My Name is Akihiro! - Daken Akihiro Appreciation 2019

[DAHX]

I loved the DW/X23 crossover by Liu but hated what little I read of Taylors Laura so Im really in no hurry to find out what he did w Daken.

Orphans of X was good imo. Always good to see when Laura and Daken team up and work together. And while I know it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but mostly Daken got a lot of attention and love after it, making people interested in him, and made him tolerable to those who don't like him, so that says something. I also don't think that Daken was all ooc lovely and innocent there as some think. He may behave himself with Laura, but that's still an exception, and it's not new that he cares about her.

[DAHX]

I guess there are 2 types of Daken fans; the ones who like seeing him grow as a person while still being kind of a mess, and the ones who like him as a sadistic bastard.

I'm in the first group. Second type feels like a Sabretooth copy.

I personally think that he is a sadistic bastard, buuuut that doesn't mean that he has to kept being a sadistic bastard, I like when a character has development across the years, so I love that at least he cares about Laura and gets away with Gabby even if he is still unable to function with anybody else. I like him being manipulator, cunning and power hungry while having a little soft point to his sisters.

His interactions with Laura and Gaby were some of my favorites moments in All New Wolverine. IMO.

Basically this. I wanted to add that there's a third option in between, where Daken is still a manipulative cunning bad guy/anti-villain who doesn't function with anybody else, but he makes an exception with Laura. I wouldn't mind this option or the first one -growing into something better, and I agree that being just a sadiscit bastard would make him a Sabretooth copy. And that would be redundant and uninsteresting

[pkingdom]

Orphans of X was good imo. Always good to see when Laura and Daken team up and work together. And while I know it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but mostly Daken got a lot of attention and love after it, making people interested in him, and made him tolerable to those who don't like him, so that says something. I also don't think that Daken was all lovely and innocent there as some think. He may behave himself with Laura, but that's still an exception, and it's not new that he cares about her.

Oh definitely. Laura knew that he wasn't 100% above the board and shut him down when he tried to get flirty with her adopted family. But he also trusted her and Gabby enough to literally die for their plan to infiltrate the Orphans of X.

[Ambaryerno]

Oh definitely. Laura knew that he wasn't 100% above the board and shut him down when he tried to get flirty with her adopted family. But he also trusted her and Gabby enough to literally die for their plan to infiltrate the Orphans of X.

That was a nice little detail. It shows that Laura is willing to give him more leash than others do, but isn't so naive as to let her guard down entirely.

You also had the "tough love" from Daken himself; He realized Laura was so blinded by the thought of having her mother back that she was missing the obvious clues she SHOULD have picked up that "Sarah" wasn't who she said she was. He probably knew what would happen the moment he gunned the Sarah Clone down, (and that had he tried to explain FIRST Laura wouldn't have believed him) but still cared enough about Laura to make the hard choice, and then take her response without fighting back.

[DAHX]

I agree with both of you, what I was reffering to is that I saw some criticism about Daken being ooc too good. I disagree with that because I think it's not suprising that he was helping Laura -she did the same for him too after all, and she's the only one he cares about- and while he was doing it, he did it in a very Daken way in my opinion. Shooting „Sarah” or cutting himself up to be a tracking device, helping Laura on the island but not caring about the people, etc. Sure the tone of the book wasn't dark, but I didn't feel that it was forgotten who Daken really was. Daken doesn't need to kill people constantly around himself for us to know what he's capable of. And as both of you pointed out, Laura does know what she deals with when it comes to Daken, and I think it was shown in ANW too. Anyway, I love their interactions and want to see more, we don't have enough of that.

It shows that Laura is willing to give him more leash than others do, but isn't so naive as to let her guard down entirely.

This exactly ^

[pkingdom]

The three of them had a great dynamic. Laura: Straight man; serious minded and serious about helping people. Gabby: the tagalong kid; mostly comic relief, competent but learning. Daken: the problem child; an ******* and a bad influence, but not irredeemable.

Way back during this run Tom Taylor retweeted the three of them in goofy christmas sweaters just making cookies and OOF. My heart

[Tycon]

Rank SSS+ Portrayals: Marjorie Liu, Charles Soule

Good Portrayals: Tom Taylor, Cullen Bunn, BMB

...okay Portrayals: Mariko Tamaki, Sina Grace, Daniel Way

Get away from him! Get a job! Portrayals: Rick Remender, Jason Aaron

anyways i think daken and briar raleigh should have a fwb-type relationship

[pkingdom]

Rank SSS+ Portrayals: Marjorie Liu, Charles Soule

Good Portrayals: Tom Taylor, Cullen Bunn, BMB

...okay Portrayals: Mariko Tamaki, Sina Grace, Daniel Way

Get away from him! Get a job! Portrayals: Rick Remender, Jason Aaron

anyways i think daken and briar raleigh should have a fwb-type relationship

Ugh, X-men Blue was such a waste. Form a team, then have them do nothing important. Daken had like 2 lines with Jimmy, his weird alt-universe brother. Then Jimmy got absorbed by an alien parasite.

[tuck frump]

Unff I dont think Daken should be drawn too beefy but still. Daymn.

[DAHX]

The three of them had a great dynamic. Laura: Straight man; serious minded and serious about helping people. Gabby: the tagalong kid; mostly comic relief, competent but learning. Daken: the problem child; an ******* and a bad influence, but not irredeemable.

Way back during this run Tom Taylor retweeted the three of them in goofy christmas sweaters just making cookies and OOF. My heart

perfect description! this is why I love them together They're all different and still get along well

[tuck frump]

I like him having a strained relation with Laura, he's still very much a rapist so it's hard to have the fuzzies when he's shown interracting with teenage girls. At least it should be adressed. Unless it has been and Ive missed it.

[pkingdom]

I like him having a strained relation with Laura, he's still very much a rapist so it's hard to have the fuzzies when he's shown interracting with teenage girls. At least it should be adressed. Unless it has been and Ive missed it.

It hasn't, and even as a fan of his I think that it should be addressed if they ever seriously want to redeem him. Maybe lean in to what Romulus did to him or something

[gealach]

Rank SSS+ Portrayals: Marjorie Liu, Charles Soule

Good Portrayals: Tom Taylor, Cullen Bunn, BMB

...okay Portrayals: Mariko Tamaki, Sina Grace, Daniel Way

Get away from him! Get a job! Portrayals: Rick Remender, Jason Aaron

I think we're forgetting someone! Ray Fawkes, co-writer of "Wolverines" together with Soule. I think Daken's best moments in that series were all in issues penned by Fawkes.
And! He wrote that beautiful, beautiful Logan Legacy story, with Daken crashing the auction and then giving Logan a Shinto funeral: one of the few instances of writers recognizing and using Daken's Japanese roots. I think they should do that more!

[gealach]

It hasn't, and even as a fan of his I think that it should be addressed if they ever seriously want to redeem him. Maybe lean in to what Romulus did to him or something

They should mention Romulus more anyway. He was a mess of a character, but he's so crucial to Daken's backstory (much more than to Logan's at this point). But maybe they just want to forget that whole Lupine mess?


Edit: Sorry for the double post

[DAHX]

I like him having a strained relation with Laura, he's still very much a rapist so it's hard to have the fuzzies when he's shown interracting with teenage girls. At least it should be adressed. Unless it has been and Ive missed it.

Then you're not going to like ANW or his relationship with Laura in general, because Marvel went with the opposite dirction and they considere each other family.
I know that Daken has many problematic and suggestive writing regarding this, but I don't think he's canonically considered a rapist or that Marvel will ever address this problem with him.
-Partly because Marvel is blind to the problem imo.
-But mostly because back in older comics the writers did and were allowed to do anything in order to make him dark, edgy and digusting, because the character was never intended to be developed or liked. The intention was only to make him as repulsive as possible in contrast of other characters and for the readers too, the creator pretty much admitted this. – this is where his pheromon powers to mess with people or him using his bisexuality only to manipulate everyone is coming from. So basically they could do anything with him and get away with it back then, which wouldn't be accepted or possible today. This itself is a problem on Marvel's side not the character's.

But where it gets really problematic and questionable is when in order to acieve this super edgy writing they also used a discriminative way, making the character half Japanese and did things like naming him 'mongrel' (which pretty much racist), made him bisexual only because it was viewed (and portrayed) as something obnoxious as it was used only for evil goals, and when they combined these things with other questionable things Daken was doing. And maybe then Marvel didn't care about representation or if it looked bad to use minorities like this, but it is still pretty much racist and homophobic up to this day. Daken is still far from not not having problematic writing as we all know(they still use the depraved bisexual trope), but some of his actions and this rapey aspect is toned down now for example. And since nowadays this kind of approach they did with him is unaccepable, I really doubt that they will ever continue that old edgy writing or address certain aspects of the character in the future, and doubt he will be written with this in mind that he is a rapist. (although I doubt too that the questionable side of his pheromon powers won't be used again, as I said Marvel seems to be blind to the problem)

I think if they ever want to fix or redeem the character, then first of all they should be more respectful and considerate of the way they treat a poc and bi character, and I think continuing/referencing the mistakes they did and not letting the character move into a better direction because of it, wouldn't be the solution.

There was an instance when a thief girl from the streets literally offered to stay with him, and he yelled to go the hell away, so interacting with teenage girls shouldn't be a problem. And yes, it was Romulus' teaching to use his phereomon powers for manipulation, but he is also pretty much ignored these days.