Soon after Thunderbird's funeral, Logan's beserker rage resurfaced yet again. During a session in the X-Men's Danger Room (Uncanny X-Men #96), in which the X-Men engage in practice combat to hone thier skills, Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) laughed when Logan was knocked aside by a burst of wind that Storm summoned up. Suddenly overwhelmed by fury, Logan hurled himself at Kurt, his claws out, snarling, "Nobody laughs at Wolverine, mister-". If not for Ororo's warning, Kurt might have been killed the next instant, but he teleported himself away in time.

Sean Cassidy (Banshee), no doubt remembering what Logan said on the flight to Valhalla, tried to calm him down, saying "Laddie - take it easy. Ye could have killed Nightcrawler then, y'know..."

Logan replied, enigmatically, "Yeah - I know." He said not a word about what he felt now that his rage had passed.

That very night the X-Men were up against Kierrok, one of the N'garai, a race of demons from another dimension. Kurt (Nightcrawler) courageously attacked the creature, which knocked him hard into a bank of electrical equipment, shocking Kurt unconscious. Furious, Logan attacked the monster who had just nearly killed the man Logan had almost killed earlier. "The misfit may be a misfit," Logan snarled, "but he's Wolverine's buddy, an' nobody beats on Wolverine's buddies."

Forced with an utterly inhuman opponent, Logan lost all inhibitions about holding back and went temporarily, litteraly insane. Cutting lose with his claws, Logan seemingle slaughtered the creature. Afterward, Logan faced Xavier and his shocked teammates and reflected, "Ten years o' psycho training. O' hypnotism. O' drug therapy. Ten years o' prayin'...and I cut him to pieces without a thought. Nothing changes, Prof - I thought I'd learned to control myself - I guess I was wrong - and you want ta know something funny - I'm glad!"

Scott Summers (Cyclops) interupted Logan's admission. "You want to know something even funnier? Kierok's NOT DEAD." Apparently, not even Logan's onslaugt was sufficient to kill the demon, and the X-Men had to dispose of him in a different way.

A few days later, Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin (Colossus) saved Logan from being struck by a falling girder during a practice session in the X-Man's Danger room. Far from grateful, Logan began beating Piotr for getting in his way. When Scott Summers (Cyclops) tried to break up the argument, Logan began questioning Summers' ability as a leadder. Logan's disdain for Summers would continue to mount, quite possibly fed by Logan's resentment over his love for Jean Grey.

Shortly afterward, using his power of self-telepotation, Kurt played a game of cat and mouse with Logan as a training exercise, staying out of reach by continually disappearing and reappearing (Classic X-Men #4). After finally capturing Logan, it looked for a moment looked as if Logan would lose his temper. Claws out, Logan threatened him, but this time sheathed the claws and entended his hand in friendship.

By this time, Kurt could disguise his unusual physical appearance in public by means of an "image inducer" Xavier had given him. This small device, created by Tony Stark (Iron Man), projected holographic images around Kurt to make him appear to be an ordinary human being. Kurt regarded the device as a way of avoiding being procecuted as a freak. Logan, however, didn't believe that hiding behind high-tech disguises was the answer.

"Proud man don't hide behind toys, Logan said. "'Crawler, how can mutants ever expect to be accepted if we keep hidin' behind masks and facades? If we're worth anything, we ought'a stand straight up an' tell the flamin' world: This is who I am, take it or leave it! But we don't ... cause we're scared."

"I am not," Kurt replied defensively.

"Prove it" Logan said, daring Kurt to walk down the main street of Salem Center without any disguises. Stark's image inducer was to be off-limits.

Kurt took the dare, and to his surprise, he rather enjoyed his encounters with bemused passers-by. However, Kurt ran into an anti-mutant bigot, and trouble seemed about to erupt. Logan came to Kurt's dfense, attacking the bully, but Kurt stopped Logan before he got carried away, and the fight was over.

"What I learned today," Kurt told Logan,"I can never repay."

"Hey, elf" Logan smiled, "what are friends for?" They shook hands, sealing a friendship that has endured for years.

Logan's growing resentment with the team leader Scott Summers (Cyclops) came to a head when the X-Men first clashed with the agent of Emperor D'Ken of the Shi'ar Galaxy (Uncanny X-Men #97). He had taken the alias of Eric The Red and placed Alex Summers (Havok) and Lorna Dane (Polaris) under his mental control, forcing then into battling the other X-Men. When Logan and Sean Cassidy (Banshee) arrived to join the fight, Eric realized the tide had turned against him and flew off, taking Havok and Polaris with him. Cyclops threatened to stop them with an eye-blast, but couldn't bring himself to risk killing his brother or Lorna.

Logan, however, already in a mood for battle, saw the matter as clear cut. "What're ya doin', boss-man? You gotta clear shot at 'em! Blast 'em, man! They're getting away - Blast 'em!" Cyclops, however, remained still, lost in his own thoughts.

Logan exploded. "That does it, bub - Those clowns try to stomp us, an' you just stand there an' watch 'em fly away! Whatsa matter, hotshot - you gutless or somethin'..."

And then, for once, it was someone other than Logan who burst out in rage. Uncharacteristically furious, Cyclops whipped about and knocked Logan down to the ground. Seething, Logan unsheathed his claws, and shouted, "I'm gonna cut you wide open for that!"

But he didn't, because Ororo Munroe (Storm) immediately gripped Logan's shoulder, and him in a clear, stern voice, "No! You will do nothing, Wolverine - not now, not ever ... or you will answer to me." Startled, Logan could only stare at Ororo, looking oddly covered by her determination. It was one of the first times that Ororo had asserted herself so strongly as a member of the X-Men. At this moment, Logan saw a glimpse in her of the Ororo of years to come, the Ororo who would take over leadership of the X-Men from Summers.

Having been by his own admission, a loner since childhood, Logan had no intention of celebrating Christmas with the others (Uncanny X-Men #98). He left his colleagues behind at Manhattan's Rackafeller Center, and wandered off on his own.

He would see them all again much sooner than he imagined. New York City was also the location of the headquarters of the Hellfire Club, a centuries-old social organization with a past notorious for decadence. Today, unknown to the world at large, the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle was in actuality a cabal of powerful business people who sought to gain economic and political dominance of the entire world.

At this time, the council of the Chosen, as the Circle was known then, was headed by a man named Edward Buckman, whose hatred for superhuman mutants had led him to finance a project intended to spell their doom. The Council had enabled Dr Eric Lang, a roboticist whose hatred for mutants was even more fervid, to recreate the Sentinels, enormous robots designed specifically to capture mutants. And it was during the holiday season, when his victims least expected it, that Lang launched his attack.

The Sentinels soon succeeded in capturing both Jean Grey and Logan (amongst others), taking them onboard Lang's space station headquarters. Enraged at seeing Lang strike Jean, Logan used his claws to slice his way free of his prison, and then to rip apart the Sentinel that tried to stop him.

Once Jean was free, Sean Cassidy (Banshee) approached Logan. "Yer claws, laddie.. Lord above, they're apart of you - we .. I .. didn't know!"

Logan shruged him off. "Why should you, Irish? It's none o' your bsiness." He then noticed Jean trying to tear the long evening gown she had been wearing to give herself greater freedom of movement. Demonstrating his own brand of vourtesy, Logan decided to help out by slicing apart the floor-length dress into a rather microminiskirt before Jean could stop him. She was totally exasperated at Logan's gall, but Logan himself was absolutely delighted.

Calling in a favor from Xavier's friend, Dr Peter Corbeau, the other X-Men launched themselves into space in a NASA space shuttle and succeeded in invading Lang's fortress (Uncanny X-Men #99). To their astonishment, the "new" X-Men found themselves opposed by what appeared to be the original members of their team.

But it was Logan who realized the truth. Finding himself attacked by what appeared to be Marvel Girl, Logan told his opponent, "I'm like an animal - I don't know from faces. I know from scents, voices... feelings. I also know Jean Grey. An' lady, whatever you are, you ain't Jean Grey!"

With that, Logan literally ripped his adversary apart. He proved to be correct, for his opponent was a kind of robotic Sentinel itself, as were the other "original" X-Men.

The X-Men made short work of the other X-Men robots, and soon Lang was himself defeated. But the space station was in ruins, on the verge of exploding, and the X-Men had to made their escape in the shuttle, which was itself badly damaged.