X-23 #10 - "Touching Darkness, part 1"

[deh_tommy]

Spooky month is upon us and I’ve wanted to do an appreciation post about vampire Jubilee for a long time now, so here’s me figuratively killing two birds with one stone (not that I’d ever advocate for that sort of thing, I just don’t know of a better metaphor that has the same meaning). Warning for discussions of attempted suicide.

Gambit is worried about X-23 after learning of a failed suicide attempt on her part, so he calls an old friend to hopefully bring her comfort.

Comments

[scorntx]

And also, a scene of Gambit, shirtless, for entirely rational, plot-related reasons!
Seriously!
Clearly, Liu believes in equal-opportunity fanservice.
(the way he's drawn in that scene, and given it's Gambit, it's entirely plausible he's no wearin' pants.)


Side note: It's weird that Jubilee seems to be drawn shorter than Laura.
Just... Jubes is the older character. Doesn't seem right that she should be shorter.
(But then, that's one of those things with Jubilee. Like how she's a perpetual really late teenager / very young adult while Monet is now a mid-young adult at best.)

[lordultimus]

To be fair, there are some pretty short adults and tall teenagers out there.

[arilou_skiff]

There are some fascinating timeline slips like that. I think for a while it looked like the New Mutants were youngr than the New X-men, who they had taught as kids...

[tinygaylaura]

The artist who drew this scene knew x-actly what they were doing ;)

I do find it charmingly clueless that Gambit thought Logan could help when he's even worse with emotions than Gambit himself is

Meanwhile it turns out all Laura really needs is an eager little lesbian with fangs to make things better

[gnarll]

Sometimes penetration does make it all better.

[tinygaylaura]

I''ve got strap ons, dildos and vibrators of every size, shape, make, function and color filling the cupboards like a bedroom spice rack

You're preaching to the choir there my good fellow ;)

[arilou_skiff]

Logan is generally bad with emotions... But he's actually pretty decent when dealing with teenage girls, it's just one of his things.

[tinygaylaura]

Thankfully not in the same way as his Ultimate self

[shakalooloo]

Did Jubilee have some form of mesmerism when she was a vampire? 'Cuz I don't see those creeps being intimidated into backing off in that scene there. They're confident enough to be physically touching Laura, yet Jubes threatening them - calling them *gasp* jerks - was enough to get them all scared?

[scorntx]

Clearly these are jerks who realised they're the idiots picking on the two foreigners who will inevitably turn out to be dangerous badasses and beat them up / kill them, and decided they didn't want that.

[gnarll]

The X-men are rather famous and Jubilee always wears that thing. Maybe MU civilians have developed a survival instinct when it comes to superhumans? It would be about time.

[tinygaylaura]

"Do you have any idea how many annonymous henchmen my friend has killed?

Look at you son

You don't even have a first name

Just lay down on the floor"

[zachbeacon]

That seems unlikely. I mean, angry mobs still rush Magneto as if they think they're going to win this time.

[deh_tommy]

To be fair, anyone would probably be intimidated being told to back by someone who looks like (and who is probably safe to assume is) a vampire.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Was the slashing really necessary? I mean, that's what the fangs are for, right?

[dr_archeville]

Slash(ing) is often a good thing.

[cricharddavies]

There's an element there of going beyond verbally granting permission, but also showing permission. Consider it analogically like removing one's own clothes rather than just saying that you're okay with your partner removing them.

That said, there IS also an element of self-harming.

[servant_iskandar]

Pretty much.

It's been downplayed in most recent iterations, at least since she took the Wolverine moniker as well, but Laura had a long history of self-harming before this (Logan is well aware of it, hence the rooftop talk). She was also down in the dumps at the time.

As for the "granting permission" bit, that's a very good observation; she's opening herself up to Jubes, quite literally.

[shadur]

Not just self-harm, but a full-on death wish I think.

[deh_tommy]

She’s testing Jubilee’s self-control over her killer instinct and seeing if Jubilee has what that takes to kill her. She’s literally opening up to her.