The First Cut Is The Deepest With All-New Wolverine #1

by Vince Brusio

Adept at writing superhero stories, Tom Taylor was given the rare opportunity to help raise a new hero that’s just getting her feet wet…in a new costume. Those who are fond of X-23 are in for a real treat, as Tom is having Laura take new steps in filling big shoes with All-New Wolverine #1!

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PREVIEWSworld: Can you, at length, tell us the premise for All-New Wolverine #1 (SEP150716)?

Adept at writing superhero stories, Tom Taylor was given the rare opportunity to help raise a new hero that’s just getting her feet wet…in a new costume. Those who are fond of X-23 are in for a real treat, as Tom is having Laura take new steps in filling big shoes with All-New Wolverine #1!

Tom Taylor: Laura Kinney, Logan’s clone and, for all intents and purposes, his daughter, has taken up the mantle of Wolverine. She is the new “Empress of Snikt!”

There’s no time to dwell on this though as we join our all-new Wolverine in the midst of an assassination attempt. Who’s the target? Who’s the assassin? You’ll just have to wait to find out, but I’m guessing readers will be surprised by just how close it all is to Laura. And it’s just the beginning.  

The passing of Logan has hit Laura hard and really shown her the finality of death. After all the death she’s been part of, and been responsible for, she’s determined not to inflict that on anyone else again.

As she steps between two powerful groups hell-bent on destroying each other, we’ll see this former assassin doing everything she can to preserve all life.

This is still Wolverine, though, and some bad people may escape with their lives but leave behind some less-essential digits. 

PREVIEWSworld: Is this a project you’ve been crafting over the past year on your own, or did Marvel approach you to deliver the goods?

Tom Taylor: I was coming to the end of our run on Superior Iron Man and my editor, Mark Paniccia, and I were eager to work on something else together. We kicked around a few ideas but as soon as All-New Wolverine came up, there was nothing else to talk about. And there was no one more suited to take on the role than Laura. 

We have been crafting this for a while. Having someone else take on the mantle of Wolverine is no small thing, and we’ve gone through a lot of story ideas to get to where we are now. It’s not just my call, of course. With Laura appearing in other X-books as well, the rest of the X-team had to be happy with how we were presenting her. And there was a real push to have Laura a little bit lighter than we’ve seen her before. This isn’t so much Wolverine the dark vigilante; this is more Wolverine the Superhero.

I think this makes sense. She’s been through so much in her past, but this is an all new stage in Laura’s life. Putting on her father’s suit is almost like putting on new armor.

And she’s going to need this armor to get through what’s coming.

PREVIEWSworld: How does X-23 live up to the mantle of “Wolverine”? They are very big shoes to fill. What will she have to do to prove she’s worthy of the title?

Tom Taylor: I think Laura is already well on her way to being worthy of the title.
Like Logan, she’s an incredible warrior, a highly skilled fighter, fiercely protective, and they both came through a lot of pain, hardship, and caused a lot of damage before becoming heroes.

But, unlike Logan, Laura is less prone to acts of rage; she’s more calculating, more of a surgeon than a battering ram full of knives.

Ultimately, whether she proves worthy will depend on the kind of hero she chooses to be, the lives she saves, and the evil she stands against.

And, yes, they are very big shoes to fill but I’d argue Laura fills those shoes better than Logan. She has claws in her feet, so her shoes come with their own snikt!

PREVIEWSworld: Fans may want to know how this book “fits” in the Marvel Universe. Can you explain to us how she’s one piece of a puzzle? How she’ll interact or be recognized by the Marvel Universe?

Tom Taylor: Laura will be an important member of the All-New X-Men and she and her fellow mutants have some very big threats coming their way. She’ll be an integral part of that. She will also be interacting with a lot of other heroes and villains but I don’t want to give away who just yet. That said, I’m determined to have her team-up with Squirrel Girl.

PREVIEWSworld: If you led a panel discussion, and had to jazz up the crowd to get excited for this new book, what would you say to them?

Tom Taylor: Being an ex-professional juggler, I would first jazz up the crowd by juggling knives and balancing a chair on my face but then I’d show them some of the interior art by David Lopez and David Navarott. It’s pretty freaking stunning. There’s so much action in this book. There’s hand-to-hand fighting, car chases, explosions, bullets flying -- we barely slow down at all in the first issue, and the art team are just smashing it.

PREVIEWSworld: How would you demonstrate that a piece of your soul went into making All-New Wolverine #1?

Tom Taylor: Well, as per most comic book contracts, I did have to give one-tenth of my soul to my editor in exchange for the gig, but it’s a small price to pay to work on Wolverine.

I put my soul into every book I write. You have to love the characters to write them. Laura is an interesting character. Her voice has changed and evolved over the years to the point where you could argue that it’s hard to define. We hope to define her character as the All-New Wolverine.

PREVIEWSworld: Are there any plans to promote the book at conventions before the end of the year? Will you be talking more about it or showing any advance pages on any of your social media sites?

Tom Taylor: I’ll definitely be showing all I can on Twitter (@TomTaylorMade) and on my Facebook page. Artist David Lopez and editor Mark Paniccia are also on Twitter. They’ll be posting some All-New Wolverine sneak peeks every now and then. And I actually hope to make it across from Australia for New York Comic Con. If I do, I’m sure we’ll be able to share something amazing there. If we can’t…I’ll just eat fire or something.