Exactly ten years ago, Marvel finally passed on the mantle of Wolverine. The greatest superheroes always leave a legacy behind. Wolverine would never have considered himself one of the greatest, but its impossible to overestimate his impact; Logan has been a member of countless superhero teams, he’s saved the world so many times, and he accomplished all this even as he struggled to retain his humanity. A decade ago, Marvel made the shocking decision to kill off Wolverine for a while, using this as a chance to explore his legacy.
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Published on November 11, 2016, Tom Taylor, David López, and David Navarrot’s All-New Wolverine #1 introduced Logan’s replacement. In the end, after a major comic book event in which Wolverine’s loved ones vied to decide what his legacy would be, there was only really one candidate for the role.
Laura Kinney (X-23) is the Best New Wolverine
Laura Kinney’s X-23 claimed the title of the “All-New Wolverine.” A female clone of Logan, Laura’s journey mirrored his own; she had been raised as an assassin, believing herself almost soulless, and it took her many years to accept her humanity. In the end, Logan played a key role in helping her recognize the goodness within her. He treated Laura as a daughter figure, insisting she had dignity and value, even clashing with Cyclops when Scott Summers wanted to use her as just another living weapon as a member of X-Force.
Laura became Wolverine in honor of her found father, encouraged to do so after Tony Stark discovered she was created in an artificial process that technically meant she really was his daughter. But there was more to it than that, because this also meant she moved on at last from the “X-23” name. This had been treated as Laura’s codename, but it was actually the designation she was given by her creators, a “slave name” given to her to dehumanize her. In calling herself Wolverine, Laura rejected this once and for all.
The All-New Wolverine Hasn’t (Quite) Stuck
Logan didn’t stay dead, of course. Since then, Marvel Comics has struggled with a strange tension; Laura is sometimes treated as another Wolverine, and sometimes still as X-23. Weirdly, Marvel’s current books have made her the new Sabretooth, a legacy that seems rather ill-fitting for her. But she will always be the best Wolverine replacement of all, simply because it’s the logical completion of her character arc, representing her evolution into a true daughter for Logan.
It’s just shocking to realize all this happened ten years ago now, in an epic run penned by Tom Taylor – the same man who is soon to tell a crossover story in which the All-New Wolverine crosses paths with the DC superhero Nightwing. This DC and Marvel crossover will truly be a comic to remember, as the legacies of Batman and Wolverine collide.
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