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| Illustration by Mike Choi and Jesus Arburtov |
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| Illustration by Alan Davis, Mark Farmer, and Chris Chuckry |
That brings us to "X-Men: Evolution". It was the second animated X-Men television series, and it interpreted the characters in a wide age range. Some were adults, some were teens, and I think that some were "tweens". Some people continue to have a problem with X-Men characters as teens, but I feel that it gets back to the heart of the franchise. They live at a school, Stan Lee wrote the Silver Age X-Men as teens, and his inspiration (Wilmar Shiras's "Children of the Atom") was about teens not yet old enough to even drive a car. Back in, Shiras's book, the school has been the students home and where they learned to use their abilities while they attended school with the general public for the sake of transparency. X-Men: Evolution got closer to that idea than most X-projects.
The first season gave us a core cast, and the second season additionally introduced new students. Beast and Wolverine (two of the adults in school) had different techniques when teaching the students how to hone their abilities. While Wolverine tended to be more curt, Beast generally put forth a more jovial and personable side. In a third season episode written by Craig Kyle, and with a teleplay by him and Chris Yost), the school would receive a little visitor. "X23" (later known as Laura Kinney, the hyphenated "X-23", and temporarily "Wolverine") had been spying on these students. A terrorist agency (in the show, she was created by Hydra) stole a sample of the original Wolverine's DNA, and through having to improvise with a damaged Y chromosome, they created a little female clone with two adamantium coated claws in each hand and one in each foot. This youngster who could've been 13 or 14 years old was created to kill. From the cloning of a chromosome, through her grueling upbringing, and right to this point where she's escaped. This girl feels great envy for these students who get to enjoy their childhood, and (with good reason) blames Wolverine for her living such a tortured life. She infiltrates the school, and takes part in a masterful fight scene with Wolverine. From that first episode, we could see that she wasn't just a female Wolverine. She has a background with so much repression, is socially underdeveloped, and has been conditioned to finely calculate her every decision. X-23 was a huge hit. She would then team up with Wolverine to combat Omega Red in another episode, and would make a cameo appearance when the series' epilogue showed what the future held.
Six months after X-23's television debut, she first appeared in the comics. For that reason, NYX #3 remains an important comic issue for me. This series about mutant runaways in New York introduced Laura as a troubled teen who escaped from her life as an assassin, but could only find work as a prostitute specializing in edgeplay. Yes, Joe Quesada and Josh Middleton picked an intense way to introduce this equally intense character to Marvel's 616 universe. The protagonists of NYX eventually freed Laura from an abusive pimp, an she remained with the team through the book's run.
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| Illustration by Josh Middleton |
It wasn't until following a post-Morrison revamp of the X-books when X-23 would join the X-teams. Chris Claremont had reunited with Alan Davis in their collaboration on Uncanny X-Men, and a Storm-led team would meet this young woman at a nightclub. Laura had adopted this awesome costume which combined Wolverine's old color scheme of brown and gold with his "Savage Land" adornment of bones and claws. Laura started getting more socially adjusted, and found something of a role model (for that time) in a newly-resurrected Psylocke.
It would be another revamp of the X-titles that would bring Laura home to her creators (Kyle & Yost). After the world changing "House of M" event, a series about students at the Xavier school changed hands from the husband & wife writing team of Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir to Craig Kyle & Chris Yost. They changed this book into a new book titled "New X-Men" with an explosive new story. Students were killed, and X-23 was enrolled at the school. She became good friends with Cessily "Mercury" Kincaid (whose mercurial body couldn't be physically harmed if Laura was to go through an emotional meltdown). She had a romance with a young telekinetic, got her heart broken, and was helped by Cessily when the teenage experience was far more than Laura could experience at the time.
This series led up to the "Messiah Complex" crossover event. Laura's ex-boyfriend (Julian) lost both of his hands when the students were attacked by Lady Deathstrike, and while he recovered, the heroine would join a team trackers seeking the missing X-character Cable. This story importantly introduced Hope Summers, but also included a wonderful face-off between Deathstrike and X-23. Yuriko underestimated the clone of Wolverine, and didn't expect a foot-claw to tear through some vital parts of of her cyborg physiology. A great deal of that tracking team would become a new X-Force team of assassins led by Wolverine. This series would included more proof of how Kyle & Yost remain the gold standard for writing X-23's character. The brutality of X-Force was something
that Laura was trying to escape from, and the emotional toll pulled her back into harming herself. It wasn't until the end of that book's run when Wolverine saw his mistake in taking advantage of Laura's experience as an assassin.
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| Illustration by Mike Choi |
It was afterward that we got into an "X-23" series by Marjorie Liu where where Laura traveled the globe, worked with both Gambit and Wolverine's illegitimate son Daken, and revealed that she had been adopted by Wolverine, becoming his "daughter". This was the third "X-23" solo series. The first two (both written by Kyle & Yost) told the traumatic story of her origin and when she went to live with her late mother's family in San Francisco.
At this point the X-books and I were reaching a temporary parting of ways. The writing was getting less "slice of life" and I wasn't always able to afford the comics. From what I've gathered, she teamed up with a time-displaced team of teenage X-Men, and partook in an Avengers Academy. This period led into a rebranding when Laura was marketed as the "All-New Wolverine". Personally, I didn't care that much for the new series. My dislike wasn't that much about her becoming a "Wolverine". Though she was already a hit with her own codename. Reading some of Tom Taylor's work, I just feel that his writing style didn't do that great of a job in depicting a famously broody woman who expressed a small fraction of what she internalized. In the first six issues, there was no internal monologuing, while she was talking more than even your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. It was when preparing for this blog post that I started reading stories of X-23 again, and I find her current writer (Mariko Tamaki) to be maybe the best writer for the character since Kyle & Yost. The first issue (which was released shortly before this anniversary) coincidentally approached her birthday. She also has become a mentor to Gabby (one of a series of clones based on Laura). This pint-sized character from Taylor's solo book is putting Laura in a position where she must grow up a little more, while not necessarily what defines her as "Laura Kinney". For a while, I was uncomfortable with seeing X-23 getting presented as a more physically developed young woman. That sexualizing of characters is a common problem with young females in comics, and given Laura's incomplete childhood, it was tough for me to see. I'm starting to feel that many of these superhero teens grow up at some point. Even Jubilee now has an adoptive child. As long as Laura's defining traits remain respected and intact, I find cautiously find it appropriate for her to grow up.
There's one last subject that I would like to touch on. It's the film "Logan". What was meant as a farewell to Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman in the live action movies, also introduced the talented Dafne Keen as X-23. This depiction made her into a weaponized child on the run from a facility in Mexico. Utilizing acting abilities which left Sir Patrick astonished bilingual skills that come from her time living in both Spain and England, this youngster (not yet even 13 years old) gave a performance which I thought was Oscar worthy. Even after Disney has bought the live action rights to all of the X-characters, I sincerely hope that Keen will get to reprise her role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
