WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Dark Ages #5, available now from Marvel.
Marvel’s Dark Ages has brought readers into one of the bleakest futures imaginable. Not only that, almost every single hero and villain born from technology has fallen by the wayside as well. In the case of Gabby Kinney, aka Scout, the same darkness that has shrouded her world also took away her most obscure power. It may sound like a bad thing, but being able to feel pain for the first time in her life may have actually made her even more lethal, and it has absolutely cemented her right to inherit the mantle of Wolverine.
The heroes of Dark Ages #5 (by Tom Taylor, Iban Coello, Brian Reber, and VC’s Joe Sabino) have made the dangerous journey to Europe, arriving in Portugal to bury those they lost before continuing on towards Apocalypse’s stronghold. While the road ahead is largely clear of any serious threats during the day, traveling at night is a completely different story. When the group has stopped for the evening, Gabby Kinney picks up the scent of something hunting them from the forest, and by the their pursuer reveals himself she has already suffered greatly. Not only that, but the pulse that turned off the lights across the globe also turned off the nanites which have kept Gabby from feeling pain her entire life. That hasn’t slowed her down one bit, however. In fact, now that she has felt everything and still fought through it, there is no question as to where she stands in regards to Logan’s legacy.
First introduced in 2015’s All-New Wolverine #2 by Tom Taylor, David Lopez, and David Navarrot, Gabrielle Kinney was one of several “Sisters” cloned from Laura Kinney by Alchemax. All of these young women were created and abused in the hopes of them becoming perfect killing machines, though only four of the ten Sisters survived long enough to fight back against their creators. While some died in the field on dangerous missions due to a lack of their predecessor’s healing factor, others succumbed to the nanites implanted in their bodies by Alchemax. Luckily, Gabby herself pulled through everything that was working against her from the beginning, and now Dark Ages has given readers a glimpse of what they can expect for her in the years to come.
Unlike her Sisters, Gabby has inherited Logan and Laura’s healing factor, and she has put it to good use in the years since that fact was revealed. Apart from the years she spent battling alongside Laura as Honey Badger, Gabby has become an important part of life on Krakoa in the battle against the Shadow King. Along the way she has done plenty of questioning when it comes to how much she deserves the friends, home, and family she has found. Of course, no one close to Gabby would ever doubt her the way she has doubted herself, and Dark Ages has shown exactly why.
Even if she is still a kid in the primary Marvel Universe, her future self seen in Dark Ages is both the brutally efficient fighter and genuinely empathetic hero that she has always wanted to become. Gabby certainly has the potential to get there, and there is no shortage of mentors and allies to hold her back, either. If anything, Dark Ages has confirmed just how incredible Gabby will eventually be, especially considering how much growth she has gone through in recent years. Assuming she can survive as long as her alternate reality counterpart, she may even be the greatest Wolverine of her generation.
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