X-23 #2 – Review

by Marjorie Liu (writer), Will Conrad (artist)

The Story: X-23 awakens at a halfway house in San Francisco that has been set ablaze, surrounded by bodies.  More importantly, the evidence points to her being the murderer.  After returning to Utopia and spending a little time with Cyclops, Storm and Gambit, Hellverine shows up to taunt and attack our heroine.  One bleeding and dying Hellion later (That tends to happen to him often, doesn’t it?), X agrees to take a magical mystery tour within herself to prove that she has a soul.

What’s Good: It seems that Liu is beginning to find X-23 ‘s voice, which is pleasing to this reviewer.  I complained about her lack of consistency with the character’s previous appearances, but she’s definitely finding Laura’s voice, especially in the opening scene where we flashback to a happier time with Wolverine himself.  “I have heard that roller coasters make people scream and vomit…  I want to try it.”  Those lines alone were golden and reminded me of some of the better dialogue given to the character by her creator’s Craig Kyle and Chris Yost.  Liu also smartly establishes the duo’s familial relationship in this scene, making the betrayal towards the end of the book that much more emotionally potent.

I’m happy with the use of Gambit in this issue.  It’s nice to see another, less predictable X-Man paired up with X-23, just as Storm was somewhat in the last issue.  The choice of Gambit works even better as he’s been out of the spotlight of late in most of the X-titles.  I also enjoyed the manner in which the character was introduced into the story.  The use of the word “petite”, the coat and the fingerless gloves, all followed by a close-up of those crimson eyes tells you all you need to know.  It’s a nonchalant manner uncommon to comics and it works.