There is a new rumor on the horizon that Marvel’s Wolverine Legacy will be having a couple faces from Logan’s past take on the Wolverine mantle once the ‘Death of Wolverine‘ arc completes.  Yes, after delivering us a female Thor, it now looks like Marvel plans to give us a female Wolverine and may have plans to have X-23 take over the name.

I’m not sure I like the idea. It almost feels like they are just trying to cash in on the idea now. My dislike doesn’t stem from a gender change for a name and it isn’t because Wolverine has always been a male; it’s because I feel that they’ve finally given Laura a strong enough identity of her own after clawing away from the fact that she is Wolverine’s clone and now they are just going to have her take his mantle? I feel that she is worth more these days than just being used once again as a Wolverine replacement.

While I personally feel that it just doesn’t feel right, lets take a look at what it seems to be the direction that the comic is going in. There are a couple spoilers so if you don’t want to know more, you might want to turn back now.

First off we know that at least for a limited time (from what it sounds like that time frame is 6 months), Saberwooth will be taking the outfit and name of Wolverine. There are no details on why Creed is going to become Wolverine and even less of a reason that makes sense on why his former enemies, now apparently turning teammate, would accept it. I’m guessing the events will stem from what occurs in AXIS as you can see below in the cover of ‘Axis’ #9:

Left side right under the Iron Man armor? That is Sabertooth in a Wolverine costume. With one of the taglines of the comic being “An old foe must claim the mantle of his greatest enemy to save the lives of all he cares for!” it seems pretty obvious as to who they are referring to. I’m having problems wrapping my head on exactly why this has to happen for him to save lives and who it exactly is that Creed cares about aside from himself.

So, there is that. However, a new source from Marvel is also saying that after six months of Creed as Wolverine, the mantle will be passed to X-23. I’m really a little torn on this as while she has become one of my favorite characters in the All-New X-Men, I like who they’ve turned her into. I don’t think she should need to take up the Wolverine mantle to be an oustanding character.

What do you think about Laura taking over as Wolverine? Do you think it makes sense for her to have the name or does she have enough going for her to stand on her own without taking the name of the man who she was cloned from?

Source: Bleeding Cool