All-New Wolverine vol 1: The Four Sisters
Legacy characters, then. It’s not a phenomenon that’s come up that often in the X-books. We’ve had duplicate versions of the same character, but not many cases of the same identity being passed on. Off the top of my head, Thunderbird and Phoenix spring to mind, and only Rachel Summers really had a full-blown legacy to inherit.
Sensible comics readers have been trained to be cynical. Top-tier heroes get replaced with temporary stand-ins all the time. For every Wally West, who actually did become established as the real Flash, there are many more John Walkers and Eric Mastersons and Jean-Paul Valleys. Of course, in many of those cases, the fact that they weren’t the “real” version of the character was kind of the point. Still, it’s a device heavily associated with gimmickry.
And some concepts are better suited to legacy characters than others. The likes of Iron Man, Thor and Green Lantern are easy – just pick a new character and give them the armour, hammer or ring, delete as appropriate. At the other end are concepts that are more character-driven, or so tied to some specific event that it feels horribly contrived to claim it happened twice. A new Deadpool wouldn’t work, because the hook of Deadpool is the voice of the character, and if that’s going to stay the same, why bother?
Where does Wolverine fit into that spectrum? All-New Wolverine wants to present Laura as having taken up the mantle of Wolverine after his death. Let’s gloss over the fact that we already had a lengthy series following on his death, which with hindsight never got anything approaching a proper ending, and which it seems we’re now just going to pretend didn’t happen. Is Wolverine really a “mantle” kind of character?
I’m not really convinced that he is, but that’s not to say that there isn’t some interest in the concept here. Laura’s on-panel relationship with Logan was decidedly understated, but given her suppressed personality, there’s some logic in the idea of her feeling more strongly about it than she let on. Logan isn’t directly a heavy presence in these issues, save for a dream sequence in issue #1. But he’s certainly implied, and issues #4 and #5 both see guest stars turning up to spell out what the contrast between the two Wolverines is supposed to be. From all this, it seems clear that writer Tom Taylor sees Laura as someone who’s similar but more controlled, and less prone to fits of rage. I can see where he’s coming from, but it’s been many years since Logan was regularly written that way either.
Still, both this title and All-New X-Men have probably made a good move by breaking Laura out of her established, rather flat persona and making her a bit more communicative and emotionally savvy. There were limits on what could be done with her before, and at some point she had to start integrating back into society. It’s not that she’s any more emotional than we’ve seen in the past, it’s more that she seems better able to read situations, something which used to leave her permanently freaked out and marginalised. You can do more with her this way.
The story involves a group of X-23 clones on the run from their creators in a rogue division of Alchemax. Rather oddly, Laura initially agrees to help hunt them down (well, maybe she just wants info), but it’s not long before she’s hooked up with three other X-23s and helping them fight back. This is quite a neat inversion of the legacy set-up, casting this more functional version of Laura in the mentor role against three younger versions of herself who are at different ages, and different points on the same character arc. Bellona, the oldest, is bitterly vindictive; Gabrielle is a relative innocent who can still be diverted before anything too awful happens to her. All of them seem a bit out of touch with the real world. (“How did they find us so quickly?” “I don’t know. Maybe because we’re basically driving a tank through a city street?”) If these characters are going to stick around – and it seems at least a couple of them are – then there’s going to be a lot of possibilities in following up these divergent versions of Laura, now that they’ve been split off from her life story.
The art is by David Lopez and David Navarrot, with Nathan Fairbairn on colours. It’s a nice looking series. I’m always delighted to see Lopez’s name on a book; he’s a great character artist, who can keep the multiple Lauras distinct, not just in costume, but in age, body language and demeanour. The costume designs for the other Lauras are great as well, with vaguely unsettling blank masks that keep them out of conventional superhero territory. And the potential for confusion is used very nicely in the final issue – something which only really works because the book has been so careful to avoid in the rest of the arc.
I’m not sure about the decision to devote issues #4 and #5 to guest appearances by Dr Strange and the Wasp, which pretty much serve to provide a bit of busy work in order to delay the finale. If the idea is to show Laura as integrated into the Marvel Universe, and ascended into Logan’s role, it seems strange to choose characters who had so little to do with him. And the bad guys are thoroughly one dimensional, though that’s not a huge issue – it’s not their story, and giving us any real reason to be sympathetic to them would just cloud the issue of how the various Lauras feel about them.
I’m interested, then. There are a couple of odd choices, and the attempted contrast with the original Wolverine doesn’t work for me at all, largely because it seems to be calling back to the Wolverine of thirty plus years ago. But the art is great, the retooling of Laura broadens her range, and I like the idea of casting her in the same role towards her clones that Logan had for her (even if it’s a role he never actually performed). If we’re going to see more of Gabrielle, the child X-23, that’ll keep me happy.
I dont know why, but this story just kept reminding me of Orphan Black.
Real talk, the current X-Men line-up is like the worst of all-time.
Like ok…Marvel isn’t trying to kill the X-Men, but if they WERE, the current creative direction would be a great way to do it. There’s never been a better time to NOT read the X-Men then right now. All-New Wolverine is aight, but besides that the current collection of x-books are completely tone deaf, monotonous, and ugly.
Like even in the much maligned 90s, they were at least INTERESTING! Rob Liefeld and Joe Mad were at least interesting! The things happening to the characters, I mean…you could talk about em!
There’s absolutely nothing worth talking about in the current lineup of X-Books. If they’re not worn out records repeating themselves, then they’re ugly caricatures of previous ideas that have been done better. Its a sad state of affair for a franchise that used to be one of the biggest, coolest, most interesting in comic book pop culture.
I love this book!
One thing about the guest appearances – you’re right when you point out that many of the character traits people seem to discuss in regards to Wolverine are character traits he hadn’t regularly displayed in 30 years. But I think the out-of-blue appearance by the likes of Dr Strange and the Wasp was meant to play up a more recent – as in, last fifteen years or so – attribute of the character in his more domesticated phase, that is, the fact that Wolverine had the best Rolodex in the world. This was an odd development considering he was an angry longer who was actively hated by many for the first decade+ of his existence, but that sociability came to define his career, especially post-NEW AVENGERS.
@Jeremy: Really? I think the current line-up is a big improvement over what we had for the past couple of years – directionless Bendisbooks and filler titles like Amazing or adjectiveless. Sure, there was some good stuff like Spurrier’s Legacy, but they were far removed from any actual X-Men team.
Maybe they’re trying to get away from the perception that there were only 1 or 2 books that mattered and the rest were spinoffs.
This is probably the “worst” thing Tom Taylor wrote and I still liked it. Part of it is the art, and Lopez is the kind of artist who silently elevates a script, but I enjoyed a lot of the moments he engineered. It’s a bit sad that he’s getting all these thankless concepts and he finds such good solutions to their problems.
It’s a shame his Batman/Superman run was so short, because it was pretty much everything I’d ever wanted from that series.
@Keran: Even the Bendis years at least had some great art, some interesting Spurrier comics, and Uncanny Avengers as a proxy for Uncanny X-Force.
There’s nothing interesting going on in the x-books right now. The franchise has never seemed so irrelevant, so unexciting, so completely lacking in artistic excellence or big character/plot developments or anything even approaching the ideal of compelling.
Like even in the much maligned 90s, they were at least INTERESTING! Rob Liefeld and Joe Mad were at least interesting! The things happening to the characters, I mean…you could talk about em!
Ah, I dunno… story-wise, things sometimes would get a bit weird for the X-Men during that era. For example, the Morlocks were retconned into being genetically-engineered creations of the Dark Beast and were sent into an alternate dimension by Mikhail Rasputin, and I’m not sure either plot point was the best use of those characters. You also had Nate Grey dating the clone of an alternate reality version of his “mom,” which was, to put it mildly, very bizarre. I won’t deny that the X-Titles had their moments in the ’90s and that a lot of new artists with innovative styles appeared during that period– let’s not forget the excellent Carlos Pacheco– but not every story was a home run during that era, either.
@Jeremy-
Although I disagree about All New Wolverine (I think it’s a great book), I agree strongly with everything else you’re saying about the x-books right now. They’re awful and joyless. I’ve been keeping up with All New X-men and although I haven’t been enjoying it, the latest issue finally did something for me. But Extraordinary and Uncanny are, in my opinion, some truly shitty and miserable comics.
I had hoped that, following “Death of Wolverine,” Marvel would put the character on the shelf for a few years, as a way of breathing new energy and interest, as they (albeit unintentionally) did with Thor.
Somehow, they’ve instead managed to make Wolverine even more over-exposed than ever before.
Although, I haven’t been following this series I have been reading Laura/X-23 in All New X-Men which i think has been pretty good. How do her stories fit in with the global road trip she is taking in that book?
They don’t, really. They take place either before or after such events, I guess.
Marvel isn’t too concerned with inter-title continuity anymore. Characters appear at random amongst multiple titles, and often their newest appearance contradicts the direction the character had been moving beforehand.
Best to just read and enjoy the books that you wish, and not worry.
The one connection with All New I can think of is that in the early parts of this story, Warren was acting as side-kick.
Warren appears in the first couple of issues. The story seems to fit quite happily before the road trip begins in All-New X-Men.
I tried the first issue, but it didn’t win me over. A decent part of that was probably the Warren/Laura pairing. I might have to give the later issues a chance to see if it can win me back.
On the guest-starring of Dr. Strange and Wasp, could it be that the writer intentionally chose characters that *didn’t* have strong associations with Logan? If you want to establish Laura as her own character, then you don’t necessarily want to show her connections with the larger Marvel universe just coincidentally happen to be Logan’s drinking buddies and one night stands. Picking characters like Dr. Strange and Wasp show that she is integrated with the larger Marvel universe, but isn’t just a shadow of the previous Wolverine.
The other reason I can see, at least for Doctor Strange, is that Marvel appears to currently be pushing Doctor Strange stronger than normal. He’s got his own series again (which is pretty decent) and he also just guest-starred in a back-up story in Extraordinary X-Men as an important character. I’d guess Marvel is putting a bit of emphasis on his continued existence due to his coming film, and honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see him show up in a few more books this year.
Lopez’ art really was great here; between that and Gabrielle, I’ll forgive the arc for feeling a little drawn out.
@Jeremy @Keran @David They lost me at “Terrigen gives X-Men a disease that’s exterminating the race” AGAIN.
And I’m done with Bendis and his “plug in a diverse random character in an established role to boost sales and OMG we’re so cool” schtick.
Quite honestly, they’ve lost all sense of direction. I’ve followed Paul’s reviews since the X-Axis days, and now I solely come to see what’s going on, given that his reviews are far better written than most of the books out there nowadays. I’m done with the X titles.
@Manu- Bendis isn’t involved with this book.
Thanks for the info on how Laura/X-23 fits in. It’s interesting to me that All New seems to be doing quite a bit for her character development as is her solo title. I’ll be interested to see if they match at all or if as Chris V says it’s best to enjoy what I enjoy and don’t worry about how it fits together. Although, I liked when it used to all seem to fit together.
@Manu Seconded. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed an X-book since Si Spurrier’s X-Force. I know the meta-reasons why the X-Men are being shunted aside in favor of the Inhumans, but I would take anything–ANYTHING–besides No More Mutants 2: Electric Boogaloo.
To me, the X-Men line has lost that perception of momentum. We all know Marvel/DC continuity comics are the perpetual second act, but they’re at their best when they appear to be moving forward.
There are so many interesting avenues Marvel could have taken addressing mutants’ place in the world with the advent of the Inhumans. M-Day-ing mutants again was not one of them.
I’ll read Extraordinary when it comes out in TPB, but I’m unlikely to buy any of the other current X-Titles. I have zero interest in an X-Men team made up of villains, and the current Teen-X book is poisoned by it’s origin. Maybe I’ll check out ANWolverine based on this review, but probably not.
Technically Sabretooth is the only villain on the team in Uncanny. (But he’s not a villain anymore! He huffed magical pixie dust and he’s a goodie now! Really! Jesus. Who thought of Axis as a good way for character development?) Mystique hasn’t joined yet, and Magneto has been vaguely or officially on the X-Men’s side for years now. Ever since Claremont’s Genoshan Excalibur, I think.
@Keran,
I guess you’re right, though at this stage I still consider Magneto a villain. What I really find uninteresting is a team of all morally compromised characters. Perhaps Monet is not so compromised, but she’s clearly the rookie on the team. To interest me, you need a team with a Cannonball or a Storm or a Kitty Pryde on it to speak to doing the right thing.
It’s basically the latest iteration of X-Force in a different name, right? It’s been the team of morally compromised characters at least since the version Cyclops secretly had Logan form eight years ago, back when they were still on speaking terms.
I can get why it’s not particularly appealing, though. After Spurrier’s deconstruction of the type on the Cable & X-Force run, I’m ready for a different dynamic.
(Not to mention their first act as a team was to force other mutants out of hiding and into harm’s way, which is ethically kind of dubious.)
There is a sort of explanation – they were being ‘hidden’ by a shadowy corporation which we’re given to understand was up to no good.
Though Mags and his merry mutants leaving them without any sort of aid or protection was a dick move. Especially since they could have dumped them on Storm and be off in a second.
I remember that, now that you mention it. That’s something, at least.
But yeah, leaving them to fend for themselves seems to go with the current “kind of a jerk” characterizaton of Magneto.
And hey–as of the latest issue, Ferris is back! I guess some days, you just get nostalgic for your robot man-servant.