Sabretooth is less vicious, Cortez is super powerful, Jean and Wolverine are in love etc etc. Then it would be more about the plot then trying to come up with excuses to change things.

1) Sabretooth being shoehorned on to the team, which we all saw coming.

2) The big reveal at the end of the issue. Which I admit, is somewhat intriguing, though the possibility for failure is massive.

3) Kitty’s new found claw. This is the biggy. For me, there’s two things to keep in mind…

An adamantium claw bonding to a regular skeleton is a bizarre twist when you think in 616 logic. But this isn’t 616, this is “What if Claremont got to write the stories he wanted to write and every writer who came after never existed“. In that way, anything is possible. None of the “facts” we know about how things work are necessarily true.

And two, my theory on how it works isn’t that she was bonded to the claw, but rather it was phased into her and resides within her forearm in a semi-permanent state of physical displacement.

Basically, I believe the claw is being held there by her powers, and that when it’s used she’s phasing it forward and back out of her arm. Perhaps when she masters it she’ll be able to avoid that pesky flesh tearing aspect. Think… how she can travel the world by semi-phasing herself and letting the Earth rotate, but just with the claw in her arm.

The last thing I want to mention is Claremont’s explanation of the situation. That nonsense he has Beast speak about the situation was non-information. It was grade A old school comic pseudo-science that essentially amounts to nothing. Which is in keeping with Claremont’s retro direction, I suppose.