X-23 (real name Laura Kinney) is a superhero from Marvel Comics. A mutant with a healing factor and imbued with unbreakable Adamantium claws, she is the daughter of Wolverine.
X-23 was created by Marty Isenberg, Robert N. Skir, and David Wise.
Background[]
In 2016, under the direction of the Alkali-Transigen scientific group in Mexico and as part of Project X-23, many mutant children have been artificially brought into the world to be used as future soldiers, including a young girl born from the DNA of the mutant Wolverine and subsequently named Laura. Experimented since her creation, Laura received an Adamantium graft on her bone claws. The project was ultimately abandoned following the creation of a perfect clone of Wolverine, X-24, causing the children to be euthanized but the nurses caring for them were able to have them evacuated, Laura ending up with Gabriela Lopez on the run for a long time. Gabriela deciding to look for James "Logan" Howlett, the original Wolverine, to help them get to a secret refuge for mutants in North Dakota.
However, in 2029, the meeting was not the most concrete, Laura being unsympathetic to the proximity of her biological father who for his part wanted nothing to do with Gabriela and Laura. When Gabriela was murdered by Alkali-Transigen's strike group, the Reavers, Logan and Laura had no choice but to travel together to escape them. During the trip, Laura befriended Charles Xavier, an old friend of Logan and also a telepathic mutant suffering from Alzheimer's disease but whose powers allowed him to connect with the young wild mutant girl.
Unfortunately, Xavier ended up murdered by X-24, further breaking an already emotionally weakened Logan, as well as fueling Laura's hatred for those who created her. Despite this tragic setback, Logan and Laura managed to reach the shelter where Laura gathered with her fellow mutants, shortly before deciding to cross the Canadian border. In this final stage, the Reavers and the last forces of Alkali-Transigen made one last attempt to capture and kill the children but the mutants defended themselves and decimated the entire organization. In the fight, Logan and Laura managed to kill X-24 but at the cost of Logan being fatally injured, his healing factor having seriously weakened in recent years, leaving Laura in tears to watch the man she had come to consider as her father die. The children then buried Logan and then left for Canada, with Laura changing the tombstone on her father's grave to an X to honor him as the last X-Men.
Several years later, an older Laura was found by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) due to the deterioration of her Earth following Logan's death, and she was pruned, causing her to become trapped in the Void. Along with other people from different worlds, Laura subsequently came into conflict with the faction of the dangerous and powerful mutant, Cassandra Nova. After Cassandra ended up killing several of them, Laura's group was reduced to five people, including Laura, Elekra, Gambit, Blade, and Human Torch. Both to survive the domination of Cassandra and the creature Alioth which destroyed everything in its path, Laura and her companions went to hide on the edge of the Void.
Personality[]
When Laura was younger, she had aggressive tendencies inherited from her father, attacking and killing people she distrusted or who showed her hostility. However, she cared very much for her substitute mother, Gabriella. Traveling with Logan and the more social Charles Xavier had the effect of calming her wild impulses to the point that she only attacks those she knows are her enemies. She would eventually grow closer to Logan to the point of finally calling him dad as he died in his final battle, shedding tears as she understood that she could not save him from death.
Towards the end of her adolescence, Laura became more mature and compassionate, coming to relate to the even more depressive alternate Wolverine than even her father and seeing something in him that was worth it. Despite a slight tendency toward swearing, she has also become more sociable than in her childhood, able to have fun surrounded by a group of people she had only just met.
Powers and skills[]
- Superhuman Strength: Despite her small size, Laura is much stronger than an ordinary human, easily capable of knocking down enemies heavier and larger than her.
- Superhuman Endurance: Laura's endurance is superior to that of a normal human's.
- Superhuman Speed: Laura can move much faster than a normal human.
- Superhuman Agility: Laura's agility is superior to that of a normal human's.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Laura's reflexes are superior to that of a normal human's.
- Superhuman Stamina: Laura's stamina is superior to that of a normal human's. Due to her healing factor, Laura expends very little energy and the energy expended is quickly replenished, preventing her from feeling fatigue as long as the effort is not too demanding for her.
- Superhuman Senses: Just like her father, Laura possesses superhuman senses, mainly a highly developed sense of smell.
- Healing Factor: Much like her father, Laura can regenerate tissue damaged by attacks that would kill an ordinary human and can instantly heal from serious injuries.
- Longevity: Much like her father, Laura ages at a slower rate once she reaches adulthood.
- Retractable Adamantium Claw: Basically, Laura had bony claws, two in each hand and one in each foot, which were subsequently coated in adamantium, a metal capable of cutting through almost any material in existence. Her claws were able to penetrate the Juggernaut's supposedly invulnerable skin.
- Expert fighter: Laura is a seasoned fighter, using her claws to deal deadly blows to enemies attacking in numbers, killing each of them by aiming for vital points. She was able to kill Juggernaut, one of Cassandra Nova's strongest minions, by combining dodge and counterattack.
- Bilingual: Laura speaks English and Spanish fluently.
Physical appearance[]
Laura is a teenage girl with an athletic build, including square shoulders and thick arms. She has long brown hair reaching down to the back of her back, dark brown eyes and, a smooth face. Her clothes consist of a t-shirt, jeans with a belt featuring the iconic X of the X-Men, and a pair of mittens with holes for her claws to come out. When fighting against Cassandra Nova's forces, she also wears a leather sleeveless jacket, and pink sunglasses.
Appearances[]
Marvel Cinematic Universe[]
Deadpool & Wolverine[]
X-23 returns in this film, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Dafne Keen reprising her role from Logan. In the film, she is part of a resistance group nickname "the others" by Deadpool which includes Elektra Natchios, Blade, and Gambit to help Deadpool and Wolverine capture Cassandra Nova.
One day after Human Torch's disappearance, Laura patrols the forest alone until she comes across a badly damaged Honda Odyssey car. Inside, she discovers the two unconscious Deadpool and an alternate Wolverine then gets behind the wheel of the car, she takes them to the resistance lair.
The next morning, Laura shows up following her remaining companions' encounter with newly awakened Deadpool and Wolverine, hoping that she won't regret bringing them here. Deadpool instantly recognizes the girl as X-23 since the TVA had told him about it earlier, a brief exchange of glances ensues with her and a perplexed Wolverine since he knows that she is the daughter of another himself. Following the revelation that Deadpool and Wolverine have escaped Nova's fortress and that Human Torch is dead, the ragtag group gradually regains the will to fight against Nova and his minions for a chance to escape the Void, even if it looks suicidal.
When night falls, the confrontation planned for tomorrow with the primary objective of seizing Juggernaut's helmet to counter Cassandra's powers, Laura approaches a Wolverine drinking near a campfire and who has no desire to join the fight to come. She notes how this different Logan is a lot like her father, partly for the antisocial personality but she adds that she sees good in him, even though he doesn't see it. After Laura is told how lucky she was to have her Wolverine to get her life, Logan reveals his tragic past where he lost all of his friends because he hadn't been there for them. Still determined to go against Nova tomorrow, Laura says they can't do it without him, to which Logan retorts that he's not the right guy, leading Laura to respond that he's always been the wrong guy but later adding that he ended up no longer being so.
The next day, the group storms Nova Base, the deceased body of a giant Ant-Man, and as soon as Wolverine is revealed to have been in the trunk of their vehicle, much to Laura's delight, the bloody confrontation begin. Thanks to the unrestrained effort of their friends, Deadpool and Wolverine are able to enter Cassandra's lair in the skull, leaving the rest to the quartet. Laura single-handedly confronts Juggernaut and although initially repelled by the colossus' brute strength, she uses her superior reflexes to slice off his feet in one blow before decapitating him with the next attack. With the helmet in her possession, Laura climbs the skull, but as soon as she reaches the orbit, Psylocke knocks her out with her energy whip, not without the young mutant throwing the helmet at Deadpool in time. Subsequently, Laura and her comrades begin to be overwhelmed by Cassandra's minions, unfortunately with the arrival of Alioth who attempts to kill Deadpool and Wolverine jumping through a magical portal to Earth-10005, Deadpool and Laura's home world , narrowly missing.
In the climax, Cassandra is finally destroyed when Deadpool and Wolverine destroy the Time Ripper she intended to use to destroy the entire Multiverse, and in gratitude for their heroics, the duo obtains as a favor from the TVA that they free their friends from the Void. Brought back to her original world, Laura is present at Deadpool's party, befriending his friends, strengthening her bond with Wolverine, and petting Dogpool.
Gallery[]
Miscellaneous[]
Photography[]
Screenshots[]
.jpg "Deadpool & Wolverine - Laura (1).jpg (114 KB)")
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Trivia[]
- X-23/Laura was Dafne Keen's first film role, when she was only twelve years old.
- X-23 is one of the rare Marvel characters to have first been introduced in a television series before being incorporated into the comics, having originally been created for the animated series X-Men: Evolution in 2003 then introduced in the comics a year later.
- In both X-Men: Evolution and the comics, X-23 was conditioned as an assassin from birth until she defected to her creators and later attacks Wolverine because she held him responsible for her miserable existence. However, Wolverine is able to reason with her since he experienced the same horrors as her, convincing her that she is not a living weapon but a person.
- In the comics, X-23's real name is Laura Kinney, unlike in X-Men: Evolution where she has no real name.
- Unlike her father, her skeleton is not covered in Adamantium, only her claws.
- Upon her introduction in both television and comics, X-23 was primarily introduced as a deviant clone of Wolverine, but it was revealed years later that she was created by a combination of the x chromosomes in DNA recovered from Wolverine and that voluntarily donated by scientist Sarah Kinney, making X-23 Wolverine's biological daughter and not his clone. In Logan, X-23's origin as Wolverine's daughter is preserved, but the identity of the biological mother is unknown.
- According to Xavier, the reason why Laura has differently placed claws compared to Wolverine is because of her gender, comparing it with lionesses who use their claws on their hind legs to hold prey unlike lions.
- In the comics, X-23 is the second person to take the name Wolverine.
- Unlike her television and comic book origins, Laura has not undergone any assassin conditioning due to having primarily been created as an attempted living weapon. In return, Laura's constant aggressiveness is more due to her DNA inherited from Wolverine.
- In Logan, Laura spoke very little English while speaking with a Spanish accent. In Deadpool & Wolverine, she speaks English correctly with a neutral accent.
- Ironically, Laura is closer in size to Wolverine in the comics than to her comic book counterpart.
- The pink sunglasses that Laura wears during the confrontation with Cassandra Nova's group are the same ones that she wore briefly in Logan.
External links[]
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