Wolverine is known to use his claws to devastating effect. What prompted him to switch to Cap’s shield?

There are few stories that have come out of Marvel that are as influential as Old Man Logan. There is no doubt, that the company has some of superhero fiction’s greatest stories, but few have the caliber and the complexity of a piece like Old Man Logan, which follows an elderly Wolverine, who has given up the use of his claws after he was tricked into killing the X-Men and other mutants in Xavier’s Institute.

The comic book served as inspiration (in part) for 2017’s Logan, which saw Hugh Jackman essay the role of Fox’s version of Wolverine for the final time. The book has some of Logan’s most violent moments, one of which shows how far Logan can go even without using his claws. This particular instance had the older mutant face off against Red Skull, one who was responsible for the murder of Captain America.

Logan slew The Red Skull with Captain America’s Shield

Old Man Logan‘s world was very different from the standard Marvel Universe, where the United States is carved up among Marvel’s most dastardly villains, including the Red Skull. Logan’s mission focuses on trying to acquire some money so that he can pay off the Hulk gang, who are the monstrous offspring of Bruce Banner and his cousin, Jennifer Walters.

Logan is set on this trail by an older Clint Barton, who is secretly planning to commission a new team of Avengers to take back the United States from all the villains that control it now. Logan was under the assumption that he was transporting drugs for Barton, only to find out that he was actually hired to transport an army’s worth of super soldier serum, one that would fight the good fight against the likes of Kingpin, Hulk, and Red Skull.

However, the delivery would go sideways, as Red Skull’s forces would ambush Barton and Logan, and the latter would wake up in Red Skull’s trophy room, where he would have memorabilia from the extinct superheroes of the Marvel Universe, such as Captain America’s shield and Iron Man’s armor. After breaking himself free, Logan would engage Red Skull, now the President of the United States, in battle, decapitating the villain with his old adversary’s shield.

However, all of Wolverine’s efforts were for naught

Wolverine would get the money that he was promised after he slays Red Skull, and makes his way home to pay the Hulk Gang. However, he is greeted by the sight of his wife and children dead and unburied, as the Hulk Gang had grown impatient with the time it was taking Logan to get the money he had promised them.

Until this point in the story, Logan had refused to use his claws in battle, given the oath her took after slaughtering the X-Men under Mysterio’s illusion. Not only did he murder his comrades, he also murdered his mentors and the children who looked up to him, including Jubilee. The horror of what the villain had induced him to do caused Logan to swear off using his claws until he saw the dead bodies of his wife and children.

Logan then goes on to unleash his claws and slaughter the Hulk Gang, making his way all the up to Old Man Banner, who has acquired monstrous strength in his human form, while also being driven mad with Gamma radiation poisoning. Logan would go on to slay Banner and adopt the infant Bruce Banner Jr. with a mission to rid the world of the tyranny of the villains.