X-23 Appreciation Post: My skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel

[WebLurker]

@WebLurker

I'll just comment on Laura's killing of Kimura. It takes a few minutes for a person to enter clinical death due to lack of oxygen, and when that happens that person is helpless and defenceless. There is no heart rate and no breathing. I know this is getting morbid, but bear with me. For a few minutes after clinical death, a person can be resuscitated. But if left unattended for 7 minutes or more, clinical death leads to biological death, which is the point where one does not come back from. And this is why I asked if Kimura was truly dead, since the last panel of that scene showed her motionless in the water, which could mean that she was in clinical death. She could be resuscitated off-panel and then put in SHIELD custody.

That wasn't addressed one way or the other, given that we never see S.H.I.E.L.D. fishing the body out of the water. If they wanted to bring her back, they could pull that out, but I think the implication is that she's dead for real noe.

I hope this was what happened, since the alternative, which was that they left an unconscious Kimura underwater without even attempting to resuscitate her to put her in custody, is villainous.

Under the circumstances, I honestly think that lethal force was justified, given Kimura's rap sheet, the fact that she was currently engaged in armed assault and an assassination attempt, and that she couldn't be safely captured (I can also see a case being made that this was a legal S.H.I.E.LD. operation). Whether they should've tried to save Kimura after drowning is another question, IMHO. (There is a difference between legal justice and narrative justice.)

(Also worth noting is that Laura planned to turn herself in after the operation, but Fury was the one who decided to not press charges and let her go).

[Ambaryerno]

Swiped from Beau's Tumblr feed.

I really liked Conrad's work on the Liu series. I actually preferred him to Takeda (I'm just not a fan of the Animesque style). Wouldn't mind seeing him do an arc of ANW.

[Fokken]

Deeply, DEEPLY, superficial question for the gang: Does the change in VOLUME of Laura's hair -- from artist to artist -- affect anyone?

Like, since Takeda was brought up -- I recall Laura's hair being exceptionally more voluminous during that run -- versus, say, Cabal's interpretation. And as long as I've known Laura, she's always had "thin" or "flat" hair.

#shallownonsense

[Darzefader]

Thats pretty much just artistic liscense I think, it happens all the time for other characters, I mean Jean once had super curly hair, then it was ringlets, now in this new pheonix event its straight again.
It all changes from artist to artist and event to event. Its just like the boob argument that occurs on this thread every fifty pages. Its personal preference on the part of the artist.

[The Big G]

Pretty much. it's just like Julian's hands. Sometime itss just floaty hands, sometimes they're connected to his arms...sometimes they're AoX Style with Julian literally having no arms. Same goes with Laura's hair. Sometimes its bland and flat and sometimes she has luscious anime locks

[Fokken]

Pretty much. it's just like Julian's hands. Sometime itss just floaty hands, sometimes they're connected to his arms...sometimes they're AoX Style with Julian literally having no arms. Same goes with Laura's hair. Sometimes its bland and flat and sometimes she has luscious anime locks

Heh. "Luscious anime locks".

[Freud]

Soooooo... What exactly is going to happen to Laura now that Logan is back in the game? I'm thinking he's probably going to let her keep the codename for at least a little while, preferring to lay low like he seems to be doing right now judging by his appearances so far. If not, what exactly will happen to her? She pretty clearly stated she wants nothing to do with the name X-23 in Enemy Of The State II, so I suppose we'll either get the same thing that happened with the two Hawkeyes or Laura will have to get herself a new codename. A team-up book for the two would be really cool, though I'm kind of hoping for a 616 Logan-Old Man Logan team-up book as well, so that could be difficult.

[Ambaryerno]

Soooooo... What exactly is going to happen to Laura now that Logan is back in the game? I'm thinking he's probably going to let her keep the codename for at least a little while, preferring to lay low like he seems to be doing right now judging by his appearances so far. If not, what exactly will happen to her? She pretty clearly stated she wants nothing to do with the name X-23 in Enemy Of The State II, so I suppose we'll either get the same thing that happened with the two Hawkeyes or Laura will have to get herself a new codename. A team-up book for the two would be really cool, though I'm kind of hoping for a 616 Logan-Old Man Logan team-up book as well, so that could be difficult.

Right now we still don't know how Logan's return is going to affect any of the characters, but particularly Laura, OML, and Jimmy. I did ask Paniccia on Twitter if there's any hints he can give for #XMenMonday, but he has yet to respond to that tweet.

I can envision a scenario where Logan tells her to keep the cowl if she offers it back, but much depends on how much of the past decade or so the incoming regime wants to undo.

[Digifiend]

Isn't ANW one of the better selling female led books? Behind only Thor? It would make sense to let her keep the cowl. Anyway, if they weren't they'd have had her transition to another identity in time for X-Men Red, where she instead gets her third Wolverine costume.

[berserkerclaw]

I honesty see ANW continuing. It does make money. On the other hand if Marvel wanted to give Wolverine his book back i could possibly see them ending AnW given that Honey Badger and X23 are members of Red. The latter is slim but possible

[Beaubier]

Swiped from Beau's Tumblr feed.

I really liked Conrad's work on the Liu series. I actually preferred him to Takeda (I'm just not a fan of the Animesque style). Wouldn't mind seeing him do an arc of ANW.

Yeah I’d like to see Conrad on an arc. I’d also like to see Noto on an arc. Noto wasn’t one of my favorite Laura artists, but he wasn’t bad and it would feel nostalgic.

[Ambaryerno]

Yeah I’d like to see Conrad on an arc. I’d also like to see Noto on an arc. Noto wasn’t one of my favorite Laura artists, but he wasn’t bad and it would feel nostalgic.

My top 5 artists I'd LOVE to see:

1) Mike Choi (I mean come on. He's THE X-23 artist)
2) Stjepan Sejic (Never drawn her before, but his art is SPECTACULAR. Taylor seems to like this idea, too)
3) Clayton Crain (I love his take on Laura in X-Force)
4) Will Conrad (Already covered this one)
5) Josh Middleton (The first artist to draw Laura in the comics, would be nice to see how he'd approach her after 13 years of character development)

[Beaubier]

My top 5 artists I'd LOVE to see:

1) Mike Choi (I mean come on. He's THE X-23 artist)
2) Stjepan Sejic (Never drawn her before, but his art is SPECTACULAR. Taylor seems to like this idea, too)
3) Clayton Crain (I love his take on Laura in X-Force)
4) Will Conrad (Already covered this one)
5) Josh Middleton (The first artist to draw Laura in the comics, would be nice to see how he'd approach her after 13 years of character development)

Yeah Choi and Crain would be great. They’re both definitive Laura artists.

Would LOVE to see Middleton do an arc but I think he hasn’t done anything for Marvel in many years. Always loved Middleton’s art.

[Ambaryerno]

Actually, I've seen Sejic draw Laura precisely ONCE as con art.



But seriously, this guy is a MASTER of body language and facial expressions. He also does a lot of REALLY funny shipping art, as well as a couple (veeeeeeeeery NSFW) romance books. If I could pick my artist for a "Laura and Julian patch things up and finally get together" arc it would be him, because he plays with relationships so well.

[MarvelMaster616]

Swiped from Beau's Tumblr feed.

I really liked Conrad's work on the Liu series. I actually preferred him to Takeda (I'm just not a fan of the Animesque style). Wouldn't mind seeing him do an arc of ANW.

Nice piece. It reminds me of just how great Marjorie Liu's run on the series was. She did a great job of portraying Laura more as a struggling teenager than a living mutant. Laura is one of those characters who had to grow up a lot faster than most. Unlike other characters (Peter Parker and others like him), we've seen the results of that growth with Laura. I think her role as a big sister to Gabby and the inheritor of Logan's legacy has been very good for her. And Liu really helped put her on that path.