Sooo many points I agree with in this thread. I've been a huge Wolverine fan since I was a kid and it's frustrating to see how things have gone. I'd like him gone for a bit and him toned down in his return. Lower the healing factor back to what it used to be.
Also, like Batroc says when he fought him recently: "You were known as a great martial artist too once. What happened to that?"
By giving him an "immortality" power he just sits there and gets his a$$ get kicked by anyone.
Another point I agree with. He now just dives into stuff, gets hurt and heals. The last time I remember him actually using martial arts effectively was in Vol.3 (2003) he was investigating a girl who was kidnapped by a cult. Her father noticed the weird, short caveman had been snooping around, so he and his big trucker buddies got the idea to fight Logan. It was a great series of panels; he never popped his claws once, but he took them all down masterfully with various martial arts and takedowns, but didn't do more than incapacitate them until he could explain himself.
I also miss his smarts. He's no Reed Richards, but I like that he's tactically clever. One of my favorite moments was when he got married to Viper and an Adamantium-enhanced Sabretooth crashed the party and left him for dead. He used skill and misdirection to make it seem that several X-men, Cap and the Avengers, and the Hulk (savage and Joe Fixit) were tearing up Madripoor. He even lampshaded that because he and Beast had a similar haircut at the time, it made it all the easier.
It's just like Deadpool. They're both fantastic characters doomed by their popularity. With the increase in fame, more appearances call for more writers, many of whom don't have a good grasp of the character, but put forth things in motion that stick. Case in point, Deadpool's obsession with Chimichangas. He doesn't even like them. In Cable and Deadpool he mentally notes that he doesn't even like them, he just likes to say the word, but if you look in the Way run and the game's marketing, it's all included. Now that's a minor minoooor point that I don't really care about (the things are delicious), but a better point would be the 'Pool-vision, multiple voices, and character tone.
You get enough of that and the character you once loved isn't there anymore, but rather a pale shadow is everywhere getting worse with time.
Wolverine's healing factor has been a ridiculous point of regression to his character. He could get into situations that could and would kill most people, but then he would have to stay savvy in order to survive, not pop his claws, grunt, fart, and win automatically.
I'm just rambling at this point, but I want Wolverine to "take a break" so that his return is more than just tied to appearances in comics, but rather a return to form. I don't want him on multiple teams, and I like back when he was doing the honourable samurai thing and fighting against the beast within. He struggled with killing for a long while, and I liked that. I'm not saying he should never kill again, I'm just saying he should weigh it more than he does now. He's just given up and resigned himself to a killer.
