As part of the Marvel Legacy direction for the company Tom Taylor has decided go back and explore Laura Kinney’s origins. In doing so we saw the big return of Laura’s biological mother, Sarah Kinney, is still alive. This is a big time reveal that is sure to rock the life Laura has built for herself and sister Gabby. To go along with Sarah’s return we are also seeing Daken coming back to Laura’s life and bringing an organization calling themselves Orphans of X after him and everything connected to Logan. Can Laura as Wolverine make sure her newly returned mother remain in her life? Or will further revelations cause more chaos in Laura’s life? Let’s find out with All-New Wolverine #26.
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Juann Cabal
Colorist: Nolan Woodard
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: In an unknown location the Orphans of X take turns in torturing Daken and have gotten to the point of already cutting one of his arms off. The latest person to take a turn at the torture room takes pleasure at their opportunity. When they go to cut Daken’s remaining arm Daken wakes up and uses his claws to kill the person attempting to torture him.
Daken proceeds to break free from his confinement and puts on the Orphans of X costume of the person he just killed.
At Megan and Debbie Kinney’s house Gabby can’t take her eyes of seeing her mom for the first time. Beast finally finishes running his test to confirm that the person Laura recovered is in fact Sarah Kinney. Beast goes on to say that whatever material was in the tank that Sarah was in preserved her body to be that of the age she when she supposedly killed.
Sarah notices how much older Laura has gotten and realizes she was in the tank for several years. She then thanks Laura for finding her. Sarah then meets Gabby and finds out she is also her daughter biologically.
Beast and Warren decide to leave so the Kinney family can catch up with one another.
At Orphans of X base Daken finishes changing and walks through the facility. He spots members of the Orphans of X watching a TV with live footage of what Laura and her family are doing.
The Orphans of X spot Daken and send their dogs after him.
Back at the Kinney household Sarah tells Laura that the Orphans of X woke up her from her containment occasionally to find out information on Wolverine’s entire family. Sarah reveals that the organization knows about the Muramasa Blade.
Gabby wonders what the Muramasa Blade is. Laura says that the blade was forged by the greatest swordmaster who has ever lived and that when the tip was broken off, melted and bonded to Daken’s claws. After several fights Logan defeated Daken and removed his claws, burying the claws and broke blade in a secret location.
Sarah asks Laura if Daken knows where the blade and claws were buried. Laura says he doesn’t but she does. Laura then calls Carol Danvers to ask for a favor.
Back at Orphans of X facility Daken is driven outside by their dogs and finds out he is a residential neighborhood. More Orphans of X members how up and start shooting at Daken. Daken powers through being shot and is able to steal one of the Orphans of X’s cars.
At the Kinney household Laura and everyone hear gunfire outside. Laura changes into her Wolverine costume and she Gabby go check on what is going on.
Wolverine sees Daken’s car and is able to get in front of it and force Daken to stop. Daken gets out and wonders what exactly is going on. End of issue.
The Good: With All-New Wolverine #26 we get a much better idea of what Tom Taylor is looking to accomplish with this new arc, “Orphans Of X.” A big part of this new direction is the family aspect of the series that up until now has been mainly focused on Laura and Gabby’s bond as sisters. Now that has expanded with the return to Sarah Kinney’s return shaking things up, as well as what is going on with Daken.
Sarah’s return had an interesting impact on Gabby, who was completely in awe of seeing her mother for the first time. Taylor has done a good job highlighting how Gabby is still an innocent young girl. Even with the terribly traumatizing things Gabby has been through she has been able to find light in every event in her life. That now extended to seeing Sarah for the first time and how she didn’t want to even blink so that her mom did not disappear.
Gabby’s reaction was able to further put into question the exact nature of Sarah’s return. With the character being gone for so long her return does come off as to good to be true. And while Laura is sure to be glad to see her mom again it was a continuation of her character evolution that she did not let her emotions at this event get the best of her. Instead she questioned the return as much as the reader does, keeping her mom at arms length while Beast ran tests on her.
This family drama was nicely complimented by what Daken went through as Orphans of X cut off his arm and did other things to torture him. Taylor was smart to use this to make you feel bad for him though not completely forgetting the guy is an asshole black sheep of the Wolverine family. The way he goes about killing members of Orphans of X was brutal, made even better by how he had to fight them off with one arm. At the same time we got to see a bit of his own good nature with how he saved a dog from all the gunfire.
Even with the organization being brand new Taylor has been quickly building on who the Orphans of X are and what their purpose is. The way they took turns in torturing Daken, even removing one of his arms, showed how much sick pleasure they took in that torture. There methods does create more interest in what exactly their endgame is and why they are doing all of this. It will also be interesting to see if they are tied to Sarah or anyone in the Kinney family since they were conducting their work so close to where they live.
Juann Cabal once again delivered some solid artwork for All-New Wolverine #26. Cabal’s artwork is especially at it’s best when getting over how different characters react to different situation. That was best seen with how Cabal drew the different reactions in the Kinney household to Sarah’s return. There was a wide range of emotions for what was going on that delivered the punch that Sarah Kinney’s return deserved.
The Bad: Nothing.
Overall: All-New Wolverine #26 delivered a strong follow-up on the return of Sarah Kinney and the rise of the Orphans of X organization. Tom Taylor did great job using Sarah’s return as a vehicle to further develop Laura Kinney as she tries to figure out how she should deal with her mom’s return. At the same time, we get to see how Daken’s struggle with the Orphans of X may have a deeper tie to what is going with Laura’s life. What that is will be a big driving force for what goes on next, creating a nice mystery around everything that we have seen so far in this new story arc.
