Awesome New Female Characters Week (wow, that's a mouthful)

[blackruzsa]

The badass that inspired me in my childhood. The girl I'm cosplaying this month. The one who made me lose twelve pounds and made me gain abs and muscles in one month alone.



X-23, aka Laura Kinney, now Laura Howlett

It pains me every time someone who knows her has to introduce her as "Wolverine's clone" for people to at least make a connection. It's like introducing Daken as Wolverine's son--it gives people a preconception, and it's not nice.

What I know from Laura Kinney, X-23? She deserves normality, she's tough and it's difficult to judge her psyche, but she's a reeeeallly great character.

So originally, she appeared in X-men Evolution. That show was what I watched when I was EIGHT YEARS OLD, and was my first favorite show ever without any of my family influencing my watching it. From the start, she already pretty much made my eyes shine with her sheer awesomeness.

She first appeared in season 3, episode 11.



Her character is pretty complex, and I like the idea of Wolverine trying to be a dad to her (though his track record isn't clean with daughters, it's not really that bad, and compared to any sort of parental relationship, Logan is pretty stable.

I like to pretend her sexual slavery never happened.

Other little treats before I decide I'm not sure what else to put:

She pretty much punked Captain America. Scans from Target X, #2.







And she can do this. (Target X, #6)





and this....




Point made.

More recently, she was part of the X-kids, ehem, the New X-men, and that was pretty cool, considering she gets to hang out with some kids her age after her cousinwhostillisn'tdeadthankgod.

Let us pointedly ignore their idiotic lapse in judgment, putting her on the roster of a killing team when she's supposed to be living a normal life-- and move on to the much much worse fate of seeing demons in her mind...

Right now, she's being handled by Liu, and I hope it'll do her some good, being adopted as Laura Howlett or whatever...
 

Comments

[q99]

-
Right now, she's being handled by Liu, and I hope it'll do her some good, being adopted as Laura Howlett or whatever...-

I'd hope she'd keep Kinney, for her mother and all.

[fai_dust]

♥♥ I second this as emphatically as humanly possible. ♥♥

Right now, she's being handled by Liu, and I hope it'll do her some good, being adopted as Laura Howlett or whatever...
I agree, although I always thought Kyle & Yost wrote her pretty well, even before I knew she was theirs.

[tzipwich]

She's one of my favorite characters.

[mad]

"Clever girl..."

What is she, a velociraptor?

[aelflar]

She`s got on claw on each of her feet for added surprise factor :)
Being a fan of flying kicks and fancy foot works, I always found that nifty!

[cainofdreaming]

Deinonychus, actually. If she was a Velociraptor she'd only be as tall as a runty Canad... err, maybe I was tad hasty in my dinosaur related pet peeves.

[aelflar]

Dude, I love Laura! She my one and only Wolvie girl :D I`ve been wracking my brains about who to post, shame on me for not thinking about her.

Yeah, I like how Logan is a pretty nifty parent. Any problems come from his many enemies, not his personality, something I`ve always loved about Wolverine (he can be your worst nightmare as an opponent, but the most endearing, empathetic partner/buddy/parental figure you`ll ever find. he`s not prone to dickery a la Bruce and that`s awesome!)

Laura is really cute and I like how they`ve moved her past the uncontrollable killing machine which never sat down with me. As did that whole sex slave thing..wtf?? But things are looking up for her so yay!

[sianmink]

I think a big part of what keeps Wolverine from being unlikeable as a character is his not-so-secret weakness for kids.

He's such a softie under all that grr.

[sevarem]

I have a love/hate relationship with the character. They seemed to be doing interesting things with her at first, then she regressed to emotionless robot clone during X-Force (though she was still kind of interesting). But now with Liu's new book, I'm hoping for Laura to become awesome again. And I like this adoption angle Liu seems to be taking.

Here's hoping.

And the sex slave thing? Yeah, totally never happened.

[blackruzsa]

What sex slave thing? XD (and yes, I'm kidding, I know what you mean, we all agree it NEVER HAPPENED.)

[whitesycamore]

I was really psyched when I heard that Wolverine had a female clone! Then I found out about the whole "sex slave" plot and I was confused and dismayed. Why/how did that even happen anyway? Are we talking subtextually/metaphorically or literally?

(I am a Marvel noob).

[aelflar]

No, it was ever so literal. She was a prostitute and during the time, she was pretty much brainwashed. The pimp was called Zebra Daddy and poor Laura specialized in customers with cutting-related masochism :| It.Was.AWFUL.

I loved Laura when she was introduced in X-Men:Evolution, she had so much potential. Her story was fresh, she was a realistic "female" Wolverine with her own character. However, the comics dehumanized her and brought her character down.

But things are looking up for her :D

[cloud_wolf]

I read somewhere that the guy who thought her up, Craig Kyle, was annoyed by the added on prostitution, because he based her on a neighbor's daughter. :/

[omgwtflolbbqbye]

I've long wanted another Marvel vs DC crossover just so she can meet up with Cassandra Cain.

I figure they'd have a really brutal and epic fight then become BFFs, then help each other totally ruin the lives of the people who screwed them up.

[jaybee3]

A Laura & Cass team-up/match-up would be very cool. I had hopes for a Cass/Ravager friendship but Beechan demolished that idea.

As for X-23, she's one of my favorite Marvel characters for much the same reason Cass is. To paraphrase Bronze Tiger to Batgirl "they made her a weapon, she made herself a hero". Ironically I can't stand the over-exposed Wolverine who can pretty much be counted to ruin any X-Men/Avengers comic I read exponentially by how much he appears.

[irrelevant]

What is it with comics and using a background in prostitution (or past rape) to add angst to a female character's background? There are plenty of other bad things you can do to a character, but those are the top two choices.

I'd say it sounds like a het guy thing, but female slashers tend to do the same thing to "pretty" male characters. (*cough*Jason*cough*) So. Maybe I should just say the general fascination with prostitution in general is kind of... disquieting.

[punishermax]

It's just an easy way for writers to add angst. It's really fucking insulting and pisses me off a lot too because it's just lazy writing at work and just diminishes the real issue of rape and how awful it is.

Also rape in fanfic really fucking skeeves me out.

[aelflar]

I can`t believe I haven`t said this until now (having hovered around this post a lot) but beautiful art on the Laura vs Logan bit. Especially Wolverine`s face....pretty <3

[blackruzsa]

I remember saying when I read it, "That's the prettiest Wolverine I've ever seen o_O"

This art is one of the top ten most gorgeous art styles on my personal list.

[suzene]

Even aside from the unfortunate "Wolverine's female clone" hook, I never could really warm up to Laura due to C&C protesting her treatment by other writers...then proceeding to kill off dozens of kid characters created by another team. Not Laura's fault, of course, but it did leave me wanting nothing to do with her or the people who brought her in.

[blackruzsa]

Too bad.
Comfort yourself with some old fashioned Evolution Laura?

Still, I get that feeling.

[rordulum]

The panel in that Wolverine fight that always kills me is when she demands that he kill her, as her eyes fill with tears. Choi's art really blows me away most of the time anyway, but that moment? Oof.

I do really like Laura, and loved her role in New X-Men, unfortunately, I hated the whole concept around X-Force, so I kind of lost track of her a little.

[liara_shadowsong]

I am quite fond of Laura. She's been handled poorly in the past, but overall, I like her a lot (well, when she's written well, anyways, but that's pretty much a given for any character).

Mod note: Sourcing

[kingrockwell]

Would you please edit which issues the scans are from into the post? Thanks.

Re: Mod note: Sourcing

[blackruzsa]

Sure, thanks for the reminder.
I KNEW I forgot something, darn.

[strangerface]

No secret that I love Laura (see: icon!). I'm not sure how I feel about Laura being Laura Howlett. I really loved her relationship with Sarah Kinney. The original X-23 Marvel Next mini-series was great. So was the second one, which you have posted some of the art from.

I like that she's a complicated character, but it does make her hard to write. Her portrayal in NYX was terrible. (Some of the early attempts to sexualize her made me uncomfortable because she is still a teenager--not an adult.)

I'm glad she's out of X-Force; that didn't seem good for her overall mental health. I like her relationship with Dust. (I like seeing female characters get along in comics.) I'm still not sold on the Hellion romance. Possibly for the same reason as the above.

I've seen her described as Wolverine's Daughter in some places. That makes me mad for some reason. Possibly because I am a twin (aka nature's clone). Genetically speaking, she's his twin sister even if she's much younger.

[blackruzsa]

He called her his "sister" in New X-men, then I guess the age difference made him consider her a daughter. Since she really hasn't had a chance to grow properly as a teen, I think it was a good idea.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I don't really know much about X-23, but my main beef with her is basically her name. Come on - 'X-23'? I know she's a government clone sort of dealie, but Wolvie had similar origins (regarding his adamantium and so forth, I mean), and you don't see him still going by 'Mutant X'. She needs a better monicker. How about 'Carcajou' or 'Quickhatch'? Those are both alternate terms for wolverines, which acknowledges her origin, yet gives her a distinctive name. Or, if that doesn't wash, perhaps some other member of the weasel family. 'Ferret', maybe, or 'Ermine'.

[blackruzsa]

..... I'm sorry, but I stopped taking you seriously at "Ferret" XD

And Wolverine got his memories erased, right? Laura didn't, so the code name she had, she uses. Wolverine isn't used to "Weapon X" anymore, but Laura's been "X-23" as far as she can remember.

[aeolos_sakya]

This reminds me of something that happened with my ex. I don't remember how X-23 was brought to the conversation, but I do remember when that happened next "Who the hell are you talking about?" "Wolverine's Clone", she answered me. She eventually explained to me her backstory. The funny part? I'm the one who is supposed to read comics, she isn't. (It's very likelye she had watched the X-Men Evolution Cartoon, just like me, but by the time I had forgotten everything about her).
Anyway, nice character.
Any story you guys recomend me to pick about her?

[blackruzsa]

Innocence Lost and Target X are good places to go.

Your mileage may vary with all that follows. I picked up at New X-men.

[wizardru]

If this was meant to sell me on the character, I'm afraid it failed.

I don't see much here to indicate anything other than 'Wolverine Clone...but she's a GIRL!', which was the general impression I already had of the character.

I'm not much of a fan of the 'new character has to beat up powerful established character to determine his/her bonafides'. Seeing a scene where she appears to have murdered some EMTs after tricking Cap after murdering a few dozen people? Doesn't really make her out as a character I want to know much more about.

And I gotta tell you, the claws from her feet? Not illogical, but come across as really kind of silly, to me. Sorry.

[blackruzsa]

It wasn't meant to sell the character, just to mention her in ways people already know with pretty art.

If I'd wanted to sell her, I'd have posted scans from Innocence Lost and the ones that actually show her humanity in Target X. I don't want to spoil it, so you'll have to take a look, but all I can say is that if she didn't have the claws and they didn't keep mentioning "Weapon X", you wouldn't have made the connection to Wolverine since her development was much more complex than they showed with Logan, and much much earlier in her life. I wasn't doing this for people who knew nothing about her. Watch X-men Evolution, read the comics, you'll know more about her. I suppose I went about this wrong, but I jumped into showing her to a comm that knew a lot about her already. I also only got pics that were already online, because I have yet to get a photo hosting account of my own. Unfortunately, the scans I wanted to show, I couldn't quite find.

So, no more in depths coming from me at this point, sorry.