Taylor Discusses Unsheathing X-23's Claws in "All-New Wolverine"

[Ambaryerno]

As for the article itself (bleh, my work blocks CBR. Which is weird because I can get to other comics sites just fine), I like a LOT of what they're saying. Taylor sounds like he truly does understand who Laura is, and that bodes well for the future of the series. And it does sound like it's not going to be all grim, gritty, bloody, stabby mayhem; there will definitely be some lighter beats worked in. That's actually something I wouldn't mind seeing, either; Laura is frankly a PERFECT character to put in absurd and comical situations, precisely because she has such a dark and deadpan sense of humor she sets herself up as an excellent straight man. I'd love to see her do an extended one-on-one team-up with Deadpool (yeah, there was X-Force, but that was as part of a team), as the potential for hilarity ensuing would be TREMENDOUS.

[Ambaryerno]

It has been quite some time since we got a story where Laura wasn't part of a team or group and I have missed being really into her thoughts and her being the main focus of the story like only a solo can do. Hopefully this will be as good and enjoyable as her earlier solo stories although that is a very high standard.

Well, it won't be hard to do better than the Babysitting Arc, at least.

[DeathCom]

At first I was pretty stoked to hear about this series, but this interview has me thinking otherwise now.

"We are going to be trying to tell slightly lighter stories than some of Logan's more painful and angsty tales but, at the same time, it's going to be Wolverine angry about something and wanting to save people. ....I mentioned that Laura is going to be trying to not kill people, but I think "Wolverine" lends itself to a certain amount of stabbyness. And Laura will feel that there are people out there who may not deserve death, but do deserve a light stabbing. [Laughs]"

This to me sounds like they really want a G-rated book. Some of X-23's books have been of the most violent stuff the company has done, and now its going "mainstream". Uggh. Kimura was also not mentioned in this interview, and she IS X's main big bad. The last we saw of Kimura was with an stupid fight with the Punisher which had her WAY downplayed and Castle way overpowered. If Kimura does make it into this book, she needs to be the complete reinventing-the-violence, indestructible, psychopath, that is just sick in the ways she wants to torture Laura. Only perhaps on the surface is now more refined that she has been doing other work than just being Laura's handler. However such a character would not fit into a G-rated book, which is what Im afraid of.

Also Im not a fan of David Lopez's work with Captain Marvel. Granted, he was the best the three runs of Carol's Captain Marvel saw, but doesn't even compare to the best we've seen of Carol back in the Ms. Marvel days from either Mariah Benes or Sana Takeda. Not to mention the fine work we've seen in Target X by Mike Choi and Sonia Oback. But alas, they just don't draw em like they used to.

[Ambaryerno]

At first I was pretty stoked to hear about this series, but this interview has me thinking otherwise now.

"We are going to be trying to tell slightly lighter stories than some of Logan's more painful and angsty tales but, at the same time, it's going to be Wolverine angry about something and wanting to save people. ....I mentioned that Laura is going to be trying to not kill people, but I think "Wolverine" lends itself to a certain amount of stabbyness. And Laura will feel that there are people out there who may not deserve death, but do deserve a light stabbing. [Laughs]"

This to me sounds like they really want a G-rated book. Some of X-23's books have been of the most violent stuff the company has done, and now its going "mainstream". Uggh. Kimura was also not mentioned in this interview, and she IS X's main big bad. The last we saw of Kimura was with an stupid fight with the Punisher which had her WAY downplayed and Castle way overpowered. If Kimura does make it into this book, she needs to be the complete reinventing-the-violence, indestructible, psychopath, that is just sick in the ways she wants to torture Laura. Only perhaps on the surface is now more refined that she has been doing other work than just being Laura's handler. However such a character would not fit into a G-rated book, which is what Im afraid of.

Also Im not a fan of David Lopez's work with Captain Marvel. Granted, he was the best the three runs of Carol's Captain Marvel saw, but doesn't even compare to the best we've seen of Carol back in the Ms. Marvel days from either Mariah Benes or Sana Takeda. Not to mention the fine work we've seen in Target X by Mike Choi and Sonia Oback. But alas, they just don't draw em like they used to.

I didn't read it that they're toning things down at all. To me it comes across that they're wanting to be much more flexible and tell a wider variety of stories.

As for Kimura, they addressed that situation; they want to start expanding her horizons rather than dipping back into the same well. That's precisely why people got tired of Logan vs. Creed. That doesn't say Kimura isn't going to appear, they just want to focus initially on building up her Rogues gallery (think how Batman Begins used Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul, and we didn't get the Joker until Dark Knight). I think it's a safe bet Kimura WILL appear.

[Samurai Jack]

I really hope All-New Wolverine will be new-reader friendly for people who aren't familiar with Laura Kinney/X-23. I haven't watched any of her X-Men Evolution episodes, read Marjorie Liu's comics or Logan Legacy, but I am very interested in her new solo ongoing comic series. I just hope her story doesn't rely heavily on previous comic events to the point where I absolutely need to read her previous comic runs to follow her new ongoing. I would like to read Marjorie Liu's X-23 series eventually though.

[Gailim]

eh I dunno

it sounds like he just wants to write wolverine with boobs

I always like how DIFFERENT Laura and Logan were, not how similar

I felt like when Laura was being written well she would keep her cool in a fight (until something serious happened). I always felt like Laura was smarter than Logan. He would always pop his claws and go berserk. A lot have writers have written Laura that way too and it always felt wrong.

then again it can't be worse than the way Bendis has been writing her. nothing could be worse than the way Bendis has been writing her....

[NewMutant]

Daken please.

[Anduinel]

I really do dislike how so much of this "8 months later" business seems to be a way for Marvel to put off having to actually explain why all of these big changes happened. Something HUGE went down between the X-Men and the Inhumans...but meh, we'll tell you what later. A character who spent so much of her time trying to hack out her own identity decides to put on the mask of the person who's shadow she's spent so much time trying to escape, but who wants to talk about that?

Marvel's trying to spin this as an element of suspense and it hasn't been entirely unsuccessful on that front, but in many ways it feels to me like they didn't spend half as much time planning how this event was supposed to pan out as they'd like the readers to believe (a la Nu52) and are just trying to buy more time to figure out how they actually arrived at their new status quo. Not a generous thought, I know, but I'm not feeling all that well disposed toward Marvel these days anyway.

[Gladiator7117]

Dear Marvel,

Still waiting on Logan's eventual return. Until then, as far as I'm concerned, there is no Wolverine.

I hope they bring him back. Not OML either. I always though X-23 could hold her own title with good writing. Love Laura. Logan is Wolverine though

[Ambaryerno]

eh I dunno

it sounds like he just wants to write wolverine with boobs

I always like how DIFFERENT Laura and Logan were, not how similar

I felt like when Laura was being written well she would keep her cool in a fight (until something serious happened). I always felt like Laura was smarter than Logan. He would always pop his claws and go berserk. A lot have writers have written Laura that way too and it always felt wrong.

then again it can't be worse than the way Bendis has been writing her. nothing could be worse than the way Bendis has been writing her....

Once again, I don't think we're reading the same article.

Nothing he said makes it sound like they're just writing her as Wolverine with added PMS rage. From what Taylor said it's clear he DOES understand what sets Laura apart from Logan, who was very much snikt first ask questions later. He makes a point that Laura is doing her best in this arc to play the peacemaker, and that's very much the woman she's been evolving into beginning with her solo; someone who's much more restrained at turning to violence until she exhausts other options. In another interview (marvel.com) he explicitly likens her to a surgeon while Logan is much cruder.

So yeah, I don't think we have anything to worry about. Taylor clearly knows his stuff, and recognizes she's by no means just a Wolverine with boobs.

[Hariel0079]

I really do dislike how so much of this "8 months later" business seems to be a way for Marvel to put off having to actually explain why all of these big changes happened. Something HUGE went down between the X-Men and the Inhumans...but meh, we'll tell you what later. A character who spent so much of her time trying to hack out her own identity decides to put on the mask of the person who's shadow she's spent so much time trying to escape, but who wants to talk about that?

Marvel's trying to spin this as an element of suspense and it hasn't been entirely unsuccessful on that front, but in many ways it feels to me like they didn't spend half as much time planning how this event was supposed to pan out as they'd like the readers to believe (a la Nu52) and are just trying to buy more time to figure out how they actually arrived at their new status quo. Not a generous thought, I know, but I'm not feeling all that well disposed toward Marvel these days anyway.

This is my sentiments as well.

[Ambaryerno]

This is my sentiments as well.

Unfortunately, in medias res time skips have been a BIG thing in fiction the last couple years, so I'm frankly not surprised to see Marvel jump on the bandwagon.

[Jameszahra]

Daken please.

Agree, Ill wait to pick this up until I see some daken. Good to know that theres a good chance he will be showing up.............Not sure what to expect from this title. It may turn our to be really good - As someone said earlier, Id like to see her do normal stuff too.

[matevenados]

Laura is gonna fight Obama nation? She's gonna need obama care then

o0OPS ! man I shoulda done some spell checkin I meant a-bom-da nation you know that big green lumpy horny dude the Hulks always fighting ! or for that matter just imagine X-23 Running into one of the really over-powered women in marvel ! such as fer instance Titania or the red -SHE-Hulk I mean either one of these women could take X-23 out with out breakin a sweat hell just tear her armes off then her head lol ! I guess my point is shouldnt she gone back and had the full monty done to her you know like all over her body then she would at least approch the level of bad-assery nessesary to hold the title of the Wolverine ! instead of just being Claw-girl !

[somacula]

o0OPS ! man I shoulda done some spell checkin I meant a-bom-da nation you know that big green lumpy horny dude the Hulks always fighting ! or for that matter just imagine X-23 Running into one of the really over-powered women in marvel ! such as fer instance Titania or the red -SHE-Hulk I mean either one of these women could take X-23 out with out breakin a sweat hell just tear her armes off then her head lol ! I guess my point is shouldnt she gone back and had the full monty done to her you know like all over her body then she would at least approch the level of bad-assery nessesary to hold the title of the Wolverine ! instead of just being Claw-girl !

This is gonna be lenghty
Laura didn't got the full adamantium skeleton because it'd stopped her from growing and because she left the facility. Now she's an agility oriented assasin rather than a berseker like wolverine, that means her fighting style is more acrobatic oriented, and unless the writer is dumb, consists of graceful dodging , lots of jumping around, moving fast and thanks to her training the strikes she delivers are precise and deadly, straight to jugular, a one hit kill. Unless she's carrying the idiot ball she'll most likely wont go full leeroy jenkins against stronger enemies, and do a tactical retreat, try to find a weak point and strike to disable the enemy.

Now with the bones itself, the adamantium skeleton would slow her down, and she'd more physical strenght in order to move around with those heavy metal bones, I know she's a bit stronger than the average human but the adamantium would severly slow her down and would make her difficult to take a more acrobatic approach to fight, plus she wouldn't be able to swin... it'd also hurt like hell