Odds are you probably spent a few hours this past weekend seeing the new superhero film X-Men Apocalypse. Either you stayed through to the end credits or didn’t, but have probably heard about it from a friend. (don’t worry if you didn’t, this’ll be good for you too). If you’re confused about all that happened, we thankfully have some answers.
Spoilers ahead, obviously.
About halfway through the second act of the film, the X-Men wind up in Alkali Lake after being captured by the young General Stryker (Josh Helman). Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, and Cyclops are the only ones who aren’t locked in a cell, but they manage to save the others thanks to the help of one Weapon X, aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). He goes on a rampage and murders a bunch of soldiers before Jean restores some of his memory and he leaves the facility.
At the end of the film, the facility is being cleaned completely by mysterious men in black suits. One group of men find Wolverine’s medical records and blood samples and deposit them into a briefcase labeled as property of the Essex Corporation.
In the comics, Essex belongs to a man named Nathaniel who eventually becomes the villain Mr. Sinister. Sinister is obsessed with bloodlines and science experiments, particularly when it comes to the Summers family. He cloned Jean Grey for the exclusive purpose of having her and Cyclops create a son, who would eventually become the superhero Cable.
Going off of X-Men Apocalypse, it’s doubtful that Essex even knows who the Summers family are, let alone gives a care about their bloodline. But given the obsession that Stryker has had with Wolverine in the past two films, it makes sense that he would turn to outside help for trying to learn more about the mutant gene. If this Sinister is as clone crazy as he is in the comics, taking the medical records and blood can mean only one thing…X-23.
X-23 is Laura Kinney, a female clone of Wolverine formed from a damaged copy of his genome and created to be the perfect killing machine. Like Wolverine, she has enhanced senses, a healing factor and is an expert killer. But unlike him, she has two adamantium claws in each hand, along with one in each foot. She was created by Craig Yost and Christopher Kyle in the animated series X-Men Evolution, but has since transferred over to the comics.
Following the comic book death of Wolverine in 2014 (look, just pretend they mean it this time) and the Secret Wars event last year, Laura took on the title of Wolverine and has her own version of the classic costume. While there’s a version of Logan running around (Old Man Logan, from a different reality where he was forced to kill the X-Men), Laura IS the Wolverine and has gotten the most promotion. Hugh Jackman has hinted that the final solo Wolverine movie will be at the very least influenced by Old Man Logan. Considering that it’ll be his final film as the iconic mutant, it makes more than enough sense to bring in Laura to get people excited for the future of the franchise.
Would you watch a Wolverine X-23 film? Let us know in the comments below. And if you wanted to know what we thought of the film, here’s our review.
