Conceptually, Laura Kinney was a simple character. She was essentially a gender-flipped version of Logan, a common trope in fiction. There are many “girl versions” of prominent male characters, including Supergirl and Lola Bunny from Looney Tunes. However, credit to her creators Crag Kyle and Christopher Yost, Laura comes off much more nuanced and interesting than just a female version of Wolverine. While she shared multiple similarities to the classic Wolverine, including being an experiment of an underground organization, she had her own desires and goals separate from Logan. She was introduced during a time when another Wolverine-like character was still relatively fresh and fascinating, predating Logan’s son, Daken, by a few years.
Logan was also introduced as a full-grown man. Readers would only see brief glimpses of Logan’s childhood, with Origin being the primary source of the character’s early years. In contrast, Laura was introduced as a young teen, allowing fans to see her grow up in real time and mature. Logan can still be enigmatic, even after learning about his backstory, but with Laura, we know everything about her and why she is the way she is. Logan’s appeal has always been the mystery surrounding him, yet Laura proves you don’t need the mystique to be engaging. She’s a better Wolverine because she is so open and has many layers to her personality.
Laura Challenges The Masculine Ideals of Being Wolverine
Logan has oftentimes been used to portray masculinity in its purest form, depicting both the good and the bad side of it. Authors would occasionally use Logan to romanticize masculinity, with his hairy and muscular body often used to represent the epitome of men. Oppositely, writers would also constantly use Wolverine as a metaphor for the toxic and self-hating traits of masculinity. Logan, no matter how many women he beds or worlds he saves, there’s an inherent self-hatred to his character that showcases how masculinity can be a prison of men’s own making.
Laura has the same self-hatred, but the context is reshaped to fit more in line with her gender. She was the only successful clone of Logan, later retcon to be his biological daughter, and was used by a shady organization to become an assassin. Her upbringing works as a metaphor for how girls often don’t get a say over their own bodies, with their decisions and life choices being dictated by a nebulous society. Whereas Logan’s self-hatred stems from his own actions and his deep-seated fear of who he truly is, Laura’s self-hatred comes from external forces.
She was pressured into something she had no power over and feels great guilt over it. Logan’s tragic upbringing was also primarily out of his control, and his memory loss leaves him with some deniability for her actions. Nonetheless, he still had some agency in his life, especially in his post-Weapon X days. Laura was bred to have no will, used as nothing more than a weapon. Logan almost begrudgingly became a hero through Alpha Flight and the X-Men, whilst Laura decided to push away from her murderous instincts to become a better person.
Laura Is a More Likable Wolverine
On that note, Laura also didn’t become a hero overnight. She almost needed to be directed into superheroism with the help of others, including her friends in NYX, X-Men Academy, and Logan. That’s another stark difference between Logan and Laura. Although Logan is a loner by nature, again representing the classical man’s ideal of a lone hero, Laura has friends and others to rely on. Her relationship with her clone sister, Gabby, emphasizes what differentiates Laura from Logan. Laura will always gravitate to people and keep them around. In contrast, Logan would often pull away from people.
Yet Logan has also undergone a character arc in the last few decades. He isn’t as much of a gruff or loner as he was back in the 80s or 90s. He’s more caring and sincere, becoming the superhero he was always destined to be. Logan is undeniably one of Marvel’s greatest creations, but Laura offers a different layer to the Wolverine moniker. She essentially challenges the masculine ideals that the title once romanticized, highlighting how a Wolverine can be great no matter the gender. Readers got to witness Laura’s journey in the comics from a depressed child to a more confident and empathetic hero. Her character arc can be compared to how DC Comics handled Wally West’s character journey. Both characters began as children with no direction and evolved into superhero monikers bestowed upon them. Now, similarly to how Wally West has become the best version of the Flash, Laura Kinney has become the best version of Wolverine.
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