My Name is Akihiro! - Daken Akihiro Appreciation 2019

[Rosebunse]

This is how I see it too. I don’t think Logan always did the best things, and I feel like sometimes he should have done more, sure, but not like he could have. Daken didn’t even let him talk to him and got super angry when Logan showed any sign of him caring about him. Other times he got angry when Logan didn’t care, so figure out what to do...

Logan also had many other problems to take care of, so it didn’t really help that Daken constantly tried to screw things up for him. I feel like Logan didn’t know what to do with Daken either; he did want to help, but how can you help when your son is conditioned to hate you more than anything, rejects you and blame you for everything that happened to him? And how can you help someone anyway who just learned his entire life was a lie and was mad as hell? Daken would have never listened to Logan or accepted any form of help from him, and he didn’t feel like he needed help either, as he didn’t see or admit to himself that he was messed up. And as I see he didn't really know what he wanted either.

But Daken’s behavior is understandable too. He was tortured and conditioned for decades, his life was stolen from him, and it suddenly turned out it was all just a lie, he was just a tool all along. Of course, he was excessively furious and didn't handle the situation well. He wanted Logan to hurt because he was hurting too. Logan knew Daken had a good reason to be angry, he understood very well what it’s like to be vengeful after being used by others. He was hoping that Daken would calm down after a while or find a way to handle himself, but he just didn’t.

As much as Logan wanted to help, he was in a situation where he couldn’t and all he could do is just watch his son being destructive, while Daken as much as he didn’t want to be defined by Logan and driven by his hatred towards him, he was unable to overcome it. So it was impossible for them to find common ground.

And add the fact to this all that writers never wanted them to find any kind of resolution because the purpose of Daken’s existence was to give Logan another source of hardship. If they had resolved the issue between them, there wouldn't have been stories to tell. So Daken’s only role remained to cause trouble for Logan, while Logan either didn’t do anything or failed to do anything.

And this is why I liked Daken’s reaction to Logan’s death, it felt like he finally realized that his hate was misplaced and it didn’t lead anywhere. I really want him to move on from his hate and anger finally, it lasted way too long already.
I really want them(and the writers) to find another way because we literally saw everything by now. How many times can you tell a story about Daken hating Logan? Logan even killed him once when he went too far… Daken would be stupid to keep up with it. They both were dead, I hope they see things differently now.

Side note for Evan: this is the reason why Daken fans hated this story the most. Daken went through a lot of abuse as a child (and as an adult too), and he showed a few times before that he wouldn’t hurt children probably because he understands very well what that means. And Remender really ignored all of that and his past life experience and made him beat up a kid to show how awful he is, so Logan can kill him… yeah, it was messed up, but that’s something I hold against the writer… Daken is capable of many awful things, we know that very well already. But would be good if writers didn’t ignore and mess up his past just to make him even more awful and just to fit their narratives.

Again, I loved what Remender did with Daken because it rather painfully shows him just recreating his own upbringing with Evan, just with him in the role of Romulus. It's something we know survivors of abuse are at risk of doing, it's part of the reason abuse is so awful, because it creates a needless cycle.

And if we look at Daken's history, it seems like most of his moments with kids involve female children. When it comes to male children, then you have at least two instances where he basically treats then the way he was treated.

I mean, this even extends to his relationship with Laura and Gabby. They're his sisters and no one in a "sister" role has ever hurt him before. Laura even falls into a sort of "motherly" role with him, something we know he desperately craves. Daken hasn't had a good experience with fathers, with brothers, and these male figures are the ones he pretty consistently treats the worst.

[MakubeX]

Again, I loved what Remender did with Daken because it rather painfully shows him just recreating his own upbringing with Evan, just with him in the role of Romulus. It's something we know survivors of abuse are at risk of doing, it's part of the reason abuse is so awful, because it creates a needless cycle.

And if we look at Daken's history, it seems like most of his moments with kids involve female children. When it comes to male children, then you have at least two instances where he basically treats then the way he was treated.

I mean, this even extends to his relationship with Laura and Gabby. They're his sisters and no one in a "sister" role has ever hurt him before. Laura even falls into a sort of "motherly" role with him, something we know he desperately craves. Daken hasn't had a good experience with fathers, with brothers, and these male figures are the ones he pretty consistently treats the worst.

I strongly disliked Remender's characterization of Daken. Despised, if I'm being honest. Because Daken being there made no sense, at all. He was killed off in his run. Remender never showed how he even came back to life, completely ignoring Daken's "final" revenge against Logan; in Rob William's run. He got his revenge on Logan in his last single series. Remender just chose to ignore it to give more unnecessary sympathy-character development for Logan. That's the only reason Daken was brought to Uncanny X-force. And when we find out why Daken joined the Brother Hood in Uncanny Avenger, despite him joining being completely OOC, it was just a stupid bet with Creed? Thinking Logan wouldn't kill him? And Daken wanting to kill Logan so he could run Xavier's school and mess with the kids head? That's a generic villain motive. Daken is beyond that. Remender's Daken was just petty and corny. Remender had no stories for Daken, only Logan. The only reason he was alive after the events of Uncanny Avengers is because of the Wolverine(s) series, Souls wanted Daken alive for their book.

And guess what they did with Daken? Gave him character development, they had a goal with him, they actually wrote him correctly. You can love Remender's work on his interpretation, but that wasn't Daken, in my opinion. That's what ruined him. And explains why Sina's Daken was trash, too. I'll say this once, I'll say it again. Liu wrote Daken best. Then Soul, Taylor, and Bunn.

dakenpg.jpg

collisiondaken.jpg

[Dark Gulo]

They're all pretty bad fathers. Logan ditched Laura at school, and barely tried to help Daken. Inconsistent writing hit him hard. And Bruce depowered and abandoned Skaar in Paris the last time they met.

Anyone want to share more fanart? I don't want this topic to get buried. Daken is my favorite mutant.

Marvel need to reestablish a better relationship with Bruce and Skaar, as well as Logan and his daughter and son i mean as you said there isnt much interaction between Logan and his biological children. The meme of Logan being a bad dad isnt without merit, he cares but in recent books he hasnt really shown it

[Dark Gulo]

I strongly disliked Remender's characterization of Daken. Despised, if I'm being honest. Because Daken being there made no sense, at all. He was killed off in his run. Remender never showed how he even came back to life, completely ignoring Daken's "final" revenge against Logan; in Rob William's run. He got his revenge on Logan in his last single series. Remender just chose to ignore it to give more unnecessary sympathy-character development for Logan. That's the only reason Daken was brought to Uncanny X-force. And when we find out why Daken joined the Brother Hood in Uncanny Avenger, despite him joining being completely OOC, it was just a stupid bet with Creed? Thinking Logan wouldn't kill him? And Daken wanting to kill Logan so he could run Xavier's school and mess with the kids head? That's a generic villain motive. Daken is beyond that. Remender's Daken was just petty and corny. Remender had no stories for Daken, only Logan. The only reason he was alive after the events of Uncanny Avengers is because of the Wolverine(s) series, Souls wanted Daken alive for their book.

And guess what they did with Daken? Gave him character development, they had a goal with him, they actually wrote him correctly. You can love Remender's work on his interpretation, but that wasn't Daken, in my opinion. That's what ruined him. And explains why Sina's Daken was trash, too. I'll say this once, I'll say it again. Liu wrote Daken best. Then Soul, Taylor, and Bunn.

dakenpg.jpg

collisiondaken.jpg

Your right. But in X-men Blue when Daken was tasked with killing Jimmy Hudson, did anyone else understand why he was so adamant about following through with doing that. I may have forgotten its bin a while since then but i do remember Daken seeming like he was interested in having a relationship with his little brother in the book. I understand Jimmy was possessed/bonded with a poison so he was considered dangerous but im still lost on why Daken didnt challenge Magneto when he told him Jimmy had to go? Maybe he felt there just wasnt any hope for Jimmy or that Jimmy was family so therefore his responsibility to deal with? Im not sure.

[pkingdom]

Marvel need to reestablish a better relationship with Bruce and Skaar, as well as Logan and his daughter and son i mean as you said there isnt much interaction between Logan and his biological children. The meme of Logan being a bad dad isnt without merit, he cares but in recent books he hasnt really shown it

Bad writing all around. We never even got a scene of Logan reuniting with Laura after he came back, let alone Daken. Hell, he didn't even get a chance to speak with JEAN before HoXPoX.

I actually asked the writer of Immortal Hulk about Skaar, and he said he's trying to include him eventually. Bruce's OTHER son, Hiro-Kala (Skaar's twin brother) is out of luck though. He's stuck burning alive forever in the core of a planet.

[DAHX]

Again, I loved what Remender did with Daken because it rather painfully shows him just recreating his own upbringing with Evan, just with him in the role of Romulus. It's something we know survivors of abuse are at risk of doing, it's part of the reason abuse is so awful, because it creates a needless cycle.

And if we look at Daken's history, it seems like most of his moments with kids involve female children. When it comes to male children, then you have at least two instances where he basically treats then the way he was treated.

I mean, this even extends to his relationship with Laura and Gabby. They're his sisters and no one in a "sister" role has ever hurt him before. Laura even falls into a sort of "motherly" role with him, something we know he desperately craves. Daken hasn't had a good experience with fathers, with brothers, and these male figures are the ones he pretty consistently treats the worst.

It’s a valid interpretation, and quite fitting for the character. I remember there were some talk about this when he tried to kill Jimmy, and how he had no problem with the female siblings. I see Daken too as someone who wouldn’t tolerate if another brother showed up from Logan’s past. And he probably sees the mother/female role very differently due to the abuse always coming from men/father figure and due to thinking his mother being a victim of murder by his father, wanting to avenge her almost all his life. He was also always very protective when someone even just mentioned her mother.

It makes sense, but let’s be honest, 1) it probably wasn’t intentional by the writers to show a difference between how he treats male and female children. They never gave any depth to the character or to his psychological issues, they just wanted him to do something terrible for Logan. And his abused past is almost entirely ignored too most of the time, so I doubt they ever gave it a thought of how Daken views female and male figures in general or that they tried to create the abuse cycle by turning a child abuse victim into a child abuser purposely.
2) all this hurting children(boys) came after Remender’s writing only… the writer who completely disregarded everything about Daken as MakubeX pointed out. And the upcoming writers just continued that writing in recent comics.

Remender also got Daken’s childhood abuse completely wrong – which is supposed to be the reason why he is so messed up. Daken was babbling some sad story while drinking, but that just never happened… Weirdly enough, those who he mentioned were all female abusers… So that’s the effort Remender put into Daken’s traumatized life experience with male figures.

I strongly disliked Remender's characterization of Daken. Despised, if I'm being honest. Because Daken being there made no sense, at all. He was killed off in his run. Remender never showed how he even came back to life, completely ignoring Daken's "final" revenge against Logan; in Rob William's run. He got his revenge on Logan in his last single series. Remender just chose to ignore it to give more unnecessary sympathy-character development for Logan. That's the only reason Daken was brought to Uncanny X-force. And when we find out why Daken joined the Brother Hood in Uncanny Avenger, despite him joining being completely OOC, it was just a stupid bet with Creed? Thinking Logan wouldn't kill him? And Daken wanting to kill Logan so he could run Xavier's school and mess with the kids head? That's a generic villain motive. Daken is beyond that. Remender's Daken was just petty and corny. Remender had no stories for Daken, only Logan. The only reason he was alive after the events of Uncanny Avengers is because of the Wolverine(s) series, Souls wanted Daken alive for their book.

You summed it up perfectly.

Remender’s writing was quite offensive to be honest:
-He only wanted to give Logan a sob story with 'what would have been's, but he didn’t even bother with Daken’s side and with the fact that he grew up in Japan in the 40s-50s, and that their life would never have been an American dream life from modern times like it was portrayed as a loss in UXF.
- the Daken solo series ended with Daken dying, more specifically killing himself, because he wanted to go out on his own terms. It was his decision, a tragic end of him, and it was entirely a Daken story, not Logan’s. And Remender really ignored the fact he was dead to kill him again, but this time to further Logan’s story only...


Was that confirmed that he was alive in Uncanny Avengers only because Soule wanted to use him?

dakenpg.jpg

I loved this. Bunn wrote very little for Daken in Blue, but even he managed to put a little depth into the character in one single sentence.

[DAHX]

Your right. But in X-men Blue when Daken was tasked with killing Jimmy Hudson, did anyone else understand why he was so adamant about following through with doing that. I may have forgotten its bin a while since then but i do remember Daken seeming like he was interested in having a relationship with his little brother in the book. I understand Jimmy was possessed/bonded with a poison so he was considered dangerous but im still lost on why Daken didnt challenge Magneto when he told him Jimmy had to go? Maybe he felt there just wasnt any hope for Jimmy or that Jimmy was family so therefore his responsibility to deal with? Im not sure.

I didn’t see Daken being interested in having a relationship with Jimmy, he was just teasing him imo. I’m not sure why he would want to have a relationship with him either, I think seeing Jimmy as a threat is more reasonable. Like imagine Logan being back from the dead, and Logan has Daken and their strained relationship, and on the other hand there’s suddenly another son who is all nice and probably a son Logan wish to have. There’s no way Daken would tolerate Logan having a good relationship with an alternate son, while not caring about him, the real son, who was there first and who never had a chance for a normal life due to Logan not being there for him.

Daken wanted to kill Jimmy because he was ordered to do so, and because it needed to be done. Jimmy was poison and dangerous and someone had to do the dirty job(the O5 couldn’t do it), and he mentioned brother rivalry too. So it seemed to me that he didn’t really mind killing him not just because of the order.

I love this redesign!

[pkingdom]

That artist also did redesigns for most LGBT superheros in Marvel and DC. I love his Wiccan design. He's also the artist on Ironheart.

I wish we had gotten more time with Daken and Jimmy. They had one moment that lasted only a couple sentences of Daken teasing Jimmy, then BAM! Jimmy gets possessed twice over by a symbiote and a Poison, and really should have been put down. Jean mind controlling him and just letting him go felt like a terrible idea, and then they just sort of forgot Daken was there.

[Rosebunse]

I feel like the issue with Blue was that you had the Venomized event right in the middle. Now, personally, I loved Venomized. I know many people don't, but I do. The issue there is that there are a lot of reasons to not include Daken. For one, most characters don't like him and don't want him around. For another, then you have to worry about him getting caught by a symbiote and with everything else, I can see why Bunn just didn't want to deal with it.

And I don't care, I enjoyed what Remender did. Daken's death in his solo run was pretty ambiguous and it wasn't clear that he actually died. Also, given that the solo dealt with Daken's feelings of jealousy towards the school, I'm not sure it's really out of character for him to enact such a plan against a student. As for Wolverine's Imagine Spot, well, it's just his Imagine Spot and it's happening while he's bleeding out and probably healing from some serious brain damage. But the sentiment I think is the important thing, which is that, again, Logan feels extreme guilt that he couldn't give Daken any sort of a normal upbringing and it's sort of his fault.

As all of the different writers, well, we see this with many characters that they have many different writers who do sort of create an interesting story with a character, but it's not one that they all set down to plan or follow on. It's just a sort of natural path the character takes.

[MakubeX]

It’s a valid interpretation, and quite fitting for the character. I remember there were some talk about this when he tried to kill Jimmy, and how he had no problem with the female siblings. I see Daken too as someone who wouldn’t tolerate if another brother showed up from Logan’s past. And he probably sees the mother/female role very differently due to the abuse always coming from men/father figure and due to thinking his mother being a victim of murder by his father, wanting to avenge her almost all his life. He was also always very protective when someone even just mentioned her mother.

It makes sense, but let’s be honest, 1) it probably wasn’t intentional by the writers to show a difference between how he treats male and female children. They never gave any depth to the character or to his psychological issues, they just wanted him to do something terrible for Logan. And his abused past is almost entirely ignored too most of the time, so I doubt they ever gave it a thought of how Daken views female and male figures in general or that they tried to create the abuse cycle by turning a child abuse victim into a child abuser purposely.
2) all this hurting children(boys) came after Remender’s writing only… the writer who completely disregarded everything about Daken as MakubeX pointed out. And the upcoming writers just continued that writing in recent comics.

Remender also got Daken’s childhood abuse completely wrong – which is supposed to be the reason why he is so messed up. Daken was babbling some sad story while drinking, but that just never happened… Weirdly enough, those who he mentioned were all female abusers… So that’s the effort Remender put into Daken’s traumatized life experience with male figures.



You summed it up perfectly.

Remender’s writing was quite offensive to be honest:
-He only wanted to give Logan a sob story with 'what would have been's, but he didn’t even bother with Daken’s side and with the fact that he grew up in Japan in the 40s-50s, and that their life would never have been an American dream life from modern times like it was portrayed as a loss in UXF.
- the Daken solo series ended with Daken dying, more specifically killing himself, because he wanted to go out on his own terms. It was his decision, a tragic end of him, and it was entirely a Daken story, not Logan’s. And Remender really ignored the fact he was dead to kill him again, but this time to further Logan’s story only...


Was that confirmed that he was alive in Uncanny Avengers only because Soule wanted to use him?



I loved this. Bunn wrote very little for Daken in Blue, but even he managed to put a little depth into the character in one single sentence.

No, Soule didn't say he wanted Daken, but I just assumed since he actually cared enough to write Daken in Wolverine(s) and give him character development, I just put two and two together. Either way, Remender's Daken-Uncanny X-force finale was straight garbage and had no respect for Daken. Thinking about it now, I don't think anyone actually acknowledges Daken's story in X-force, it was that bad. But, Hell, Bunn had no intention of writing Daken in blue, and guess what? He wrote him amazingly. Sarcastic, intelligent, sadistic, can be friendly if he wanted to and does what is needed for a price. I honestly wanted more of Bunn's Daken. Oh, and I completely agree with you when it comes to Daken and Jimmy. Daken was pretty much effin' with Jimmy. He has no reason to have a relationship with an alternate brother that he barley just met, much less can't even take a small joke of being called brother.

[DAHX]

And I don't care, I enjoyed what Remender did. Daken's death in his solo run was pretty ambiguous and it wasn't clear that he actually died. Also, given that the solo dealt with Daken's feelings of jealousy towards the school, I'm not sure it's really out of character for him to enact such a plan against a student. As for Wolverine's Imagine Spot, well, it's just his Imagine Spot and it's happening while he's bleeding out and probably healing from some serious brain damage. But the sentiment I think is the important thing, which is that, again, Logan feels extreme guilt that he couldn't give Daken any sort of a normal upbringing and it's sort of his fault.

You can enjoy it of course, I myself liked some aspects of it, but that doesn’t change the fact that Remender screwed Daken up badly – not because he died, but because he didn’t matter at all.
The jealousy towards the school was again just Remender’s addition, it was something that had never been shown before, Daken never cared about the students. Although I think it’s believable for him, but it would have been better to explore it more.
That image sequence isn’t Logan remembering wrong, it’s just the writer’s (artist’s?) mistake. I still liked it because it was powerful, but I’m also bitter because it was the erasure of Daken’s Japanese heritage. Many probably don’t care about things like this and just want to enjoy the story, but it’s still very important for some and it has nothing to do with the story itself.

The bold sentence is what I liked the most about this story, I agree with this. I just wish they had explored Logan’s feelings not at the expense of Daken, and that they hadn't done it as a one-sided story. I’d rather see exploring both sides and not giving one a dramatic sympathetic story while treating the other as a throw away plot.

No, Soule didn't say he wanted Daken, but I just assumed since he actually cared enough to write Daken in Wolverine(s) and give him character development, I just put two and two together.

I have so much hope for Percy and the upcoming Wolverine solo, but I’m also anxious about how Daken will be treated there… Daken's track record in Wolverine stories usually isn't quite good. But maybe Percy will treat him right as he mentioned him in a positive way.

Thinking about it now, I don't think anyone actually acknowledges Daken's story in X-force, it was that bad.

It was acknowledged in Hunt for Wolverine: Claws of a Killer :/

[Michael Watkins]

Jimmy Hudson should never have existed. What a crap character.

[pkingdom]

Almost all of Hunt for Wolverine and Wolverine Returns was garbage. Treating Daken like he had no character development since Logan died was only one point on a mountain of terrible.

[DAHX]

Jimmy Hudson should never have existed. What a crap character.

Neither should have Raze. He’s even worse. Or Rien. They really not trying to be original aymore.

Almost all of Hunt for Wolverine and Wolverine Returns was garbage. Treating Daken like he had no character development since Logan died was only one point on a mountain of terrible.

I hated it. Daken moved on from his hatred towards Logan after he died and got some very needed development finally, and then the very same writer ignored it all and Daken suddenly wanted to kill Logan again (even though he was written reluctant), and he was there only for getting killed off by Logan again like in Remender’s run… I was initially excited for Daken being there when Logan came back because I thought Daken’s development would be continued and not his daddy issues. Let’s hope their next interaction will be better and that the writers can finally decide one direction for them and consistently write that.

[pkingdom]

I don't know who Raze is. Rian is stupid garbage. Just copy/paste Daken's backstory on a generic as hell Emma Frost lookalike. Ugh.