But so many people hate it. I mean…why? It’s got RON PERLMAN in it, for crap’s sakes. Sure, you can barely recognize him…but it’s Ron Perlman! What about that isn’t awesome?

Also, that thoroughly awesome scene of Data and Picard flying from one end of the ship to another, THROUGH THE CORRIDORS, in their little shuttlecraft. Awesome, I say. AWESOME.

Let’s not forget Worf being unable to hold his liquor at the Riker/Troi wedding. Some hilarious stuff there.

Another cool part? The entire closing space battle. Sure, it’s no Wrath-of-Khan…but I remember watching it the first time, and realizing I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat, and thinking to myself “So. THAT’S what they meant.”

Data’s death? Was quite moving. Sure, it would’ve been more moving if stupid B4 wasn’t there (yes, even I’m willing to admit there were flaws), but it was moving all the same.

Oh, and dune buggies. With phaser rifles. If there’s one thing that every home/starship/person born should have in the 24th century, it’s dune buggies with phaser rifles.

So I give you this, in coda, to close out my argument:

Sweet.

FIGHT!

And that’s what I think the bone claws took away. They made him a killer first. He was built for it from birth, rather than turned into it by evil men.

Maybe the modern Wolverine had been brainwashed to the point that he didn’t remember he had bone claws. Don’t see why that memory would be something the government would need to remove, but let’s say they did. The problem is we’ve seen Wolverine in the past, before the Weapon X program, and he didn’t have bone claws then. He didn’t have them when he teamed up with Captain America in 1941 (Uncanny X-Men #268) and he didn’t have them when he teamed up with Ben Grimm (Before the Fantastic Four).

And I fail to see how someone with a healing factor that will regenerate the bone claws should he lose them makes that person anymore careful heading into battle.

Here’s what bone claws took away from the character and why they’re a bad retcon: Before the retcon Wolverine was just a feral mutant with a healing factor that the government took and f-ed up. His greatest weapon was something done to him. A violation. Every time he popped the claws he was reminded that “they” did this to him. They turned him into nothing but a killing machine. He struggled to not be “only” a killing machine. It’s what made his relationships with characters like Jean Grey and Katie Power so delicate and interesting.

But now, after the retcon, he was always meant to be a killing machine. They didn’t create him. They just added to him.

And, yes, after the adamantium was ripped from his body, he should have just been back to a mutant with a healing factor. Wolverine with no claws is Logan. There would have been some interesting stories there. Wolverine with bone claws… now there’s a bargain basement Sabretooth.

Do you like the way Wolverine got his adamantium back? And aside from supposedly making him more cautious in battle, what else do you think bone claws added to the character?

I do concede that Logan’s adamantium claws are portrayed as either smooth pokers, or slim blades. I don’t see how this is different than how the bone claws were drawn. Granted they were viewed more as pokers than blades, but I don’t think there was that big a difference in their portrayal. Perhaps you could be griping about the thickness sometimes used for the bone claws, and I can understand that complaint, but that falls with the artist more so than the actual claws.

One of the main points you bring up is that the revelation of Logan having bone claws was unknown to not only the audience (DUH!) but to Logan as well. To answer this point I need only remind you one basic thing about the character of Wolverine. HE’S BEEN BRAINWASHED NUMEROUS TIMES!!! Call me crazy, but I think it’s safe to assume the knowledge of having bone claws may have been lost on him due to the excessive brainwashing he’s endured.

One of the benefits in my eyes to the bone claws that it added an aspect to Logan that hadn’t been seen up until that point. Logan had always run into fights headfirst not thinking at all of any consequences, and quite honestly it’s understandable given he had an unbreakable skeleton and a healing factor. However Logan quickly realized that having bone claws didn’t afford him this luxury anymore, as during a battle with Cyber his bone claws were snapped in half. Logan having to come to grips with the fact that he had to think more before going into battle was a welcome addition to the character.

I do have a question for you after having the adamantium ripped from his body what would you have done? Had Logan running around with no claws? Wolverine with no claws isn’t Wolverine anymore he’s just a weak copy of Sabretooth who incidentally is a weak copy of Wolverine to begin with. It just doesn’t work.

We kick off this weekly series of geek debates with a timely one: are Wolverine’s bone claws stupid? A 90s retcon to his origin, it was revealed after Magneto ripped the adamantium from Wolverine’s body that, under the metal claws, he had ones made of bone, that he, and the audience, never knew about.

I’ve argued in the past that bone claws are dumb. But here, in this arena, I won’t be shouting into the dark. We shall hear just not one side of the debate, but the other side as well. Debating me this week will be YMB member extraordinaire Chris Callan.

I shall begin simply, with a question for Mr. Callan:

Wolverine’s bone claws have always been portrayed as lumpy, bony outgrowths. Yet his adamantium claws have always been drawn as either smooth pokers or slim blades. With adamantium being both a rare metal and an indestructible one, why would they bother adding so much extra that they “smoothed out” his orignaly lumpy bone claws?