Yeah, it was just Logan in a tank with wires and hoses stuck into him.

QUOTE: In any case, I read the story with the existing preconceptions in mind about Wolverine's spring-loaded devices from X-Men 142.  I suppose I may have naively believed Weapon X was designed to fit with what had already been established, rather than ignore it in favor of laying tenuous groundwork for a revelation no one else seemed to know about.  Could be.

Exactly.  I think that was the case with most readers including myself.  At the very least, as I mentioned, the story was left purposely ambiguous.  If they had solidy established that cybernetic mechanisms were implanted we wouldn't get the bone claws, possibly one of the worst ideas ever in any medium or situation.

Just as stupid a development (possibly even stupider) is when Sabertooth's skeleton was metallized; but his claws were metallized too.  What, they metallized the keratin in his fingernails?  Or did they replace his fingernails (neat trick considering ST's healing factor).

QUOTE: The only problem with this, and it bothered me at the time, was that you would think Logan would have been x-rayed, not only before the procedure but during his time as a government agent, and the claws would have been evident. Then again, maybe they just looked like a deformity and no attempt to remove them was made because they weren't affecting his health or mobility and they weren't attracting attention because they were hidden.

Yeah, the x-ray thing was a discrepancy, even allowing for the claws to be taken for an abnormality (which, indeed, they would be).  I think there were certain sloppy aspects to the story.  For instance, neither the Prof nor Dr. Cornelius initially knew Logan was a mutant.  Did they think a normal man would survive the procedure?

QUOTE: I never agreed with the bone claws direction. It had been established before that they were pneumatic weapons forced into him by unscrupulous scientists who were giddy to have a perpetually regenerating subject at their disposal. When Magneto tore the metal out of him, Wolverine should have only been left with only his healing (and I guess his heightened senses as well). Perhaps at that point, he could have taken up a sword for a weapon or something... I don't know. But bony claws? I'll pass.

Yeah, I mean, what good are bone claws anyway except against common thugs?  Bones break relatively easily, something which did not escape the storytellers (I guess it made for a "cool" visual) but it begs the question of what's the point?

QUOTE: I don't think BWS meant for the claws to be organic, it was just the way he prefered to call the implants claws, pointing that Logan was an animal, under their control.

I don't think BWS's intentions mattered, really. Again, whatever they were, he made the story ambiguous.  Also, one panel shows an osteograph which suggests the claw mechanisms are natural; it looked like a bunch of tendons and such.

When he began to be over-exposed, his backstory was revealed, and the character was retconned and retconned again.

Best line I always thought summed Wolverine up was:

"I didn't know you spoke Japanese?"

"You never asked."

Wolverine is the Forrest Gump of the Marvel Universe.  He shows up in all sorts of contexts and gets shoe-horned into many historical events.  I just saw a cover of a comic coming out this week that showed Wolverine battling along side Captain America and Bucky which brought me to this conclusion.

Also, what everyone else said:  overexposed, overexposed, etc. etc.

It's like Fonzy on Happy Days also.  At first he was a peripheral character and that made him cool and people looked forward to his appearances.  By the end of the series he was the star and had morphed into a spoof of his original character.

Remember Punisher and Ghost Rider in the 90's.  Loved Zeck's Punisher and Texiera's Ghost Rider at first.  Two years later I could care less.  Too much of a good thing...