See, here's the thing...Wolverine, like any other character, is great when handled by the CORRECT writer. Somewhere between Onslaught and now, they decided that all that made Wolverine cool was his hack/slash attitude and claws, whereas what made him so cool a character was his Clint Eastwood-like quality. He was the silent badass who didn't say much, and who, for the most part, clung to the background until he was needed to step in and do what he does best. NOT that he was flawless and the only one who could win fights.
Wolverine was a multi-dimensional character once he joined the X-Men. He had depth, mystery, a complex personality. He provided a good foil for Cyclops' goody-goody nature, and competition for Jean as women love the bad boy. Though the X-Men were like his family and the X-Mansion the only place he considered home, he always felt like an outsider amongst outsiders and kept his distance. He fought to control the animal nature inside, he had extensive training which he used to the fullest from the simplest hunt to saving his allies. He was hardly a genius, but when he spoke there was a wisdom behind the words that only comes with experience.
THAT was Wolverine.
This character that's been running around for a while is NOT. It's a characature. It's a What If? gone wrong. He's obnoxious, in your face, nothing more than two sets of claws (and FYI, there's a smoking ban at Marvel so he hasn't lit-up in a few years now). Marvel thinks that's all there is to the character, and the writers do little to disporve it.
You wanna see the REAL Wolverine? Go read CLASSIC Claremont. Go read Larry Hama. Go read any book before the mid 1990s, then come back here and tell us that he was everything he is now.
