Laura Kinney

“Wolverine” (the X-Man) never went to Inisfree… but this ‘daughter’ of his has.

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Table of Contents:

1. Disclaimer
2. Basics
3. Details
4. 2nd Profile
5. Powers and Abilities
6. Former Powers
7. Weaknesses
8. Former Weaknesses
9. Paraphernalia
10. Laura & Auz
11. Her (Images Begin)
12. Comics
13. 2023 September/+
14. How She Enjoys Massages in Inisfree

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Disclaimer:

Like her father, James “Logan”/”Wolverine” Howlett, Laura’s claws are normal retractable ones; they do not come from her forearms, and do not cut her when they come out.  (Those claims were just misinformation and a sensationalist spin on their more refined forms.)

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Basics:

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Details:

X-23 (real name Laura Kinney; alias Wolverine) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most commonly in association with the X-Men. The character was originally created by writer Craig Kyle for the X-Men: Evolution television series in 2003, before debuting in the NYX comic series in 2004. Since then she has headlined two six-issue miniseries written by Kyle and Christopher Yost, a one-shot and self-titled series written by Marjorie Liu, and All-New Wolverine by Tom Taylor.

X-23 was apparently the clone and later adopted daughter of Wolverine, created to be the perfect killing machine. For years, she proved herself a capable assassin working for an organization called the Facility. A series of tragedies eventually led her to Wolverine and the X-Men. She attended school at the X-Mansion, and eventually became a member of X-Force. Like Wolverine, X-23 has a regenerative healing factor and enhanced senses, speed, and reflexes. She also has retractable adamantium-coated bone claws in her hands and feet. In 2015, the character succeeded her father in adopting the name and costume of Wolverine in the series All-New Wolverine. In July 2018, the character returned to her original moniker of X-23.

History

X-23 first appeared in season 3, episode 11 of the X-Men: Evolution animated television series, titled “X-23”,^[1] voiced by Andrea Libman.^[2] She was later voiced by Britt Irvin in “Target X”.

X-23 was created by Craig Kyle.^[3] He revealed that X-23 was his attempt to make a Wolverine to “connect more to the younger kids”, as while X-Men: Evolution was a reinvention of the X-Men making the characters teenagers, “Wolverine was one of the old, grizzled guys”. The characterization went for the opposite of Wolverine, where instead of a man “older than we know” with no memory of his past and the life that he lost, X-23 was a young girl “shackled to the murders she’s committed” whose entire life revolved around the project that made her a killer. Kyle added that the character is “Pinocchio for Marvel Comics, she’s a samurai sword trying to become a real little girl”.^[4] He and Christopher Yost were the writers of the two episodes of X-Men: Evolution in which X-23 appears (“X-23” and “Target X”), with Yost stating that Kyle “had all the beats of her origin in his head when I came on board”.^[5]

Transition to comic books and publication history

X-23’s comic debut was in 2004 in the series NYX, where her history and past were never divulged but her abilities were showcased. In X-23, her first miniseries, her origin was fully explained. She became part of the X-Men supporting cast in Uncanny X-Men #450.

Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost also scripted X-23: Innocence Lost, a six-issue miniseries that details the character’s origin, as well as X-23: Target X, a six-issue miniseries that covers the character’s experiences between her origin story and her appearance in NYX. They continued to write X-23 into their runs on New X-Men and X-Force as a member of the teams.

X-23 starred in a monthly comic book series in 2010, written by Marjorie Liu. On November 15, 2011, Marvel announced that the X-23 comic series would end at issue #21.^[6]

X-23 appeared as a regular character in Avengers Academy from issue #23 (Feb 2012) through its final issue #39 (Jan 2013), and also appears in Avengers Arena, a series by Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker.^[7]

Laura joins the All-New X-Men after the team finds her in Florida being chased by anti-mutant religious zealots.^[8]

After the 2015 “Secret Wars” storyline, Laura is revealed to be one of the two new Wolverines in the All-New, All-Different Marvel continuity, along with Old Man Logan.

Fictional character biography

Innocence Lost

A top-secret program is tasked to replicate the original Weapon X experiment that bonded adamantium to the skeleton of Wolverine. The project is taken in a new direction: Dr. Martin Sutter recruits renowned mutant geneticist Dr. Sarah Kinney to develop a clone of Wolverine. Also on the team is Sutter’s protege, Dr. Zander Rice, who was raised by Sutter after his father was killed by the original Weapon X.

Since the only genetic sample from Weapon X is damaged, Kinney is unable to salvage the Y chromosome. Kinney proposes the creation of a female genetic twin. Her request is denied; Rice is opposed to the idea. After 22 failed attempts at reconstituting the DNA using a duplicate X chromosome, the 23rd sample yields a viable sample to combine with an embryo. Although Kinney is allowed to proceed, Rice exacts revenge for her insubordination by forcing her to act as the surrogate mother of the specimen. For nine months, Kinney’s every move is monitored. Finally, she gives birth to “X-23”.^[9]

After seven years, Rice subjects X-23 to radiation poisoning in order to activate her mutant gene. He extracts her claws, coats them with adamantium, and reinserts them back into her hands and feet – a procedure performed without affording the child any anesthetic. Rice creates a “trigger scent” that drives X-23 into a murderous rage when she detects it. X-23 is then trained to be a hired assassin, ordered to kill “anyone … everyone … for a price.”^[9]

Kinney’s niece Megan is abducted by a serial killer; she smuggles X-23 out of the facility to rescue her. X-23 tracks the abductor to his apartment, kills him, and frees Megan. Kinney is fired when she returns and is escorted off the base. Shortly thereafter, Rice assigns X-23 to eliminate Sutter and his family. He orders her to keep it secret. X-23 reveals to Sarah that Rice is responsible for the murders. Before Kinney leaves, Rice reveals a chamber containing the incubation pods for subjects X-24 through X-50.^[9]

Kinney drafts a letter to her daughter, assigning her a final mission: destroy the pods and kill Rice. X-23 succeeds and meets her mother, and they prepare to flee. However, prior to his death, Rice exposed Kinney to the trigger scent. X-23 goes into a murderous frenzy and kills her mother. As she lies dying, Kinney tells X-23 that her name is Laura and that she loves her, and hands her the letter and pictures of Charles Xavier, Wolverine, and the Xavier Institute.^[9]

Target X

After being arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, X-23 awakens bound and gagged in the company of Captain America and Matt Murdock, who proceed to interrogate her about her past. X-23 describes how she traveled to San Francisco and tracked down Megan and Debbie (her mother’s sister). Introducing herself as Sarah’s daughter, she moves in with them. Although Megan experiences vivid nightmares of her abduction, her family believes these to be utter fantasies. X-23 informs Megan that the man in her nightmares was indeed real and that she killed him.^[10]

Debbie’s boyfriend turns out to be an agent for the Facility who has been instructed to manipulate X-23 into killing Megan and Debbie using the trigger scent. The agent fumbles the assignment by spilling the trigger scent on himself and is killed by X-23. Facility agents storm the house, led by the woman who served as X-23’s handler, Kimura. Kimura had treated X-23 harshly in the facility, punishing her even if the missions went according to plan.^[11]

X-23 manages to get Megan and Debbie to safety by handcuffing Kimura to a radiator and then triggering an explosion in the house, buying some time. After X-23 and Megan part, X-23 decides to confront the man who made her creation possible, Wolverine. X-23 tracks Wolverine to Xavier’s mansion and engages him in a battle, defeating him using tactics and maneuverability. She does not kill Wolverine, instead telling him why she came. Wolverine reveals that he is aware of X-23’s ordeal, having received a detailed letter from her mother. The talk is interrupted when Captain America comes to arrest Laura.^[12]

Despite the mayhem in her past, Matt Murdock accepts X-23’s innocence. Captain America wants X-23 to atone for the murders she has committed. He ultimately frees X-23 in order to avoid S.H.I.E.L.D. exploiting her as their own weapon.^[13]

NYX

X-23 surfaces in New York City and is taken in by a pimp named Zebra Daddy. She works as a prostitute who caters to sadomasochistic patrons. X-23 continues to cut herself with her own claws, is mostly mute, and proves unable to free herself from the grip of Zebra Daddy. Upon meeting Kiden Nixon, a young mutant with the ability to freeze time when in danger, and Tatiana Caban, a mutant who can take on the physical attributes of whoever and whatever she comes into contact with via their blood, X-23 starts to come to her senses. Although she runs away from Zebra Daddy, he tracks her down. With the aid of her new-found friends (and the mutant named Bobby Soul), Zebra Daddy and his thugs are defeated: X-23 kills him to save the lives of her friends.^[14] X-23 abandons her new friends, but eventually bumps into them one last time when on an investigation with Wolverine.^[15]

X-Men

X-23 takes a job as a waitress at the mutant-themed “Wannabee’s” nightclub in the Mutant Town district of New York.^[16][17] She defends Jade Parisi, daughter of mob boss Don Parisi, against some thugs who berate her for having a mutant boyfriend. X-23 kills some of the thugs and helps Jade escape and go into hiding. The deaths inadvertently implicate Wolverine, prompting his teammates to investigate. X-23 attacks Wolverine on sight, but he eventually calms her down. She leads the X-Men to Parisi’s daughter. After aiding the X-Men against Parisi’s mutant enforcer Geech, X-23 flees the scene. This encounter is later revealed to be partially arranged between X-23 and Wolverine in order for her to encounter and ally with the X-Men without revealing her past.^[18]

She later returns to help the X-Men save victims of a car accident, after which she is enrolled at the Xavier Institute and assigned a room with Rachel Summers and Kitty Pryde.^[19] X-23 behaves protectively towards Wolverine, observing him on the mansion’s security monitors and even attacking his teammate Bishop after he floors Wolverine during a training session.

During one of her sessions at the mansion’s monitors, an anomalous energy spike prompts X-23 to investigate. She encounters Spider-Man at the source of the signal;^[20][21] mistaking him for an enemy, she attacks him. The pair ultimately team up to save the young mutant Paul Patterson from an alternate reality version of Iron Man known as Iron Maniac. The arrival of Captain America and the super-spy Black Widow help turn the tide, with Spider-Man and X-23 destroying Iron Maniac’s equipment using their own version of the classic Fastball Special.

X-23 secretly follows Wolverine on his investigation of strange activity in the Canadian Rockies. Ambushed by the Hauk’ka, evolved Saurians from the Savage Land, X-23 manages to escape and alert the X-Men. Traveling to the Savage Land, X-23 and the X-Men team-up with the Savage Land’s lord Ka-Zar and his allies, the Savage Land Mutates, to prevent the Hauk’ka from destroying human civilization by exerting control over the weather-manipulating X-Man, Storm.

Captain Universe

X-23 is empowered by the cosmic Uni-Power to become Captain Universe. She quickly learns that A.I.M. is seeking the Uni-Power in hopes of using it against their enemies. She agrees to help the Uni-Power, and travels with a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent called the Scorpion to a secret A.I.M. hideout. There, they discover information on the Uni-Power that is being transferred to another facility. The Scorpion attempts to copy the information, but is stopped by X-23. The Scorpion is then ordered to take her into custody, but covers for her instead and allows X-23 to escape. At the close of the issue, the Uni-Power bids farewell to X-23, and parts ways with her.^[22]

Decimation

After the events of “House of M” and “Decimation“, X-23 was one of the few mutants to retain her powers. X-23, having previously left the institute off-panel, returns to the X-Mansion at Wolverine’s insistence. Laura develops an attraction towards Julian Keller, aka Hellion. Following a bombing at the school by anti-mutant religious zealot Reverend William Stryker, X-23 confronts Stryker at his compound, and kills three of his Purifiers, rescuing her comrades.

When Surge receives a distress call from Forge, X-23 accompanies the New X-Men. Although the team disables the Nimrod unit, X-23 is grievously wounded and is unable to heal herself. In order to save X-23, Hellion convinces Emma Frost to unlock his telekinetic potential, increasing his powers (and thus, his speed) to a level thought impossible by an O.N.E. sentinel guard. This allows them to fly back to the mansion in time for Laura to be healed by Elixir.

Mercury Falling

While Laura is bonding over coffee with Cessily, the cafe is attacked by Kimura and her minions, who in turn capture Cessily. After Laura returns to the school, she and Hellion go off to locate the Facility’s whereabouts. X-23 interrogates a man at gun point, and upon securing the information, shoots him in the head. Hellion informs her that killing will no longer be a part of their interrogation technique.

X-23 and Hellion infiltrate the Facility and after an encounter with Kimura, the two soon find Cessily in liquid form, barely able to compose herself. They are attacked by Predator X, who has absorbed Cessily’s liquid mercury skin. X-23 and Hellion decide to fall back, but are pursued by the Predators. The group is once again ambushed, only to be rescued by the Astonishing X-Men and New X-Men. The two teams turn the tables on the attackers, and defeat the remaining facility troops. During the shuffle, the remaining Predator escapes.

Sometime later, Emma Frost finds Kimura trying to assassinate X-23, and confronts her, erasing the one happy moment in Kimura’s life from her memory, and psychically suggesting that Kimura’s assignment now is to hunt down the remaining members of the Facility and kill them.

“Messiah Complex”

During the 2007 – 2008 “Messiah Complex” storyline, Cyclops, assembles a new incarnation X-Force team that includes Laura, Wolverine, Wolfsbane, Caliban, Warpath, and Hepzibah. During the team’s confrontation with Lady Deathstrike X-23 nearly kills Deathstrike in revenge for Deathstrike’s attack upon Hellion. X-23 also saves Wolverine’s life by killing Scrambler just before he scrambled Wolverine’s healing factor.

Following “Messiah Complex”, Cyclops forms a black ops incarnation of X-Force to deal with threats preemptively. He drafts X-23 for this team, though this puts him into conflict with Wolverine, whom he did not consult on this decision prior. Wolverine asks X-23 to reconsider this, warning her of the life she is giving up should she continue on this path, but X-23 ultimately decides to take her place on this team. Her conflict with Wolverine recurs over his observation that she is reckless with the lives of others.

Messiah War

In the 2009 storyline “Messiah War“, the X-Men moved to San Francisco, where they are accepted as heroes by the mayor, having rejected the Fifty State Initiative. X-23 is finally reunited with Kiden Nixon, who herself makes her first appearance outside the NYX series.^[23] This future version of Kiden is revealed to be a disruptor of time travel technology, which threatens to trap X-Force, Cable and Hope in this era. While X-23 agonizes over whether to kill Kiden Domino fatally shoots Kiden herself. In a subsequent storyline, X-23 goes back in time to save Boom Boom when Domino and Proudstar are neutralized.^[24] During the course of this mission, X-23’s left arm is severed from her body.^[25] She is rescued by the X-Force, leading into the 2009 – 2010 “Necrosha” storyline,^[26] which sees X-23 reunited with her friends from the NYX series.

“Second Coming”

X-23 is shown to be part of Cyclops’ “Alpha Roster” in the course of the “Second Coming” story arc. Laura, along with the most of X-Force, accompany Cable and Cypher to the future in an attempt to shut down the Nimrod invasion. Following Cypher successfully over-riding the programming, Laura attempts to return through the temporal portal, only to sustain horrific injuries. The portal prevents any organic matter traveling through it. This leads Cable to sacrifice himself, allowing his techno-organic virus to overwhelm him, forcing the portal open and making it possible for the team to return to Utopia.

In the fallout of “Second Coming”, Wolverine cuts X-23 from the team, explaining to her that after a lifetime of following orders from others, she needs to learn to make her own choices and follow her own path.^[27] X-23 subsequently tracks former Weapon X scientist Detlef Metzger, intending to capture him before he can perform experiments using a vial of Wolverine’s blood. Instead, Metzger is kidnapped by a group of US soldiers, while X-23 notices that Daken has been watching her.^[28]

Solo adventures (X-23 vol. 3)

X-23’s first solo series X-23 written by Marjorie Liu features Laura in several adventures. There are five storylines in the series. It begins with “The Killing Dream” in which she begins having horrible nightmares for mysterious reasons. “Songs of the Orphan Child” features Laura on a journey to self-discovery and begins a friendship with Gambit. “Collision” continues her relationship with Gambit as they travel to Madripoor. “Chaos Theory” has Laura having strange dreams once again, this time about a strange symbol. In the last storyline “Misadventures In Babysitting” X-23 babysits Reed and Susan Storm’s children Franklin and Valeria.^[29]

X-23: Girls Night Out

X-23 is asked by Wolverine to join him. She replies by asking if there is any other choice.^[30] While she thinks about what choice she will make, X-23 goes for a walk with Jubilee and asks her why she chose Cyclops’ side. Jubilee tells her she chose to stay with Cyclops because, as a vampire, she can hear the heartbeat of everyone around her, and it makes her hungry and wants to eat them. X-23 tells her that she will not hurt them but Jubilee tells her that the urge is there and that she needs to fight as much she needs blood. She cannot be with Wolverine because she is afraid to violate his new philosophy: if you are a kid you do not fight, and he sees her as a kid. Jubilee tells X-23 that Logan sees her the same way, they both agree that it sucks. X-23’s phone rings as the others need an answer, but they ignore it and Jubilee tells X-23 to go and have some fun and dance. X-23 explains that she cannot dance, but Jubilee tells her it does not matter because she is hot. X-23 tells her she is not hot. However, as they go, someone follows them. While Jubilee was dancing, X-23 becomes distracted by looking at someone and recognized him as the person who took over Zebra Daddy’s operation. She and Jubilee attack him and his men and take the girl who was with him since she knew where the other girls were and how to free them. As they think about what to do with the girls, because they cannot just call the police, the Black Widow and some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents appear and take the girls to help them. Natasha offers X-23 to come to the Avengers Academy and she accepts. The next day she tells Logan what happened, and Wolverine tells her he is going to miss her and he is sorry he could not do better by her. She tells him she is going to miss him too, then she takes a motorcycle and drives to the Academy.^[31]

Avengers Academy

Following the 2011 “Fear Itself” storyline, X-23 appears as one of the students at the new Avengers Academy.^[32] The Academy sees she does not need any combat training after she fought Tigra. After she introduced herself to the other students, she explained to Mettle the difference between killing an innocent and killing to protect an innocent, telling him that he is not a psycho killer, and that they can talk more about it another time. This makes Hazmat feel jealous.^[33] Finesse became friends with X-23 due to their lack of emotion.^[34] Finesse also stood by X-23 when she opposed the X-Men locking their students on the Academy grounds during Avengers vs. X-Men.^[35] However, their friendship took a turn for the worse when Jeremy Briggs tried to release a superhuman cure. After Briggs took out X-23 and tried to acid burn her, Finesse grabs X-23’s arms and fatally stabs Briggs in the radial and femoral arteries, making him bleed to death.^[36] X-23 first thought she killed him, but when she finds out it was Finesse, she was furious. X-23 agrees to keep Finesse’s secret, but declares they are no longer friends, upsetting Finesse.^[37]

Avengers Arena

After Avengers vs. X-Men and the conclusion of Avengers Academy, X-23 was part of the students abducted by Arcade in Avengers Arena. Arcade turns them loose for 30 days in Murderworld to fight for survival. In a flash forward, it is shown that on the penultimate day, she attacks Hazmat and is badly burned, but the results are unknown as the flash forward then ends.^[38] The Academy students set up camp and face off against the Runaways when Chase is framed,^[39] but X-23 is soon separated from Reptil and Hazmat when Arcade covers the group in trigger scent and Reptil evacuates Hazmat. X-23 then finds Justin and helps him strip down his Sentinel.^[40] When Apex kills Justin and takes his Sentinel, X-23 goes to track them and get them back. After nearly being killed by Apex,^[41] Arcade unleashes trigger scent on all of Murderworld to send X-23 in a berserker rage, at which point she injures Hazmat, as seen in the flash forward.^[42] Cullen turns into a giant monster and fights X-23, defeating her and powering her down from her rage.^[43] After that, X-23 continues to injure Hazmat until Anachronism steps in, angry over Nara’s death and holding X-23 responsible, attacking X-23 and inadvertently saving Hazmat.^[44] By this point, most of X-23’s body is badly burned with radiation, and she is still in this state when the competition ends and Nico, Chase, Cammi, Deathlocket, and Anachronism call Hank Pym, Abigail Brand, Maria Hill, Captain Britain, and Wolverine to pick up the kids. X-23 is loaded onto a SHIELD helicopter and is taken away to parts unknown, ending her affiliation with the Avengers Academy.^[45]

All-New X-Men

Unlike the other Arena survivors, X-23 did not join the group in infiltrating the Masters of Evil. After the events of Avengers Arena, X-23 is found by Kitty Pryde and the time-displaced original X-Men.^[46] She is amnesiac and being hunted by the Purifiers.

After being found by Kitty, Laura was taken to their base to recover. When Laura wakes up, with her memories now returning, at the former Weapon X facility she immediately tries to escape. Teen Cyclops goes to talk to her, while he’s gone Teen Jean mentions to the team that Teen Cyclops “fancies” Laura. As Laura makes it outside she’s met by Teen Cyclops, who was waiting for her. Teen Cyclops tries to calm her down but Laura only ceases hostility after getting Teen Cyclops scent and figuring out that Teen Cyclops is who he says he is.

The two talk, with X-23 telling him that she doesn’t want to talk about her past or what happened to her. Suddenly Teen Cyclops awkwardly hugs her, when she was distracted and looking sad, because he thought she needed a hug. Laura tells him that she doesn’t do hugs, especially not with an audience as Kitty, Teen Jean, and Teen Beast were watching them. Teen Jean expressed a very conflicted look upon her face due to the hug and having read part of Laura’s mind, thus she knows what happened in Avengers Arena. Laura thanks them for helping her and suggests they take the fight to the Purifiers, but in order for her to track them down, they’ll have to return her to where they found her.

Upon finding the Purifier base they immediately set out to attack them. However, the fight doesn’t go well and the entire team is knocked unconscious by Stryker Jr. when Teen Jean learns too late that Stryker Jr. has powers of his own.^[47] X-23 is also with the All-New X-Men when Teen Jean is abducted by the Shi’ar and the X-Men team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy to save her.^[48] Later, she is attacked by Raze,^[49] who disguises himself as her to infiltrate Cyclops’s base.^[50] She subsequently begins to date the younger Angel, and meets Jimmy Hudson—the son of the Wolverine of the Ultimate Marvel universe—when the team are transferred into the Ultimate Universe by accident. She and the All-New X-Men team up again with the Guardians of the Galaxy in search of The Black Vortex, during which Angel submits himself to the Vortex and almost dies, but instead is granted golden light wings. She asks him why he endangered himself, and he tells her that he wanted to change himself so he won’t turn into Archangel and that he can stay himself forever since he is in love with her.Template:Issue 81

All-New Wolverine

In June 2015, it was announced that following that year’s “Secret Wars” storyline, X-23 would take on the Wolverine mantle, as the main character in the series All-New Wolverine, by writer Tom Taylor and artist David López, and wearing a costume resembling Wolverine’s.^[51] The series opens approximately eight months after “Secret Wars”, and reveals that her healing factor is working normally again after having been drained by Siphon in the Nexus of All Realities.^[52][53]

During the “Hunt for Wolverine” storyline, X-23’s Wolverine appearance attends a disguised black market auction in a submarine off the coast of Guam. After a disguised Tony Stark wins the genetic material of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones‘ daughter Danielle Cage in the auction, she advises Tony Stark to drop out of the auction afterwards. When the unidentified seller of the genetic material meets with Tony Stark and is attacked by Mister Sinister for stealing the genetic material of the original Wolverine, X-23 sheds her disguise and assists Iron Man in fighting Mister Sinister where she manages to slice off Mister Sinister’s left hand.^[54] It was revealed over the course of the incident that part of her genetic material was provided by Sarah Kinney, the scientist who created her and carried her to term when Iron Man found this info in Mister Sinister’s database. This makes her Sarah’s biological daughter and not strictly a clone.^[55]

X-23 (vol. 4)

In July 2018, Laura is scheduled to return her to original moniker in a fourth volume of X-23 by writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Juann Cabal. Tamaki said, “This is a story about being in the very weird kind of family that someone like Laura/X-23 finds herself in. It’s about what it means to wrestle with legacy and identity when you were created to be a weapon and not someone with a birthday and a sister.”^[56]

X-Men Red

Powers and abilities

X-23 was apparently a female clone created from Wolverine’s genetic material. Consequently, her mutant powers are similar to his. Like Wolverine, X-23’s primary mutant ability is an accelerated healing factor that allows her to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissues with far greater speed, efficiency, and finality than ordinary humans are capable of. Injuries such as gunshot wounds, slashes, and puncture wounds completely heal within a matter of seconds. She has also been shown to be able to reattach limbs; for example, she reattached her hand in seconds after she severed it to escape the restraints placed on her by Kimura.^[57] The effects of her accelerated healing powers extend to her body’s immune system, rendering her immune to disease and infection. She is also immune to most drugs and toxins, although she can be affected by certain drugs if given sufficient dosage. Given the regenerative nature of her cells, she is potentially-immortal, just like her “father”.

X-23’s mutant healing factor heightened her physical senses, speed, agility, reflexes/reactions, coordination, balance, and endurance to superhuman levels. Like Wolverine, X-23 possesses retractable claws sheathed within her forearms. She releases the claws through the tissue of her knuckles, leaving small wounds which are healed by her healing factor. Unlike Wolverine, however, X-23 has only two claws per hand which are her primary weapons of offence. She also possesses a single, retractable claw housed within each foot which she tends to use for defense. These claws are actually made of bone and were forcefully extracted by Zander Rice, sharpened, coated with adamantium, and reinserted into her body. Also unlike Wolverine, X-23 escaped before the procedure to fuse her entire skeleton with adamantium could be performed.^[57] Since the claws are laced with adamantium, they are virtually unbreakable and are capable of cutting almost any substance. The known exceptions are adamantium itself, Kimura’s skin, and vibranium.

In addition to her own innate powers and skills, X-23 has twice been the host of the Enigma Force, providing her with many special abilities particular to the entity. She is the first mutant to be chosen by the entity as its host, as well as being one of a handful of individuals to do so more than once. At the end of their second encounter, the Enigma Force named X-23 as the heir to its power.^[58] This permanent association was first indicated by a mark appearing on the palm of her right hand at the conclusion of the “Killing Dream” arc of her solo series.^[59]

Born and raised in captivity, X-23 has been trained to become a living weapon. She is highly trained in the use of long range weapons and explosives and is a formidable hand-to-hand combatant, with intensive training in numerous armed and unarmed martial arts techniques. She has also been subjected to conditioning in which a specific “trigger scent” has been used to send her into a berserker rage, killing anything in sight; Emma Frost is unsure if this will ever be fully suppressed. She is also highly educated and so far has displayed fluency in French and Japanese, while Zander Rice once described her intellect as being “off the charts”.

Personality

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X-23 is very taciturn and introspective, rarely uttering more than one sentence or two at a time. Because she grew up in a controlled environment, she speaks using perfect grammar, rarely using slang. She also engages in self-injury, cutting herself with her own claws; this is something she has done since a very young age.^[9][60][61] X-23 is a highly trained and skilled combatant; she is able to kill dozens of heavily armed opponents during a single encounter.

X-23’s mother, Dr. Sarah Kinney, did her best to ensure the child retained some semblance of humanity. X-23 rarely spoke, or expressed much interest in her mother who was forced to reject any emotional advance the girl might make, such as laying her head in her mother’s lap, because of the Facility. Despite the upbringing X-23 received, she has always shown signs of humanity. In one particular mission when X-23 was assigned to assassinate Martin Sutter and his family, she killed Sutter and his wife without hesitation, but she spared their young son, Henry.^[9]

X-23 seemed to have taken up a better disposition since joining the New X-Men.^[62] She became a student at the Xavier Institute, found friends in Dust and Mercury, and developed apparent romantic feelings towards Hellion. Being a central part of a team helped her adjust to the world. However, she still retains the cold, no-nonsense attitude evident in the “Mercury Falling” storyline which, along with the “Children of X-Men” storyline, depict Laura as having trouble comprehending and expressing the many new emotions she has been experiencing for the very first time.

When Blackheart forces her to face her fears embodied in a single, perfect “adversary”, her fears take the form of “X-666”, a stereotypical cheerleader with murderous intentions. X-666 then explained how she was meant to be the thing lacking to Laura to be truly human: while every human is “nuanced”, possessing a dark side and an inner self rarely shown to others, Laura’s upbringing left her utterly two-dimensional, driven and apparently lacking any other personality trait beyond the ones she’s already showing, unable to grow further as person.^[63]

After the events of Arcade’s Avengers Arena and temporarily losing her memories, Laura’s personality becomes more complex, acting more like a normal teenage girl, using slang and showing a more sarcastic side of herself. After Logan died and wanting to honor her ‘fathers’ Legacy, Laura took up his mantle of Wolverine. Doctor Strange even acknowledged that, despite all of the rage and pain Laura has endured, she has learned to control and channel it into her new role and was a worthy successor to Logan. Upon learning Alchemax had created three clones of herself, she did everything she could to save them and ultimately adopted the youngest, Gabby, as her little sister, showing a more responsible side to her.

Relationships

Wolverine

Being cloned from Wolverine’s DNA, Logan is the closest thing Laura has to a father. The pair talk and interact with each other in ways that are consistent with a father-daughter relationship (even though in New X-Men, Logan introduced her to the students as his sister). Logan acts protective towards Laura and seems to have her well-being at heart, such as when he openly voiced his disapproval of Cyclops putting her on X-Force; he, however, did not force her to leave, though he told Gambit that he thinks he should have. When the pair first meet, Logan offers to help her start over at the Xavier Institute and says that he knows better than anyone what she is going through. In the X-23 solo series Logan makes plans to adopt Laura as his daughter. Despite some bumps here and there the two have a strong familial relationship with one another. After Logan’s death, Laura officially adopts his code-name of ‘Wolverine’ to honor his memory.

Sarah Kinney

Sarah was the first one to show X-23 any sort of affection in spite of her orders from the Facility to not treat her like a child. Sarah would frequently read her Pinocchio as a child and showed concern when she noticed the cuts Laura inflicted on herself. It took Laura sparing the life of Henry Sutter for Sarah to realize that she was just as guilty of using Laura as the rest of the Facility was. Deciding to make things right, Sarah hatched a plan to escape with Laura, destroy the Facility’s work, and start over with her. However, thanks to Zander Rice lacing the trigger scent on her, Sarah was killed by Laura. With her dying breaths, Sarah tells X-23 her name is Laura. Sarah’s final thoughts were left in a letter to Laura detailing her guilt, that she was Laura’s mother, and the realization that she had come to love her. Sarah’s death remains to this day the life that Laura regrets taking the most. Iron Man’s recent research confirmed that Sarah is actually Laura’s biological mother, rather than just being a surrogate. Writer Marjorie Liu has stated that she intended for Laura to be part Asian through her mother.^[64]

Megan Kinney

Laura’s cousin on her mother’s side. After escaping from the Facility Laura moved in with Sarah’s sister Debbie and her daughter Megan. For a time the two connected and Megan even admitted to Laura being her best friend. However, when Facility agents came to take Laura back, Laura helped them escape and make new identities so that they could hide. Laura and Megan then went their separate ways and have not heard from each other since, though Megan remains one of the people closest to Laura’s heart. In the 18th issue of All-New Wolverine, after killing Kimura by drowning her, Laura finds Megan’s hideout and says they (Megan and Debbie) don’t have to hide anymore.

Kiden Nixon

A homeless mutant from New York City. Laura and Kiden met each other when Laura was a prostitute under the pimp Zebra Daddy. Kiden helped Laura to escape from her life as a prostitute and quickly befriended her though at this point Laura had difficulty speaking. Laura recounts in the X-23 One Shot, that Kiden and her friends did not know or care that she was a weapon. To them, Laura was their friend and part of their gang. Laura parts ways with them at the end of the one shot, returning with Wolverine. They leave on good terms, and Kiden says that Laura will always have a place with them.

Hellion

The first boy that Laura formed a crush on. At first Hellion was hostile towards her, but during the Mercury Rising arc the two grew closer. Mercury managed to pick up on Laura’s feelings towards him though she did not get Laura to admit to it. Over time Hellion/Julian began to feel the same way, though their relationship never managed to get much further. When Julian lost his hands during Second Coming, Laura stayed by him, watching him recover. After the Misadventures in Babysitting arc Laura ended things between her and Julian saying that she no longer felt the same way towards him.

Gambit

Gambit traveled with Laura during the X-23 solo series. The two became friends and looked out for one another as Gambit helped her to cope with the changes in her life as well as giving her helpful life advice. He affectionately referred to her as “Petite” and even managed to get her to calm down from a trigger scent-induced rage. Gambit scolded Logan for not protecting Laura the way he protected Jubilee, to which Logan admitted to his failings as Laura’s father. Gambit also went on to remark that Laura, while damaged, was far from being broken, contrary to everyone’s perceptions of her. If Laura was truly broken she would not be trying to change. Logan later on thanked Gambit for succeeding with Laura where he failed. When Laura left to join to the Avengers Academy, she and Gambit shared a goodbye hug and he told her wherever she went she was not alone.

Jubilee

During the Touching Darkness arc of the X-23 series, Gambit had Wolverine come by to help Laura. Logan had brought Jubilee with him and Laura attacked her on sight due to her being a vampire. Though after getting some space between the two girls things managed to calm down. Laura had some jealousy towards Jubilee from the X-23 one shot as Logan treated her more like a daughter than he did her. Laura tried to bait Jubilee into killing her by slicing her neck open and counting on her bloodlust, though Jubilee managed to stop herself after witnessing one of Laura’s memories. After talking things out, the two realized how much alike they were and became friends.

Daken

Logan/Wolverine’s son and the closest thing Laura has to a brother. Daken is to X-23 what Sabretooth is to Wolverine, her opposite. Even though Laura admits that she and Daken are related by blood, the two are not family. Laura had fought with Daken when the Dark Avengers under Norman Osborn invaded Utopia. They did not truly meet until Laura and Gambit came to Madripoor looking to track down Malcolm Colcord. At first Daken does not believe that she is a clone of his father, until Laura reveals her claws. Daken berates her for coming to Madripoor and remarks that they are nothing alike. The two square off until Daken decides to offer his assistance, which Laura rejects. When Daken confronts Colcord about his plans to restart Weapon X, he reveals his subterfuge at leading X-23 and Gambit to Colcord, though this turns out be a ruse as well, as he incapacitates Gambit and helps Colcord capture Laura. Daken learns about Laura’s past from Colcord and assists in her escape from her cell. He remarks that Laura is a construct, to which Laura retorts that he is just like her: Just like the Facility made Laura into a weapon, so did Romulus do to Daken, to which he responds that he owns his own fate. The two then enter a brief mutual alliance to destroy Colcord’s new project. Before they part ways, Daken asks Laura why she does not seek power when she could easily have it. Laura remarks that what she has to prove has nothing to do with power, and then asks Daken why he seeks more power when he already has it. Daken remarks that power is all he has. Laura’s encounter with Daken makes her realize that she owns her fate and can do with it what she wants. Daken does not seem to have the same hate towards Laura that he does with Logan, and by the time of later series such as Wolverines, he even begins to demonstrate affection towards her.

Angel

Prior to the Secret Wars storyline, Laura began a relationship with the time-displaced teenaged Warren Worthington III, which persisted after she took on the Wolverine code-name. However, Warren clashed with her several times about her increasing recklessness. Following a brutal beating she received from Blob, he decided to end the relationship to make a point about the unnecessary risks she was taking. The two, however, reconciled after having come to understand each other’s feelings.^[65]

Psylocke

Laura and Psylocke became quite friendly with each other on their first meeting in Uncanny X-Men #456, shortly after Psylocke came back to life. Both girls seemed to share an enjoyment in fighting. In one instance, Laura was knocked out while Psylocke continued, upon awakening Laura saw all the enemies had disappeared and when she asked Psylocke what happened, Betsy joked that she ate them, to which Laura replied it was cool. Another shared moment was when Betsy and Laura discussed her coming back to life, which Laura didn’t see as unique since she herself had died repeatedly when she was experimented on to test her healing factor, but she always “got better”.^[66] When Psylocke asked how that made her feel, Laura smiled and said she killed them, and they didn’t get better. Betsy then smiled and wrapped her arm around Laura’s shoulder, saying she had some very definite possibilities. There have also been images of Laura imitating Betsy, including braiding her hair and mimicking her poses.^[67]

Gabby Kinney

In the first arc of All-New Wolverine Laura became aware of a group of clones of her. All but one of the clones was killed as they tried to escape their creators.^[68] The survivor, Gabby was taken in by Laura and shares in her adventures. Gabby possesses regenerative powers which do not heal her facial scarring and can extend a single claw. She eventually adopted the super-hero code name Honey Badger.^[69]

Details here.

–

2nd Profile:

X-23

–

Innocence Lost

X-23

When a top-secret program attempted to recreate the original Weapon X experiment that involved the feral mutant, Wolverine, they failed to secure a test subject who could survive the bonding process of the virtually unbreakable metal Adamantium to their skeleton. Seeking to take the project in a new direction, the project’s director, Dr. Martin Sutter, recruited renowned mutant geneticist Doctor Sarah Kinney and tasked her with creating a clone.^[11]

Using the only available genetic sample from Weapon X, which was damaged, they were unable to salvage the Y chromosome after twenty-two attempts. Kinney proposed they create a female clone instead, and though her request was initially denied,^[11] she still went ahead and produced a viable female embryo using her own genetic material combined with Logan’s to complete the process,^[12] prompting Sutter to reconsider. Despite resistance from his protégé Dr. Zander Rice, whom Sutter had raised after Rice’s father had been killed by a bestial Wolverine at the original Weapon X Facility, Sutter allowed Kinney to proceed. As revenge for her insubordination, Rice forced Kinney to act as the surrogate mother for the specimen, and she gave birth to “X-23.”^[11]

Training

Seven years later, raised in captivity, X-23 was trained to be a weapon. Kinney did her best to ensure the child retained some semblance of humanity, but her efforts appeared to be in vain. After seven years, Rice had X-23 subjected to radiation poisoning in order to accelerate the activation of her mutant gene, and forcibly extracted her claws and coated them with Adamantium. After Rice realized the child was growing soft, he blamed her sensei, one of the few people who treated her with kindness, and tested a chemical compound called “trigger scent” on him. The “trigger scent” causes Laura to kill mercilessly anything in her path, and thus she murdered her best friend. Rice already had a replacement in the wings, a woman named Kimura. Kimura was harsh and strictly punished X-23 for the death of her sensei.^[13]

First Mission

Three years later, X-23 was sent on her first field mission to kill Presidential candidate Greg Johnson. She was assigned the mission as somewhat of an “advertising” ploy. Numerous other missions followed, as X-23’s services were sold to the highest bidder. She was left emotionally stunted as a result. Her missions took her to locations all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, Las Vegas, Japan, Colombia, the Congo, and many others. For one mission she was assigned to pose as the Kingpin‘s niece and kill the ones who had captured her, bringing the head of their leader back. Rice, in an attempt to avenge his father’s murder, abandoned X-23 on a particularly dangerous mission with A.I.M., but she survived against overwhelming odds and managed to return to the Facility. After her return to the facility Kimura punished her for not coming back with Rice.^[14]

Escape

Sarah Kinney let her out once, not as an attempt to escape but instead to use X-23 to help her find Kinney’s niece, Megan, who had been kidnapped by a known murderer. X-23 found and rescued her with ease.^[15] Ultimately, Rice persuaded Sutter to hand control of the program over to him, then secretly ordered X-23 to kill Sutter and his family. X-23 was able to kill Sutter and his wife but was unable to kill their son, Henry. Instead, she let him live. Later, Rice revealed to Kinney a chamber with dozens of incubation pods containing female clones before he fired her. Before fleeing the Facility with X-23, Kinney gave her one last mission – destroy the pods and kill Rice. However, Rice was able to exact revenge on Kinney from beyond the grave, as he had earlier exposed her to the trigger scent, sending X-23 into a rage that caused her to kill her mother. As she lay dying, Kinney named X-23 “Laura.”^[16]

Laura traveled to San Francisco and tracked down Megan and Debbie (her mother’s sister). Introducing herself as Sarah’s daughter, she moved in with them. Although Megan experienced vivid nightmares of her abduction, her family believed these to be utter fantasies. X-23 informed Megan that the man in her nightmares was indeed real and that she had killed him.^[17]

Debbie’s boyfriend turned out to be an agent for the Facility who had been instructed to manipulate X-23 into killing Megan and Debbie using the trigger scent;^[17] however, the agent fumbled the assignment and was killed by X-23. Facility agents stormed the house, led by Kimura. X-23 managed to get Megan and Debbie to safety by handcuffing Kimura to a radiator and then triggering an explosion in the house, buying some time. After X-23 and Megan parted, X-23 decided to confront the man who made her creation possible — Wolverine.^[18]

Wolverine & S.H.I.E.L.D.

X-23 tracked Wolverine to Xavier’s mansion and engaged him in a battle, defeating him via tactics and maneuverability. However, she did not kill him. Instead, she told him why she had come. Wolverine revealed that he was aware of X-23’s ordeal, having received a detailed letter from her mother. The talk was interrupted when Captain America came to arrest Laura.^[19]

As a captive of S.H.I.E.L.D., Laura was interrogated by Captain America and Matt Murdock. Despite the mayhem in her past, Matt Murdock accepted X-23’s innocence. Captain America wanted X-23 to atone for the murders she had committed. However, he ultimately freed X-23 in order to avoid S.H.I.E.L.D.’s exploitation of her as their own weapon.^[20]

NYX

X-23 surfaced in New York two years later and was found living on the streets by a pimp named Zebra Daddy, who took her in and employed her as a prostitute.^[21] X-23 met Kiden Nixon, a young mutant with the ability to freeze time when in danger. Together with Kiden’s teacher, they rescued another young mutant, the feral Catiana, from an angry mob. Zebra Daddy tracked X-23 down, but with the aid of her new-found friends and the mutant named Felon, Zebra Daddy’s thugs were defeated. X-23 killed him to save the lives of her friends.^[22]

Xavier Institute

X-23 later took a job at the mutant-themed Wannabee’s nightclub in the Mutant Town district of New York. It was there that she saved the life of the daughter of mob boss Don Parisi from a gang of thugs, whom she killed. The deaths inadvertently implicated Wolverine, prompting his teammates in the X-Men to investigate. X-23 instinctively attacked Wolverine on sight, but he was eventually able to calm her down. She led the X-Men to Parisi’s daughter. After aiding the X-Men against Parisi’s super-strong mutant enforcer Geech, X-23 fled the scene.^[23] She later returned to help the X-Men save victims of a car accident, after which she was enrolled at the X-Men’s Xavier Institute.^[24]

X-23 quickly became very protective of Wolverine, attacking his teammate Bishop after he felled Wolverine during a training session. She also took to observing Wolverine on the mansion’s security monitors.^[25] During one such viewing, an anomalous energy spike prompted X-23 to investigate. Encountering Spider-Man at the source of the signal, X-23 initially mistook him for an enemy and attacked. The pair ultimately teamed up to save the young mutant Paul Patterson from an alternate reality version of the armored Avenger Iron Man. The arrival of the heroic Captain America and the super-spy Black Widow helped turn the tide.^[20]

X-23 secretly followed Wolverine on his investigation of strange activity in the Canadian Rockies. Ambushed by the Hauk’ka, evolved Saurians from the Savage Land, X-23 managed to escape and alert the X-Men. Traveling to the Savage Land, X-23 and the X-Men teamed with the Land’s lord Ka-Zar and his circumstantial allies, the Savage Land Mutates, to prevent the Hauk’ka from destroying human civilization by controlling the weather-manipulating X-Man Storm.^[26]

Captain Universe

Sometime later, X-23 was approached by the cosmic Uni-Power in hopes of making specific use of her healing ability. Although she initially resisted its attempts to bond with her, and she remained reluctant even though it pleaded with her. She ultimately agreed to aid it and became Captain Universe for a brief period of time.^[2]

New X-Men

After M-Day, X-23 was one of the few students who hadn’t lost their powers. The depowered students and staff were sent home; however, their bus was bombed by anti-mutant religious zealot Reverend William Stryker and his Purifiers. Subsequently, Emma Frost had the surviving students engage in an free-for-all brawl, with those deemed to be the best performers assigned to a new team of trainee X-Men. Despite Frost’s attempts to omit her, X-23 was among the seven students who made the grade.^[27]

Shortly afterwards, following Stryker’s attack on the depowered students, X-23 heard Dust talking to Icarus, who had fled the Mansion. Dust intended to meet Jay, but Laura told her it was a trap. She eventually had to knock out her roommate to keep her safe. Donning Dust’s burka X-23 came to Stryker’s compound and was shot. After a few minutes spent healing and playing possum, Laura returned to the Mansion to see it being attacked by Purifiers. Laura fought valiantly and helped fend off the intruders.^[28]

The kids grew to be more receptive of Laura following her part in stopping Stryker’s attack, in which she singlehandedly killed three Purifiers who had incapacitated Surge, Hellion, and Emma Frost. Subsequently, she started to bond with her friends, using her enhanced hearing to find out what happened to Icarus for them, learning that Stryker killed him.^[29] Julian Keller had, at one point, referred to her as his best friend, and Cessily Kincaid became close with her as well.

After Surge received a distress call from Forge, X-23 followed the team to Dallas to rescue him from the sentinel Nimrod. At the height of the desperate battle she managed to cut through to the interior of the machine with her claws, allowing the sentinel to be defeated. She was mortally wounded during the battle by Nimrod’s energy blasts and was unable to heal herself. In order to save her, Julian supercharged his telekinetic powers (thanks to Emma Frost’s telepathic unlocking) in order to rush her back to the Mansion where she was healed by Elixir.^[4]

As Hellion recovered his strength, and found that his power levels had been massively enhanced, Laura kept watch over him.^[30] Emma confronted Laura, asking her to leave the school because of the trigger scent. Their confrontation was cut short by Cessily coming to Laura’s defense. Cessily pursued Laura, the two went out for coffee. However, the cafe was attacked by Kimura and her minions, who had come not to capture Laura, but Cessily.^[6] Laura went back to the Xavier Institute where Hellion informed he was going with her to attack against the Facility. The two found a facility hideout where Laura interrogated a man at gun point. Julian was shocked when X-23 shot him in the head upon securing the information she needed. After an encounter with Kimura, the two found Cessily in liquid form, barely able to compose herself. They were attacked by Predators and saved by the combined forces of the X-Men and the New X-Men.^[31]

X-23 was among the group of students dragged into Limbo by Belasco who was searching for Illyana Rasputin. Using her enhanced vision, X-23 was able to discern the Xavier Institute through a portal high above. She continually encouraged her fellow students to retaliate alongside her, but Belasco was unaffected by X-23’s adamantium claws and easily defeated her. Belasco said that X-23’s soul wasn’t even worth taking because “it reeks of man’s science” and that she wasn’t real. Belasco killed X-23, to the horror of her friends Mercury and Dust, only to resurrect and kill her over and over in a painful cycle. X-23 distracted Belasco from a weakened Darkchild, so Three-In-One could attempt to attack him mentally. Finally, Darkchild transported all the X-Men back to the Institute, which had been repaired as if nothing happened.^[32]

X-23, along with Mercury, Blindfold, and Armor, was put into an enchanted sleep by Pixie‘s dust. The five girls were in a stereotypical highschool setting, that is until demons took over. When the spell was lifted, X-23 located and slashed open a pipe as a means of escape from the basement of P.S. 666.^[33]

X-23 aided the X-Men in their fight against the Hulk. She managed to knock over the Hulk and tore his eyes out. Eventually his eyes grew back, and he defeated X-23 by throwing her into a wall.^[34]

X-Force

When Cyclops ordered Wolverine to assemble the new X-Force, X-23 was tossed into the mix. As they caught up to Cable, the Reavers attacked, and X-23 attacked Lady Deathstrike, seemingly killing her. At Muir Island, X-Force attacked the Marauders and Predator X. When Predator X swallowed Logan, X-23 became angry and attacked, and Wolverine finally killed it.^[35]

During X-Force’s raid on a Purifer base, Purifer leader Matthew Risman brought out a captive Wolfsbane at gunpoint. While Wolverine called for the team to stand down, Laura activated a concealed detonator that set off a series of powerful explosives she had planted earlier without telling her teammates. The explosion brought most of the base down around them but Risman was able to escape with Rahne during the chaos.^[36] When X-Force regrouped later, Wolverine admonished Laura for being so reckless with the lives of her teammates and for letting Rahne get kidnapped. During their battle against the Purifiers, X-23 was able to complete her mission from Cyclops by killing Risman.^[37]

When X-Force was given a mission to capture the Vanisher and get back the Legacy Virus he managed to get his hands on, X-23 went with Archangel and Wolverine to complete the mission, but it ended in failure. Laura was infected with the Virus, and ran to kill herself in order to destroy the Virus.^[38] While most of the members of X-Force fought the remaining enemies, Josh Foley ran after Laura to stop her. Josh explained that she was his friend, and how he wasn’t willing to watch another friend die. Laura, believing it to be her mission, said that if he didn’t let her go and jump into a nearby lava pit to destroy the virus, she would cut off his arm. He did not let go, and managed to get the Virus out of her before passing out and dropping her anyway. However, she didn’t die, though she became severely burned after catching fire on the fall. SHe eventually healed from the burns and carried Josh back to Logan and Neena.

Messiah War

X-23 later moved with the X-Men to San Francisco, where they were accepted as heroes by the mayor, having rejected the Fifty State Initiative. X-23 was roomed with Armor and Pixie. Laura left behind a towel covered with blood, which the latter brought to Emma Frost, a sign of the secret X-Force missions X-23 and Cyclops were keeping from Emma and the other X-Men.^[39]

X-23 was finally reunited with Kiden Nixon. Sadly this future version of Kiden was hooked up to several machines and was used as a generator in order to create a temporal anomaly that disrupted time travel technology, essentially trapping X-Force (which was lethal for them if they didn’t return within 33.5 hours), Cable and Hope in that era. While X-23 agonized over killing Kiden or not (Kiden herself asked for death) the matter was taken out her hands when Domino shot and killed her. X-23, Domino and Proudstar were dispatched back in order to save Boom-Boom, however both Domino and Proudstar fell ill due to the time travel. Feeling grateful for saving her friend and ending her suffering, X-23 disabled the time travel devices on the other two and went back in time in order to save Boom-Boom herself. She arrived just in time to stop the Leper Queenbefore she could kill Boom Boom out of spite for X-Force not killing her. X-23 then collapsed in exhaustion. H.A.M.M.E.R. then stormed the building, giving medical care, while they took X-23 in for questioning.^[40]

She was taken back to the Facility. There Laura was given back to Kimura, who sawed off her left arm. Agent Morales arrived and helped Laura to escape. The rest of X-Force arrived and took Laura and her severed claws home. Laura was able to regrow her arm, and, at her request, Dr. Nemesis replaced the regrown bone claws with her original adamantium claws.^[41]

Finding Herself

After her removal from the X-Force roster, Laura assisted Logan and Jubilee in tracking down some former-mutants who had gone missing or died from an outreach centre that Jubilee helped to run. Laura made notice of Logan and Jubilee’s father-daughter relationship, and thought that she would not be able to achieve the same thing.

Laura took off, and knew that Logan would not stop her, because he understood when she needed to be left alone. She began to think about how she had been used as a weapon or a tool for her whole life, trading one pimp for another over and over again. She had caught the scent of her old friends from the streets, and went to look at them, thinking that she should turn away. Bobby’s younger brother detected her presence, and Kiden when to investigate. Upon finding Laura, Kiden unfroze time so that she could hug Laura and bring her back to the group.

The Gamesmaster began to push into Laura’s thoughts at this point, trying to convince her that she was really all alone. He tried to take some ownership of her, simply because he had watched her from afar and found her interesting. She resisted his attempts to convince her that she had no thoughts or will of her own, and in her resistance, she fled from the group. Kiden ran after her, but when Laura jumped from a building, she couldn’t freeze time long enough to find something soft for her to land on.

Laura said that she would be fine, and Kiden said that she knew that, only wishing to lessen her pain. The rest of the group caught up, and Kiden offered for Laura to stay with them. Logan also appeared in the alley, having been worried for Laura, and Kiden squared up to defend Laura, but she assured her that Logan was not her abuser and not what she was running from. Logan expressed a liking for Kiden, and told Laura that pain wouldn’t answer her problems. Knowing that she could learn to be more than what she was made for, Laura took Logan’s hand and the two of them went home.^[42]

The Killing Dream

After the return of the so-called “Mutant Messiah,” Laura began having nightmares of a demonic Wolverine. She started ignoring Logan at this time as well, possibly because she suspected something was wrong with him or possibly just as a result of her nightmares. Feeling she would be “lost” without the direction that X-Force gave her, Cyclops suggested she try volunteering at a nearby halfway house for depowered mutants. Once there, Laura blacked out, and found the building burning down around her. She was taken to a hospital, and believed she was responsible for the fire and the deaths of almost all the occupants. Wolverine (currently possessed by a demon) entered and attempted to convince Laura that she had no soul. Sure now that he was not himself, she stabbed him just as Julian walked in.

Not understanding, Julian tried to force Laura to stand down and Hellverine fatally stabbed him. He said Laura could choose to save him if she gave herself up to him, and they were taken to Hell in which Laura continuously fought a pack of wolves, until one turned into a demonic version of Cyclops and she ran away. A being joined her, claiming to be her soul, and assured Laura of her own autonomy and importance. Using this, she was able to purge Hellverine from her mind, after rejecting his offer to join him, which would have granted her the opportunity to kill the Gamesmaster.

After waking up, and ensuring Julian was fine, Laura decided to leave Utopia to go out and find herself so that she could be more than just a killer. Gambit took an interest in her, seeing a kindred spirit, and Storm encouraged him to keep an eye on her.^[43]

Songs of the Orphan Child

Laura started out on her own, walking and hitching rides, until she encountered a girl named Alice, who she believed to be victim of a human trafficking and prostitution operation. Later on, she saw the girl being killed by a man who she suspected was her pimp, and she killed him. Gambit caught up to her then, and found a photo of Laura on the man’s body. Laura agreed to let him help her get to the bottom of the situation.

Laura and Gambit were cornered by someone identical to Alice and Miss Sinister, who convinced them to come with her to one of Mister Sinister‘s hideouts where she had been taking care of several children that Mister Sinister experimented on. Neither Laura nor Remy trusted Miss Sinister, and sure enough she betrayed them, and revealed that Mister Sinister has been taking over her body. In order to evade death, Miss Sinister attempted to move her consciousness into X-23’s body. The process failed, however, and Gambit triggered the self-destruct sequence and escaped with X-23 and the children.^[20]

Collision (X-23 vs. Daken: Dark Wolverine)

Their next journey took them to Madripoor where they encountered Malcom Colcord who was trying to restart the Weapon X program. He was being backed by Daken, Wolverine’s biological son, who hoped to gain even more power through the program. Daken and Laura had a brief fight, which ended in Daken seemingly selling out Colcord to Laura, but then selling out Laura to Colcord right back. Laura was experimented on by Colcord, but managed to break free, and Daken took her side once again. The two formed a tenuous alliance, and fought through Colcord’s experimental weapons. Laura was upset to discover that the subjects were children. When the two of them tracked down Colcord at last, they cuffed him near to the explosive device they had set in the facility and waited for the bomb to go off.

Daken asked Laura why she let herself be weakened by compassion, stating that she could be a perfect killer, and she answered that being a killer was not where she placed her value. In turn, she asked Daken why he closed himself off to compassion, since he already had plenty of power, and he answered that he didn’t think he was capable of compassion. In the aftermath of the explosion, Gambit found them and tried to stop Daken from leaving, but Laura let him walk away.^[44]

Touching Darkness

X-23 and Gambit discovered that Colcord had been developing the trigger scent that drove X-23 into a killing rage and had found a way to make it affect ordinary people. They followed the scent’s trace to Paris where they encountered Wolverine and newly turned vampire Jubilee. They all teamed up to locate the scent but failed to find the person running things. X-23 also struck a new friendship with Jubilee.

Chaos Theory

They next traveled to New York where they encountered the Future Foundation. A demon king has escaped from his prison, and due to her previous status as host of the Enigma Force, X-23 was instrumental in re-imprisoning him in a different dimension, saving Valeria Richards in the process and earning the trust of the Future Foundation.^[45]

Misadventures in Babysitting

X-23 was later asked to babysit Valeria and her brother by Sue Storm but was pulled into the Collector‘s space ship together with the kids and Hellion, who had stopped by in order to win Laura back. They managed to defeat the Collector and make their way back but upon returning, Laura broke all ties with Hellion.^[46]

Girls’ Night Out

Laura and Jubilee turned a girl’s night out into stopping a sex trafficking network until they were interrupted by Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D. In this moment, X-23 accepted Romanov’s offered invitation to join Avengers Academy, feeling that she didn’t belong with either X-Men team anymore. X-23 bid farewell to Gambit and Wolverine, who were setting out for Westchester, before she drove off on a motorcycle into the sunrise.^[47]

Avengers Academy

After the events of Fear Itself, Laura joined the Avengers Academy. Immediately, she showed off her combat skills to the other Academy students by sparring with Tigra. Reptil, possessed by a future version of himself, made a comment to Hazmat, making her think that Laura was hitting on Mettle.^[48] She butt heads with Hazmat for quite some time until she proved herself to truly be on the Avengers’ side.^[49] She chooses to stay with the Avengersafter freeing her former X-Man peers to fight in the Avengers vs X-Men conflict.^[50]

Circle of Four

X-23 tracked down to Las Vegas the man who stole her blood, who turned out to be Blackheart. He cloned her and bonded the clones with symbiotes, creating Symbiote Warriors.^[51]

Laura then made an alliance with Venom, Red Hulk (who was there chasing Venom) and Ghost Rider (who noticed the presence of Blackheart). Each four of them fought their Antithesis until they were all finally killed. Laura killed the Symbiote Warriors and then she moved to Blackheart who distracted her by telling her since he created her clones he knew if the clones had souls or not and she was herself a clone. Wanting to know if she had a soul or not she stopped, and Blackheart mockingly told her that she was in hell and she was suffering which meant she did have a soul. Then he seemingly killed her by throwing her into lava.^[52] In Hell, Mephisto offered the heroes a new chance to live in exchange for defeating Blackheart. While X-23 found Blaze, the other three managed to get the Spirit of Vengeance, which had been trapped by Blackheart, and wanted to get it to Blaze, so he would become Ghost Rider again. During the battle, Red Hulk and Venom were thrown away by Blackheart, Flash gave the symbiote to Red Hulk and it bonded with him as well as the Spirit, thus becoming the new Ghost Rider.^[53]

Blackheart was defeated when Ghost Rider used a mirror which created Antitheses, being defeated by his. Meanwhile, X-23 and Flash were trying to help Johnny Blaze to return Hell from the dimensional portal and destroy it. When Las Vegas returned to normal, Red Hulk returned the symbiote to Flash and the Spirit of Vengeance to Alejandra. After the Secret Avengers arrived, X-23 left the scene.^[54]

Avengers Arena

X-23 along with 15 other people were kidnapped by Arcade and transported to Murderworld. Arcade forces all 15 people including X-23 to take place in a game of kill all or be killed. Arcade has stated he would only allow 1 of the 16 to live.^[55]

The games began after Mettle sacrificed himself for Hazmat. As the groups separate, Laura joined the remaining Avengers Academy students, which included Reptil, Hazmat, and Juston Seyfert. The group were then accidentally attacked by the female Deathlok named Rebecca Ryker who attacked Hazmat as a defense protocol.^[56]

After a few days, an unknown enemy was attacking the camps. Laura began to investigate the attacks. During the search, Juston disappeared after he was attacked while repairing his Sentinel. Laura soon came into contact with Cammiwhom she spared after she discovered Cammi was not the culprit.^[57]

Laura, later meeting up with Hazmat and Reptil, encountered the Runaways, Nico and Chase. In exchange for food, the Runaways asked for shelter. The team agreed until Reptil was suddenly hurt by a fire blast, which Laura and her team believed was Chase’s doing. The group then banished Nico and Chase while the trio remained together.^[58]

As Reptil recovered, he informed X-23 and Hazmat that it wasn’t Chase but Deathlocket who attacked him. It wasn’t long after that Hazmat stepped on a switch to activate a trigger scent, causing Laura to go feral and attempt to kill her team members. Hazmat and Reptil managed to escape and left Laura on her own. She would later encounter Juston Seyfert once she regained her senses, and see that he was alive but in bad condition.^[59]

Once X-23 reunited with Hazmat and Reptil who had encountered Anachronism, Nara, Bloodstone, and Cammi, Hazmat fell into a trap that released more trigger scent. Seemingly unstoppable, X-23 attacked the others until she was momentarily defeated by Bloodstone’s monster form. Bloodstone was reverted into human form at the cost of Nara’s life. When X-23 recovered, she hunted and nearly killed Hazmat before a grieving Anachronism, seeking revenge for Nara, intervened.^[60]

After Arcade was defeated and help arrived, X-23 was last seen being carried off on a stretcher with Wolverine by her side.^[61]

All-New X-Men

Following her rescue from Murderworld, Laura somehow ended up wandering the streets of Miami in an amnesiac state, where she was rescued from a Purifier attack by Kitty Pryde and the time-displaced original X-Men.^[62] They returned her to Cyclops’s base, where she panicked upon awakening inside a Weapon X facility and attempted to flee, the situation being exacerbated by confusion over seeing younger versions of Cylops, Jean, Iceman, Beast, and Angel. The teenaged Scott managed to catch up with her and calm her down. Though still confused, her memories started to return. Jean began to read X-23’s mind and learn about her torture, but Kitty warned Jean that this was a mind she should stay out of. Cyclops surprised X-23 with a hug, explaining that it looked like she needed one.^[63]

Based on Laura’s intelligence the team launched an attack against William Stryker, Jr., which failed catastrophically and the entire team was captured, though upon recognizing them as having come from the past, Stryker refrained from killing them to prevent damage to the timeline. Laura, however, he tortured by showing her the footage from Murderworld that Arcade released to the internet, including prominent imagery of her attacking the other kids in a trigger scent-induced rage. Seeing herself in this state, and the knowledge that the entire world has also seen it, finally broke her control, and when Cyclops broke free and rescued her, she threw herself into his arms for comfort.^[64]

After the team returned to base following their escape from the Purifiers, the Shi’ar, having learned that Jean Grey had returned, attacked and took her captive. Laura fought in her defense along with the rest of the team, but was neutralized, and the Shi’ar escaped to put Jean on trial for actions her elder self committed while in possession of the Phoenix Force.^[65]

The Guardians of the Galaxy arrived just as the Shi’ar fled,^[66] and the teams joined forces to bring her back. The Guardians’ ship was attacked by a Shi’ar warship covering the kidnappers’ withdrawal, and though Laura intended to join in the defense, Gamora declined her assistance, though praised her courage, leaving her and the rest of the X-Men to sit and wait. The arrival of Corsair and the Starjammers turned the tide of the battle,^[67] and the teenaged Scott was stunned and overwhelmed to learn his father was still alive. As he went to digest this in private, Laura followed after him and, after a brief conversation, returned the hug he gave her when they first met, noting that he needed it.^[68]

Upon arrival at the Shi’ar homeworld, Quill helped to formulate the plan of attack. X-23, knowing Jean’s scent, volunteered to track her. However Gladiator, having anticipated their arrival, met them upon disembarking, and a fight between the combined forces of the X-Men, Shi’ar, and Starjammers against Gladiator’s forces began, in which X-23 participated.^[69]

Upon returning to Earth, Cyclops chose to remain with his father and left the team, asking Laura to help keep an eye on his friends.^[70] Distraught by his leaving, Laura decided to leave the team herself, with only the teenaged Warren realizing she was doing so. She rebuffed his attempt to convince her return, however, and continued on her way. Much to her surprise, she ran into Cyclops, who claimed to have returned. However, this turned out to be a ruse, and with her guard down, the shapeshifter Raze gutted her, before disguising himself as her in turn and infiltrating the X-Men’s base.^[71]

Laura, nevertheless, survived his attack and hurried back to find the X-Men under attack by the future Brotherhood. Jean used her telepathy to mask Laura’s presence, and enabled her to catch Xavier, Jr. off guard, at which point she severely wounded him with her claws, breaking his control over the X-Men and enabling them to fight back.^[72] During the conflict it was discovered that Molly Hayes, Deadpool and Beast had been mentally controlled by Xavier, and that Xorn no longer existed. While Laura fought Raze to a standstill, Xavier attempted to flee, only to be captured.

In the aftermath of the battle, Warren asked Laura on a date to unwind, to which she reluctantly agreed.^[73] Their first date led to a deeper relationship between Angel and X-23.^[74]

The Logan Legacy & Wolverines

After Logan’s demise, the news eventually reached Laura. Angry and upset, and questioning her role in life now that the man she looked to most for guidance was gone, she left the X-Men to do some soul-searching. After a heart to heart with former Alpha Flight member Colin Hume, in honor of Logan, she dyed the forelocks of her hair blue and gold. Laura remarked to Kitty that she not longer felt angry about Wolverine’s death, just sad, but that she has also found a source of pride in their relationship.^[75]

Laura was kidnapped by subjects of the Weapon X program as recreated by Doctor Abraham Cornelius immediately preceding Logan’s death. The subjects were looking for people with healing factors to try and help them destroy the genetic time bombs in their system, and so formed the Wolverines, which consisted of Laura, Daken, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, Mystique, and Elixir. Elixir was quickly disabled by Siphon, and Laura saved Daken from being killed by him although he had already been drained of his healing factor.^[76]

Their kidnappers threatened the Wolverines with “control words” of which there were four; one to control, one to sedate, one to kill, and one to release. They were told to retrieve Logan’s adamantium-encased remains, but during the mission they encountered the Wrecking Crew, hired by Mister Sinister, and Daken had his left arm and eye taken from him. Laura demanded that Shogun use their healing serum to save him, since he had lost his healing factor, and she stayed by his side while he recovered.

The team fought Mister Sinister, and several of the Weapon X subjects decided to join him. Later, Fang appeared in front of the Wolverines, apparently blaming one or all of them for Logan’s death, and Laura was the only one of the group to attempt to reason with him. Fang knew that Laura was not responsible, and said that she was the only one of the group that Logan had actually liked, and he therefore would not mess with her in the same way he had for Daken and Sabretooth. Laura felt bound by her circumstances, but Fang asked her why she was content to sit back and let herself be controlled when she nearly took his head off for mentioning the Trigger Scent.

Following manipulation by Mystique, Daken leaped from the Changeling over Death Valley in pursuit of Siphon, and Laura followed, worried for his safety. On the ground, they encountered Blade fighting Siphon and a nest of vampires, and worked together to fight them. During the fight, they learned that the more healing power Siphon absorbed, the more conscious and rational he became, and if forced to heal himself would revert further to a savage state. Siphon and Daken vowed a fight to the death, but once Daken lost the upper hand, Laura interfered to save him. This put Laura in danger of losing her healing factor along with Daken, and he stepped in, saying the duel wasn’t over yet.

Daken and Blade worked together to defeat Siphon, but Laura convinced them not to kill him, since she knew he was an unwilling participant in an experiment, and wanted to find a way to help him get control of his body again. Later on, Mystique disguised herself as Daken and tried to talk to Laura while she was training, but she saw through the disguise immediately.

After Endo and Skel were supposedly kidnapped by the Arcadia Group, Laura agreed to help Junk find them, “Even though you think I’m a monster.” The “kidnapping” was a trap, and the Wolverines fought Mister Sinister for a third time. To save himself from an influenced Laura, Shogun released Laura from her control words. While Ogun fully took control of Sharp’s body following his death and bought them some time against Mister Sinister, Mystique resumed giving orders to the Wolverines. Laura was reluctant, and suspected Mystique of fowl play, but did as she was told. Laura’s task was given to her to keep her out of the way while Mystique manipulated Daken into letting Siphon loose so that she could finish the final stage of her plan.

The Wolverines, minus Mystique, were left alone with Siphon. Laura was not happy to let Sabretooth get his healing drained, and tried to interfere although it just resulted in the a fight that got the entire group drained of their healing factors. Once Siphon regained his rationality from draining them, Portal removed him from the scene. They tracked down Mystique, and tried to fight her. She threw smoke bombs which allowed her to trick Laura into getting close enough to “Daken” to wound her, and the entire group was felled in a similar fashion.  It is unknown how Laura regained her healing factor after this.

All-New Wolverine

The Sisters

Some time after taking up the Wolverine mantle, an anonymous tip about an assassination planned in Paris led Laura to the city to investigate. She was shot through the head protecting the intended target, but healed, and tracked the shooter to the Eiffel Tower. Laura managed to defeat the masked assassin after a short fight, but rather than be taken alive the woman called in a predator drone to finish the job before jumping off the tower to her death. Laura and Warren pursued the drone through the skies over Paris, and she was able to bring it down before it could finish off its target. Laura then returned to the Eiffel Tower and located the corpse of the assassin. Removing her mask confirmed Laura’s hypothesis: the woman was her clone. She and Warren fled the scene, with Laura determined to both stop, and save, the assassins.^[8]

Upon returning to New York, she visited Alchemax Genetics to discuss the clones with its director and security chief. Laura then encountered one of the clones, Gabby, hiding in her apartment, who she realized was the one who tipped her off about the assassination. Gabby denied Chandler‘s accusations before fleeing. Laura tracked her to a hideout in the sewers where she was captured and interrogated by the remaining Sisters – Bellona and Zelda. Alchemax, however, followed her and attacked. Laura managed to subdue them and prevent Bellona from killing them, before they were ambushed by Taskmaster.^[77] Laura subdued him, and she and the sisters fled through the streets of New York with Captain Mooney in pursuit. She disabled his vehicle, allowing the girls to escape, and issuing a warning to Mooney that they were under her protection, before leaving him bleeding in the street to meet up with the Sisters. However upon arrival she learned a new piece of the story: the girls were dying. Unable to turn to any of her usual contacts, she instead took them to the Sanctum Sanctorum, seeking the aid of Doctor Strange.^[78]

After an altercation with a portal to evil in Strange’s living room, he teleported them all to a hospital to investigate what was killing the girls. After examining Zelda, Strange discovered nanites inhabiting their brains that were responsible both for their inability to feel pain, and their declining health. Unable to operate on them directly, Strange teleported the girls to one of Hank Pym‘s labs to borrow an Ant-Man Suit.^[79] They were interrupted by Wasp, who agreed to help Laura enter Zelda’s blood to fight the machines. They were successful, however attacking the nanites triggered a distress call alerting Mooney to their location. He tracked them down and fatally wounded Zelda before Laura and Jan were able to escape her body and subdue him. With her dying breath Zelda begged Laura to stop holding back, and to go after Alchemax. Jan offered the help of the Avengers, but Laura refused, insisting it was her and the surviving Sisters’ responsibility to punish Alchemax for their transgressions.^[80]

Wolverine and the surviving Sisters allowed Mooney to escape, and lead them back to Alchemax’s bunker. Laura infiltrated the base by disguising herself as Bellona and allowing herself to be “killed” as a ruse. Upon awakening in the morgue, she captured the scientists there and forced them to upload all data on Chandler’s activities to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s servers, and contacted Maria Hill to call her in to clean up. While Bellona and Gabby dealt with Mooney, Laura intercepted Chandler and hobbled him before he could escape, ensuring his capture when Hill’s forces arrived. She and Gabby then left the bunker together.^[81]

Following the destruction of Alchemax Genetics, Laura allowed Gabby to stay with her while it was decided what was to become of her. Gabby preferred to stay with Laura, however Laura intended to find a safe place elsewhere that Gabby could live a normal life, away from the chaos and danger of a superhero. Gabby’s resistance and fear of being left alone dredged up painful memories of Laura’s own desire to have a family with Logan; it took a visit by Squirrel Girl, who arrived bearing an actual wolverine later named Jonathan, for Laura to realize the best place for Gabby all along was with her.^[82]

Civil War II

Following an incident off the coast of the United States, in which several S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives vanished while disrupting an arms deal, Maria Hill contacted Laura to request her assistance investigating the disappearances. The only clue was the wreckage of the boat the arms dealer was using, and a box pulled from the water. Hill specifically contacted Laura because the first person she called in, and who also disappeared, was an alternate universe Logan. When Agent Fitz opened the box at Hill’s direction, Laura caught the scent of its contents and realized what happened, warning Hill to pull her helicarrier to a safer altitude. However the warning came too late, and the carrier came under attack by Fin Fang Foom, who was attracted by the pheromone — essentially a chemical aphrodisiac — contained within the box, and likely attacked both the missing S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Logan as well. Laura resolved to get them back, and allowed herself to be swallowed by Foom.^[83]

While Laura climbed down through Foom’s digestive tract, Iron Man and Captain Marvel arrived to assist keeping Foom away from population centers. Laura managed to rescue the half-digested Logan, escaped back up out of Foom’s mouth, and instructed Gabby to take him somewhere safe. Meanwhile, she covered herself in the pheromone and used it to lure an amorous Foom out to sea. Laura was distressed when she returned home that evening to discover that Gabby brought Logan there to recover, as she adamantly refused to accept that he was her Logan. However Logan awoke, and struck her speechless when he revealed that he recognized the apartment, and that it was where he raised her.^[84]

Laura found herself drawn into the conflict over the precognitive InhumanUlysses Cain, when Ulysses had a vision that Logan would kill Gabby. Captain America was dispatched by S.H.I.E.L.D. to detain Logan to ensure the girl’s safety, but Laura, Logan, and Gabby all objected to imprisoning him for something he hadn’t done. However a fight broke after Logan fled with Gabby under the guise of collecting his belongings and cooperating, with Rogers breaking away to pursue. With Logan and Gabby escaping using a pair of S.H.I.E.L.D. Flight Packs, Hill elected to shoot Logan down before he could get away. This, combined with S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives firing on him with tranquilizers drove him into a feral rage. Gabby attempted to calm him, but in the confusion he confused her for the Gabby of his home reality, and Laura watched helplessly as Gabby was impaled on his claws. Mad with grief, Laura tracked Logan into the sewers where he fled, still in his maddened state, and engaged him in a brief fight. Just as she was preparing a killing blow Logan snapped out of his berserk state and pleaded with her to stop, but it was only Gabby’s arrival, revealing she survived her injuries because of her hidden healing factor, that convinced her to back down. However she rejected Logan’s attempt to justify his actions because of his knowledge of Gabby in his universe, and she permanently severed contact with him, demanding he leave them alone and never approach them again. She then regrouped with Rogers, advising him she was letting Logan go — she refused to blame him for his actions, accepting that he was driven to it by S.H.I.E.L.D.’s carelessness. Laura then departed, warning Rogers of the probable consequences of the conflict over Ulysses’ visions, and demanding that she and Gabby be left out of it.^[85]

Enemy of the State

While packing up the apartment, Laura received a package containing a vial of the trigger scent, which spurred Laura into leaving with Gabby and Jonathan the wolverine. They drove to one of Logan’s cabins out in California. As Laura ventured into a nearby town, overhead planes released the trigger scent, making Laura blackout and awaken to the town destroyed with its population killed. Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived on the bloody scene to apprehend her, but she escaped and planned a course to Madripoor for answers. Reluctantly, Laura brought Gabby and Jonathan along.

They voyaged to Madripoor on a pirate ship under the charge of Captain Ash, whom Laura was once sent to kill. Upon arrival, Laura turned on Captain Ash because she was transporting children as her cargo. Captain Ash suddenly shot her in the stomach, but Laura ultimately threw her overboard as several helicopters hovered overhead, out of which Kimura’s newest henchmen Bellona and Roughhouse appeared. Laura surrendered in order to avoid any of the children getting hurt and was taken to Kimura, while Gabby and Jonathan were being held captive on the ship to be transported back to the States.^[86]

Using the knowledge of Megan and Debbie’s location against Laura, Kimura confined her in a torture chamber for a week to ensure that she came out angry. Kimura planted the trigger scent in the bloodstream of Tyger Tiger, whose leadership Kimura would fill once Tiger died, and set a frenzied Laura after her. Luckily, an escaped Gabbie intervened, and Gambit had to explode Laura in order to stop her completely.^[87] Laura woke up to see Gabby, young Warren, and Remy in Tyger Tiger’s safehouse.

Young Jean was also brought there to help erase the trigger scent’s effects from Laura’s mind. While telling Laura that she loves her, Gabby poured the trigger scent on herself to begin the reconditioning. As Laura was lashing out at Gabby, Jean mentally found Laura’s consciousness hiding with her younger self who was being read Pinocchio by her mother, Sarah Kinney, when she was still with the Facility. Jean said she understood why Laura’s mind retreated to a safe memory in order to block out the pain associated with the trigger scent. Laura broke the trigger scent’s control over her just in time to join the fight against Kimura and her forces, who had tracked the S.H.I.E.L.D. planes that had arrived also searching for Laura. During the battle, Laura used an old Iron Man suit to ambush Kimura and eventually drown her in the ocean’s shallows. A defeated Bellona surrendered to S.H.I.E.L.D., having revealed that it was she who slaughtered the Californian townspeople with her now adamantium-laced dual claws as a contingency because Laura had stabbed herself in the skull to stop herself.

A week later, Laura, Warren, Gabby, and Jonathan arrived at Megan and Debbie’s house. Warren commented that he’d never seen her more scared. Laura was embraced by her family as she reassured them of their safety and that there was no need to hide anymore.^[88]

Immune

Following their discovery of the child trafficking operation in Madripoor, Laura and Gabby began dismantling the operation by force. During one of these such raids, on the East River in New York, an alien craft was deflected from Manhattan and into Roosevelt Island by Ironheart. The vessel was carrying a very ill alien child from the Shi’ar Empire, and said the name “Laura Kinney” to Ironheart before she died. S.H.I.E.L.D. sent Captain Marvel to retrieve Laura to try and understand what was going on and stop the virus the alien child was carrying from killing the whole island.

Dr. Monica Rappaccini stole the child’s body from the hospital and attempted to see if she could glean anything about a possible cure from it. Laura apprehended her, but agreed to let Dr. Rappaccini run some tests on Laura’s reaction to the virus. Gabby, thinking Laura was in danger, destroyed Dr. Rappaccini’s equipment. Working with Hank McCoy, Bobbi Morse, Amadeus Cho, Nadia Pym, Peter Parker, and Stephen Strange, they determined that Laura’s healing factor could absorb and destroy the virus from other hosts.

Laura set about trying to cure the island, and asked that Gabby not try to help since she couldn’t feel pain and wouldn’t be able to tell when she reached her limit. Worrying that she was taking on too much by herself, Doctor Strange sent in Daken, Old Man Logan, and Deadpool to help spread out the workload. She was surprised that Daken would come to help, and he said that he wasn’t doing it for the island, only her. Deadpool, meanwhile, said he had been offered a gigantic amount of money.

Although Laura was reluctant to talk to Logan at first, he apologized for what had happened during their last encounter and Laura told him that she was glad he was sorry. Although they were both weak from absorbing so much of the virus, he said it still felt pretty good to be helping people instead of stabbing them. Laura managed to eradicate the last of the virus on the island, although she was unconscious for two weeks after doing so.^[89]

Once she regained consciousness, Gabby told her that they had been offered an apartment on Roosevelt Island. Laura said she didn’t accept rewards, but Gabby said that she had already accepted the offer and that technically it was her apartment, although she’d love to have Laura stay with her. Captain Marvel came to see Laura and let her know that a cure to the virus was being developed, and Laura said she would take the cure to the Arfesia’s planet to try and eradicate the virus entirely with the help of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

After a week of space travel, they reach a moon on which a Shi’ar base was being constantly swarmed by The Brood. Once they landed on the moon, Gabby, Jonathan, and Baby Groot stayed behind on the ship while Wolverine and the Guardians tried to make contact with the moon base. Gabby became enraged after the Brood attacked Jonathan, and was subsequently captured. Drax prevented Laura from going after Gabby, believing that she was dead, and she and the Guardians entered the base, where Fang was waiting for them.

Arfesia had been sent to Earth with a list of names, including those of the scientists that had eventually developed the cure for the virus. She had only been able to give Laura’s before she died. The virus had been engineered to try and control the Brood, but had backfired and not only made the Brood angrier, but infected the Shi’ar people as well.

Laura insisted on going after Gabby, and even when she saw her turn into a Brood Queen, refused to let the Guardians destroy the moon with her on it. After Gabby purged the Brood Queen and everyone was safely off the planet, Laura asked Rocket if he could still blow up the moon. Rocket said he could do it at the click of a button, and at the protests of Chief Scientist Rankine, Gabby did the honors.^[90]

Orphans of X

Laura and Gabby were made aware that Daken’s left arm had been found hanging from a bridge, and a scent left at the scene led Laura to believe that he had been taken to the Facility. Sneaking out of the apartment and asking Jonathan to look after Gabby, Laura got Warren to fly her out to the Facility. She found a tank in which a figure was submerged and smashed it, believing it was Daken. Instead, it was her mother, Sarah Kinney.

Laura took Sarah to Debbie and Megan’s house, and Gabby met her there with Jonathan. Sarah claimed that someone had saved her after Laura had left her in the snow outside the Facility, and stored her in a tank. She told Laura that whoever it was that had saved her was looking for a way to kill the Wolverines, and Laura called Carol Danvers to ask her to throw the Muramasa Blade into the Sun.

Hearing gunfire, Laura ran from the house and saw Daken recklessly driving a car down the street. Confused at the lack of people pursuing him, Daken came inside with Laura, but was acting agitated, saying that he had been tortured for days by the Orphans of X and had seen them monitoring this house.

Daken was suspicious of the timing of Sarah’s sudden return from the dead. At Laura’s mention of Sarah’s regular heartbeat, Daken aimed a gun at her, and, not hearing a change and concluding that she was not human, shot Laura’s mother. This caused Laura to attack Daken, and Gabby and Megan to follow suit. He tried to explain that it wasn’t Sarah, but Laura refused to listen until she knelt beside Sarah and her eyes started to glow green, saying that the Orphans of X were coming for her. Laura called Captain Marvel to call off her pursuit of the Muramasa Blade, but she was too late to warn her and suicide bombers from the Orphans of X incapacitated Carol, and the Blade was retrieved by Amber Griffen.^[91]

Laura, Daken, Gabby, Jonathan, Megan, and Debbie called Danger, the AI and pilot for the X-Men, and she helped them to evade helicopters sent by the Orphans. Realizing that Madripoor would not be safe for them, Laura instead asked Danger to take them to Tokyo, after which they travelled through the sewers to get to Muramasa himself.

Once there, Muramasa forged a set of armor using pieces of Laura, Gabby, Daken’s essence as well as the piece of Logan’s that he already had from forging the Muramasa Shield. Laura was reluctant to rest afterwards, but Debbie insisted on keeping her in bed. Days later, the Orphans of X found them and Laura was able to put the Muramasa Armor to the test, using it to protect her family from the Hand, who had been employed by the Orphans, as well as the Orphans themselves.

Daken allowed himself to be captured and killed so that Wolverine and Honey Badger – which was Gabby’s new superhero name at his suggestion – could track his location to find the Orphans’ base. Laura was able to revive him along with Old Man Logan, Lady Deathstrike, and Sabretooth. Wolverine asked that Sabretooth and Deathstrike not kill anybody, and they questioned the last Orphan conscious, who told them that they were the families of the Wolverines’ victims, and had decided to come together in organised violent action after the incident on Roosevelt island, because they were sickened by the sources of their nightmares being hailed as heroes.

Laura learned that Henry Sutter, who she had spared from assassination while she was still an assassin for the Facility, was the one who had organised the group. She decided to talk to the Orphans directly, and help them see that she was a victim as well. As she talked, she shed the Muramasa Armor and explained what she had been made to do. She also revealed to Amber that Henry Sutter’s father had been the one that ordered the hit that collaterally killed her father. The Orphans of X took a vote and decided to accept the help of Wolverine, Honey Badger, Old Man Logan, and Daken to bring the real people responsible to justice.

After Laura recovered from the wounds she sustained during the confrontation, a funeral was held for Sarah Kinney. Daken had helped to arrange it by asking the Orphans for Sarah’s true body, because he wanted Laura to have a chance to say goodbye.^[92]

After Gabby didn’t return from taking Jonathan for a walk, Laura tracked her down and found that she and Deadpool had started to destroy the lab where Jonathan had been abused. Gabby said she didn’t call her because she was worried that Laura would try to stop her, but Laura assured her that she would have come. Together, they set the building alight and watched it burn.^[93]

After going over the files Henry had obtained about his father’s work, Laura discovered a connection from Martin Sutter to a lobbyist for a Neo-Nazi organisation named Chad Newman. Newman was the man who had targeted Greg Johnson on X-23’s first mission, and was therefore indirectly responsible for the death of Amber’s father. Laura advised that Amber pack a pair of extra-large Nazi-stomping boots on their trip to Vanatu to find Newman. Amber took this advice to heart, and when they tracked him down, she offered to lend Laura the right foot so that they could get their justice together.^[94]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Mutant Physiology: As the daughter of Wolverine, X-23 possesses most of his mutant powers. She has been classified as a severe threat by both the O*N*E^[95]and Nimrod.^[4]

• Super-humanly Acute Senses: X-23 possesses super-humanly acute senses that are comparable to those of certain animals. She is capable of seeing at much greater distances — and with perfect clarity — than an ordinary human, and her visual acuity is so refined she is able to see a single Sentinite with her naked eye.^[96] She retains this same level of clarity in near-total darkness. Her sense of hearing is enhanced in a similar manner, allowing her to both hear sounds that ordinary humans can’t and to hear sounds that ordinary humans can, but at much greater distances. X-23 is able to use her highly developed sense of smell to track targets by scent with an impressive degree of success, even hours afterwards. She was even able to detect the victim of a killing had high cholesterol by scent alone.^[36]
• Bone Claws: X-23’s skeleton includes two retractable bone claws in each arm and one in each foot that she can extend and retract at will. These claws are housed beneath the skin and muscle. Unsheathing them causes her skin to tear and bleed, but the wounds are quickly dealt with by her healing factor. X-23 can unsheathe any number of these claws at once, although she must keep her wrists and/or feet straight at the moment the claws emerge. The claws are naturally sharp and tougher than normal human bone, allowing X-23 to cut through most types of flesh and natural materials.
• Regenerative Healing Factor: Like Wolverine, X-23’s primary mutant power is an accelerated healing factor that enables her to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue with far greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. She is capable of fully healing injuries resulting in massive tissue damage and blood loss such as multiple bullet wounds, slash wounds, and puncture wounds within a matter of minutes. Her healing factor is developed to such a degree, she is capable of reattaching severed limbs, such as a hand. She has also proven capable of regrowing an entire arm on her own (Elixir was incapacitated at the time).^[97] Her healing factor may fluctuate with her psychological state as battle wounds tend to heal very quickly, but her self inflicted cuts appear to remain visible for some time.
  • Foreign Chemical Immunity: X-23’s natural healing also affords her the virtual immunity to poisons and most drugs. She can be affected by some drugs, such as tranquilizers, if she is exposed to a massive dose.
  • Disease Immunity: Due to her highly efficient immune system, X-23 is immune to all Earthly diseases and infections.
  • Longevity: Presumably, because X-23 is a clone of the mutant Wolverine, her healing factor will also provide her with an extended lifespan by slowing the effects of the aging process.
• Superhuman Stamina: X-23’s muscles produce considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the muscles of an ordinary human. She can exert herself at peak capacity for about 24 hours before fatigue begins to impair her.
• Superhuman Agility: X-23’s agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.
• Superhuman Reflexes: X-23’s reflexes are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. In at least one case she reacts to and slices in half with her claws a bullet fired at her face from nearly point-blank range.^[98]
• Superhuman Durability: She was capable of fighting the Hulk without sustaining any severe injuries^[34]and surviving energy blasts from Nimrod (even if she required healing and nearly died).^[4]

Abilities

Expert Covert Ops Training: Raised in captivity, due to her extensive training as a top-secret operative, X-23 has been trained to become a living weapon. She is highly trained in the use of long range weapons and explosives, and is an expert in assassination techniques.

Expert Tracker: Due to her enhanced sense of smell, Laura is a dangerous tracker and has memorized many different scents.

Master Martial Artist: She is a master in hand to hand combatant, with intensive training in numerous armed and unarmed martial arts techniques during her time in the facility.^[13]

Master Acrobat: She is an Olympic class athlete, gymnast, acrobat and aerialist capable of numerous complex maneuvers and feats.

Multilingual: Laura can speak fluent English, French,^[17] and Japanese.^[100] She says she is fluent in many other languages, and has been shown speaking Russian.^[101]

Gifted Intellect: She possesses the ability to quickly process multiple information streams (e.g., threat assessment) and rapidly respond to changing tactical situations, being able to produce precise odds in different situations.^[102] Additionally, Laura has been stated to have a photographic memory.^[103]

Strength level

Because of her healing factor, X-23 can push her muscles, joints, and ligaments to levels beyond the natural limits of a woman of her height, weight, and build without sustaining injury. Unlike Wolverine, her skeleton isn’t laced with Adamantium. While her skeleton, much like her musculature, can withstand greater pressures than a normal human skeleton, she can only withstand so much weight and pressure without sustaining fractures. While not superhuman, her strength is at the peak of human potential and can lift about 800 lbs with maximum effort.^[13]

Weaknesses

Powerful Energy Blasts: Injuries such as being hit with blasts of energy from Nimrod that caused her to age can’t be healed, if she had been hit with it again she most likely would have died.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Adamantium: Laura’s claws have been coated with the nigh-indestructible metal Adamantium. As a result, her claws are virtually unbreakable and are capable of cutting almost any substance, with the exceptions of Adamantium itself and Captain America’s shield. Her ability to slice completely through a substance depends upon the amount of force she can exert and the thickness of the substance. Also, since the bones of her hands and wrists are not laced with Adamantium, it is likely that the reverberation of her claws could conceivably break her hands with significant force. Unlike Wolverine, the presence of Adamantium in her body is not sufficient enough to interfere with her bones’ normal function of generating blood corpuscles, although it is as possible that some degree of her immune system is distracted by the presence of the foreign substance. Her claws can cut through the Hulk’s skin and eyes.
• Muramasa Armor
• Muramasa Shield
• Wolverine’s Suit

Details here.

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Laura & Auz:

She made it to Inisfree for the first time in the Spring of 2022.  With natural retractable claws like hers, she was almost considered living contraband; Inisfreeans don’t normally allow anything like deadly weapons into their territory.  Fortunately for her and them, 1) Auz knew his calming aura and long-term effect/s would help ensure she never lost her cool with them, and 2) Laura was fully willing to do everything in her own power to prove herself compatible with him and the rest of the Inisfreeans.

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Her:

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Comics:

There is also a comic where Laura thought she’d rescued Kitty Pryde, who she found in her dorm room at Xavier’s tied up…

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2023 September/+:

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How She Enjoys Massages in Inisfree:

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