The Muramasa Blade is known for its exceptionally devastating properties.
It can cancel out the regeneration or healing factor of those it comes into contact with
and is tough enough to cut through adamantium.
Basically it’s the blade you want if you’re going into a fight with Wolverine.
In Daken’s case though, he wanted it to use in a fight against Romulus.
He ended up getting a piece of the blade following a fight against Cyclops and the X-Men.
Cyclops had been guarding the blade at the time.
Once he had it in his possession, Daken took the blade to the Tinkerer with the purpose
of having it melted down and attached to his claws.
Of course this needed to be a delicate procedure given that Daken himself could be harmed by
the metal of the blade.
As such the Muramasa was not properly anchored to Daken’s claws.
Meaning that Wolverine came after Daken to stop him, it was easier for him to do so.
Wolverine broke both of Daken’s arms and was able to remove the built in Muramasa from
him.
Still it was pretty insane for a few issues when Daken had the power of muramasa blade
literally embedded in him or rather on him.
8 Master Martial Artist
Daken was trained by Cyber, aka Silas Burr who currently goes by alias Hornet.
Burr trained Daken at a camp that he was placed in by Romulus after he had been taken in by
the villain following the accidental destruction of his adopted family by Daken’s own hands.
This bootcamp, located in Canada was the same one his father, Wolverine had trained at.
Daken was trained their for nine months and was considered Burr’s most promising student
that he had ever trained.
Daken was then ordered by Romulus to destroy the camp and kill everyone within it.
He complied but as he was about to finish the job and kill Burr, Romulus appeared an
ordered Daken to spare Burr whom he claimed he had plans for.
It was this superior training that would later be key to Daken’s abilities to defeat skilled
hand-to-hand combatants later, like the Punisher.
Whom he successfully defeated with his claws and fighting skills despite the fact that
Frank Castle was armed at the time.
The fight ended with Daken as the Dark Avenger’s Wolverine, decapitating and dismembering the
Punisher.
7 Emotional Manipulation
Daken has the ability to secrete pheromones which allow him to manipulate his opponents
emotions.
He can make you feel depressed, happy, erratic, anxious, sad or even calm you mid fight.
I wonder who that could be super useful against, calming one down…
You guessed it the Hulk, or more specifically in regards to my example, the Hulk’s son,
Skarr.
Daken used this technique on Skaar mid fight, causing the big green guy to sit down and
talk with him and then change back into his human form.
He almost kills Skaar as a result, at Skaar’s own behest while in human form.
Fortunately Banner and Logan bust in and put a stop to this.
6 Samurai
Wolverine was trained as samurai and though he and Daken are very different people, it
appears this skill did not skip a generation when it comes to Daken.
In Dark Wolverine issue 76, Norman Osborn questions Daken about his skills, asking him
if he too was trained in the ways of a samurai like his father.
He answers that in fact he was and that he also happens to be a skilled archer as well.
Adding that ability of marksmen to his long list of capabilities when it comes to fighting.
5 Telepathic Resistance
I mean if you’ve seen a lot of my other superpower lists revolving around mutants,
you might have been expecting this one.
It's still a little surprising if you haven’t.
As it’s not what one initially thinks of when imagining Daken’s abilities.
Daken’s psi-defense abilities were so strong as a matter of fact that he was able to use
them to rebound an attack on his mind from young Jean Grey back at her, causing her to
momentarily use control of her open powers and attack her teammates.
4 Undetectable Strike
You might have noticed that Daken seems to have a remarkable skill when it comes to landing
blows on his enemies before they even seem to notice.
While he is pretty fast when it comes to his reflexes and reaction time, it turns out the
speed behind his attack doesn’t actually have to do with super speed.
It’s more a learned technique.
While fighting Deadpool in Wolverine Origins he explains to Wade just exactly how this
apparent superpower works.
It isn’t about being invisibly or being super fast, it’s actually about simply being
where his opponent can’t see.
Coming at your opponent from a vantage point which they themselves can’t anticipate.
3 Mask His Scent
Despite not being at an omega-level when it comes to his pheromone powers, Daken can actually
use his pheromone powers to also hide himself when he wants to remain hidden.
We all know how good of a tracker Wolverine is, and with Daken’s senses heightened as
well, he has also inherited his father’s gift for tracking.
But unlike his father, he can also mask his scent.
Making him an especially good hunter and tracker in the sense that he can’t be tracked himself
while tracking.
So it would be hard for anyone to know that Daken was on their trail and it would be equally
hard for someone to hunt him.
2 Energy Claws
While Daken was the Horsemen of Death, he was granted some bonus powers from the celestial
death seed which resurrected him.
Oh yeah, before he was the Horsemen of Death, he died.
Better yet it was Wolverine who killed him.
I know.
A lot of family drama between those two.
One of the powers the death seed granted him was enhanced claws.
The best way to describe them is energy claws.
They were imbued with some kind of dark necrotic or celestial energy.
His new energy claws appear to be more durable and allow him to infect others with the energy
that they emit.
1 Master Manipulator
Beyond being the king of sass, an insanely skilled fighter and being armed with his claws,
healing and pheromone powers, Daken is also an evil genius.
He’s manipulated some of the best and even double-crossed those who thought they had
his loyalty, proving that Daken is always out for himself, taking what he wants when
he wants it with no apologies to anyone that he has to manipulate in order to get his way.
He has manipulated Norman Osborn, outsmarted Reed Richards, and even used the Fantastic
Four, Avengers and X-Men in a play against one another.
When it comes to devious plans, Daken proves time and time again in his comics why he’s
simply one of the best.
Thank you so much for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you learned something new to help you appreciate and respect the witty mutant that
is Daken, aka Dark Wolverine and at one point Akihiro.
Do you prefer Daken as an anti-hero or villain?
What are some of your favourite Daken moments?
Who do you prefer when it comes Wolverines: X-23, Daken or Logan?
Let us know in the comments below.
And speaking of comments it’s time to turn to some comments from one of our latest videos,
top 10 super powers you didn’t know Sabretooth had.
Collins Roberto Kaie Garcia Herman comments, “Wolverine had soared to popularity before
Hugh Jackman, it was Jackman who soared to popularity because of the Wolverine character.”
I dunno, bub.
I would say they both helped each other out.
Jackman literally changed how Wolverine was written and drawn in the comics.
His take on the hero actually changed the character in comics.
And I think it brought Wolverine a kind of mainstream popularity that rivals some of
the most well-known including Batman, Wonder Woman and Spiderman.
He became the poster boy for X-Men.
Before Jackman took on the character he was squat, hairy and known in the comics for being
irrational and annoying to other characters.
Although I definitely appreciate all those were fans of his before the films.
That is some deep Wolverine fandom and love.
And I respect it.
Felipe Rezende Crispi says, “I love him in Age of Apocalypse.”
Oh my gosh!
Me too!
And Blink!
Seriously one of the best things in AoA.
Gimme dem Exiles.
And that’s all the time we have for comments today.
Be sure to comment below for a chance to have your thoughts shouted out in a future list.
This has been top 10 nerd and I’m your host, Amanda McKnight, reminding
you to stay nerdy, YouTube.