Co-creator Len Wein's original idea was that the character was actually a wolverine cub that was mutated into human form. He also intended for Wolverine's signature claws to extend from his gloves, not from his body. But these ideas were dropped when new writer Chris Claremont took over the series.Let me respond to this as emphatically as I possibly can.
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! And...oh, yeah...WRONG!
Well, at least, in part.
While I readily admit that my original idea was for Wolvie's claws to extend from the backs of his gloves (I figured that since Adamantium is indestructible, telescoping claws no more than a molecule thick could fit into those casings in the backs of Adamantium gloves, which had then been covered in cloth. Dave and Chris definitely improved on that idea), I absolutely DID NOT ever intend to make Logan a mutated wolverine. I write stories about human beings, not evolved animals (with apologies for any story I may have written that involved the High Evolutionary). The mutated wolverine thing came about long after I was no longer involved with the book. I'm not certain if the idea was first suggested by Chris Claremont, the late much-missed Dave Cockrum, or John Byrne when he came aboard as artist, but it most certainly DID NOT start with me.
Just setting the record straight here. As far as I'm concerned, that idea is spinach, and I say to Hell with it.