X-23:Target X #6 - Marvel

Well . . . this is the last issue of the mini-series. But I really don't think this is the last we're going to see of Laura. Actually . . . I know it's not. This series really lays the groundwork for the time between the first mini . . . and when she joined the new X-men. It continues in the same form as it started, with Matt and Steve questioning her. Through this process, Laura has filled them in on pretty much her whole past. She even went in to the meeting with Logan. She wanted to kill him, but through the whole fighting and bonding process, she realizes, I think, that he isn't her real enemy. Yes they share the same DNA. But that's not really his fault. Hell, he didn't even know about it until she shows up and tries to kill him. Anyways, Matt and Steve work through the whole ordeal, and Steve decides that no matter how they feel about the stuff she's had to endure, she still has to answer for her crimes. Matt makes an impassioned plea for Steve to let her go, learn from her mistakes, and recommend that she goes to Xavier's school to learn a little discipline and restraint. But Steve's not hearing it. To him, things are still pretty black & white. But on his way back to SHIELD, he does have a change of heart. "The first time we met, I made a mistake and you ended up back in the hands of the people that made you a weapon. If I take you in now, new people will use you the same way the facility did and I can't let that happen . . . not again. I don't know if you can build a normal life after what you've been through, but I've got to let you try. Matt was right. Go to Logan, he'll know what to do." And from there . . . she goes and joins the New X-men. Fantastic story by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost. These two are turning out to be quite the writing team. And Mike Choi and Sonja Oback were just superb on the artist end of the process. The center spread of Logan and Laura going at it . . . is just beautiful. Then at the end of the book, we get to see some of Mike's sketch's of some of the covers. This guy is very talented. Like I said I know this won't be the last we see of her. She's in New X-men every month. But I bet she has a new mini before the end of the year. This is one fantastic character.

X-23:Target X #5 - Marvel

This is really a very nice book. First of all I love the character. I love what they've done with her so far, and where they seem to be taking her. The scripts are fantastic. They're by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, who are also doing the New X-men book. And Laura is a member of that team. Mike Choi and Sanja Oback handle the art, and it really has a great feel to it. Very crisp and clean. Anyways, Laura is still talking to Matt and Steve about what happened when Kimura came to the house where she was living with Megan and Debbie. They wanted to send Laura into a rage, with her trigger scent, and have her kill Megan and Debbie. But that didn't work out the way they had planned. So now Kimura is here to finish the job and return Laura to the facility. She tells them how Kimura broke her neck, so that she wouldn't interfere with the kill. But of course she has healing powers also, so that took care of itself. She then handcuffs her to keep her from interfering, but Laura cut her own hand off rather that stand around and watch her friends die. And finally in her rage, she beats Kimura almost unconscious, not entirely because she is invulnerable after all, but enough that Debbie and Megan can escape the house. Laura then electrocutes her, and blows up the house on her. She really wants Debbie and Megan to get free. She even escorts them up the the Canadian border, gives them a map to a safe-house, and tells them where they can find money to live on. And the next part of her journey? "I went after him. The one who started it all. The one that made me a weapon. The one who made me a killer." While she's saying this, we're seeing the front gate of Xavier's school. I think she's talking about Wolverine. Awesome book. Unfortunately next issue is the last in this series. But I'm sure we'll see more of her in the future.

X-23:Target X #4 - Marvel

This book is just too cool. We start out with Matt and Steve, still interrogating Laura. She was up to the point in her story, where her next step was to kill Megan and Debbie. Desmond came in to the house with the trigger scent in the coffee, but before he can do anything with it he spills it on himself. Well needless to say, there's nothing to stop Laura from taking care of him. Unfortunately in all the hoopla, Debbie spills some coffee on herself. But with Megan's quick thinking, she runs upstairs and get Debbie in to the shower to mask it. I don't know if it was because of the water, or because Laura picks up Kimura's scent, but she stops and gets Megan and Debbie to safety. But she can't save herself, because Kimura can't be hurt. At least not by Laura. But obviously she gets out of it somehow, because, she's telling the story to Matt and Steve. I like the way they're intertwining her mission stories with her memories of the Facility. We're getting her background, and at the same time learning what's made up her character. Nurture over nature and all that. Anyways this is a fantastic book, and I love watching this character evolve.

X-23:Target X #3 - Marvel

This particular issue, gives us some more of the back story on X-23. Cap and Matt Murdock are questioning her, still, and she is telling them about the Facility, and the trigger scent. The Facility is where she was raised and trained, 'er I mean . . . programmed. She was then farmed out to other people as an assassin. Such as the time they let Wilson Fisk use her to take out one of his opponents, Fade. The trigger scent was used to make her kill targets that she couldn't be trusted to kill on her own. It sends her in to a frenzy, and she just kills on instinct. When she comes out of the frenzy, she doesn't even know what she did. They used this to make her kill . . . her sensei, her mother, and . . . . . . Meggan and Debbie. She's with Meggan when she gets her first glimpse of the X-men. On TV of all things. She also see a picture of Wolverine, which set off some feelings. Anyways, it turns out that Meggans boyfriend is actually an undercover Facility operative. He's tasked with returning X-23. Of course you know what they say about, " . . . the best laid plans of mice and men . .". So next issue we'll probably see what actually happened, and just how Laura ended up in Cap and Matt's custody. And I'm sure we'll get some more of Laura's background.

X-23:Target X #2 - Marvel

This issue begins where the last one ended, tied to a chair in a warehouse being interrogated by Captain America and Matt Murdock. We get a lot of the back-story, by way of the present. After she killed her "mother", Sarah Kinney, and everyone else in the facility, she headed to San Francisco to find Debbie and Megan Kinney. She saved Megan's life once at the facility, and introduces herself to Debbie as Sarah's daughter. Cap has a flashback to Los Angeles four years ago, when he was supposed to be guarding a candidate, but then someone attacked the "party" and killed everyone. Well everyone except for a little girl in leg braces, which Cap helped rescue and send out in an ambulance. It wasn't until shortly after that that Cap realizes that she had to have been the attacker since she was the only survivor, and everybody in the ambulance is found dead. So now, he feels responsible for everything she's done since then. In her flashbacks, Laura is talking to Megan, and telling her everything, because she thought she already knew. We also see a bunch of episodes of what happens when you put a programmed teenager, with authority issues, no discipline, and control issues into a high school setting. The results are hilarious. So after being suspended, they steal the principle's car, and spend the day joy-riding. But what she didn't realize is that she was already being followed. And her next mission was going to be to kill Debbie and Megan. Craig Kyle and Chris Yost make a fantastic writing duo. And, I really like the pencils of Mike Choi. This series has a ton of potential. I really hope it lives up to it.

X-23:Target X #1 - Marvel

Great first issue. First of all, Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, the writers, have really done a bang up job with all of these "new mutant" / "new x-men" characters. They seem to work very well together. Secondly, the artwork on this issue is fantastic. So much better than the mini-series. It's by Mike Choi and Sonia Oback. I assume they're both new to the field. Or new to Marvel. But their style is fantastic. We learn a lot more about X-23 this issue. And her handlers. Also we see just how much of a bitch Kimura really is. And at the end of the issue, she ends up getting interrogated by Captain America and Matt Murdock. Great start for the series. I can't wait to see where it goes from here. You just knew that eventually she was going to get her own book. I just hope it lasts. The potential for this character is limitless.