Hail to the chief.
Madame President indeed. Image: Ramon Rosanas and Nolan Woodard (Marvel Comics)
Before Laura Kinney takes off the Wolverine mantle in the present day to become X-23 once more, All-New Wolverine is heading to the future for a story set long after she’s traded in Wolverine for an altogether new adventure called, obviously, “Old Woman Laura”. Kicking off in this week’s All-New Wolverine #33 – by Tom Taylor, Ramon Rosanas, Nolan Woodard and Cory Petit – the issue flings us into an indeterminate future where a lot has changed for Laura and her formerly-preteen clone Gabby. First, it’s Gabby herself operating as Wolverine, complete with a slick new suit that combines “Stark-level Graphene” and Vibranium to make Gabby look a little bit like X-Men-meets-Tron.
Gabby’s fancy new Wolverine outfit. Glowing claws not pictured, sadly. Image: Ramon Rosanas and Nolan Woodard (Marvel Comics).
But why has Laura handed over the reigns and some rad-looking neon claws? Because her current role is a bit bigger than superhero: She’s become the queen of Marvel’s premiere fictitious Southeast Asian nation, Madripoor, ushering in a peaceful era of prosperity and technological advancement for a nation that is also often portrayed as the hive of scum and villainy of choice for Marvel bad guys.
There’s also a more tragic reason that this future Laura’s hung up her superhero costume: She’s found out there’s a genetic error in her cloning process, one that was corrected for future clones of herself such as Gabby. But it’s incurable, and left her with months to live.
Laura tells Gabby why she’s finally facing death. Image: Ramon Rosanas and Nolan Woodard (Marvel Comics)
In that time, Laura’s decided she wants to do two things: Kill Doctor Doom (who in this future, previously launched a “Doom War” on the world), and rescue her long lost clone sister Bellona, who in the current timeline – so, err, the past of “Old Woman Laura” – has been locked up by SHIELD. Finding information on where Bellona is now leads Laura to Washington, where she bumps into a fellow former hero: Kamala Khan, the Ms Marvel-ous President of the United States.
Well bump into isn’t technically correct, considering Laura decides to casually break into Kamala’s Oval Office to test her security. Kamala’s Chairwoman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a very angry-looking Maria Hill, ends up tagging along on Laura’s mission to infiltrate Latveria, Doom’s isolated kingdom, and find Bellona – but honestly, I’d like to see a few more stories in this alternate future with the Madame President beyond her small part in Laura’s final revenge mission. A West Wing-style miniseries with President Khan, perhaps?
Honestly Kamala, I don’t think “Love, Fear and Loyalty” is that good a Presidential slogan, but you do you. Illustration: Ramon Rosanas and Nolan Woodard (Marvel Comics)
It’s a nice future to daydream about, honestly.
Comments
6 responses to “All-New Wolverine’s Latest Arc Gives Us The Happiest Future Marvel’s Ever Had”
So sad this series is coming to an end after this arc.
While the book’s been a bit hit & miss with artists, Tom Taylor’s writing on this is awesome stuff!
Gabby is the breakout star of the book, that’s for certain. She steals every scene she’s in. So much so that I want to see a Gabby & Jonathan ongoing series!
At least we’ll still have Taylor writing Laura & Gabby (& hopefully Jonathan too!) in X-Men: Red.
Sounds like the looney left Radical Feminists wet dream more like it. Women in every top position of power all around the world, the main hero is female, and men only exist to be villains. It makes me glad that Marvel are starting to wake up to these types of stories that have been slowly killing their brand for the last 3 years and going a hard reboot… and I hate reboots.
it doesn’t even seem all that feasible. I mean at this stage do we actually think people are going to vote a mulsim as president. no offense to anyone intended but, it just doesn’t seem like something that could happen without a massive culture shift that is unlikely to happen.
Presumably KK would have been a celebrity at the time of her election. You could say it is unlikely for California to elect an Austrian as their governor, but they did elect Schwarzenegger.
I suppose that’s true
So through history, most stories have given predominant roles to men and caricaturised, vilified or dismissed women, but when a handful of books tries the reverse, it’s suddenly vile and ridiculous?
An article that involves women or muslims has someone unironically blaming THE LOONY LEFT for the comic industry imploding into nothing.
Except that when you look at real numbers, the new comics are selling fine.
https://screenrant.com/marvel-diversity-comic-sales-single-issue/