Romulus and Remus, two brothers raised by a wolf, that created the Roman nation, employ lupine soldiers (Wolverine and Sabertooth) to do the dirty work.

Hmmm.  It's better than Origin.  It still doesn't reveal their true origins, but it seems like a stretch. 

Having Wolverine be that old is out of context for the character.  All previous references to Wolverine's age hinted that he was hundreds rather than thousands of years old.

Ah, I don't know why I'm bitching about it so much.  Eventually, Marvel will have a Crisis like event, the character will be ret-conned, and just like Dallas I can pretend it was all a dream.

We need the back-story to Wolverine like we need a prequel to Sergio Leone's "Man With No Name" trilogy.

Wolverine at his best is an unsettling character: vicious but honourable; far from a paragon and more anti-hero than hero. There should be an air of mystery about him, this edge that you (as well as his teammates) just don't quite know where things stand. I don't see how you improve the character when you blunt that edge through a ham-handed back-story.

The art of a really good reveal is that you raise more questions than you answer. It's a natural extension of the Samuel R. Delany thought that "Endings, to be useful, must be inconclusive."

Matthew McCallum wrote: That one panel put an end to all those debates along the lines of "Is Doom horribly disfigured (the Stan Lee view) or did he suffer just a tiny nick that marred his perfection and his ego equated that scar to total disfigurement (the Jack Kirby view)?"

Daniel Kendrick: Actually the way I read it John had his cake and ate it too.

Hey, you put a glowing-hot faceplate on anybody's kisser and it's going to leave a mark!

But I'm referring to that close-up scene in the mirror. After years of being bathed in shadow and shown in long shots, Von Doom's injuries were there on display for all to see.

Now, Doom disfigured HIMSELF when he put on the smoldering mask, and that's why that debate was so significant. If he was horribly scarred from the blast, affixing a red-hot mask to his marred flesh is certainly painful, but not as extreme as a man who craves perfection to the point that a mere blemish may as well be total disfigurement and he completes the job himself.

It's like the "Is Batman psychotic?" debate. Some say, "Of course, how could he not be?" Others, like myself, feel he's the last sane man in an insane world. Either way, I don't want to read a comic where Bruce Wayne undergoes a full psychological assessment and the question is answered definitively. The debate is just too much fun!

Interesting, especially since the wolverine is part of the family mustelidae, and is a relative of the weasel and the mink.
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Wel, now I have to ask,,,what family does the sabertooth belong to?

But I'm referring to that close-up scene in the mirror. After years of being bathed in shadow and shown in long shots, Von Doom's injuries were there on display for all to see.

QUOTE: Yeah, they haven't yet fully revealed what's going on, but apparently Wolverine and Sabretooth were lupine soldiers working for a guy named Romulus in ancient times.  Or, they're remembering someone else's life.  It also involves Wild Child.  Ok, my head hurts...

The good news is this seems to undo the Origin story.  The bad news is that it's as bad as an idea.  What are they, like werewolves or something?