“Can’t Break the Mold”: Death and Initiation in Logan

Introduction
Director James Mangold’s live-action superhero film1 (Brown 5) Logan (2017), in its early marketing, was billed as the last time Australian actor Hugh Jackman would play the role of superhero Wolverine, or James “Logan” Howlett (Olsen).2 Jackman has played Wolverine for 17 years and has appeared in two solo films and in four X-Men films.3 As a dominant character in the X-Men films starting with the 2000 X-Men film, Wolverine is a well-defined hero with a well-established track record for popularity, licensing, (McAllister, Gordon, Jancovich 110) and sequels. Even with this history, Logan is a different superhero movie with a clever plot twist hinted at by the first theatrical poster released for the film on October 5, 2016.4 Logan introduces “X23-23”/Laura,5 a pre-adolescent mutant who holds the potential for replacing Wolverine/Logan.6 While Logan chronicles the death of superhero Wolverine/Logan, it is also a dramatization of the initiation of Wolverine/Logan’s daughter, X-23/Laura into live-action film superheroics.7

Logan and Laura’s “Initiation” into Superheroics
Logan takes place in 2029 with few mutants living and with no new mutants having been born in the last 25 years. Logan, or the Wolverine, is working as a limousine driver in El Paso, Texas. Wolverine/Logan and mutant tracker Caliban (Stephen Merchant) care for Professor X/Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), now a nonagenarian, who often loses control of his telepathic abilities, paralyzing everyone near him with the exception of Wolverine. All three mutants live in an abandoned smelting plant in Northern Mexico along the Mexican border. The action of Logan begins when 11-year old X-23/Laura (Daphne Keen) is brought to the attention of Logan through Gabriela Lopez (Elizabeth Rodriguez), a nurse who cared for mutant children such as Laura born in the “belly of Mexican girls” impregnated with DNA samples from several mutants who lived in the late 2010s and early 2020’s. The Alkali-Transigen Project of which Lopez was affiliated for 10 years, is a subsidiary of Alkali Corporation, an American-owned company, administered by Dr. Zander Rice (Richard E. Grant) and is located in Mexico City, Mexico (“Transigen”). The Alkali-Transigen Project is approved and funded under the pretense of a “pediatric cancer study.” However, in fact, Laura and the other mutant children are the true focus of Rice’s “pharmaceutical study.”
Charles is the first to know of Laura through his telepathic conversations with her prior to Lopez’s encounter with Logan. Charles tells Logan that these mutants need Logan’s help and that he knows “speciation when he sees it” referring to the new mutants. Caliban comments on the fact Charles is “communicating with someone,” although Logan does not believe Charles or Caliban. Charles and Logan learn from a video on Lopez’s cellphone that as part of the “X-23” project, Laura and the other children were created to be soldiers, their “bodies, weapons” to kill. As the children grew older, they became more difficult to control and they refused to fight. Since they refused to fight, they were considered to be “useless.” With the completion of the “X-24” project (“something…without a soul”), the nurses were told that the “study” would be shut down. Lopez and other nurses helped many children escape from the Transigen compound. Lopez searches for and finds “the Wolverine” working his chauffeur job at a funeral gravesite. Lopez requests Logan’s help because Rice’s Reavers are searching for the mutant children to return them to Transigen to kill them. Lopez believes that Logan could protect and take Laura safely to “Eden,” supposedly a place “in the north” for mutants described in the X-Men comic books in Laura’s possession.
Laura’s role in Logan is to be successfully initiated into live-action film superheroics (see Brown, “American Western” 83-4). As doubled-protagonists, Laura is the initiate-superhero to superhero Logan. To accomplish this change in her social status, Laura undergoes an informal ritual of passage (van Gennep 2-3, 10-11), specifically an initiation (van Gennep 3, 65) into superheroics.8 Rituals of passage mark the “passage from one situation to another” (van Gennep 10). Laura is passing from being an untrained superhero to being a trained superhero. Laura’s informal initiation process resembles a heroic monomythic adventure. Through Rice’s “study,” Laura was created and trained to be a “soldier.” Being trained and functioning as a soldier is very different from being trained and functioning as a superhero in four ways. First, soldiers are placed in a strict hierarchical environment where their authorities must be obeyed at all times. Second, soldiers do what they are told to do, individual decision-making is discouraged for the most part. Third, soldiers do not receive a full understanding or explanation of why they are doing what they are doing. Fourth, soldiers undergo tests to assess their skills. These tests are not considered to be initiation rituals. Superheroes, on the other hand, have personal autonomy and authority and exercise extreme levels of self-control. Superheroes understand and recognize governmental and military authorities but they do not necessarily obey their commands. Superheroes are at all times protecting and defending a community or society rather than defending the interests of themselves, governments, nations, businesses, and corporations. Individual decision-making is typical superheroic behavior. A good soldier exhibits none of these superheroic characteristics while acting in the line of duty.
Formal, culturally proscribed rituals include specific actions, personas, and events. On the whole, initiation rituals exemplify “transition, since they have well marked and protracted marginal or liminal phases” (Turner 95). Laura’s informal initiation displays several characteristics of transition but is not specifically a ritual. For one, initiation rituals require the participation of the adults or those individuals who have attained the status to which the initiates are voluntarily (or involuntarily) seeking to attain. Initiation rites occur within a society or community holding unifying beliefs, values, and norms. No matter the ritual, there is a common understanding by all the people of the purpose of the ritual, when the ritual must occur, how it must occur, and by and for whom. Unlike formal rituals in societies and communities in real time and space, however, Laura’s community in Logan is rather small, only composed of Gabriela, Logan, Charles, and Laura’s mutant friends. Further, Laura’s community is ineffective as its members are unattached and disconnected and its structure is unorganized and unfocused. Since there is no established community or society, the purpose of Laura’s initiation is not established or articulated formally in the film. Even with these differences, the significance of Laura’s role and her function as related to Logan is best explained as an informal initiation. Three themes contextualize the significance of Laura’s purpose and function and demonstrate that she is undergoing an informal initiation in Logan: (1) Logan and Laura’s relationship, (2) Laura’s learning experiences, and (3) Logan and X-24’s deaths. 

​Logics of Mentorship
The emphasis on the relationship between the superhero Wolverine/Logan and initiate-superhero X-23/Laura is the first significant theme in Logan that suggests that Laura is undergoing an initiation. The relationship between Wolverine/Logan and Professor X/Charles Xavier is ripe for comparisons between Logan and Laura. For example, Charles and Logan’s relationship resembles a parenting relationship, a mentoring relationship, and a hero and initiate-hero relationship. However, their relationship does not demonstrate an effective model for interpreting Logan and Laura’s relationship.
Similarities to Logan and Laura’s relationship is repeated in another place in Logan: George Stevens’ 1953 western film classic Shane, which is prominently referenced in Logan. Shane presents a classic representation of the hero-initiate hero relationship. The setting of Shane is an isolated valley in the Wyoming Territory sometime after the Civil War, approximately around 1865, and is from the perspective of a young boy and initiate-hero Joey Starrett (Brandon DeWilde). Shane (Alan Ladd), the hero of the film, rides into the valley and first meets Joey and then Joey’s parents Joe (Van Heflin) and Marian Starrett (Jean Arthur). Shane witnesses a tense interchange between Starrett and Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer), a cattle baron who opposes the homesteaders because of their interference with the free-range movement of his cattle. Ryker with the help of his hired henchmen and gunfighters uses intimidation tactics to provoke the homesteaders to leave the territory. Starrett, a leader among the homesteaders, stands up to Ryker. After Starrett expresses to Shane the need to “hire me a man” to help with “the work” of establishing his homestead, Shane without a word accepts the job by beginning to chop down a tree stump in front of the Starrett home. Joey admires Shane greatly and they develop and maintain a friendly relationship throughout the film. The film Shane is useful for the insight it brings to understanding the hero and initiate-hero relationship in Logan. As with Joey and Shane, a hero and initiate-hero relationship best describes Logan and Laura’s relationship.9
Unlike Shane and Joey, however, Logan and Laura are abruptly thrown into a mentoring relationship. There is a great amount of distrust between Laura and Logan in the beginning. This is in part due to the suddenness and intensity of Logan and Laura’s meeting. Logan had settled into a peaceable lifestyle with plans of buying a boat for him and Charles to sail off in. Gabriela appears out of nowhere seeking Wolverine followed by Donald Pierce, Dr. Rice’s Reavers’ “head man,” seeking him. As Logan interacts with Gabriela, Laura witnesses Logan’s hostility towards becoming involved with her. With Gabriela and Laura in the picture, all Logan sees is trouble and problems. Logan did not want to involve Caliban and Charles with the details of Laura’s existence. Nevertheless, now that Logan is involved with Laura, Caliban and Charles are eventually caught in the crossfires and are ultimately killed to save Laura. These fatal circumstances that on the one hand infuriate Logan also clearly display his loyalty to Charles and Caliban on the other hand.
X-23/Laura is essentially a “female Wolverine,” with one important difference: Laura is a girl of color, part Mexican. Because of their DNA connection though, a parent-child relationship between Logan and Laura is a logical point of analysis. There are ample examples of Logan “parenting” Laura when on their journey to North Dakota: Logan stops Laura from breaking the money box of the pony ride with her claws outside of the gasoline convenience store; Logan stops Laura from attacking the store clerk with her claws in the gasoline convenience store after she “steals” sunglasses and snacks; Logan tells Laura to stop playing with the truck’s automatic door locks; Logan tells Laura to stop playing with the elevator buttons at the casino hotel; and Logan stops Laura from putting a large amount of food on her plate when having dinner with the Munson family. This parenting theme continues as Charles intervenes at times when Logan is scolding Laura, in the way that a grandparent typically will. Although numerous examples abound, Logan and Laura do not have a parent-child relationship, it is primarily a mentor-mentee relationship.
Peter Coogan identifies mission, powers, and identity as the basis for his definition of superheroes (Coogan 30). Two of these characteristics—powers and identity—warrant examination here as subthemes related to Logan/Wolverine and Laura/X-23’s mentoring relationship. Although mission is important to defining superheroes, it does not figure preeminently in Logan. The second characteristic, powers, is the most obvious connection between Logan and Laura. At the smelting plant after Logan realizes that Gabriela is killed and that Laura hid in his limousine, Logan witnesses Laura’s powers. Pierce and the Reavers (very large, armed men) locate Logan at the smelting plant. When they attempt to capture Laura, Laura defends herself for a period of time singlehandedly. Logan is on the ground composing himself after being beaten down by the Reavers. Pierce commands one of the Reavers to go into the smelting plant to find and capture Laura. A few minutes later, after the screaming of a man and a short round of automatic rifle shots is heard, calmly, Laura walks out of the smelting plant. Laura holds the dead Reavers’ head under her right arm and the handcuffs and ankle cuffs intended for her in her left hand. Presumably, the deceased Reavers’ head was cut off from his neck with Laura’s claws that the viewer has yet to see in action. Logan raises his head from the ground seeing all of this happen and exclaims “Shit”! For a moment, Logan looks on in astonishment. Undaunted, Laura continues to fight the Reavers and, finally, Logan composes himself, stands up from the ground, and joins in the fight against the Reavers. Amazingly, Laura fights like Logan! She impales and amputates body parts, flips, and runs around and between her opponents. Near the end of this action scene, Laura is struck with an arrow straight through her chest near her heart. Logan comes to her rescue fighting off the Reavers allowing her time to remove the arrow and to heal.
Coogan’s third concept, identity, applies both to Laura and Logan. A superhero’s identity is symbolized by their heroic codename and costume (Coogan 32). Logan’s codename is Wolverine and Laura’s codename is X-23. Not coincidentally, Laura and the other children’s “X” designation as part of the X-23 project, is significant because of Wolverine. In fact, new mutants after Wolverine are eternally connected to Wolverine because Logan is the first “X” and he is the original “Weapon X” project. Logan and Laura’s chief costume, though a part of their bodies, is their retractable claws. With similarities in codename and costume, Laura’s identity is closely tied to Logan’s identity which further suggests both a parenting relationship and a mentoring relationship. Logan is a Canadian-born mutant who possesses animal-keen senses, enhanced physical capabilities, a powerful regenerative ability known as the healing factor, three retractable bone (and later, indestructible metal adamantium) claws in each hand, and skilled hand-to-hand combat abilities. Like Logan, Laura has a regenerative healing factor, enhanced senses, speed, and reflexes, retractable adamantium-coated bone claws in her hands and feet, and tremendous skills in hand-to-hand combat. In response to witnessing Laura’s fighting in full hand-to-hand combat against the Reavers at the smelting plant, Charles slowly but progressively reveals Laura’s identity to Logan. First, Charles says: “As I told you Logan, she’s a mutant like you… very much like you.” Second, and more directly, Charles says: “Does she remind you of anybody?” Finally, Charles emphatically states to Logan: “She’s your daughter!” While Laura’s mission is unclear or nonexistent, her powers and identity connect her to Logan. Their similar powers and identities make them perfect candidates for a mentoring relationship that aids in Laura’s initiation into superheroics.

Pedagogies of Superheroics
The goal of initiation rites is to incorporate the initiate into a new station or position in the society’s social structure. As a ritual of passage, initiation rites involve three phases: separation (preliminal), margin (liminal or threshold), and aggregation (postliminal or incorporation) (van Gennep 21). In the separation phase, Laura is detached from her old station in life. In the margin, or liminal, period, Laura passes through a realm that has few or none of the attributes of the past or coming state (Turner 94). In the aggregation phase, Laura’s passage to her new station in life is consummated (Turner 94). Laura’s separation phase, the first phase of her informal initiation, is very brief. It begins abruptly with Transigen’s charge to the nurses to euthanize the X-23 mutants. Gabriela escapes with Laura seeking Wolverine for assistance. Because Gabriela promised Logan $50,000 to take Laura to “Eden” ($20,000 was given to Logan during his first meeting with Gabriela), Logan accepts the job.
After Laura is connected with Logan, she is involved in a series of events and actions that occur approximately over one week leading up to the deaths of X-24 and Logan. Most of the movie details this liminal phase (or transition phase) of Laura’s informal initiation. The events of the liminal phase are learning, or pedagogical, experiences for Laura emphasizing her “betwixt and between” station in life. In this second phase of an informal initiation, Laura is in transition. As a significant transitional period for Laura, much of Laura’s relationship with Logan is detailed and likewise Logan learns more about Laura’s powers and identity during this phase. Laura’s liminal phase include her fighting with and escaping from the Reavers at the smelting plant; riding in a vehicle and observing the built and natural environments as they travel along the highway; riding a mechanical pony and walking through a gasoline convenience store; and taking refuge at a casino hotel in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (including conversations with Charles). While all of these events are instructional to Laura since her experience with the outside world was severely limited while residing at Transigen, one experience in particular provides the foundation for the final phase of her informal initiation into superheroics: It is Laura viewing the film Shane with Charles in the casino hotel.
After escaping from the Reavers, the three mutants’ stay at a casino hotel. Logan, Charles, and Laura stop for a brief respite to “hide-out, get a couple hours of sleep, clean up, get some new clothes,” and to “get a new ride.” Before and while Logan is away purchasing the new vehicle, Charles and Laura watch the film Shane in the hotel suite. Charles tells Laura that Shane is a “very famous picture” and that he first watched the film when he was Laura’s age. Laura is mesmerized. The meta-narrative of initiation in Logan, which is a recurring mythology in the Western, (rather than the meta-narrative of delivering a helpless community in most superhero films) is brought to the forefront with Mangold’s concrete reference to Shane. With the inclusion of Shane, the audience is made aware of the capacity of Logan and Laura’s relationship to be that of a superhero and initiate-superhero. In addition, three scenes in Shane serve as preparatory scenes that foreshadow Laura’s final experience and actions concluding her initiation into superheroics.
While Charles and Laura are watching Shane, Logan is dressing in another room within the suite. Charles and Laura view the portion of the film where homesteader and ex-Confederate soldier Frank “Stonewall” Torrey (Elisha Cook, Jr.) is killed by Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), the gunfighter hired by Ryker, and where the farming community holds a funeral for Stonewall. Stonewall’s funeral is the first preparatory scene foreshadowing Logan’s death and Laura’s participation in Logan’s funeral ceremony. In this scene from Shane, Laura witnesses a funeral ceremony. In this ceremony, the community is gathered around a wooden casket that holds Stonewall. The entire group sings a Christian hymn by Henry Francis Lyte titled “Abide with Me.” A woman and man are holding books which are presumably Bibles, the sacred text of Christianity. Starrett asks one of the homesteaders to lead them in reciting the Lord’s Prayer, a traditional and highly significant passage of scripture from the New Testament of the Bible, in which everyone joins in reciting. After the prayer, a homesteader plays “Taps,” the military bugle melody played at U. S. military funerals and memorials, on a harmonica as Starrett and two other men lower the casket into the ground. Laura seeing Stonewall’s entire funeral ceremony prepares her to perform Logan’s funeral ceremony later in the film.
While Charles and Laura watch Shane, Logan sits for a moment to read the reports from Alkali-Transigen that are in Laura’s backpack. Logan sees his name listed with Laura’s name in the file. In addition to the Transigen reports, Logan discovers X-Men comic books in Laura’s backpack, flips through a few pages of the comic book, and then becomes angry. Logan walks into the room where Laura and Charles are watching the portion of the film Shane where Shane kills Wilson in a gunfight in the local saloon (second preparatory scene). Shane killing Wilson is important because this scene foreshadows what Laura will do in regards to X-24. Although both Laura and Logan fight X-24, Laura has to be the one who kills him in order to complete her initiation. Interrupting Laura and Charles’ viewing of Shane, Logan’s anger and sarcastic remarks shows that he is appalled that Laura reads the X-Men comic books, describing them as “ice cream for bedwetters.”
After Logan storms out of the hotel suite to buy the new vehicle, both Charles and Laura are transfixed as they watch the end of the film Shane (the third and final preparatory scene). In this emotionally charged and potentially transforming scene for Laura, adult-hero Shane explains to the boy initiate-hero Joey why he must leave their community: “I got to be going on…A man has to be what he is, Joey. Can’t break the mold. I tried it and it didn’t work for me....Joey, there’s no living with, with a killing. There’s no going back from it. Right or wrong, it’s a brand. A brand that sticks. There’s no going back. Now you run on home to your mother and tell her, tell her everything’s alright. And there aren’t any more guns in the valley.” Essentially, Shane tells Joey that he killed Wilson ultimately because that is the type of man Shane is: A man who “can’t break the mold” of gunfighting. It is best that Shane leave the valley rather than to stay and negatively affect Joey’s growth and maturation into a “strong” and “straight” man who will not be a gunfighter as Shane has lived his life.
Shane’s reference to guns is important because of its future connection to Laura. Joey owns a gun and really likes it. In general, Joey’s mother Marian disdains the fighting between the homesteaders and cattlemen because both groups use guns to resolve their conflicts. Marian declares that guns are not going to be her “boy’s life.” Shane calmly describes the purpose of guns to Joey as “no better or no worse” than any other “tool.” In his experience, guns are as “good or as bad as the man using” them. Marian’s perspective, in opposition to Shane’s, is that they would “all be much better off if there wasn’t a single gun left” in their valley. With Shane’s killing of Wilson, Shane’s declaration to Joey that “there aren’t any more guns” to Joey just might be feasible. Ryker specifically hires Wilson because he is a gunfighter who has no scruples about killing innocent people. With Wilson’s death, the lead henchman and gunfighter, future intimidation tactics used by Ryker’s henchmen will hold less power over the homesteaders. The scene is emotional for Joey as Shane leaves the valley in just the way he entered: shrouded in mystery. Joey’s tears signal his love for (or, at the very least, his strong affection and admiration) for Shane. Laura learns about a different realm of connections between people in Shane, connections that are emotional. The emotional bond between the Starretts and between Shane and Joey is something that is unlike anything Laura has experienced at Transigen. The scene between Shane and Joey is significant for Laura because Shane’s representation of Shane and Joey’s relationship provides a framework for her to better understand Logan as an important (and indeed, even vital) superhero and person in her life.
Building upon the emotional ties that can form between a community, family members, and mentors and mentees is Laura’s meeting and visiting with the Munson family at the end of her liminal period.10 This is a brief connecting experience between Laura’s viewing of Shane and her killing X-24 with the use of a gun. The events and actions Laura witnesses during this time include assisting the Munson family with gathering their loose horses on the highway somewhere along their trip to North Dakota; having a meal and lodging with the Munson family; capture by and escaping from X-24 at the Munsons’ farm; witnessing X-24 kill Charles; fighting X-24; being captured by X-24; and, finally, being rescued by Logan. The Munsons are similar to the Starretts in that they are a loving nuclear family, they own a farm, and they are in conflict with another group of people in their community. The Munson family including Will the husband (Eriq LaSalle), Kathryn his wife (Elise Neal), and Nate their son (Quincy Fouse) are a closeknit, nuclear family. Laura sees the loving and caring interactions between the Munson family members while eating dinner with them. Their farm appears to be their main source of income and we learn the significance that the farm holds in their daily lives as they converse over dinner.
Another similarity between the Munsons and the Starretts is the Munsons’ ongoing conflict with the Canewood Beverage Company. The Munsons’ conflict mirrors the conflict between the homesteaders and ranchers in Shane. This conflict is similar in that there are two opposing groups wanting to use the same land. The ranchers are invested in raising cattle for its profitability. However, they need free access to vast amounts of land to accomplish this goal. The homesteaders pose a hindrance to this accessibility to land. Hence, the reason that Ryker continually harasses the homesteaders. Canewood is invested in cultivating vast amounts of crops on large pieces of land to supply the ingredients for “energy drinks” that have become major consumable products by 2029. Specifically, Canewood does not want Will to have access to Will’s water pump on Canewood’s corporate farmland. While repairing the pump and in a similar fashion to how Ryker and his henchmen confront Starrett in Shane, Canewood’s hired henchmen confront Will about “trespassing” on Canewood’s property (Will’s disabled water pump is on the property). Logan helps Will deal with the henchmen by hitting the head henchman’s nose with the henchman’s own rifle, then breaking the rifle in half, and telling them to go.
These similarities between the Munson and Starrett families reinforce Laura’s engagement with Shane and they act as quasi-tests of what Laura learned from watching Shane. In other words, Laura’s brief time with the Munson family mirror what she saw in Shane about familial and kinship interactions, land ownership, handling conflict, and fighting opponents. Logan and Laura witness a real family—the Munsons—in action. However, the Munsons pay dearly with their lives while affording Laura this learning experience. Overall, the importance of this portion of the film is that it is here, at the close of it, that Logan and Laura are alone. With the help of Logan and Will’s final actions stopping the advancement of X-24, Laura escapes X-24 alive. Afterwards, she and Logan are on the run from Rice, an injured Pierce, and his Reavers. Although Gabriela, Caliban, and Charles had at one time served important supporting roles in their lives, now Logan and Laura have to depend upon each other. This short but action-packed, critical learning experience sets up the incorporation phase of Laura’s informal initiation.

Politics of Death (and Life)
Death is common in superhero films. Often, innocent victims as well as supervillains are killed. In Logan, death is present in the general sense but also in the abstract sense as it relates to the process of initiation. Although initiates are not completely ignorant of the state to which they are going, they are not completely knowledgeable of the new state or position either. Victor Turner states that the “’structural invisibility’ of liminal personae has a twofold character. They are at once no longer classified and not yet classified.” Initiates are “structurally dead” (Turner 96). In her liminal phase, Laura is “dead” to her origins at Transigen and “invisible” to the world. Laura’s “death” must occur before she “lives” in her new classification of superheroics. Laura’s liminal phase is the death of her origin at Transigen and the death of her current state of living an unfocused life.
In addition to Laura’s initiation process being an abstract connection to the theme of death, she has concrete experiences with physical death. Laura learns that death is a part of life and that there are moral issues related to why and when and how death is inflicted upon another person or “creation” such as X-24. For example, Logan went on a brief rant with Laura and Charles after he discovered Laura’s X-Men comic books: “You do know they’re all bullshit. Only a quarter of it happens and not like this. In the real world, people die…. [These comic books are] ice cream for bedwetters!” Interrupting this rant, Charles retorts to Logan: “I don’t think Laura needs reminding about life’s impermanence.” Indeed this is true: Laura witnesses the death of some of her mutant friends before her escape from Transigen with Gabriela Lopez, she witnesses Gabriela’s death and, later, she witnesses Charles, the Munson family, and Logan’s deaths. In addition, it would be remiss to overlook the deaths of individuals that Laura has caused. Laura has seen death around her and she has caused the death of “bad people.”
X-24 and Logan’s deaths specifically are important to this final phase of Laura’s initiation process. Logan’s funeral ceremony and the destruction of X-24 which are key components of Laura’s incorporation phase are the final actions that informally name her a superhero. The events in Laura’s incorporation phase includes Laura witnessing Charles’s burial; Laura driving Logan to a doctor’s office; driving to and arriving in Eden; having mentoring-like conversations with Logan while in North Dakota; beginning trek to Canada with mutant friends; fighting with and escaping from the Reavers; fighting with and escaping from X-24; killing X-24 with Logan’s adamantium bullet; burying Logan; and, finally, continuing her trek to Canada. Logan and Laura’s new status of only having each other is necessary for Laura’s advancement to the incorporation phase of her initiation into superheroics. This crucial requirement for advancement must occur at this juncture in the film because only Logan and Laura can handle a force like X-24, a stronger and more effective version of the Wolverine born of “rage.” Logan and Laura can handle X-24 because they, too, have the healing factor and they know X-24, at least from a biological and technological perspective.
Logan’s death is not caused by the adamantium in his body but by X-24, his “twin.” Important parts of the funeral ceremony surrounding Logan’s death include Logan’s impartation of wisdom; his beating; last words; death; and burial. Laura is familiar with the funeral ritual of passage because she has witnessed two of them. The first funeral Laura sees is Stonewall’s funeral in Shane. The second funeral ceremony is Charles’s funeral. Charles’ funeral is simpler than Stonewall’s funeral as it only involved Logan and Laura. Logan’s vulnerable and unstable emotional state is revealed at Charles’ funeral ceremony. For example, after Logan has placed Charles in the ground, Logan begins to speak apparently to say something about Charles. There is a pause after which Laura holds Logan’s wrist while he attempts again to eulogize Charles. The words fail Logan. Logan storms away from the gravesite in complete frustration and anguish. After hitting his truck with a shovel because it did not start, Logan passes out falling to the ground.
Although Logan is emotionally compromised, Laura needs direction and instruction about how to live her new post-Transigen life. Logan is the only well-meaning adult mutant available to provide direction and instruction to her. Laura received some form of direction from Logan after Charles’ funeral. These instructions occur during Laura’s brief conversations with Logan while with Laura’s friends in North Dakota and before Logan dies. In these conversations, Laura begins to briefly discuss and to reflect upon her life and actions using her superpowers. Their first series of talks begin immediately after Laura witnesses Logan having a nightmare in his sleep. Laura confirms with Logan that she also had nightmares. Logan then admits to Laura that he hurt people. As if to justify her actions, Laura admits to Logan that she “hurt people too” and adds that they were “bad people.” Logan tells Laura that she has to learn how to live with the killing even killing that involves killing bad people. (Laura may recall that Shane tells Joey that there is “no living with a killing.”) Logan’s comment suggests a reference to his own ethical dilemmas in past X-Men films surrounding killing people in general. Laura has killed because there were people focused on killing her and her friends. Laura’s motivation for killing is simply for life preservation.
Next, Laura reveals the adamantium bullet that she found in Logan’s belongings and hands it to Logan. Logan explains what the bullet is and what he planned to do with it. Logan lies back down again exhausted and closes his eyes while still holding the bullet in his hand. Laura removes the bullet from Logan’s hand and places it in her pocket. Like in Shane, when Shane used a gun against Wilson, Laura uses a gun to defeat her enemy, X-24. Logan’s bullet will be the bullet that Laura uses to kill X-24. In another scene, Logan and Laura have conversations on the eve of Laura and her friends leaving for the “border.” Laura has care and concern for Logan but she does not perceive Logan’s concern or commitment to her. Laura is upset that Logan does not want to join her and her friends as they go “North.” It is in this final interchange that Logan reveals to Laura that he “sucks” at being a parent and that “bad shit happens to people” he cares about. Laura assures Logan that she “will be fine” and leaves the cabin. Logan awakens the next morning to find that Laura and her friends have left their makeshift compound for the border. Logan looks up in the sky and notices Transigen’s drones flying in the air. Through a telescope, Logan sees a caravan of vehicles moving through the forest. Hurriedly, Logan gathers his belongings including the serum that Rictor (Jason Genao), the male Mexican leader of the children, gave to him that will temporarily restore Logan’s healing factor and begins running to catch up with Laura and her friends to warn them. When Logan reaches them, he realizes that the Reavers are already close on their path. The children battle the Reavers using their superpowers but to no avail.
It is during this point in the film that X-24 will be killed. X-24 is an intriguing character in Logan because he is a younger Wolverine/Logan. In a sense, Logan is fighting himself when fighting X-24. Killing X-24 is a crucial action for Laura, not Logan, to perform in order to complete Laura’s initiation. After Logan distracts Pierce and the Reavers so that the children can run away, Pierce releases X-24. Logan and Laura fight X-24. As Logan is fighting, the children team together using their superpowers to overtake Pierce. Rictor causes one of the Reavers’ military-type tank vehicles to fall on top of X-24. Logan tells the children to “go” but seconds later X-24 overturns the vehicle and charges after Logan with a vengeance. Logan is overtaken by X-24, impaled by a tree trunk he was thrust upon. At this point, Laura fires the gun with the adamantium bullet at X-24’s head, killing X-24.
As he lies dying, Logan dispenses his last instructions to Laura and accepts that Laura is his daughter and that she is a part of his family. Logan tells Laura to go with her friends and that she does not have to fight anymore. In a similar fashion in Shane, before Shane leaves the valley, a wounded Shane tells Joey: “Now you run on home to your mother and tell her, tell her everything’s alright. And there aren’t any more guns in the valley.” Logan’s final words are significant because they are a promise, if you will, that will potentially guide Laura’s future actions and encounters with evil. However, how can Logan be so certain that there will be “no more fighting”? Will not another “Zander Rice,” a new “Transigen,” or a new and improved “X-24” take their place in the future? That is left to be seen in future X-Men films. As she weeps for Logan, Logan tells Laura: “Don’t be what they made you.” Then Logan begins to smile and says “Laura, Laura” to which Laura answers, “Daddy.” In a revelatory manner Logan says “This is what it feels like” suggesting that Logan now knows what it means to have a family. After these words, Logan becomes still.
Laura burying Logan is her final action before completing the incorporation phase of her informal initiation process. Losing a significant person in a superhero’s life is one of the primary storylines within the superhero universe. Although Logan and Laura’s particular place in the superhero universe based on their characterizations in Logan is far from typical, the loss of Logan is significant to Laura because he is the last adult mutant to protect and to show care and concern for her. In the final scene of the film, Laura and her mutant friends gather around a grave topped with a cross that encloses Logan’s body. Laura’s eulogy includes almost verbatim what Shane speaks to Joey before Shane leaves the valley. Laura says: “A man’s has to be what he is, Joey. Can’t break the mold. There’s no living with a killing. There’s no going back from it. Right or wrong, it’s a brand. A brand that sticks...Now you run on home to your mother and tell her everything’s alright. And there’re no more guns in the valley.” In the end, like Shane, Logan was who he was and he could not “break the mold.” Laura’s eulogy is her memorial to Logan.
At the close of Laura’s eulogy, in tears, Laura looks at Rictor. He looks away from Laura and looks back at the other children, grabs his backpack, and then says “Let’s go. We gotta move.” The children begin walking and then running toward the mountains.11 As Laura slowly walks away from Logan’s gravesite to catch up with the others, she turns back to change the position of the cross on the grave to an “X,” signifying Logan’s eternal membership as an X-Man. With the killing of X-24 and the burial of Logan, Laura now completes her initiation. Laura’s initiation is consummated and she is cleared to be a superhero.

Conclusion
Initiation rituals are common in cultures around the world and are recurring motifs in popular film. Initiation is an effective tool used here to draw audiences into the story of Laura. The live-action superhero film Logan is the origin story and initiation of X-23/Laura into superheroics. Laura’s affiliation is proposed but not confirmed at the end of the film. The mystery of Laura’s journey to the “border” mirrors the uncertainty of her integration into superheroics. She has all of the right elements to be a superhero. However, Laura also has elements that make her an illegitimate superhero: She is a female and her race is Mexican and Canadian. Laura’s identity politics does not nullify the existence and effect of her initiation. Rather, Laura’s identity politics illustrates the need for the continual proactive inclusion of people of color into superheroics which, in so doing, would allow superhero characters to reflect the world’s diverse population.

Notes
1. Jeffrey Brown notes that the live-action superhero genre came into existence within the last 15 years having “clear narrative conventions, formulaic situations, and recognizable character types” (3). He defines the live-action superhero genre “at its simplest, as filmed stories about costumed and/or super powered characters, performed by actors, who battle villains and defend the greater community” (5).
2. Mangold’s Logan includes loose adaptations of two pre-existing comics storylines: writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven’s character in the comic book series Wolverine: Old Man Logan (June 2008-September 2009) and Charles Soule’s character in the graphic novel The Death of Wolverine (September-October 2014).
3. Hugh Jackman appeared as Wolverine/Logan in X-Men (Bryan Singer, 2000), X2 (Bryan Singer, 2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (Brett Ratner, 2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Gavin Hood, 2009), The Wolverine (James Mangold, 2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (Bryan Singer, 2014). And, Jackman had uncredited, cameo appearances as Wolverine in X-Men: First Class (Matthew Vaughn, 2011) and as Weapon X in X-Men: Apocalypse (Bryan Singer, 2016).
4. In Hugh Jackman’s Tweet, a theatrical poster pictures Wolverine’s scarred hand with claws fully extended holding a child’s hand.
5. X-23/Laura is loosely based on the character created by writer Craig Kyle for the X-Men Evolution television series in 2003. There are several pre-existing comics storylines involving Wolverine and X-23 that will not be explored here. For the purposes of this paper, the character’s historical references will only come from the Wolverine and X-Men films.
6. One possible reading of Logan and Laura is that they introduce and foreshadow two larger cultural concerns of race, gender, and sexuality: Logan, the decline of traditional white superheroic heterosexual masculinity and Laura, emergent women of color (and people of color) superheroics. I thank Katerina Rüedi-Ray for suggesting that I think of Logan and Laura in this particular way.
7. I thank Phillip Cunningham for suggesting that I use the concept “superheroics” rather than my original concept “superherodom.”
8.  Laura’s journey can also be characterized as a “coming-of-age road trip” similar to Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ 2006 Little Miss Sunshine (Hiatt) and as one of the hero on a journey in Joseph Campbell’s classic monomyth (30).
9. James Mangold was intentional about the insertion of Shane into Logan viewing Shane as a “fever dream of … definitions and explorations of heroism, courage and family responsibility” (Mangold). Mangold states that Shane had been important to him “since childhood” and “influential” to him as a filmmaker (Thomas).
10. Although they are an African American family, the Munsons’ race is neither highlighted nor called out in the film. Therefore, any potential ties of the Munson family to Laura leading the emergence of people of color superheroics, even if they had lived, is unlikely.
11. The children are ultimately headed toward Canada. It is coincidental that Canada is seen as a safe place for these young mutants. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Ohio, Canada, and the “North” were special geographical locations that enslaved African Americans sought for freedom and to escape from the evil and oppression of slavery.

Works Cited
Brown, Jeffrey A. The Modern Superhero in Film and Television: Popular Genre and American Culture. Routledge, 2017.
 
Brown, Paula. “The American Western Mythology of Breaking Bad.” Studies in Popular
Culture, vol. 40, iss. 1, Fall 2017, pp. 78-101.
 
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Barnes and Noble, 1949.
 
Coogan, Peter. Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre. MonkeyBrain, 2006.
 
Hiatt, Brian. “How Logan Director James Mangold Made the Most Violent Wolverine Movie Yet.” Rolling Stone, 2 Mar. 2017, rollingstone.com/movies/features/logan-director-on-making-a-wolverine-movie-for-the-fans-w469808. Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.
 
Logan. Directed by James Mangold, performances by Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Elizabeth Rodriquez, Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal, Twentieth Century Fox, 2017.
 
Mangold, James. “Logan Director Mangold’s Essay on Shane.” Empire, 7 Mar. 2017,
empireonline.com/movies/features/logan-director-james-mangold-essay-shane/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2017.
 
McAllister, Matthew P., Ian Gordon, and Mark Jancovich. “Blockbuster Meets Superhero
Comic, or Art House Meets Graphic Novel?: The Contradictory Relationship between Film and Art.” Journal of Popular Film and Television, vol. 34, no. 3, 2006, pp. 108-115.
 
Olsen, Mark. “James Mangold Transforms the End of Wolverine into a New Beginning with Logan.” L.A. Times, 7 Mar. 2017, latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-james-mangold-logan-20170307-story.html. Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.
 
Shane. Directed by George Stevens, performances by Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van
 
Heflin, Brandon deWilde, Jack Palance, Emily Meyer, Elisha Cook, Jr., Ben Johnson, Paramount, 1953.
 
Thomas, Lou. “The Films that Influenced Logan: Director James Mangold on the New
Wolverine Movie.” British Film Institute, 1 Mar. 2017, bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/interviews/logan-wolverine-james-mangold-influences. Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.
 
“Transigen.” Marvel Database Wiki. http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Transigen (Earth-TRN414). Accessed 8 Nov. 2017.
 
Turner, Victor W. “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage.” In The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual, pp. 93-111. Cornell UP, 1967.  
 
van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage. Translated by Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee. U of Chicago P, 1960.

Acknowledgements
I extend a special thanks to Dr. Katerina Rüedi-Ray, Dr. Jeffrey Brown, and Dr. Phillip Cunningham for their critical insights and helpful feedback that facilitated writing this essay.