X-POSITION: Tom Taylor Declassifies "All-New Wolverine's" Deadly Sisters

Laura Kinney is now part of a larger world. Not only has the mutant superhero taken up the mantle of Wolverine from her deceased mentor, she's discovered that she has "family members" she never knew about. The explosive first arc of "All-New Wolverine" introduced the Sisters, four clones of Laura Kinney trained in covert ops and rendered immune to feeling pain. The usually up to no good Alchemax Genetics created them, and now it's up to the all-new Wolverine to keep them safe -- a mission that's led her straight to Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum.

This week in X-POSITION, "All-New Wolverine" writer Tom Taylor joins us and answers your questions about Laura Kinney, her newfound "Sisters," Wolverine's legacy and more.

CBR News: Welcome back to X-POSITION, Tom! We'll bring in the New Year with a question from Sinister340 about three of "All-New Wolverine's" supporting cast.

Were "The Sisters" originally supposed to have mutant abilities or just human clones of Laura?

Alchemax Genetics certainly tried to make clones of Laura with her mutant abilities but they failed. So they chose to use them another way.

Rozsomak also has a few more questions about the clones.

Where did you get the names for the sisters? Did "X23_3PAR" have a "human" name too?

The names -- Gabrielle, Zelda and Bellona -- all mean "death." Alchemax genetics named them -- yet another way they dehumanized them. I think David Lopez actually wrote the "Par" -- I'll have to ask him what it means.

Did you give any specific instructions to David about their looks? How do you like their character designs? (Personally, David Lopez is one of my favorites.)

Their looks were kind of defined by their personalities. And this is something I thought about a lot when coming up with them and discussed with X-editor, Mark Paniccia. Laura's personality has changed and evolved over time. I wanted each sister to reflect a part of Laura.

Her rage and impulsiveness and anger are all present in Bellona. Her maturity, icy calmness in the face of adversity and tactical abilities are seen in Zelda. The sister lost in issue #1 was driven but fatalistic, another aspect of Laura we've seen in the past. Gabby is a little different. Gabby represents what Laura could have been -- what all the sisters could have been.

Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost and Billy Tan told a fantastic X-23 story of Laura as a child called "Innocence Lost." Gabby is the "innocence lost." The sisters have managed to protect her as she's grown. They've managed to preserve her innocence. Gabby has quickly become one of our favorite things about this book. Our assistant editor, Christina Harrington, responded so well to that first scene in Laura's apartment. She could easily take over this book.

While Mark, David and I did discuss the look of them -- their masks, their body armor, etc. -- it was really David Lopez and David Navarrot who brought their characters to life. We knew we wanted something very different to define Bellona, as much to differentiate her in scenes with Zelda as to show her personality. David nailed this. I think the masterstroke was Gabby though. The tights, the childishness on display, was all David.

Cmbmool wants to know if Alchemax's involvement will lead to a crossover with a certain book.

Given who developed theses new clones, will the All-New Wolverine go to the futuristic Spider-Man 2099 for help?

â€¨No comment. Yet.

Wolverine will be teaming up with a few other Marvel heroes, including Doctor Strange in issue #4 and, as Captain M points out, a founding Avenger in issue #5.

What can you tell about the inclusion of the Wasp in issue #5? What made you decide to have Laura and Jan team-up and is what solicits say true? Did Janet stop being a hero?

I can't tell you why Laura and Wasp appear in the same issue until you get to end of issue #4. Trust me though, it will all make sense.

Now that Laura Kinney's back in the solo spotlight, Mia has a question about her character.

Laura was originally created as being very smart. Will you have any stories where she has to use strategy and not brute force?

Absolutely! You'll see this more and more. Laura has been honed into a very efficient weapon but what makes her more formidable is her mind. She's a brilliant strategist. She's been trained to think through situations and she will be outthinking her foes as well as out-slicing them.

MarvelMaster616 has a question about the spring 2016 X-Men event and "All-New Wolverine's" possible role in it.

Will your series touch on the events of "Apocalypse Wars" at any point?

We want to keep our Wolverine stories separate from the rest of the X-books at this stage, to really give Laura and our cast a chance to grow in their own right, but anything's possible.

MarvelMaster616 also has a question about the previous Wolverine's role in the larger MU.

Logan had many ties to many different teams besides the X-Men, including Alpha Flight and the Avengers. Can you talk about how these ties will affect Laura now that she's assumed the mantle of Wolverine?

Those ties were Logan's. But, having said that, I'd love to see Laura as an Avenger down the line. She will still have some of those ties thanks to her father. You'll see a little hint of this in issue #6.

Laura made a number of allies during her time as X-23, and Winter_fury wonders if any of them will show up.

When is Laura going to meet Old Man Logan? Are we going to see Daken or Black Widow in the series?

I think we want both heroes to have their own stories before they meet. It's going to be a very strange encounter when it happens though. I think we have to see Daken at some stage. I've been writing notes for that encounter for a while.

And lastly this week, Alejandr0 has a question about the challenges Wolverine will face in her series.

Since Laura is now the Wolverine, will she be encountering classic Wolverine villains? (e.g. Mystique, Sabretooth, Daken, Hulk, etc.) This might be throwback overhaul, but I kind of like the idea. You know us fans love nostalgia.

Laura has a lot of her own fights to fight before she can start taking down Logan's old adversaries. But... a fight with Totally Awesome Hulk would be... No! Stop giving me ideas! Laura still has her own scores to settle. There are demons in her past that deserve a good stabbing.

Thanks to Tom Taylor for taking on this week's questions!

Next week, "Uncanny X-Men" writer Cullen Bunn returns to X-POSITION to answer your questions about the new series! Have a question for Cullen? Go ahead and send 'em in via e-mail with the subject line "X-Position". But get 'em in quickly, because the deadline's Friday. Make it happen!