As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

LAURA KINNEY: WOLVERINE #1
“All the Places You Will Go”
Writer: Erica Schultz
Artist: Giada Belviso
Colour artist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

This is the first ongoing series with the title Laura Kinney: Wolverine, but Laura previously had ongoing titles under the name X-23 during 2010-12 and 2018-19, plus All-New Wolverine in 2016-18. Hence the legacy numbering of issue #69.

WOLVERINE:

Laura struggles to understand Kamala’s optimism or even Sophie’s ability to adjust to the fall of Krakoa. She refers here to “the few times I let them talk me into hanging out”. That doesn’t really fit with her arc in NYX, in which she starts hanging out with the rest of the cast in order to get allies against Mojo.

On learning that young Ivan has been abducted to Dubai, Laura’s back story naturally motivates her to address this tale of child exploitation. Much of this story involves her expecting all mutants to be on her side and humans to be against her, and being surprised when neither of those turns out to be true. Logically, the existence of mutant villains shouldn’t come as a massive surprise to her, but to be fair, Laura is still in the mutant nation mindset of Krakoa.

At least at first, Laura is deeply unimpressed by Polly; she seems to regard Polly’s decision to stay closeted during the Krakoan era as a moral failing and takes it as read that Polly will see it the same way. She also regards even willing performers at the Delta as being exploited. But by the end of the story she decides that Polly just has a more balanced view of mutants and humans.

Laura leaves it to Kamala and Sophie to arrange Ivan’s reunion with his sister, the implication being that she feels uncomfortable with handling this sort of emotional moment herself – she watches from nearby, so she clearly could have done it in person.

SUPPORTING CAST:

Kamala Khan and Sophie Cuckoo both appear at the start and end, mainly to play up the contrast with Laura. Laura is hanging out with them, but Sophie still has her telepathic powers, so we’re probably somewhere between NYX #2 and #4.

Ivan is a mutant with mood-altering sweat who’s been abducted to Dubai, and Emery is his sister, apparently a mutant but with no powers beyond an unusual appearance. Emery’s approach to getting help for Ivan, a little oddly, is to write a letter and hide it at the Treehouse, apparently in the hope that someone from the X-Men will find it. Remarkably, she turns out to be right. According to Emery’s letter, she and her brother are Moldovans; she says they were both abducted from there, but it’s not clear how she escaped (or maybe got dumped), or how she got to New York. They’re both new characters.

Polly is a Dubai-based mutant who can detect other mutants. Since she’s white and blonde, presumably she wasn’t born in Dubai. She runs Oasis, which she describes as a “safe place” for mutants, funded by a “benefactor” whom she doesn’t identify. Maybe we’ll come back to that in future issues. After the Madame is defeated, Polly invites her human trafficking victims to come to Oasis as well; she never actually said that Oasis was mutant-specific, just that it was safe for mutants.

According to Polly, she chose to live as a human and was reluctant to out herself by moving to Krakoa; consequently, she missed the whole thing. She regrets this, which motivates her to create Oasis. She’s still very uncomfortable with anything illicit and has an unnamed “cop friend” who she talks to. Much to Laura’s surprise, the cop turns out to be completely legitimate and although we never see Oasis, all signs are that Polly was telling the truth about it.

Elektra – as the second Daredevil – shows up at the end to tease issue #2.

VILLAINS:

The Madame is a mutant based in Dubai and dealing in trafficked mutants. She also has ties with the Delta Disco, which employs low-level mutants as entertainers; several characters claim that these mutants are there willingly, and even Laura seems prepared to accept that, although she still regards them as being exploited.

The Madame turns out to be Cybelle, a bit part character from Uncanny X-Men #211 who was one of the first mutants killed in the Mutant Massacre. We already knew that Cybelle had been resurrected on Krakoa; she appears in Hellions #1.

Cybelle doesn’t ascribe her motivation to the fall of Krakoa. Rather, she points out that Laura doesn’t even know her name, and says that she was “just another random mutant resurrected to fill up the island”. She claims that once she was resurrected she was determined never to be a victim again, and she sees the Massacre as having happened because “the heroes let it happen”. Basically, she doesn’t buy into mutant identity as an organising principle; all this does somewhat fit with the Morlocks being generally unhappy with Krakoa and wanting to go their own way.

An unnamed bouncer at the Delta Disco is also a mutant with size-changing and strength powers. He knows what the Madame is up to but doesn’t much care as long as he’s okay. He puts up an impressive fight against Laura, but she does attack him first, so it’s not entirely clear whether he’s actively involved in the Madame’s activities or just turning a blind eye to them.

MISCELLANEOUS:

Page 3. The narration is a straight recap of Laura’s established back story and the fall of Krakoa, at a very high level.

Page 5. The Treehouse was the X-Men’s New York headquarters during the Krakoan era. The plaque reading “Dedicated to those who paid the ultimate price to fight fascism” was added as a memorial in Invincible Iron Man #20.