In my humble opinion if this had been written about 15-20 years ago it would have a much bigger impact. Just like if “Day of Future Past” had come out 10 years ago I might consider it a good story, but it wouldn’t have knocked my socks off like it did back in 1980. So much has happened to the Wolverine character that the revelation of what happened to him isn't nearly as powerful as it could have been, or as “believable. Logan isn’t really the berserker-killer he once was, so him going on a killing rampage doesn't seem as likely or as possible as it did it the 80's or early 90's, something the X-Men actually had to worry about. He calmed down so much from those days and has become more like a samurai character than the guy at a biker bar (like he was during the Byrne's years). If the story had been written in 1993, I would think that this is very possible or feasible that one day he could be tricked into killing the X-Men, but the way his character has progressed and changed since then makes this seem like an obvious “what if” story, something that could never happen.

And even though I am one of the biggest Millar bashers, I don’t really blame him for that problem. A lot of other writers over the years have neutered Logan and made him into a character I could care less about. Millar is just stuck with the consequences of those writers’ actions. If Wolverine hadn’t already been “pussified”, the image of a pacifist Logan trying to repent for losing control of his bestial nature would probably hit me a lot harder.

To me, the story just works better if it was the old, berserk Logan, back when he would always resort to using violence as a first option and didn’t mind using lethal force. Because if it happened in those days, then it creates a unique scenario where we have to wonder if Logan was truly tricked into resorting to such a bloody act or did he just jump to a conclusion and was happy to butcher some enemies. I guess the best comparison would be a professional soldier who uses bad judgment one time and kills a comrade in friendly fire versus a soldier who always shoots first and asks questions latter doing the same thing. To me the latter is the more interesting scenario, and makes Logan feel guiltier.

Of course, I do have an easy solution for myself. I just like to pretend that the story was written about two or three years after Secret Wars II, and that it is only now seeing print.