1. I felt the same spoilers:end of spoilers
In the end Ev realized that no matter how he felt - Laura that he loved is long gone and not coming back, and it's unfair to put all of that on this Laura Kinney. Instead of chasing this younger version he can grief the older one. There is also great scene where she asks him how long did it take for her to warm up to him. He answers that couple hundred years, their first kiss happened after 217 years. If I get that correctly she's like "Good, I like patience, ask me again sometime" implying that he has to wait a couple hundred years AGAIN for her.
She's more interested in mission then in him, which is sad, but feels good, cause I don't enjoy her with men.
2. We also get confirmation that Laura currently has adamantium skeleton and it's "funny story" but nothing more about it.
I feel same, this is probably issue with her best characterization in this series. Is it amazing? No, but better then previous ones.
spoilers:end of spoilers
I don’t think she was necessarily saying it’d take another 200 years but that she’d have to take it slow and that she wasn’t jumping up and down at the prospect right now. If anything this issue left Laura in a place where she’d be open to the idea, whereas (like you excellently summarized), Ev has given up. Idk this couple could have been cute and I do like their banter in this issue, but this Vault stuff is so messy. I feel like they both should have come out of it with those memories OR they both lose their memories and try to get them back together. In both cases the Vault would have acted as a bonding experience that puts them on equal footing.
Last edited by Kingdom X; 02-16-2022 at 07:59 AM.
Agreed! This was a good page. And one that puts Laura and Synch's relationship in just the right context. Because there's no way around it. The Laura he fell in love with is not the Laura he knows right now. She did not live that life they shared in the Vault. And he can't transfer that connection he had with her to this girl. She might as well be a different person. I'm not sure if this means any possibility of a relationship between them is off the table. But it does make clear that they're not going to just gloss over it. And I think that's good for both characters.
It also gives me hope that Laura will find another role in future X-Books, aside from being the girl Synch has been pining for.
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spoilers:end of spoilers
The fact it took 200 years in the first place should have been a sign that they're hardly soulmates who belong together. Quite the opposite, it adds even MORE reinforcement to the idea they only hooked up because of the limited options available to them in the Vault.
Something with Laura in Marvel Legends is coming. I hope it's not only cover
https://twitter.com/Marvel/status/1494041364757164033
Hickmans vault story used a very old and boring trope by isolating them like that. With the added bonus of poor Darwin to be the third wheel for several hundred years before he was captured. Not a great Darwin experience overall.
What Hickman and Duggan so far haven't delivered is a reason why they make a good couple. We got proximity and onesided memories but very little beyond that.
I felt the issue was good. A solid 6. What it wasn't was a good showcase for Laura. Duggan still can't nail her voice or personality. Especially her jokes landed very flat for me. The inclusion of a adamantium lon all her bones feels unnecessary but more so a odd choice to just throw in like that and only use it to make swimming a problem for her. It feels like something that should be a big deal and it's handled in such a off-panel way. Laura should have opionions about this. Strong ones.
MODOK using her as a damsell in distress feels also unnecessary and odd. In a way having her save Ev would have made more sense as who they are and give it a differetn vide. Of course the fight and issue was focused on Ev and his dilemmas so it wouldn't have made sense from a story point of view.
This issue should have ended their realtionship and hopefully started a friendship between them. Duggan leaves it open enough and more importantly he moves the ball into Lauras corner. Somethign he would need to do anyway because it has to be her choice consdiering the vault mess. So it seems teh relationsihip is still steaming on. That was my takeaway from it.
I like that Sync has come to the most reasonable conclusion. Their conversation about it was good, as well. Laura seemed decently written for most of the issue.
I hate that Duggan decided she has an adamantium skeleton now: That is something huge for her character, and was just thrown in for a swimming stunt.. I hope that this is something that gets ignored by other writers.
I’m not convinced Laura would want an adamantium skeleton considering she has used the fact that she doesn’t have one to her advantage multiple times before.
That and it's a death sentence. (Before anyone says death doesn't mean anything anymore, I think she of all people should be incredulous of that promise; plus the sheer hubris of assuming a system dependent on a few individuals powers will remain intact forever.)
P.S. What do you suppose this was the Five doing an oops?
Last edited by Nazrel; 02-17-2022 at 08:46 AM.
Context is king.
X-23's most basic surface level characteristic that any idiot should grasp: Stoicism.
I don't demand that her every minor appearance be a nuance in-depth examination of her character, but is it to much to ask she be written in Archetype?! This is storytelling 101! If you want people to stay invested in a character, you need to, at the bare minimum, write them such a way that they can plausibly be believed to be the same character!
Next issue is probably her POV one. I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt until then. Besides, if a future writer doesn’t like it they can just find a way to kill her off (surprisingly easy, apparently, since Logan dies all the time now) and not have her get the full chrome job upon resurrection. And while it is a long term death sentence, it does make decapitation substantially harder and prevent some of the most gruesome injuries she’s received. After being blown up a couple times I can understand why she might want it.
She said it was a "Funny Story," implying it was a mistake or something otherwise unintentional.
What I'm wondering is if Duggan had her chowing down throughout the issue because he ACTUALLY remembered that people with Healing Factors are supposed to have elevated metabolisms and therefore require increased caloric intake to support it, or if he just thought it was an amusing visual gag.
Given his complete and utter failure to do even basic research on everything else about Laura, I'm inclined to think the latter. Especially since most OTHER writers don't remember that, either.