Originally, my intent was to have Wolverine killed by Lady Deathstrike. His healing factor would have gone into overdrive to save him. In the meanwhile, his body would be acquired by The Hand and he would be reborn by them as their new Master Assassin, at which point the would lead them against the X-Men. This in turn would lead the greatest unimaginable challenge to the relationship between [Cyclops] and Jean, with who knows what kind of repercussions (short & long term), leading up to a final cathartic conclusion in Uncanny X-Men #294, and then in Uncanny X-Men #300.
Wolverine died. Jean Grey goes in and becomes his evil babe, though not really, she would be faking it. She is trying to tap into the Wolverine that is buried beneath all of The Hands spells. Scott and company are figuring, Wolverines gone bad, we gotta put him down. Xavier is immovably adamant about the need to save him. The need to salvage him, to bring him back to the light.
Wolvies healing factor went into ultra high gear, when he was killed, it was essentially rebuilding his heart. This is really disgusting, but his arms and legs would have rotted, as his heart healed. His conscious mind would have been kept in total suspended animation, everything would have geared towards keeping his sentiency intact and repairing his heart, everything would have been left to rot. So you would find this partially decomposed body, with a full-healed torso, at which point, the decomposed bits would begin to heal. It would take a long time and be disgusting beyond words, but ultimately he would have survived. The idea was that Wolverine really is impossible to kill. Anyway, one of the side effects of this, the healing factor is purging all non-organic matter, which means the adamantium. So what was going to happen was that it was like the Silver Surfer with hair. Hed be this blinding, shining creature with killer claws. Ultimately, the adamantium would just be part of his hair, hed look like a silver porcupine.
At some point, he and Colossus would have a major fight, and it would have this great cover, it would be a black background with a spotlight of light and in the center of the spotlight are two sets of claws with the housings, just as if they had been ripped out of his arms and one of the claws would be broken. What was going to happen in that issue was that Colossus was just going to pull the claws off from their roots.
So The Hand would then give him artificial claws, they would work or not work as the case may be, but again, as part of the healing process, gradually he would realize that he was growing something new. That there is a natural element is his body that gives him claws. And over a span of six issues, you would see them grow.
So, when all is said and done, it would come down to a major league fight between the X-Men and Wolverine. A major component of the fight would be Wolverines battle with himself over the goodness of his soul, the warrior of his soul fighting this demon he had become, and he would win. The adamantium would flake off and he would stand reborn as a totally natural being. His bones and claws would be virtually unbreakable, they could be broken, but they could also heal. But because of the incredible stress he has been under for the past two years, his healing factor is like, Im tired. Dont do this again, not fore awhile, OK? After all this, Wolverine is not only more vulnerable. Hes going to butt his head into the wall because It hurts too much and why do I wanna hurt myself? Ill use the key. It is like Wolverines come face to face with his own morality, and his own limitations and is like, Im too old for this shit. Well find a better way.
But at the same time, it would create a bond between him and Jean like nothing thats ever been done before. So that even if she was in love with [Cyclops], there would be a level of communication between her and Logan that Scott could only dream about, or have nightmares about. And at the end of it all, would lead to a final confrontation with the Shadow King. But that was my storyline, my core story for the first two years of X-Men.
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