One of those X-Men baseball games that stands out for me was in X-MEN ANNUAL 7 (1983), "Scavenger Hunt", by Claremont, with art by Michael Golden and a holy host of inkers.
A tremendously fun story, with the Impossible Man.







Another Claremont/Golden story that's a favorite of mine is AVENGERS ANNUAL 10 (1981), which is actually something of a sequel to AVENGERS 200, and resolves a lot of plot holes about the sudden departure of Ms. Marvel from the AVENGERS series.
It's also the story that introduced Rogue.







I also love the Christmas scenes in X-MEN 143 (cover date March 1981, out just before Christmas 1980), that featured some wonderfully charming Christmas scenes with the X-Men, including Kitty Pryde holding a leaf of mistletoe over Peter's head and slipping him a kiss, much to his red-faced embarrassment. Great stuff.





I think Wolverine's appeal is partly his martial arts and warrior bushido influences (which actually was introduced much later than Wolverine's initial popularity).
Wolverine's bushido influence largely began with the Claremont/Miller/Rubinstein four-issue WOLVERINE series in 1982...

... but Wolverine was a fan-favorite from his introduction in 1975, and especially from the point where Byrne took over the X-MEN series in 1977.


The martial arts aspect was part of Wolverine's appeal, but he was also a former secret agent for the Canadian government (the whole Alpha Flight thing, and a suggested but never fully explained period of espionage before that. Primarily defined in X-MEN 109, and 120-121.)
The air of mystery of a bad guy turned good, with a largely unexplained past, is what makes Wolverine so appealing, certainly for me.

Wolverine also has a Tarzan/Conan-like quality, of being something of an animal living in the world of civilized men, and at times unleashing a "jungle" brand of justice. And the killing of the guard with a now-famous "SNIKT", in the Savage Land story in X-MEN 114-116.

Wolverine is appealing as a killer, but as you say, there is a sense of honor and necessity to it when he kills, which I think the Bushido code is a part of.
And the fact that the rest of the X-Men find his ease with killing to be savage adds a nice contrast.

That internal conflict within the group is part of it, too. For all the fighting of villains and each other, the X-Men are (or were in the Claremont years) a family, and there was love there, and the barbecues and the baseball games, and the Christmas decorations are a part of that. And Wolverine is, I guess, the James Dean of the family.

And you're right, Beardguy, there has been a clear shift away from that loving family that we all saw in X-MEN and NEW MUTANTS in the 70's and early/mid/late 80's.
I think it actually began to disappear about the time Jim Lee began drawing the series. That's when the testosterone overdrive began to kick in.
--------------------


"This Man, This Wonder Boy..."