It's time for Laura Kinney to reclaim the identity of Wolverine. Created by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, Laura was introduced in NYX #3 as a female clone of Wolverine who had been brought up as a living weapon. Little by little, though, she's become a strong and complex character in her own right.

In 2015, Laura inherited the mantle of Wolverine at a time when Logan was believed to be dead. It was part of the All-New All-Different Marvel relaunch, which celebrated the concept of "legacy," and Laura was one of the most successful of these heroes. The All-New Wolverine series was written by Tom Taylor, and featured a stunning range of new costume designs for Laura. But, of course, it was only temporary; Logan came back, and Laura was relegated to "X-23" again.

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Marvel seem to be reversing that decision. A preview image for Jonathan Hickman and R.B. Silva's X-Men #5 shows Laura joining a new team, working alongside the mutants Synch and Darwin. The trio are clearly part of a team - but it's particularly notable that Laura is back to wearing a Wolverine-style outfit, complete with that traditional mask. It seems X-23 is once again a Wolverine.

X-23 Becoming Wolverine Was The Completion Of Her Character Arc

Wolverine stands in the rain from Marvel Comics

The All-New All-Different range came in for heavy criticism from old-school comic book readers, in large part because Marvel switched up too many characters at once. In the case of Laura Kinney, however, the adoption of the "Wolverine" title was a natural part of her character arc. As noted, Laura was introduced as nothing more than a clone of Logan, and for years she battled to regain a sense of her own identity. She'd been brought up to think of herself as nothing more than a weapon, but she rebelled against this, learning what it means to be a human being. Marjorie Liu's superb X-23 series saw Laura recognize that she had a soul.

Laura's relationship to Wolverine was a major part of her development as a character. Logan essentially treated Laura as a person, sometimes more than she wanted; he objected to Cyclops' using her as a member of a black-ops X-Force team, believing she deserved a chance to put that life behind her. Logan's faith paid off, and Laura began to understand him as a father. That particular arc came to a poignant climax in the Hunt for Wolverine event, when Laura learned that she technically is his daughter. As Tony Stark explained, she was created in an artificial process using DNA from both Logan and the scientists Sarah Kinney, meaning that in biological terms she really is Wolverine's daughter.

It's important to remember that the designation "X-23" is not really a superhero codename; rather, it can more accurately be described as a "slave name," given to Laura by her creators as part of their attempt to dehumanize her. Thus Laura's adoption of the "Wolverine" moniker was a rejection of everything she had stood for, an insistence that she be treated as a person rather than as a weapon, and an acknowledgment of the family she had found in Logan. For Laura, calling herself "Wolverine" was a powerful statement.

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Laura Regressed By Becoming X-23 Again

X-23 Cable Fallen Angels

And then Logan returned - and Laura essentially lost her own identity. Marvel began marketing her as X-23 again, as though the entire character arc had never happened, and even launched a new X-23 series. Artist Mark Choi was commissioned to develop a new costume that was essentially a callback to Laura's time in X-Force, and that went back to sexualizing her by giving her a '90s-style boob window. Marvel's always had a history of sexualizing Laura, and it's a tendency that her own creator Craig Kyle has called out. As he noted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

"She was... immediately aged up to 16, and then in Uncanny [X-Men] she was 22 and had a boob job. Those issues are a dark place. I was really hoping we would have a young character, a child, a pre-teen who wasn't going to be in the dating, the sexuality aspects of the storylines for a long time to come."

Marvel at least had the wisdom to avoid having Laura begin calling herself X-23 from an -in-universe perspective. But they don't seem to have appreciated that, in having Laura abandon the "Wolverine" codename, they've essentially stripped Laura of a core part of her identity. It has to be understood that, for mutants, a codename is a real name that they have chosen, a rejection of their old life and a declaration that they are something more. That idea has been a core part of the X-Men mythology since the Grant Morrison era, and it's been stressed several times as part of Jonathan Hickman's X-Men relaunch. All the world's mutants are gathering on the living island of Krakoa, and the X-Men are encouraging new mutants to choose their "mutant name" (the point was stressed as recently as this week's Marauders #5, when Iceman asked Emma Frost's brother Christian if he'd given any thought to his "mutant name"). Given this context, it's actually quite surprising to see that Laura just goes by... Laura. It implicitly isolates her, calling her out as not truly a part of the X-Men any more.

Does There Really Only Have To Be ONE Wolverine?

All New Wolverine Sisters

All this raises the obvious question; does there really only have to be one Wolverine? From an out-of-universe perspective, Marvel has been quite happily marketing multiple Spider-Men for years now. The key seems to be ensuring that the characters are as different as possible in thematic terms, ensuring both Peter Parker and Miles Morales have the narrative right to exist. Logan and Laura tick that box, because each is a very different version of Wolverine. Laura's focus is increasingly upon family, and she's even taken in a "daughter," her own clone who now goes by the adorable title of Honey Badger. It's perhaps no coincidence that the X-Men relaunch appears to have forgotten that, with Honey Badger yet to appear.

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From an in-universe perspective, there's absolutely no reason the X-Men couldn't accept two Wolverines. After all, given they're combining cloning and Cerebro technology to effectively resurrect every dead mutant, they're going to have a number of duplicates; there'll be two Pyros, two Avalanches, and multiple Masterminds. It's true that a shared "Wolverine" identity would be the most high-profile of these, but there's absolutely no reason that couldn't work.

All things considered, then, it's pleasing to see Laura don a Wolverine mask again in the teaser for X-Men #5. Hopefully this means she has regained her sense of identity, and has decided to celebrate her connection to Logan by becoming a Wolverine again. If so, it would be a step in the right direction for Marvel, and would potentially set Laura up to becoming a major part of the X-Men world once more.

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