All-New Wolverine: My Brother’s Keeper

Coming up, things get more personal than ever for Laura Kinney.

Having returned from her Brood-killing mission alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy, Laura has no choice but to return to the place where her journey began—to fight for the family she has left.

On October 11, writer Tom Taylor and artist Juann Cabal reintroduce Laura and Daken in ALL-NEW WOLVERINE #25!

We caught up with Tom to hear more about the Marvel Legacy beginning of a complex new partnership for Laura and her long-lost “brother.”

Marvel.com: Catch us up on what’s been going on in the wonderful world of Wolverine!

Tom Taylor: At the moment, we’re just coming back from space—Laura, Gabby, and Jonathan have been off with the Guardians of the Galaxy. They dealt with a massive threat there and now they’re coming back to Earth in the hope of finding some normalcy in their new residence on Roosevelt Island. But—of course—we’re going to be turning their world upside-down.

Something very bad happens. Daken will be taken…but a piece of him will also be found.

Marvel.com: Oh no.

Tom Taylor: Yeah, right!? That will start Laura on a very big journey which will involve her past, her present, and her future. There will be an intensity in our Legacy arc that we haven’t seen before. By the end of the first issue of our Orphans of X run, everybody will want to pick this book up.

Marvel.com: Just to recap, it wasn’t so long ago that Daken and Laura were—literally—at each other’s throats. Where do we find their relationship now?

Tom Taylor: Daken and Laura are actually quite close. We saw it in Marjorie Liu’s run and we saw it in the recent Immune arc where Daken comes—not to help Roosevelt Island in the middle of their horrible infestation—but to help Laura. Daken doesn’t get close to a lot of people. But he does respect Laura and I think that becomes quite clear.

We are playing with them as brother and sister and I think that comes through in all of Orphans of X, but in the beginning of Orphans of X, Daken gets taken prisoner (I can’t say by who yet!) and Laura has to deal with that. But it feels quite traumatic, and this will be one of the most intense arcs we’ve ever done.

Marvel.com: It seems so cool to go back to Laura’s roots with Legacy—to see her challenged in such a personal way.

Tom Taylor: She’s a fantastic character—she has an incredibly traumatic past but she’s not a victim. Particularly after everything she went through in Enemy of the State arc, she has really come through it and become a hell of a hero—as I hope we saw on the moon with the hive…like, she just went to an alien moon, took on the Brood, and she saved an entire island of people! She kicks ass in every way.

Marvel.com: Generally speaking, what does the legacy of Marvel Comics mean to you?

Tom Taylor: I’m a fanboy and I always have been. I’m a fan of these great characters. And when Marvel calls you up and says, “Hey Tom, do you want to write Iron Man?” you absolutely lose it! You just do! It feels insane. Like, this stuff just doesn’t happen. My first gig in American comics was writing Star Wars. And it’s just like…you’re kidding me. You want me to write Luke and Han and Leia? What!? I’m a guy from Melbourne, Australia. This just doesn’t happen.

I think we were talking about something else with Marvel at one stage and then they were like, actually, would you like to do Wolverine? What person in the world would say no to that!? Of course I want to do Wolverine! I’ve been reading Wolverine comics my whole life, I have shelves of them—yes I want in on this. I love Laura, ever since I saw her in “X-Men: Evolution”!

It’s just exciting to be on all of this and—I think I can say this—I’ve just been offered a new project for Marvel and it’s exactly the same. I have a very packed schedule but I just thought, you know what, I’m going to immediately drop everything I’m doing to jump onto this and make it as good as I possibly can; it couldn’t be more exciting to do another incredible Marvel property and to try to do my best at it.

Marvel.com: That’s so exciting! So Legacy must be a treat to work on.

Tom Taylor: Yeah—and we’re seeing things like going back the Muramasa Blade here, which has been a huge part of Logan’s past and what that came to mean. And now that his children have to deal with that will be a really big thing. That’s the kind of Legacy thing that we’re seeing in this, and I have to say that the artwork by Juann Cabal and [colorist] Nolan Woodard together looks like nothing you’ve ever seen. The three of us are just jamming so well! We’re adding extra beats everywhere and it’s amazing to be working with these talented guys.

ALL-NEW WOLVERINE #25, by Tom Taylor and artist Juann Cabal, drops on October 11!