Swift Stabbing

Wolverine’s body can heal almost any wound. However, this healing factor needs a bit of warning before it’s activated. Apparently, Wolverine’s foes from Enemy of the State know that.

As the Hand and HYDRA work together to kill and brainwash superheroes, Wolverine meets a swift death in a cemetery. Logan is stabbed even before he realizes that he’s in danger, and that’s all it takes. He does return from the dead, and works as an assassin for the villains, but he eventually turns on his masters and becomes the story’s hero (or at least one of them).

The What If? version never has Wolverine under the control of the Hand and HYDRA. And he meets another type of death: Kitty Pryde phases her hand into his brain and kills him, losing her hand in the process.

It was effective.