I, too, am not a fan of all the baggage that came along later, btw.

Next to Cyclops, I'd say Wolverine was pretty much my second-favorite X-Man. But, as he grew in popularity, the character I knew and liked virtually disappeared. I place that point at the time of the 1982 "Wolverine" mini-series by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont.

Wolverine by Claremont/Cockrum and Claremont/Byrne was a true loner, with psychotic tendencies. What made him heroic was that he tried to contain his baser instincts, which is why he stayed with Xavier and the team. Even though the "bad boy" image is perceived as a cool one, he was not my second-favorite because of his savageness and anti-authority attitude, but because such traits in a "hero" in the 1970s-ealy 1980s (and before) was different. Thanks to the popularity of the character, though, far too many rip-off characters came along, and being a savage fighter became more the norm than an odd exception.

To me, the Wolverine I read up until JB's departure was that loner who had to fight from going into beserker rages. His tendency towards using lethal force wasn't something the team encouraged, or something he necessarily wanted to give into, himself. He just had trouble controlling those urges. He had a crush on Jean Grey, but it was always going to be unattainable because Jean held no attraction to the kind of person he was (not counting revisionist history in later years).

The Wolverine that came after 1982 was presented as a cocky, smug, bad boy badass, who seemed to have no issue with going beserk. Hardly a loner, it seems that in the course of his lifetime he met and even had friendships with a slew of Marvel heroes and other characters. And we've mentioned here already how his healing power became godlike. And OF COURSE Jean had the hots for him. What woman could resist this alpha male, macho super-stud?

Frankly, I think the Wolverine of 1980 would spit on the post 1982 poser. That's why I am glad to see JB restoring the character to the one I enjoyed reading during JB's earlier run. It's also great that Cyclops is not being written as a jerk, a villain, or an ineffectual boob, but like the leader he should have always been.

Which is pretty much in contrast to the punk earlier version, who thought he was hot shit, but often bit off more than he could chew and needed Cyclops to set him straight from time to time.