By this point, there's a lot more to work with than the guy who jumped into that Hulk fight.

By this point, there's a lot more to work with than the guy who jumped into that Hulk fight. He has a past in Canada that keeps catching up with him. He has Mariko and everything that comes with being involved in her life. Kitty needs things from him that his adult teammates don't. Sabretooth has become a serious personal enemy. Madripoor gives him people and problems away from the X-Men. You can take any one of those and get a different kind of Wolverine story out of it. He doesn't have to spend every issue doing exactly the same thing. That's why the early appearances are worth going through. A lot gets added over the years, and it's easy to remember the complete character so well that you forget which parts weren't there yet. Sabretooth is probably the clearest example of that. If you only know the Wolverine rivalry, going back to him losing to a snow-blind Iron Fist or getting beaten bloody by Black Cat is going to give you a very different first impression.