Wolverine/X-23 Laura Kinney Appreciation 2024

[Havok83]

I never thought Laura's sister clone would be used outside of an X-men book especially if not writte by Tom Taylor. Also shocked that Elektra is still masquearding as Daredevil

[Dthirds3]

So Bellona is working for madam mask in gang war or its laurs undercover probably Bellona because she's called Bellona

And a in character moment in wolverine.

[Kurolegacy]

A couple things I’m wondering about with Bellona though:

1. How is she not being poisoned by her claws when she doesn’t have a healing factor?
2. They bring up her not feeling pain despite that having come from the nanites in her body which Kimura removed.

[Grunty]

A couple things I’m wondering about with Bellona though:

1. How is she not being poisoned by her claws when she doesn’t have a healing factor?
2. They bring up her not feeling pain despite that having come from the nanites in her body which Kimura removed.

The Adamantium poisoning seems to be one of these "depending on the writer" subjects and primarily applied to Wolverine himself.

One major counter example is Bullseye who's entire spine was coated in the metal, but is not suffering any such effects. Likewise several characters have been shown in prolonged contact with adamantium based items and not being poisoned either.

So rule of thumb seems to be that as long as someone doesn't have their entire skeleton coated in it, there won't be any notable adamantium poisoning effects.

As for the "feel no pain" part.
Perhaps the writer felt that it would be a usefull/interesting character trait in general and will either provide a quick explanation for her having it again or simply retcon it in as being a natural part of the character.

Considering how she is likely completely unknown to the majority of potential readers and this would be her second major appearance overall, it's unlkely that editorial would have objected much.

Wolverine's claws weren't original part of his body either.

[Nazrel]

A couple things I’m wondering about with Bellona though:

1. How is she not being poisoned by her claws when she doesn’t have a healing factor?
2. They bring up her not feeling pain despite that having come from the nanites in her body which Kimura removed.

Well they were artificial added on modifications, so probably just sheathed cybernetics that prevent the Adamantium from directly interacting with their body.

[Havok83]

A couple things I’m wondering about with Bellona though:

1. How is she not being poisoned by her claws when she doesn’t have a healing factor?
2. They bring up her not feeling pain despite that having come from the nanites in her body which Kimura removed.

My understanding is that the metal isnt literally poisoning him but that it elicits an immune response as the body sees it as a foreign agent and therefore tries to eliminate it which in turn causes an inflammatory effect and damages cells. Logan's healing factor counters this so it becomes a non-issue. I guess a headcanon for Bellona is that the process to give her adamantium took this into account and created a factor that would caus e the body to recognize it as self and therefore not attack it

[Grunty]

My understanding is that the metal isnt literally poisoning him but that it elicits an immune response as the body sees it as a foreign agent and therefore tries to eliminate it which in turn causes an inflammatory effect and damages cells. Logan's healing factor counters this so it becomes a non-issue. I guess a headcanon for Bellona is that the process to give her adamantium took this into account and created a factor that would caus e the body to recognize it as self and therefore not attack it

Jason Aaron's first story in "Wolverine : Weapon X" was about the private secruity company Blackguard which used Weapon X files to replicate Wolverine's healing factor, physical performance, enhanced senses, adamantium bonding process, claws and apply them to normal humans, creating a commando squad of "near Wolverines" (for some reason their claws had a sickly green glow).

Even though Wolverine destroyed their headquarters, drowned the remaining commandos in the middle of the ocean and the canonciality of the series is not 100% certain, the djinn is out of the bottle and any writer could use a similar explanation for giving people Wolverine like qualities.

Of course as mentioned it could also just be cybernetics.

Come to think of it, it's somewhat interesting that Wolverine style claws are actualy most common in cyberpunk works as concealed weapon option, requiring heavily augmented or replaced forarms to function because of how involved the mechanics for the sheathing and unsheating, together with the storage space would be, but since high end cybernetics are rather common in the Marvel universe too, it's likely mostly thanks to editors not wanting his gimick diminished that there aren't a hundreds wannabe super villains with such weapons walking around the MU.

[Havok83]

There was a major Talon development in the current issue of X-men. spoilers:

She was finally killed off but Synch managed to use Jean's power to psychically pull her mind into his head so now she's living as a second personality of sorts that only he can see. Earlier in the series it was established that each time he uses the recall pwer, it ages him rapidly but up until now it was one offs. For him to keep Talon "alive", he has to constantly use that power, which effectily should kill so Im guessing he will be faced with the choice of letting her go, thus resolving the plotline of 2 Lauras

end of spoilers

[Rakurai]

God, that was weak.
I hope that Talon mind blends with Synch merging them together forever.

[Havok83]

God, that was weak.
I hope that Talon mind blends with Synch merging them together forever.

I posted in the Synch thread but I think if a merger happens it will still be with Laura. spoilers:

His powers may be needed for a feat to save them but holding onto Talon is killing him and preventing him from doing so. Laura understands this, steps in and accepts Talon into her mind, thus causing them to coexist as 2 personalities in one body until a complete merger actually happens

end of spoilers

[Dthirds3]

There was a major Talon development in the current issue of X-men. spoilers:

She was finally killed off but Synch managed to use Jean's power to psychically pull her mind into his head so now she's living as a second personality of sorts that only he can see. Earlier in the series it was established that each time he uses the recall pwer, it ages him rapidly but up until now it was one offs. For him to keep Talon "alive", he has to constantly use that power, which effectily should kill so Im guessing he will be faced with the choice of letting her go, thus resolving the plotline of 2 Lauras

end of spoilers

There really setting up the laura fusion dance aren't they.

[Grunty]

Is there really such a need to "preserve" 100+ years of someone metaphorical running around in a hamster wheel?

Talon's entire backstory at the point of divergence from regular Laura is that she was stuck in the Vault for that duration of time, where she was mainly running away and hiding from the weirdly inept Children of the Vault on their home turf, who are not only seemingly cursed to never live up to their proclaimed level of power, but which writers once again did not allow to become a serious or respectable fixture in the landscape of the Marvel universe (which would make a personal history with them narratively valuable).

Which means unlike Wolverine's personal 200 years of backstory, it's not like she witnessed many important events, met interesting or important people, developed a history and connection with important governmental or non-govermental organisations, developed usefull non-combat skills or knowledge of the world, etc.

Very little of narrative value or future story potential would arguably be added with her inclusion to regular Laura in terms of backstory or characterization and in terms of combat ability it's not really an real upgrade.

This isn't a 13 year old junior super hero gaining the combat skills of an ancient samurai, a little girl becomming a powerfull demonic sorcerers or a recently revived teenage power copier perfecting the ability to control his powers.

Laura was allready a highly capable "super fighter", to the point where it became difficult for writers to present "worthy" opponents for her, who weren't allready nemesis of someone like Wolverine or who's ability to fight her on equal level felt unearned.

If Vault Laura became even more capable than that, than this issue would just increase in scope. Because now opponents aren't fighting someone trained from birth to be a super deadly killer with "cut everything blades", but one who also spend 100 years escaping and fighting super humans who could conquer the world in a single day (supposedly).

And in terms of personality, if Talon is more at peace with herself, wise and confident than regular Laura, artificaly adding these traits would potentialy reduce her chance to meaningfully develop those traits on pannel via actualy character development.

Does the regular version of Laura really profit from all of this?

[Havok83]

She's the original Laura so I think she should preserved over ironically, a clone

[Persephone]

Having had time to think it over, what was the actual point of bringing Talon back? They didn’t do anything with clone angst, Talon barely did anything at all, and now they’re probably going to phase her out in a way that’s detrimental to the arc Laura would otherwise have. I get that Synch is currently a writer’s pet and Talon was a way of putting him in a better place or whatever, but like. Was there really no plan? We had an entire Children of the Vault mini and she didn’t participate at all. Am I supposed to feel something now other than confusion and mild annoyance? Why? They never planted anything lol. I guess it’s good whump for Synch fans.

Actually come to think of it what was even the point of The Vault? It kind of just sucked three characters in for a year and then sat ominously in the background until it got resolved in a miniseries featuring different characters. As Krakoa comes to an end it really feels like the post-Hickman team had no plan whatsoever.

[Jackraow21]

Dude... this would be amazing... fingers crossed!