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

LAURA KINNEY: WOLVERINE #2
“The Devil in Me, part 1”
Writer: Erica Schultz
Artist: Giada Belviso
Colour artist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

WOLVERINE.

It’s a “they clash then they team up” story. Laura isn’t surprised that Elektra doesn’t want her help, and tries to talk to her at first. But she loses her temper when Elektra says something about not wanting to work with mutants – see below. (The art seems to have Elektra throwing the first punch, but if so, it’s not clear why – and besides, the whole story revolves around Laura being the impulsive one.) Laura clearly finds Elektra condescending, and not without reason.

As usual, she feels strongly about any sign of children being used as weapons, and all the more so when anti-mutant forces are involved. Charitably, this might explain why her self-control and planning skills seem to be at rock bottom in this story, giving Elektra plenty of opportunity to play the older and wiser role. Laura also yells at Luke Cage for not banning an anti-superhero march (see below). Elektra regards Laura as impulsive.

Despite wearing a costume and calling herself Wolverine, Laura doesn’t regard herself as part of the superhero community, and objects vigorously to Elektra implying that she is.

In keeping with current editorial mandates, her healing factor is back to sane levels: being shot in the leg takes her down for a whole page.

GUEST STARS.

Daredevil (Elektra). Elektra has been wearing her own Daredevil costume and calling herself Daredevil for a few years now, though she’s emphatically a supporting character in the Daredevil book itself. Laura seems to regard her, and not Matt, as the protector of Hell’s Kitchen – and regards Elektra as highly territorial.

Elektra starts off with no interest in working with Laura, who she clearly thinks will get in her way. For some reason, she says that “lately, working with mutants has made things complicated.” I have no idea what that’s referring to – I’m not aware of any storylines either in Daredevil or in Erica Schultz’s Daredevil: Woman Without Fear mini that would seem relevant. Elektra certainly implies here that she doesn’t want to work with Laura because she’s a mutant, although she clearly changes her mind here and says that she’s “complicated” too. It’s all a bit odd.

Elektra generally carries herself here as a member of the superhero establishment pulling rank over an impetuous child. Arguably, that’s more what she’s trying to be than what she actually is, at least in the context of her home title – but it’s certainly how she presents herself to Laura. She tells Luke that Laura is “headstrong… I find it admirable.” She doesn’t mention anything about being a former weapon for the Hand, and it’s not clear whether she even knows that it’s a subject where she and Laura might have something in common. Still, she tells Laura that they’re “more alike than you’re willing to admit”.

Luke Cage. The mayor of New York is, for some reason, not particularly worried about Laura’s (entirely correct) warning that the anti-superhero march is going to be bombed. Even though Elektra presumably vouches for Laura’s account of seeing a sedated mutants with exploding powers being handed over in a conversation about destroying part of Lower Manhattan, Luke seems remarkably confident that “my guys” can handle it and wants Laura to steer clear. Is he really that sure of the NYPD, or did he have an actual plan to deal with this bombing already, which Laura is screwing up?

Like Elektra, he talks down to Laura and brings up the fact that she was “made in a lab”. He’s basically playing the role of obstructive by-the-book senior officer here, but Elektra continues to vouch for him to Laura. (If he does have a plan, and she’s in on it, then that might explain why she was so keen to drive Laura away.)

Bomb. Anthony (he never had a surname) is a character from the 2012 miniseries First X-Men, in which Logan and Creed formed a short lived mutant team. The whole thing is a bit of a continuity nightmare and I think this is the first time it’s been referenced in another series. Bomb basically has the same explode-and-reform powers as Nitro. In the original story, he’s taken into government custody when his mutant power emerges and he blows up; he gets rescued and joins the team. He supposedly dies in the final issue, though we don’t see a body. He hasn’t aged at all since First X-Men, which might suggest that he did indeed die, and that he was resurrected on Krakoa.

Laura recognises him as “a friend of Logan’s from a million years ago”, which tends to suggest that they met on Krakoa at some point.

VILLAINS.

Humanity First. Yet another generic anti-mutant outfit. This is the first time we’ve seen a group of that name in the mainstream Marvel Universe, but there was a Humanity First group in Amazing Spider-Girl #20-24, so perhaps it’s meant to be the mainstream version of them.

Mr Esger is the only Humanity First member who gets dialogue. He seems to be a true believer, though he appears to be a little bit troubled on realising that Bomb is a child.

Mr Teman. The man who supplies Bomb to Esger. He claims to have “people who know people who can get you anything you want, for a price”. Esger regards him as a respected patron of Humanity First, but Teman treats it as purely a business transaction and doesn’t even go through the motions of pretending to share their agenda (he even calls it “your cause”). For some reason, he wants the explosion to be kept contained, because “I still need a foundation to build on,” whatever that means. He seems to expect that Esger will follow this advice.

Teman queries outright why Humanity First are bothering to use an exploding mutant instead of just setting off a regular old bomb, and doesn’t really get an answer, but presumably they think they can pin the attack on mutants this way.

FOOTNOTES:

Page 5 panel 2: “I heards about a weapons shipment coming in…” In issue #1, Laura finds a series of notes hidden in the Treehouse, some of which were tip-offs. This is one of them.

Page 9 panel 2: “People are angry Mayor Cage repealed the anti-vigilante act.” The anti-vigilante laws were introduced in the 2021-2 Devil’s Reign crossover, and repealed at the end of Gang War – specifically, in Amazing Spider-Man #44 (2024). That book came out nearly a year ago, so these people have really taken their time getting around to arranging a protest.

Page 16 panel 5: “It’s nice to be working with a Wolverine again.” Elektra was briefly a supporting character in Wolverine back in the mid-nineties.