Marvel, Please Don’t Just Swap Wolverine For X-23
By Nick Tylwalk
I’m not 100 percent sure of what the plan is to fill the void left by Wolverine once he shuffles off this mortal coil at the end of Death of Wolverine. I just hope it’s something more interesting than replacing him with X-23.
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Why even bring that possibility up? Because Rich Johnston’s sources are saying that’s exactly what’s going to happen, after a brief detour where Sabretooth takes over the role. Johnston isn’t always right about stuff like this, but he certainly has connections, and they’re on the money more often that not.
Please understand I have no problem with a female Wolverine. I’m intrigued to see what happens with the female Thor, for instance, even though I think it’s asinine that Odin doesn’t know the identity of the woman with the hammer. He enchanted that thing!
What I do have an issue with is Axel Alonso and Charles Soule (quickly becoming a favorite writer of mine) doing interviews putting over these interesting plans they have for people carrying on after Logan. Just subbing in characters with similar powers sounds like the exact opposite of interesting.
On top of that, is Wolverine really a legacy gig? Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye … these are super heroes where someone can just step in and take over the role. Maybe not as successfully as the original, but they can do the job.
Wolverine is more than just a costume or a power set, it’s the attitude he brought to his work, his willingness to cross lines that others wouldn’t and the expertise he gained from living an extra long life and seeing almost everything. I don’t think anyone needs to sub in for him, and it certainly doesn’t need to happen right on the heels of having a new Captain America and a new Thor.
Come on Marvel. You can do better than this, and I hope you do.