So at first I was really really excited to see they're actually bothering to characterise Daken and show some of his inner workings. And then I saw the released cover art for a later issue and I'm suddenly incredibly wary of what they're going to do to Daken now. If they're going to just make another Logan out of him to sell more comics then I'll be cancelling my subscription and then shove my fingers in my ears and pretend this never happened like the Brotherhood story with Evan.
I’m super torn on this myself; I’m going to be waiting and seeing how it’s handled before getting too het up about it, but I definitely see where you’re coming from, and I agree that there is a bit of cause for concern!
On the one hand, I’m reading Wolverines like ‘this is great! Things are happening to Daken that might actually advance his growth as a character!’, but on the other, it feels to me as if he’s jumped too quickly from the trash baby we knew and loved to a redeemable dude with a shot at redemption? I get that he’s mourning in his own weird way, but - as much as I whinged and said that I’d like to see all of Remender’s work with Daken ignored by future writers - I’m now finding that Daken’s attitude towards Logan doesn’t make much sense when we consider just how bad their relationship got during Uncanny X-Force and Uncanny Avengers. I think I would’ve just liked to see a bit more organic development in his attitude, rather than being expected as a reader to just accept that Wolverine’s death has spurred Daken into turning over a new leaf. Daken’s Logan Legacy issue was lovely and handled the issue quite nicely, but I’d really like to see the writers exercising a more multifaceted take on his exceptionally complicated relationship with his father in Wolverines.
With that said, it could well be that he’s still got some overarching plan - this is Daken, after all. Maybe this is all part of an elaborate scheme of some sort? (I’m not convinced on this reading just yet; it does seem like the writers are genuinely going for a redemption arc with him, but you never know~).
As for the upcoming plaid makeover… part of me is laughing into oblivion, because wow, talk about your identity crisis, and the other is a bit concerned about how long it’s going to stick. I waited too long for Daken to stop being blue, now I’ve gotta wait for pretty fashionable Daken to come back? Outrageous. I mean, it does sound petty, but I thought Daken’s attachment to material possessions and his general vanity really worked to enhance his character and bolster other traits of his; with that changing alongside his personality transplant, it does feel like there’s a bit too much distance between what I would consider to be Daken at his finest, and the Daken we’re being presented with in Wolverines.
tl;dr: I’m not overly concerned at this stage about what the writers have in store for Daken, but we’ll see if that doesn’t change as the series goes on!