In X-Men #10, Laura proves that she is a more merciful Wolverine than Logan by reacting with compassion when encountering one of their old foes.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for X-Men #10, now on sale from Marvel Comics.
After Wolverine died, his clone daughter Laura Kinney took up the mantle of Wolverine and established herself as a hero under that name. Even after Logan came back to life, Laura continued to use that title, and joined Krakoa’s new team of X-Men as Wolverine. But the title of Wolverine also came with its fair share of enemies. Ever since Laura took on the name of Wolverine, she has faced a number of Logan’s old foes.
Laura took up the mantle of Wolverine as a way to honor Logan, but she also recognized that he had many flaws. Laura works to learn from Logan’s past mistakes so that she can truly honor his legacy and be the best Wolverine she can be for both their sakes. This is especially apparent when Laura encounters Logan’s old enemies. Whereas Logan is often distrustful and quick to violence, Laura makes an effort to only use violence when it is absolutely necessary.
In X-Men #10 (by Gerry Duggan, Javier Pina, Marte Gracia and VC’s Clayton Cowles), Laura encounters one of Logan’s most famous foes: Lady Deathstrike. Laura intends to rescue Lady Deathstrike from where she is being held captive and experimented on, but Lady Deathstrike attacks her and they briefly fight. When Laura realizes that Lady Deathstrike is dying from adamantium poisoning, she stops fighting her and takes her to Krakoa to be healed.
Once Lady Deathstrike is fully healed, Laura allows her to leave without turning her in to the police or further punishing her. Lady Deathstrike has committed a lot of horrible crimes in her life, and if Logan had encountered her instead of Laura, he probably wouldn’t have taken her to be healed, much less allow her to go free afterward. But Laura is not interested in hurting others just for the sake of hurting them, even if they have done bad things in the past. Laura believes that thanks to her help, Lady Deathstrike may be ready to turn over a new leaf, and so she allows her to go free without any further punishment.
This is reminiscent of an earlier time that Laura and Lady Deathstrike met while Laura was Wolverine. In All-New Wolverine #30 (by Tom Taylor, Juann Cabal, Nolan Woodard and VC’s Cory Petit), Laura and her siblings Gabby and Daken rescued Lady Deathstrike and Sabretooth from abduction by a cult that wanted to punish them for their past crimes. Even though Lady Deathstrike and Sabretooth had done terrible things in the past, Laura believed that they didn’t deserve to be murdered by terrorists. She helped them escape while she confronted the cult and urged them not to let themselves be consumed by hatred. Laura hoped that by showing kindness and mercy to her enemies, she could convince them to see the error of their ways and inspire them to change.
Laura’s methods as Wolverine are very different from Logan’s. Though she is a deadly fighter, she tries not to use violence unless it is absolutely necessary. She wants to actually help people, instead of just causing more suffering. Laura may be a different sort of Wolverine from Logan, but she is just as powerful in her own way.
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