Laura Kinney (Earth-616)

The Creation of X-23[]

When a top-secret program attempted to recreate the original Weapon X experiment that involved the feral mutant, Wolverine, they failed to secure a test subject who could survive the bonding process of the virtually unbreakable metal Adamantium to their skeleton. Seeking to take the project in a new direction, the project's director, Dr. Martin Sutter, recruited renowned mutant geneticist Doctor Sarah Kinney and tasked her with creating a clone.^[17]

Using the only available genetic sample from Weapon X, which was damaged, they were unable to salvage the Y chromosome after twenty-two attempts. Kinney proposed they create a female clone instead, and though her request was initially denied,^[17] she still went ahead and produced a viable female embryo using her own genetic material combined with Logan's to complete the process,^[18] prompting Sutter to reconsider. Despite resistance from his protégé Dr. Zander Rice, whom Sutter had raised after Rice's father had been killed by a bestial Wolverine at the original Weapon X Facility, Sutter allowed Kinney to proceed. As revenge for her insubordination, Rice forced Kinney to act as the surrogate mother for the specimen, and she gave birth to "X-23."^[17]

Raised in captivity, X-23 was trained to be a weapon. Kinney did her best to ensure the child retained some semblance of humanity, but her efforts appeared to be in vain.^[32]

After seven years, Rice had X-23 subjected to radiation poisoning in order to accelerate the activation of her mutant gene, and forcibly extracted her claws and coated them with Adamantium. After Rice realized the child was growing soft, he blamed her sensei, one of the few people who treated her with kindness, and tested a chemical compound called "trigger scent" on him. The "trigger scent" caused Laura to kill mercilessly anything in her path, and thus she murdered her best friend.^[32] Rice already had a replacement in the wings, a woman named Kimura. Kimura was harsh and strictly punished X-23 for the death of her sensei.^[19]

Weapon for Hire[]

At 11 years old, X-23 was sent on her first field mission to kill Presidential candidate Greg Johnson.^[33] She was assigned the mission as somewhat of an "advertising" ploy. Numerous other missions followed, as X-23's services were sold to the highest bidder. She was left emotionally stunted as a result. Her missions took her to locations all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, Las Vegas, Japan, Colombia, the Congo, and many others. Rice, in an attempt to avenge his father's murder, abandoned X-23 on a particularly dangerous mission with A.I.M.,^[34] but she survived against overwhelming odds and managed to return to the Facility.^[35] After her return to the facility Kimura punished her for not coming back with Rice.^[19]

Sarah Kinney let her out once, not as an attempt to escape but instead to use X-23 to help her find her niece, Megan, who had been kidnapped by a known murderer. X-23 found and rescued her with ease. Ultimately, Rice persuaded Sutter to hand control of the program over to him, then secretly ordered X-23 to kill Sutter and his family.^[35] X-23 was able to kill Sutter and his wife but was unable to kill their son, Henry. Later, Rice revealed to Kinney a chamber with dozens of incubation pods containing female clones before he fired her. Unwilling to let Sutter get the upper hand, Kinney gave X-23 one last mission - destroy the pods and kill Rice.^[36] However, Rice was able to exact revenge on Kinney from beyond the grave, as he had earlier exposed her to the trigger scent, sending X-23 into a rage that caused her to kill her mother. As she lay dying, Kinney named X-23 "Laura".^[1]

Time with Family[]

Months later, Laura traveled to San Francisco and tracked down Megan and Debbie (her mother's sister). Introducing herself as Sarah's daughter, she moved in with them. Although Megan experienced vivid nightmares of her abduction, her family believed these to be utter fantasies. Laura informed Megan that the man in her nightmares was indeed real and that she had killed him.^[33] Over the next few weeks, Laura and her cousin bonded and she told her how she was raised to be an assassin and forced to kill her mother.^[37]

Debbie's boyfriend turned out to be an agent for the Facility who had been instructed to manipulate X-23 into killing Megan and Debbie using the trigger scent;^[37] however, the agent fumbled the assignment and was killed by X-23. Facility agents stormed the house, led by Kimura.^[19] X-23 managed to get Megan and Debbie to safety by handcuffing Kimura to a radiator and then triggering an explosion in the house, buying some time. Later, Laura provided Debbie and Megan with instructions to escape and assume new identities (originally meant to be used by Laura and her mother) though confessed that she would not be able to see them again. After Laura and Megan parted, Laura decided to confront the man who made her creation possible -- Wolverine.^[38]

Alone Once More[]

X-23 tracked Wolverine to Xavier's mansion. One day after Logan left the grounds, Laura confronted him, coming face-to-face with her biological father for the first time. She engaged him in a battle, defeating him via tactics and maneuverability, after which she told him she had come to kill him and then herself so no more mutant weapons like herself could be created. Logan told her she could kill him if she wanted to, but he wouldn't let her kill herself. He also revealed that he was aware of X-23's ordeal, having received a detailed letter from her mother. The talk was interrupted when Captain America came to arrest Laura.^[20]

As a captive of S.H.I.E.L.D., Laura was interrogated by Captain America and Matt Murdock. Despite the mayhem in her past, Matt Murdock accepted X-23's innocence. Captain America wanted X-23 to atone for the murders she had committed. However, he ultimately freed X-23 in order to avoid S.H.I.E.L.D.'s exploitation of her as their own weapon. Putting her on a bus to New York City, he also gave her the copy of her mother's letter so she could read it.^[39]

X-23 resurfaced in New York and was found living on the streets by a pimp named Zebra Daddy, who took her in and employed her as a prostitute.^[40] X-23 met Kiden Nixon, a young mutant with the ability to freeze time when in danger. Together with Kiden's teacher, they rescued another young mutant, the feral Catiana, from an angry mob. Zebra Daddy tracked X-23 down, but with the aid of her new-found friends and a mutant named Felon, Zebra Daddy's thugs were defeated. X-23 killed him to save the lives of her friends.^[41]

Xavier Institute[]

X-23 later took a job at the mutant-themed Wannabee's nightclub in the Mutant Town district of New York. It was there that she saved the life of the daughter of mob boss Don Parisi from a gang of thugs, whom she killed. The deaths inadvertently implicated Wolverine, prompting his teammates in the X-Men to investigate. X-23 instinctively attacked Wolverine on sight, but he was eventually able to calm her down. She led the X-Men to Parisi's daughter. After aiding the X-Men against Parisi's super-strong mutant enforcer Geech, X-23 fled the scene.^[42] She later returned to help the X-Men save victims of a car accident, after which she was enrolled at the X-Men's Xavier Institute.^[43]

X-23 quickly became very protective of Wolverine, attacking his teammate Bishop after he felled Wolverine during a training session. She also took to observing Wolverine on the mansion's security monitors.^[44] During one such viewing, an anomalous energy spike prompted X-23 to investigate. Encountering Spider-Man at the source of the signal, X-23 initially mistook him for an enemy and attacked. The pair ultimately teamed up to save the young mutant Paul Patterson from an alternate reality version of Iron Man. The arrival of Captain America and Black Widow helped turn the tide.^[45]

X-23 secretly followed Wolverine on his investigation of strange activity in the Canadian Rockies. Ambushed by the Hauk'ka, evolved Saurians from the Savage Land, X-23 managed to escape and alert the X-Men. Traveling to the Savage Land, X-23 and the X-Men teamed with the Land's lord Ka-Zar and his circumstantial allies, the Savage Land Mutates, to prevent the Hauk'ka from destroying human civilization by controlling the weather-manipulating X-Man Storm.^[46]

Sometime later, X-23 was approached by the cosmic Uni-Power in hopes of making specific use of her healing ability. Although she initially resisted its attempts to bond with her, she ultimately agreed to aid it and became Captain Universe for a brief period of time.^[47]

New X-Men[]

After M-Day, X-23 was one of the few students who hadn't lost their powers. The depowered students and staff were sent home; however, their bus was bombed by anti-mutant religious zealot Reverend William Stryker and his Purifiers. Subsequently, Emma Frost had the surviving students engage in an free-for-all brawl, with those deemed to be the best performers assigned to a new team of trainee X-Men. Despite Frost's attempts to omit her, X-23 was among the seven students who made the grade.^[22]

Shortly afterwards, following Stryker's attack on the depowered students, X-23 heard Dust talking to Icarus, who had fled the Mansion. Dust intended to meet Jay, but Laura told her it was a trap. She eventually had to knock out her roommate to keep her safe. Donning Dust's abaya and niqāb X-23 came to Stryker's compound and was shot. After a few minutes spent healing and playing possum, Laura returned to the Mansion to see it being attacked by Purifiers. Laura fought valiantly and helped fend off the intruders.^[48]

The kids grew to be more receptive of Laura following her part in stopping Stryker's attack, in which she single handedly killed three Purifiers who had incapacitated Surge, Hellion, and Emma Frost. Subsequently, she started to bond with her friends, using her enhanced hearing to find out what happened to Icarus for them, learning that Stryker killed him.^[49]

After Surge received a distress call from Forge, X-23 followed the team to Dallas to rescue him from the sentinel Nimrod. At the height of the desperate battle she managed to cut through to the interior of the machine with her claws, allowing the sentinel to be defeated. She was mortally wounded during the battle by Nimrod's energy blasts and was unable to heal herself. In order to save her, Julian supercharged his telekinetic powers (thanks to Emma Frost's telepathic unlocking) in order to rush her back to the Mansion where she was healed by Elixir.^[50]

As Hellion recovered his strength, and found that his power levels had been massively enhanced, Laura kept watch over him.^[51] Emma confronted Laura, asking her to leave the school because of the trigger scent. Their confrontation was cut short by Mercury coming to Laura's defense. Cessily pursued Laura and the two went out for coffee. However, the cafe was attacked by Kimura and her minions, who had come not to capture Laura, but Cessily.^[9] Laura went back to the Xavier Institute where Hellion informed her he was going with her to attack against the Facility. The two found a facility hideout where Laura interrogated a man at gunpoint. Julian was shocked when X-23 shot him in the head upon securing the information she needed. After an encounter with Kimura, the two found Cessily in liquid form, barely able to compose herself. They were attacked by Predators and saved by the combined forces of the X-Men and the New X-Men.^[52]

X-23 was among the group of students dragged into Limbo by Belasco who was searching for Magik. Using her enhanced vision, X-23 was able to discern the Xavier Institute through a portal high above. She continually encouraged her fellow students to retaliate alongside her, but Belasco was unaffected by X-23's adamantium claws and easily defeated her. Belasco said that X-23's soul wasn't even worth taking because "it reeks of man's science" and that she wasn't real. Belasco killed X-23, to the horror of her friends Mercury and Dust, only to resurrect and kill her over and over in a painful cycle. X-23 distracted Belasco from a weakened Darkchild, so the Three-In-One could attempt to attack him mentally. Finally, Darkchild transported all the X-Men back to the Institute, which had been repaired as if nothing happened.^[53]

X-23, along with Mercury, Blindfold, and Armor, were put into an enchanted sleep by Pixie's dust. The five girls were in a stereotypical high school setting, that is until demons took over. When the spell was lifted, X-23 located and slashed open a pipe as a means of escape from the basement of P.S. 666.^[54]

X-23 aided the X-Men in their fight against the Hulk. She managed to knock over the Hulk and tore his eyes out. Eventually his eyes grew back, and he defeated X-23 by throwing her into a wall.^[55]

X-Force[]

When Cyclops ordered Wolverine to assemble a new X-Force, X-23 was tossed into the mix.^[23] As they caught up to Cable, the Reavers attacked, and X-23 attacked Lady Deathstrike, seemingly killing her.^[56] At Muir Island, X-Force attacked the Marauders and Predator X. When Predator X swallowed Logan, X-23 became angry and attacked, but Wolverine managed to kill it from the inside and surprise everyone.^[57]

During X-Force's raid on a Purifier base, Purifier leader Matthew Risman brought out a captive Wolfsbane at gunpoint. While Wolverine called for the team to stand down, Laura activated a concealed detonator that set off a series of powerful explosives she had planted earlier without telling her teammates. The explosion brought most of the base down around them but Risman was able to escape with Rahne during the chaos.^[58] When X-Force regrouped later, Wolverine admonished Laura for being so reckless with the lives of her teammates and for letting Rahne get kidnapped. During their battle against the Purifiers, X-23 was able to complete her mission from Cyclops by killing Risman.^[59]

When X-Force was given a mission to capture the Vanisher and get back the Legacy Virus he managed to get his hands on, X-23 went with Archangel and Wolverine to complete the mission, but it ended in failure. Laura was infected with the Virus, and ran to kill herself in order to destroy the Virus.^[60] While most of the members of X-Force fought the remaining enemies, Josh Foley ran after Laura to stop her. Josh explained that she was his friend, and how he wasn't willing to watch another friend die. Laura, believing it to be her mission, said that if he didn't let her go and jump into a nearby lava pit to destroy the virus, she would cut off his arm. He did not let go, and managed to get the Virus out of her before passing out and dropping her anyway. However, she didn't die, though she became severely burned after catching fire in the fall. She eventually healed from the burns and carried Josh back to Logan and Domino.^{[citation needed]}

Messiah War[]

X-23 later moved with the X-Men to San Francisco, where they were accepted as heroes by the mayor, having rejected the Fifty State Initiative. X-23 was roomed with Armor and Pixie. Laura left behind a towel covered with blood, which the latter brought to Emma Frost, a sign of the secret X-Force missions X-23 and Cyclops were keeping from Emma and the other X-Men.^[61]

X-23 was finally reunited with Kiden Nixon. Sadly this future version of Kiden was hooked up to several machines and was used as a generator in order to create a temporal anomaly that disrupted time travel technology. X-Force, Cable, and Hope were trapped in a future era, but if they didn't return within 33.5 hours to the past they'd be trapped permanently. While X-23 agonized over killing Kiden or not (Kiden herself asked for death) the matter was taken out her hands when Domino shot and killed her. X-23, Domino, and Proudstar were dispatched back in order to save Boom-Boom, however both Domino and Proudstar fell ill due to the time travel. Feeling grateful for saving her friend and ending her suffering, X-23 disabled the time travel devices on the other two and went back in time in order to save Boom-Boom herself. She arrived just in time to stop the Leper Queen before she could kill Boom Boom out of spite for X-Force not killing her. X-23 then collapsed in exhaustion. H.A.M.M.E.R. then stormed the building, giving medical care, while they took X-23 in for questioning.^[62]

She was taken back to the Facility. There Laura was given back to Kimura, who sawed off her left arm. Agent Morales arrived and helped Laura to escape. The rest of X-Force arrived and took Laura and her severed claws home. Laura was able to regrow her arm, and, at her request, Dr. Nemesis replaced the regrown bone claws with her original adamantium claws.^[63]

After her removal from the X-Force roster,^[64] Laura accompanied Logan and Jubilee in tracking down some former mutants who had gone missing or died from an outreach center that Jubilee helped to run. After taking off, she caught the scent of her old friends from the streets, and they had a small reunion. However, the Gamesmaster began to push into Laura's thoughts at this point, trying to convince her that she was really all alone. She resisted his attempts and fled from the group. Kiden ran after her, but when Laura jumped from a building, she couldn't freeze time long enough to find something soft for her to land on.^[65]

Laura assured her friend, she would be fine and bid farewell to her friends before Logan arrived to assist her.^[65]

The Killing Dream[]

After the return of the so-called "Mutant Messiah," Laura began having nightmares of a demonic Wolverine. She started ignoring Logan at this time as well, possibly because she suspected something was wrong with him or possibly just as a result of her nightmares. Feeling she would be "lost" without the direction that X-Force gave her, Cyclops suggested she try volunteering at a nearby halfway house for depowered mutants. Once there, Laura blacked out, and found the building burning down around her. She was taken to a hospital, and believed she was responsible for the fire and the deaths of almost all the occupants. Wolverine (possessed by a demon) entered and attempted to convince Laura that she had no soul. Assured that he was not himself, she stabbed him just as Hellion walked in.^{[citation needed]}

Not understanding, Julian tried to force Laura to stand down and Hellverine fatally stabbed him. He said Laura could choose to save him if she gave herself up to him, and they were taken to Hell in which Laura continuously fought a pack of wolves, until one turned into a demonic version of Cyclops and she ran away. A being joined her, claiming to be her soul, and assured Laura of her own autonomy and importance. Using this, she was able to purge Hellverine from her mind, after rejecting his offer to join him, which would have granted her the opportunity to kill the Gamesmaster.^{[citation needed]}

After waking up, and ensuring Julian was fine, Laura decided to leave Utopia to go out and find herself so that she could be more than just a killer. Gambit took an interest in her, seeing a kindred spirit, and Storm encouraged him to keep an eye on her.^[66]

Songs of the Orphan Child[]

Laura started out on her own, walking and hitching rides, until she encountered a girl named Alice, who she believed to be victim of a human trafficking and prostitution operation. Later on, she saw the girl being killed by a man who she suspected was her pimp, and she killed him. Gambit caught up to her then, and found a photo of Laura on the man's body. Laura agreed to let him help her get to the bottom of the situation.^[67]

Laura and Gambit were cornered by someone identical to Alice and Miss Sinister, who convinced them to come with her to one of Mister Sinister's hideouts where she had been taking care of several children that Mister Sinister experimented on. Neither Laura nor Remy trusted Miss Sinister, and sure enough she betrayed them, and revealed that Mister Sinister had been taking over her body. In order to evade death, Miss Sinister attempted to move her consciousness into X-23's body. The process failed, however, and Gambit triggered the self-destruct sequence and escaped with X-23 and the children.^[14]

X-23 vs. Daken: Dark Wolverine[]

Their next journey took them to Madripoor where they encountered Malcolm Colcord who was trying to restart the Weapon X program. He was being backed by Daken, Wolverine's biological son, who hoped to gain even more power through the program. Daken and Laura had a brief fight, which ended in Daken seemingly selling out Colcord to Laura, but then selling out Laura to Colcord right back. Laura was experimented on by Colcord, but managed to break free, and Daken took her side once again. The two formed a tenuous alliance, and fought through Colcord's experimental weapons. Laura was upset to discover that the subjects were children. When the two of them tracked down Colcord at last, they cuffed him near to the explosive device they had set in the facility and waited for the bomb to go off.^{[citation needed]}

Daken asked Laura why she let herself be weakened by compassion, stating that she could be a perfect killer, and she answered that being a killer was not where she placed her value. In turn, she asked Daken why he closed himself off to compassion, since he already had plenty of power, and he answered that he didn't think he was capable of compassion. In the aftermath of the explosion, Gambit found them and tried to stop Daken from leaving, but Laura let him walk away.^[68]

Solo Adventures[]

X-23 and Gambit discovered that Colcord had been developing the trigger scent that drove X-23 into a killing rage and had found a way to make it affect ordinary people. They followed the scent's trace to Paris where they encountered Wolverine and newly-turned vampire Jubilee. They all teamed up to locate the scent but failed to find the person running things. X-23 also struck up a new friendship with Jubilee.^[69]

They next traveled to New York where they encountered the Future Foundation. A demon king had escaped from his prison, and due to her previous status as host of the Enigma Force, X-23 was instrumental in re-imprisoning him in a different dimension, saving Valeria Richards in the process and earning the trust of the Future Foundation.^[70]

X-23 was later asked to babysit Valeria and her brother by Sue Storm but was pulled into the Collector's space ship together with the kids and Hellion, who had stopped by in order to win Laura back. They managed to defeat the Collector and make their way back but upon returning, Laura broke all ties with Hellion.^[71]

Laura and Jubilee turned a girl's night out into stopping a sex trafficking network until they were interrupted by Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D. In this moment, X-23 accepted Romanov's offered invitation to join Avengers Academy, feeling that she didn't belong with either X-Men team anymore. X-23 bid farewell to Gambit and Wolverine, who were setting out for Westchester, before she drove off on a motorcycle into the sunrise.^[72]

Avengers Academy[]

After the events of Fear Itself, Laura joined the Avengers Academy. Immediately, she showed off her combat skills to the other Academy students by sparring with Tigra. Reptil, possessed by a future version of himself, made a comment to Hazmat, making her think that Laura was hitting on Mettle.^[24] She butt heads with Hazmat for quite some time until she proved herself to truly be on the Avengers' side.^[73] She chose to stay with the Avengers after freeing her former X-Men peers to fight in the Avengers vs X-Men conflict.^[74]

Circle of Four[]

X-23 tracked down the man who stole her blood to Las Vegas, who turned out to be Blackheart. He cloned her and bonded the clones with symbiotes, creating Symbiote Warriors.^[75]

Laura then made an alliance with Venom, Red Hulk (who was there chasing Venom), and Ghost Rider (who noticed the presence of Blackheart). The four of them fought their Antithesis until they were all finally killed. Laura killed the Symbiote Warriors and then she moved on to Blackheart, who distracted her by telling her since he created her clones he knew if the clones had souls or not and she was herself a clone. Wanting to know if she had a soul or not she stopped, and Blackheart mockingly told her that she was in hell and she was suffering which meant she did have a soul. Then he seemingly killed her by throwing her into lava.^[76] In Hell, Mephisto offered the heroes a new chance to live in exchange for defeating Blackheart. While X-23 found Blaze, the other three managed to get the Spirit of Vengeance, which had been trapped by Blackheart, and wanted to get it to Blaze, so he would become Ghost Rider again. During the battle, Red Hulk and Venom were thrown away by Blackheart; Flash gave the symbiote to Red Hulk and it bonded with him as well as the Spirit, thus becoming the new Ghost Rider.^[77]

Ghost Rider used a mirror which created Antitheses to manifest Blackheart's, leading to his defeat. Meanwhile, X-23 and Flash tried to help Johnny Blaze to return Hell from the dimensional portal and destroy it. When Las Vegas returned to normal, Red Hulk returned the symbiote to Flash and the Spirit of Vengeance to Alejandra. After the Secret Avengers arrived, X-23 left the scene.^[78]

Avengers Arena[]

X-23 along with 15 other people were kidnapped by Arcade and transported to Murderworld. Arcade forced all 15 people including X-23 to take part in a game of kill all or be killed. Arcade stated he would only allow 1 of the 16 to live.^[79]

The games began after Mettle sacrificed himself for Hazmat. As the groups separated, Laura joined the remaining Avengers Academy students, which included Reptil, Hazmat, and Juston Seyfert. The group were then accidentally attacked by the female Deathlok, Rebecca Ryker who attacked Hazmat as a defense protocol.^[80]

After a few days, an unknown enemy attacked the camps. Laura began to investigate the attacks. During the search, Juston disappeared after he was attacked while repairing his Sentinel. Laura soon came into contact with Cammi whom she spared after she discovered Cammi was not the culprit.^[81]

Laura, later meeting up with Hazmat and Reptil, encountered the Runaways, Nico and Chase. In exchange for food, the Runaways asked for shelter. The team agreed until Reptil was suddenly hurt by a fire blast, which Laura and her team believed was Chase's doing. The group then banished Nico and Chase while the trio remained together.^[82]

As Reptil recovered, he informed X-23 and Hazmat that it wasn't Chase but Death Locket who attacked him. It wasn't long after that Hazmat stepped on a switch to activate a trigger scent, causing Laura to go feral and attempt to kill her team members. Hazmat and Reptil managed to escape and left Laura on her own. She would later encounter Juston Seyfert once she regained her senses, and see that he was alive but in bad condition.^[83]

Once X-23 reunited with Hazmat and Reptil, who had encountered Anachronism, Nara, Bloodstone, and Cammi, Hazmat fell into a trap that released more trigger scent. Seemingly unstoppable, X-23 attacked the others until she was momentarily defeated by Bloodstone's monster form. Bloodstone was reverted into human form at the cost of Nara's life. When X-23 recovered, she hunted and nearly killed Hazmat before a grieving Anachronism, seeking revenge for Nara, intervened.^[84]

After Arcade was defeated and help arrived, X-23 was last seen being carried off on a stretcher with Wolverine by her side.^[85]

All-New X-Men[]

Following her rescue from Murderworld, Laura somehow ended up wandering the streets of Miami in an amnesiac state, where she was rescued from a Purifier attack by Kitty Pryde and the time-displaced original X-Men.^[86] They returned her to Cyclops's base, where she panicked upon awakening inside a Weapon X facility and attempted to flee, the situation being exacerbated by confusion over seeing younger versions of Scott Summers, Jean, Iceman, Beast, and Angel. The teenaged Scott managed to catch up with her and calm her down. Though still confused, her memories started to return. Jean began to read X-23's mind and learn about her torture, but Kitty warned Jean that this was a mind she should stay out of. Cyclops surprised X-23 with a hug, explaining that it looked like she needed one.^[87]

Based on Laura's intelligence the team launched an attack against William Stryker, Jr., which failed catastrophically and the entire team was captured, though upon recognizing them as having come from the past, Stryker refrained from killing them to prevent damage to the timeline. Laura, however, he tortured by showing her the footage from Murderworld that Arcade released to the internet, including prominent imagery of her attacking the other kids in a trigger scent-induced rage. Seeing herself in that state, and the knowledge that the entire world had also seen it, finally broke her control, and when Cyclops broke free and rescued her, she threw herself into his arms for comfort.^[88]

After the team returned to base following their escape from the Purifiers, the Shi'ar, having learned that Jean Grey had returned, attacked and took her captive. Laura fought in her defense along with the rest of the team, but was neutralized, and the Shi'ar escaped to put Jean on trial for actions her elder self-committed while in possession of the Phoenix Force.^[89]

The Guardians of the Galaxy arrived just as the Shi'ar fled,^[90] and the teams joined forces to bring her back. The Guardians' ship was attacked by a Shi'ar warship covering the kidnappers' withdrawal, and though Laura intended to join in the defense, Gamora declined her assistance, though praised her courage, leaving her and the rest of the X-Men to sit and wait. The arrival of Corsair and the Starjammers turned the tide of the battle,^[91] and the teenaged Scott was stunned and overwhelmed to learn his father was still alive. As he went to digest this in private, Laura followed after him and, after a brief conversation, returned the hug he gave her when they first met, noting that he needed it.^[92]

Upon arrival at the Shi'ar homeworld, Quill helped to formulate the plan of attack. X-23, knowing Jean's scent, volunteered to track her. However Gladiator, having anticipated their arrival, met them upon disembarking, and a fight between the combined forces of the X-Men, Shi'ar, and Starjammers against Gladiator's forces began.^[93]

Upon returning to Earth, Cyclops chose to remain with his father and left the team, asking Laura to help keep an eye on his friends.^[94] Distraught by his leaving, Laura decided to leave the team herself, with only the teenaged Warren realizing she was doing so. She rebuffed his attempt to convince her to return, however, and continued on her way. Much to her surprise, she ran into Cyclops, who claimed to have returned. However, this turned out to be a ruse, and with her guard down, the shapeshifter Raze gutted her, before disguising himself as her in turn and infiltrating the X-Men's base.^[95]

Laura, nevertheless, survived his attack and hurried back to find the X-Men under attack by the future Brotherhood. Jean used her telepathy to mask Laura's presence, and enabled her to catch Xavier, Jr. off guard, at which point she severely wounded him with her claws, breaking his control over the X-Men and enabling them to fight back.^[96] During the conflict it was discovered that Molly Hayes, Deadpool, and Beast had been mentally controlled by Xavier, and that Xorn no longer existed. While Laura fought Raze to a standstill, Xavier attempted to flee, only to be captured.^[97]

In the aftermath of the battle, Warren asked Laura on a date to unwind, to which she reluctantly agreed.^[97] Their first date led to a deeper relationship between Angel and X-23.^[98]

The Logan Legacy & Wolverines[]

After Logan's demise, the news eventually reached Laura. Angry and upset and questioning her role in life now that the man she looked to most for guidance was gone, she left the X-Men to do some soul-searching. After a heart to heart with former Alpha Flight member Colin Hume, in honor of Logan, she dyed the forelocks of her hair blue and gold. Laura remarked to Kitty that she no longer felt angry about Wolverine's death, just sad, but that she had also found a source of pride in their relationship.^[99]

Laura was kidnapped by subjects of the Weapon X program as recreated by Doctor Abraham Cornelius immediately preceding Logan's death. The subjects were looking for people with healing factors to try and help them destroy the genetic time bombs in their system, and so formed the Wolverines, which consisted of Laura, Daken, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, Mystique, and Elixir. Elixir was quickly disabled by Siphon, and Laura saved Daken from being killed by him although he had already been drained of his healing factor.^[100]

Their kidnappers threatened the Wolverines with "control words" of which there were four; one to control, one to sedate, one to kill, and one to release. They were told to retrieve Logan's adamantium-encased remains, but during the mission they encountered the Wrecking Crew, hired by Mister Sinister, and Daken had his left arm and eye taken from him. Laura demanded that Shogun use their healing serum to save him, since he had lost his healing factor, and she stayed by his side while he recovered.^[101]

The team fought Mister Sinister, and several of the Weapon X subjects decided to join him. Later, Fang appeared in front of the Wolverines, apparently blaming one or all of them for Logan's death, and Laura was the only one of the group to attempt to reason with him. Fang knew that Laura was not responsible and said that she was the only one of the group that Logan had actually liked, and he therefore would not mess with her in the same way he had for Daken and Sabretooth. Laura felt bound by her circumstances, but Fang asked her why she was content to sit back and let herself be controlled when she nearly took his head off for mentioning the Trigger Scent.^[102]

Following manipulation by Mystique, Daken leaped from the Changeling over Death Valley in pursuit of Siphon, and Laura followed, worried for his safety. On the ground, they encountered Blade fighting Siphon and a nest of vampires and worked together to fight them. During the fight, they learned that the more healing power Siphon absorbed, the more conscious and rational he became, and if forced to heal himself would revert further to a savage state. Siphon and Daken vowed a fight to the death, but once Daken lost the upper hand, Laura interfered to save him. This put Laura in danger of losing her healing factor along with Daken, and he stepped in, saying the duel wasn't over yet.

Daken and Blade worked together to defeat Siphon, but Laura convinced them not to kill him, since she knew he was an unwilling participant in an experiment and wanted to find a way to help him get control of his body again. Later on, Mystique disguised herself as Daken and tried to talk to Laura while she was training, but she saw through the disguise immediately.^[103]

After Endo and Skel were supposedly kidnapped by the Arcadia Group, Laura agreed to help Junk find them, "Even though you think I'm a monster." The "kidnapping" was a trap, and the Wolverines fought Mister Sinister for a third time. To save himself from an influenced Laura, Shogun released Laura from her control words. While Ogun fully took control of Sharp's body following his death and bought them some time against Mister Sinister, Mystique resumed giving orders to the Wolverines. Laura was reluctant, and suspected Mystique of foul play, but did as she was told. Laura's task was given to her to keep her out of the way while Mystique manipulated Daken into letting Siphon loose so that she could finish the final stage of her plan.^[104]

The Wolverines, minus Mystique, were left alone with Siphon. Laura was not happy to let Sabretooth get his healing factor drained and tried to interfere although it just resulted in a fight that got the entire group drained of their healing factors. Once Siphon regained his rationality from draining them, Portal removed him from the scene. They tracked down Mystique and tried to fight her. She threw smoke bombs which allowed her to trick Laura into getting close enough for "Daken" to wound her, and the entire group was felled in a similar fashion.^[105]

All-New Wolverine[]

Sometime after taking up the Wolverine mantle and regaining her healing factor, an anonymous tip about an assassination planned in Paris led Laura to the city to investigate. She was shot through the head protecting the intended target, but healed, and tracked the shooter to the Eiffel Tower. Laura managed to defeat the masked assassin after a short fight, but rather than be taken alive the woman called in a predator drone to finish the job before jumping off the tower to her death. Laura and Warren pursued the drone through the skies over Paris, and she was able to bring it down before it could finish off its target. Laura then returned to the Eiffel Tower and located the corpse of the assassin. Removing her mask confirmed Laura's hypothesis: the woman was her clone. She and Warren fled the scene, with Laura determined to both stop, and save, the assassins.^[3]

Upon returning to New York, she visited Alchemax Genetics to discuss the clones with its director and security chief. Laura then encountered one of the clones, Gabby, hiding in her apartment, who she realized was the one who tipped her off about the assassination. Gabby denied Chandler's accusations before fleeing. Laura tracked her to a hideout in the sewers where she was captured and interrogated by the remaining Sisters - Bellona and Zelda. Alchemax, however, followed her and attacked. Laura managed to subdue them and prevent Bellona from killing them, before they were ambushed by Taskmaster.^[106] Laura subdued him, and she and the sisters fled through the streets of New York with Captain Mooney in pursuit. She disabled his vehicle, allowing the girls to escape, and issuing a warning to Mooney that they were under her protection, before leaving him bleeding in the street to meet up with the Sisters. However, upon arrival she learned a new piece of the story: the girls were dying. Unable to turn to any of her usual contacts, she instead took them to the Sanctum Sanctorum, seeking the aid of Doctor Strange.^[107]

After an altercation with a portal to evil in Strange's living room, he teleported them all to a hospital to investigate what was killing the girls. After examining Zelda, Strange discovered nanites inhabiting their brains that were responsible both for their inability to feel pain, and their declining health. Unable to operate on them directly, Strange teleported the girls to one of Hank Pym's labs to borrow an Ant-Man Suit.^[108] They were interrupted by Wasp, who agreed to help Laura enter Zelda's blood to fight the machines. They were successful, however attacking the nanites triggered a distress call alerting Mooney to their location. He tracked them down and fatally wounded Zelda before Laura and Jan were able to escape her body and subdue him. With her dying breath Zelda begged Laura to stop holding back, and to go after Alchemax. Jan offered the help of the Avengers, but Laura refused, insisting it was her and the surviving Sisters' responsibility to punish Alchemax for their transgressions.^[109]

Wolverine and the surviving Sisters allowed Mooney to escape and lead them back to Alchemax's bunker. Laura infiltrated the base by disguising herself as Bellona and allowing herself to be "killed" as a ruse. Upon awakening in the morgue, she captured the scientists there and forced them to upload all data on Chandler's activities to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s servers and contacted Maria Hill to call her in to clean up. While Bellona and Gabby dealt with Mooney, Laura intercepted Chandler and hobbled him before he could escape, ensuring his capture when Hill's forces arrived. She and Gabby then left the bunker together.^[27]

Following the destruction of Alchemax Genetics, Laura allowed Gabby to stay with her while it was decided what was to become of her. Gabby preferred to stay with Laura, however Laura intended to find a safe place elsewhere that Gabby could live a normal life, away from the chaos and danger of a superhero. Gabby's resistance and fear of being left alone dredged up painful memories of Laura's own desire to be a family with Logan; it took a visit by Squirrel Girl, who arrived bearing an actual wolverine she had named Jonathan, for Laura to realize the best place for Gabby all along was with her.^[110]

Second Superhuman Civil War[]

Following an incident off the coast of the United States, in which several S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives vanished while disrupting an arms deal, Maria Hill contacted Laura to request her assistance investigating the disappearances. The only clue was the wreckage of the boat the arms dealer used, and a box pulled from the water. Hill specifically contacted Laura because the first person she called in, and who also disappeared, was Old Man Logan. When Agent Fitz opened the box at Hill's direction, Laura caught the scent of its contents and realized what happened, warning Hill to pull her helicarrier to a safer altitude. However the warning came too late, and the carrier came under attack by Fin Fang Foom, who was attracted by the pheromone — a synthesized aphrodisiac — contained within the box, and likely attacked both the missing S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Logan as well. Laura resolved to rescue Logan, and leaped down Foom's throat while his mouth was open.^[111]

While Laura climbed down through Foom's digestive tract, Iron Man and Captain Marvel arrived to assist but Hill had to ask them to avoid attacking Foom while Laura was inside; when Foom destroyed one of the helicarrier's props the two slowed its fall to the ocean. Laura managed to rescue the half-digested Logan, escaped back up to Foom's mouth, and instructed Gabby, having arrived via S.H.I.E.L.D. Flight Pack to take him somewhere safe. Meanwhile, she covered her clothing in the spilled pheromone and used it to lure an amorous Foom out to sea. Laura was distressed when she returned home that evening to discover that Gabby brought Logan there to recover, as she adamantly refused to accept that he was her Logan. However Logan awoke, and struck her speechless when he revealed that he recognized the apartment and that it was where he raised her.^[112]

Laura found herself drawn into the conflict over the precognitive Inhuman Ulysses Cain, when Ulysses had a vision that Logan would kill Gabby. Captain America was dispatched by S.H.I.E.L.D. to detain Logan to ensure the girl's safety, but Laura, Logan, and Gabby all objected to imprisoning him for something he hadn't done. However, a fight broke out after Logan fled with Gabby under the guise of collecting his belongings and cooperating, with Rogers breaking away to pursue. With Logan and Gabby escaping using a pair of S.H.I.E.L.D. Flight Packs, Hill elected to shoot Logan down before he could get away. This, combined with S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives firing on him with tranquilizers drove him into a feral rage. Gabby attempted to calm him, but in the confusion, he confused her for the Gabby of his home reality, and Laura watched helplessly as Gabby was impaled on his claws. Mad with grief, Laura tracked Logan into the sewers where he fled, still in his maddened state, and engaged him in a brief fight. Just as she was preparing a killing blow Logan snapped out of his berserk state and pleaded with her to stop, but it was only Gabby's arrival, revealing she survived her injuries because of her hidden healing factor, that convinced her to back down. However, she rejected Logan's attempt to justify his actions because of his knowledge of Gabby in his universe, and she permanently severed contact with him, demanding he leave them alone and never approach them again. She then regrouped with Rogers, advising him she was letting Logan go — she refused to blame him for his actions, accepting that he was driven to it by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s carelessness. Laura then departed, warning Rogers of the probable consequences of the conflict over Ulysses' visions and demanding that she and Gabby be left out of it.^[113]

Enemy of the State[]

While packing up the apartment, Laura received a package containing a vial of the trigger scent, which spurred Laura into leaving with Gabby and Jonathan the wolverine. They drove to one of Logan's cabins out in California. As Laura ventured into a nearby town, overhead planes released the trigger scent, making Laura blackout and awaken to the town destroyed with its population killed. Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived on the bloody scene to apprehend her, but she escaped and planned a course to Madripoor for answers. Reluctantly, Laura brought Gabby and Jonathan along.^{[citation needed]}

They voyaged to Madripoor on a pirate ship under the charge of Captain Ash, whom Laura was once sent to kill. Upon arrival, Laura turned on Captain Ash because she was transporting children as her cargo. Captain Ash suddenly shot her in the stomach, but Laura ultimately threw her overboard as several helicopters hovered overhead, out of which Kimura's newest henchmen Bellona and Roughhouse appeared. Laura surrendered in order to avoid any of the children getting hurt and was taken to Kimura, while Gabby and Jonathan were being held captive on the ship to be transported back to the States.^[114]

Using the knowledge of Megan and Debbie's location against Laura, Kimura confined her in a torture chamber for a week to ensure that she came out angry. Kimura planted the trigger scent in the bloodstream of Tyger Tiger, whose leadership Kimura would fill once Tiger died, and set a frenzied Laura after her. Luckily, an escaped Gabby intervened, and Gambit had to explode Laura in order to stop her completely.^[115] Laura woke up to see Gabby, young Warren, and Remy in Tyger Tiger's safehouse.

Young Jean was also brought there to help erase the trigger scent's effects from Laura's mind. While telling Laura that she loved her, Gabby poured the trigger scent on herself to begin the reconditioning. As Laura lashed out at Gabby, Jean mentally found Laura's consciousness hiding with her younger self who was being read Pinocchio by her mother, Sarah Kinney, when she was still with the Facility. Jean said she understood why Laura's mind retreated to a safe memory in order to block out the pain associated with the trigger scent. Laura broke the trigger scent's control over her just in time to join the fight against Kimura and her forces, who had tracked the S.H.I.E.L.D. planes that had arrived also searching for Laura. During the battle, Laura used an old Iron Man suit to ambush Kimura and eventually drown her in the ocean's shallows. A defeated Bellona surrendered to S.H.I.E.L.D., having revealed that it was she who slaughtered the Californian townspeople with her now adamantium-laced dual claws as a contingency because Laura had stabbed herself in the skull to stop herself.^{[citation needed]}

A week later, Laura, Warren, Gabby, and Jonathan arrived at Megan and Debbie's house. Warren commented that he'd never seen her more scared. Laura was embraced by her family as she reassured them of their safety and that there was no need to hide anymore.^[116]

Immune[]

Following their discovery of the child trafficking operation in Madripoor, Laura and Gabby began dismantling the operation by force. During one of these such raids, on the East River in New York, an alien craft was deflected from Manhattan and into Roosevelt Island by Ironheart. The vessel was carrying a very ill alien child from the Shi'ar Empire and said the name "Laura Kinney" to Ironheart before she died. S.H.I.E.L.D. sent Captain Marvel to retrieve Laura to try and understand what was going on and stop the virus the alien child was carrying from killing the whole island.^{[citation needed]}

Dr. Monica Rappaccini stole the child's body from the hospital and attempted to see if she could glean anything about a possible cure from it. Laura apprehended her but agreed to let Dr. Rappaccini run some tests on Laura's reaction to the virus. Gabby, thinking Laura was in danger, destroyed Dr. Rappaccini's equipment. Working with Beast, Bobbi Morse, Amadeus Cho, Nadia Pym, Peter Parker, and Stephen Strange, they determined that Laura's healing factor could absorb and destroy the virus from other hosts.^{[citation needed]}

Laura set about trying to cure the island and asked that Gabby not try to help since she couldn't feel pain and wouldn't be able to tell when she reached her limit. Worrying that she was taking on too much by herself, Doctor Strange sent in Daken, Old Man Logan, and Deadpool to help spread out the workload. She was surprised that Daken would come to help, and he said that he wasn't doing it for the island, only her. Deadpool, meanwhile, said he had been offered a gigantic amount of money.^{[citation needed]}

Although Laura was reluctant to talk to Logan at first, he apologized for what had happened during their last encounter and Laura told him that she was glad he was sorry. Although they were both weak from absorbing so much of the virus, he said it still felt pretty good to be helping people instead of stabbing them. Laura managed to eradicate the last of the virus on the island, although she was unconscious for two weeks after doing so.^[117]

Once she regained consciousness, Gabby told her that they had been offered an apartment on Roosevelt Island. Laura said she didn't accept rewards, but Gabby said that she had already accepted the offer and that technically it was her apartment, although she'd love to have Laura stay with her. Captain Marvel came to see Laura and let her know that a cure to the virus was being developed, and Laura said she would take the cure to the Arfesia's planet to try and eradicate the virus entirely with the help of the Guardians of the Galaxy.^{[citation needed]}

After a week of space travel, they reached a moon on which a Shi'ar base was being constantly swarmed by The Brood. Once they landed on the moon, Gabby, Jonathan, and Baby Groot stayed behind on the ship while Wolverine and the Guardians tried to make contact with the moon base. Gabby became enraged after the Brood attacked Jonathan and was subsequently captured. Drax prevented Laura from going after Gabby, believing that she was dead, and she and the Guardians entered the base, where Fang was waiting for them.^{[citation needed]}

Arfesia had been sent to Earth with a list of names, including those of the scientists that had eventually developed the cure for the virus. She had only been able to give Laura's before she died. The virus had been engineered to try and control the Brood but had backfired and not only made the Brood angrier, but infected the Shi'ar people as well.^{[citation needed]}

Laura insisted on going after Gabby, and even when she saw her turn into a Brood Queen, refused to let the Guardians destroy the moon with her on it. After Gabby's healing factor purged the Brood Queen and everyone was safely off the planet, Laura asked Rocket if he could still blow up the moon. Rocket said he could do it at the click of a button, and at the protests of Chief Scientist Rankine, Gabby did the honors.^[118]

Orphans of X[]

Laura and Gabby were made aware that Daken's left arm had been found hanging from a bridge, and a scent left at the scene led Laura to believe that he had been taken to the Facility. Sneaking out of the apartment and asking Jonathan to look after Gabby, Laura got Warren to fly her out to the Facility. She found a tank in which a figure was submerged and smashed it, believing it was Daken. Instead, it was her mother, Sarah Kinney.^[119]

Laura took Sarah to Debbie and Megan's house, and Gabby met her there with Jonathan. Sarah claimed that someone had saved her after Laura had left her in the snow outside the Facility, and stored her in a tank. She told Laura that whoever it was that had saved her was looking for a way to kill the Wolverines, and Laura called Carol Danvers to ask her to throw the Muramasa Blade into the Sun.^[120]

Hearing gunfire, Laura ran from the house and saw Daken recklessly driving a car down the street. Confused at the lack of people pursuing him, Daken came inside with Laura, but was acting agitated, saying that he had been tortured for days by the Orphans of X and had seen them monitoring this house.^[120]

Daken was suspicious of the timing of Sarah's sudden return from the dead. At Laura's mention of Sarah's regular heartbeat, Daken aimed a gun at her, and, not hearing a change and concluding that she was not human, shot Laura's mother. This caused Laura to attack Daken, and Gabby and Megan to follow suit. He tried to explain that it wasn't Sarah, but Laura refused to listen until she knelt beside Sarah and her eyes started to glow green, saying that the Orphans of X were coming for her. Laura called Captain Marvel to call off her pursuit of the Muramasa Blade, but she was too late to warn her and suicide bombers from the Orphans of X incapacitated Carol, and the Blade was retrieved by Amber Griffen.^[121]

Laura, Daken, Gabby, Jonathan, Megan, and Debbie called Danger, the AI and pilot for the X-Men, and she helped them to evade helicopters sent by the Orphans. Realizing that Madripoor would not be safe for them, Laura instead asked Danger to take them to Tokyo, after which they travelled through the sewers to get to Muramasa himself.^[122]

Once there, Muramasa forged a set of armor using pieces of Laura, Gabby, and Daken's essence as well as the piece of Logan's that he already had from forging the Muramasa Shield.^[122] Laura was reluctant to rest afterwards, but Debbie insisted on keeping her in bed. Days later, the Orphans of X found them, and Laura was able to put the Muramasa Armor to the test, using it to protect her family from the Hand, who had been employed by the Orphans, as well as the Orphans themselves.^[123]

Daken allowed himself to be captured and killed so that Wolverine and Honey Badger - which was Gabby's new superhero name at his suggestion - could track his location to find the Orphans' base.^[123] Laura was able to revive him along with Old Man Logan, Lady Deathstrike, and Sabretooth. Wolverine asked that Sabretooth and Deathstrike not kill anybody, and they questioned the last Orphan conscious, who told them that they were the families of the Wolverines' victims. They had decided to come together in organized violent action after the incident on Roosevelt Island, because they were sickened by the sources of their nightmares being hailed as heroes.^[124]

Laura learned that Henry Sutter, who she had spared from assassination while she was still an assassin for the Facility, was the one who had organized the group. She decided to talk to the Orphans directly and help them see that she was a victim as well. As she talked, she shed the Muramasa Armor and explained what she had been made to do. She also revealed to Amber that Henry Sutter's father had been the one that ordered the hit that collaterally killed her father. The Orphans of X took a vote and decided to accept the help of Wolverine, Honey Badger, Old Man Logan, and Daken to bring the real people responsible to justice.^[124]

After Laura recovered from the wounds she sustained during the confrontation, a funeral was held for Sarah Kinney. Daken had helped to arrange it by asking the Orphans for Sarah's true body, because he wanted Laura to have a chance to say goodbye.^[124]

After Gabby didn't return from taking Jonathan for a walk, Laura tracked her down and found that she and Deadpool had started to destroy the lab where Jonathan had been abused. Gabby said she didn't call her because she was worried that Laura would try to stop her, but Laura assured her that she would have come. Together, they set the building alight and watched it burn.^[125]

After going over the files Henry had obtained about his father's work, Laura discovered a connection from Martin Sutter to a lobbyist for a Neo-Nazi organization named Chad Newman. Newman was the man who had targeted Greg Johnson on X-23's first mission and was therefore indirectly responsible for the death of Amber's father. Laura advised that Amber pack a pair of extra-large Nazi-stomping boots on their trip to Vanuatu to find Newman. Amber took this advice to heart, and when they tracked him down, she offered to lend Laura the right foot so that they could get their justice together.^[126]

Hunting Wolverine[]

Sometime following her encounters with the Orphans of X, Laura became embroiled in the investigation into Logan's missing corpse purely by chance when she encountered a team led by Iron Man and consisting of Spider-Man, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage. Stark's team and Laura were both independently investigating the auction of genetic material by Mr. Sinister aboard his submarine.^[127]

After breaking up the auction and escaping the floundering vessel, Laura joined the other heroes in pursuing Sinister to his research base in the Kerguelen Islands. There they discovered that Sinister was compiling an enormous database of genetic material from everyone on earth.^[128]

Stark's interest in Essex's work caused a brief conflict with the rest of the group as they debated how to proceed; Laura and the others wanted to destroy the installation immediately, but Stark saw potential in what Essex had compiled. However, any further debate was silenced first by a handful of guards, and then the discovery that not only were mutants missing from the database, but someone else had beaten them there and wiped out the majority of the defenses.^[18]

They eventually discovered the location of the missing mutant information at another terminal, which was heavily encrypted. Stark observed while decrypting it that the mutant database had been recently copied, and again came to a disagreement with the rest of the team, who insisted they honor a wish by Logan to prevent his body from ever being used. Their debate was interrupted again when Sinister himself attacked, though weakened by the previous attack the team made short work of him. Sinister made a final appeal to Stark — scientist to scientist — to see the potential, but Stark relented upon remembering Logan's own appeal to be better than that and destroyed the database.^[18]

Back in Harlem, Laura noticed that Stark had been watching her since their escape from Sinister's base. She confronted him, and Stark admitted that before the database had been destroyed, he had decrypted and looked at the data, and that Laura's gene file was one of the files he had seen. Stark then told Laura that she was not a clone of Logan after all and asked her about Sarah. Taken aback, Laura related Sarah's role in her creation, and that she viewed her as her mother. Stark then told her when he looked at her file, he noticed that a substantial amount of her genetic makeup came from Sarah, making Laura her biological daughter, as well, leaving her stunned by the revelation.^[18]

Wolverine No More[]

After her time with Jean Grey's X-Men.^[25] Laura gave up the Wolverine moniker and returned to her X-23 codename. She specifically chose the name — which she had long come to hate — as a symbolic warning to those she was hunting that their own creation was coming for them.^[129]

Laura and Gabby, with the help of Hank McCoy, began to track down people who were involved in the cloning of Laura and subsequent projects. At the same time, Gabby became fixated on the idea of a birthday after learning the Cuckoos celebrated one. For their birthday the remaining three Cuckoos had planned to bring their two sisters back from the dead. Because their psychic powers were incompatible with the cloned bodies they constructed, Esme transferred her consciousness to a kidnapped Gabby, hoping to utilize her healing factor. Meanwhile, Sophie, whose body's destruction had been accelerated by Esme, contacted Laura psychically and offered her assistance.^[130]

When Mindee came to find Laura, Sophie persuaded her to their side, and they drove to the X-Mansion to face the others. In the midst of the fight between Laura and Esme, Mindee slipped into the mansion to use Cerebro, and together with Phoebe and Celeste, they trapped her in the psychic plane after being removed from Gabby. Later on, Gabby invited some X-Men friends to their apartment for a 'funeral party' for Esme, which included cake and party hats.^[131]

Age of X-Man[]

In the reality created by Nate Grey and a Life Seed, a world where everyone on Earth was a mutant and relationships were strongly discouraged or illegal, Laura became a member of that reality's X-Men, the primary response team to all matters of worldwide threats and danger. She unknowingly replaced Bishop on the X-Men after he was arrested by Department X for having a forbidden relationship with Jean Grey, and all traces of his existence were erased.^[132]

Nate Grey's illusion didn't take long to show some glitches and Laura started seeing glimpses of her past life with Gabby, during one of her first missions with the team. After talking to Nate about it, he confessed she had indeed a sister, but shoved it aside, claiming they all made sacrifices.^[133]

She remained with the team for a while, but her suspicion that something wasn't right never went away. After finding Bishop's secret armory in her place and talking with the other X-Men about it, the assembled X-Men began to plan how to confront their teammate. Although they had developed a peaceful approach to confront Nate, tensions spilled over at their meeting and the X-Men attacked him head on.^[134]

Nate soon revealed his involvement in the creation and maintenance of the reality, and the physical and mental toll it was taking upon his body. While revealing the truth, members of the X-Tracts and the Danger Room prison (that included Gabby) attacked the gathered group, forcing the X-Men to protect Nate until matters could be sorted. After a brief skirmish, Nate revealed images of Cyclops and the other remaining mutants from the mainstream reality, using the images to highlight the pain and suffering caused by their relationships with one another and humanity, and taunting each of them with some fear or insecurity, with Laura attacked over a deep-seated fear that she could never escape Logan's shadow. Jean insisted that their bonds with others were what made them who they were and that they needed to be able to make mistakes together. After some discussion over what they were returning to and the ramifications of dismantling this reality upon its inhabitants, the X-Men eventually all decided to leave the manufactured utopia and returned home.^[135]

Krakoa and the Vault[]

Later, Laura became one of the inhabitants of the nation of Krakoa. She teamed up with Psylocke and young Cable in investigating the new threat of Apoth.^[136]

Not long after, she resumed using the Wolverine codename and was picked along with Darwin and Synch to go into the Vault in Ecuador, as she was one of the few mutants who could survive the temporal disparity. As soon as the three entered the Vault, they seemed to lose contact with the X-Men, and because time moved much quicker inside the Vault, the trio were stuck within for centuries.^[29] During their first day, while engaging the Children of the Vault in battle, Laura killed Serafina and Fuego. After seeing her teammates killed, Aguja angrily killed herself by projecting a force field that destroyed everything around her in an attempt to kill her foes.^[137]

However, Wolverine recovered with her healing factor, as did her teammates. The team then spent 100 years inside the Vault gathering intelligence on the Children and learned that the City could resurrect any Children that were killed through cloning in order to continuously evolve them.^[11] Wolverine and Synch also became romantically involved, although it took Laura time to warm up to him - their first kiss didn't happen until their 217th year together.^[138] After Wolverine and Darwin were captured, Synch, who couldn't rely on Wolverine's longevity powers anymore, fled the Vault for a week and returned 100 years having passed. He managed to rescue Wolverine, but Darwin was captured by the City in order to learn how to create a new generation of Children. The couple then attempted to leave the Vault, but Wolverine had to stand behind to hold off the Children while Synch fled outside. Synch was also eventually killed by the Children but managed to make telepathic contact with X and ensure everything he'd learned about the Vault was passed onto his resurrected form. Wolverine was also resurrected, but without the memories of their time in the Vault, leaving Synch with the burden of remembering their time together all alone.^[11]

It remained unknown to anyone that the newly-resurrected Laura was a duplicate, as the original Laura was not killed, but captured and kept alive by the Children inside the Vault.^[139] Forge eventually discovered her on a rescue mission for whom he thought was Darwin and managed to get her out of the Vault. Now sporting a gray streak in her hair, Laura was welcomed by the X-Men who immediately called for Synch. As soon as he got on the spot, Laura jumped into his arms in a passionate kiss.^[30] Afterwards, she moved with him into the X-Men's Treehouse in New York City. After some spending some time together with Synch, they went for a talk with the younger Laura whom until then everyone presumed to be the original. The two women met up in Detroit and set up some rules for their now shared existence. The younger Laura forfeited her resurrection rights to the older Laura but insisted that she would keep the name "Wolverine". The older Laura agreed but warned that she wasn't looking for future socializing or even encounters between them.^[31] She then adopted her old codename "Talon".^[2]

Fall of X[]

Talon and Synch were elected to remain on the X-Men at the third Hellfire Gala, being joined by veteran heroes such as Juggernaut, Frenzy, and Jubilee. However, the Gala was attacked by the forces of the anti-Mutant terrorist group Orchis. All of the new X-Men bar Talon, Synch, and Juggernaut were killed by Nimrod, and most other mutants were either killed, captured, or banished from Earth, entering Krakoan gateways that sent them to Vanaheim or the White Hot Room.^[140] With Marvel Girl seemingly dead, Cyclops in Orchis captivity, and most other mutant heroes in hiding or acting as part of other teams (including Captain America's Avengers Unity Division, Goblin Queen's Dark X-Men, or Sage's X-Force), Everett and Laura found themselves as the new leaders of the X-Men. With a team composed of Kate Pryde (now going by Shadowkat), Juggernaut, Ms. Marvel, and Rasputin IV, a hideout in the Morlock tunnels underneath New York, and allies including Spider-Man, Firestar, Emma Frost, and Iron Man, the new X-Men began plotting a counterattack on Orchis.^[141]

As part of these preparations, Everett and Laura mounted an assault on the High Evolutionary, hoping to forcibly recruit his help. This failed disastrously, with Laura being completely disintegrated, her consciousness living on in Everett's mind thanks to telepathy borrowed from Marvel Girl.^[15] However, without Laura's healing factor to draw upon, Synch's body began rapidly aging due to the prolonged synching of Jean's power from memory. After the mental imprint of Talon urged him to not dwell upon her and join the fight against Orchis instead, Synch was forced to let her go.^[16]

Under the Facility, Laura was raised to be a living weapon and treated as a tool, with only her mother Sarah Kinney and her sensei treating her with kindness. Being forced to kill them under the influence of the Trigger Scent was a deeply traumatic experience for Laura, who internalized a deep sense of self-loathing and guilt. Without a healthy outlet for her depression, she began cutting herself with her claws - a habit that continued well into her teenage years,^[142] and was also prone to outbursts of extreme rage and violence similar to her father's. For much of her life, Laura struggled with her self-loathing and the belief that her past as an assassin made her unworthy of being an X-Man. Another source of angst for her was whether she could be considered a real person and had a soul, as she had been raised to believe she was an imperfect clone of Wolverine.^{[53][77][143]}

With the support of Logan and the rest of the X-Men, Laura was slowly able to work towards overcoming her traumas -- best seen when she cast aside her Facility-assigned codename of X-23 and took up the mantle of Wolverine after Logan's death; rejecting Kimura's attempts to gaslight her by affirming her identity as Logan and Sarah's daughter.^[144]

Laura Kinney is a second generation mutant and possesses powers similar to those of her father, Logan.^{[citation needed]} Laura's accelerated cellular regeneration augments her natural strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes.^{[citation needed]} She has been classified as a severe threat by both the O*N*E^[145] and Nimrod.^[50]

• Regenerative Healing Factor: Like Wolverine, Laura's primary mutant power is an accelerated healing factor that enables her to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue with far greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. She is capable of fully healing injuries resulting in massive tissue damage and blood loss such as multiple bullet wounds, slash wounds, and puncture wounds within a matter of minutes. Her healing factor is developed to such a degree, she is capable of reattaching severed limbs, such as a hand. She has also proven capable of regrowing an entire arm on her own (Elixir was incapacitated at the time).^[146] Her healing factor may fluctuate with her psychological state as battle wounds tend to heal very quickly, but her self-inflicted cuts appear to remain visible for some time.^{[citation needed]}
  • Foreign Chemical Immunity: X-23's natural healing also affords her the virtual immunity to poisons and most drugs. She can be affected by some drugs, such as tranquilizers, if she is exposed to a massive dose.^{[citation needed]}
  • Disease Immunity: Due to her highly efficient immune system, X-23 is immune to all Earthly diseases and infections.^{[citation needed]}
  • Longevity: Presumably, because Laura is the daughter of the mutant Wolverine, her healing factor will also provide her with an extended lifespan by slowing the effects of the aging process.^[142] This was seen during her time in the Vault where time moved much more quickly than time in the outside world. She spent at least 200 years there and was able to maintain her youth to an extent.^[11]
  • Superhumanly Acute Senses: Laura possesses superhumanly acute senses that are comparable to those of certain animals. She is capable of seeing at much greater distances — and with perfect clarity — than an ordinary human, and her visual acuity is so refined she is able to see a single Sentinite with her naked eye.^[147] She retains this same level of clarity in near-total darkness. Her sense of hearing is enhanced in a similar manner, allowing her to both hear sounds that ordinary humans can't and to hear sounds that ordinary humans can, but at much greater distances. X-23 is able to use her highly developed sense of smell to track targets by scent with an impressive degree of success, even hours afterwards. She was even able to detect the victim of a killing had high cholesterol by scent alone.^[58]
  • Superhuman Agility: Laura's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.^{[citation needed]}
  • Superhuman Reflexes: Laura's reflexes are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. In at least one case she reacts to and slices in half with her claws a bullet fired at her face from nearly point-blank range.^[148]
  • Superhuman Durability: She was capable of fighting the Hulk without sustaining any severe injuries^[55] and surviving energy blasts from Nimrod (even if she required healing and nearly died).^[50]
  • Superhuman Stamina: Laura's muscles produce considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the muscles of an ordinary human. She can exert herself at peak capacity for about 24 hours before fatigue begins to impair her.^{[citation needed]}

• Bone Claws: Laura's skeleton includes two retractable bone claws in each arm and one in each foot that she can extend and retract at will. These claws are housed beneath the skin and muscle. Unsheathing them causes her skin to tear and bleed, but the wounds are quickly dealt with by her healing factor. X-23 can unsheathe any number of these claws at once, although she must keep her wrists and/or feet straight at the moment the claws emerge. The claws are naturally sharp and tougher than normal human bone, allowing X-23 to cut through most types of flesh and natural materials.^{[citation needed]}

• Psychic Defenses: Laura has demonstrated a level of resistance against psychic probes and attacks: When she first arrived at the Xavier School it took Emma Frost time to finally break through them and be able to freely probe her mind.^[21] Her defenses were also strong enough to expel Mr. Sinister's consciousness when he attempted to take over her body.^[14]

• Expert Covert Ops Training: Raised in captivity, due to her extensive training as a top-secret operative, X-23 has been trained to become a living weapon. She is highly trained in the use of long-range weapons and explosives and is an expert in assassination techniques.^{[citation needed]}

• Expert Tracker: Due to her enhanced sense of smell, Laura is a dangerous tracker and has memorized many different scents.^{[citation needed]}

• Master Martial Artist: She is a master in hand-to-hand combatant, with intensive training in numerous armed and unarmed martial arts techniques during her time in the facility.^[32]

• Master Acrobat: She is an Olympic class athlete, gymnast, acrobat, and aerialist capable of numerous complex maneuvers and feats.^{[citation needed]}

• Multilingual: Laura can speak fluent English, French,^[37] and Japanese.^[149] She says she is fluent in many other languages,^{[citation needed]} and has been shown speaking Russian.^[150]

• Gifted Intellect: She possesses the ability to quickly process multiple information streams (e.g., threat assessment) and rapidly respond to changing tactical situations,^{[citation needed]} being able to produce precise odds in different situations.^[151] Additionally, Laura has been stated to have a photographic memory.^[152]

• Powerful Energy Blasts: Injuries such as being hit with blasts of energy from Nimrod that caused her to age can't be healed; if she had been hit with it again she most likely would have died.^{[citation needed]}

• Self-Harm: Laura has a history of cutting herself with her claws due to feelings of depression and guilt. These wounds heal much slower than injuries inflicted by others. Laura first began practicing self-harm after being forced to kill her sensei as a child, and her arms showed visible scars for some time after.^[32]

• Muramasa Blade: Like her father and brother, Laura cannot heal from injuries caused the Muramasa Blade because it cuts on a molecular level. However, she is able to heal naturally from such wounds by cutting away the inflicted flesh with any other blade.^[119]

• Tranquilizers: Laura can be subdued with a high enough dose of tranquilizers.^[153]

• Adamantium: Laura's claws were coated with the nigh-indestructible metal Adamantium.^[32]. As a result, her claws are virtually unbreakable and are capable of cutting almost any substance, with the exceptions of Adamantium itself and Captain America's shield. Her ability to slice completely through a substance depends upon the amount of force she can exert and the thickness of the substance. Also, since the bones of her hands and wrists are not laced with Adamantium, it is likely that the reverberation of her claws could conceivably break her hands with significant force. Unlike Wolverine, the presence of Adamantium in her body is not sufficient enough to interfere with her bones' normal function of generating blood corpuscles, although it is as possible that some degree of her immune system is distracted by the presence of the foreign substance. Her claws can cut through the Hulk's skin and eyes.^{[55][verification needed]}
• Muramasa Armor
• Muramasa Shield
• Wolverine's Suit

• X23 was originally made for the television series X-Men: Evolution, in a version with brown hair and a brown complexion. The character's creator, Craig Kyle, explained that while the original X-23 resembled the girl that he photographed as reference for the character designer, the comics version had some redesigning by NYX artist Joshua Middleton to make her look more like Wolverine.^[155]
• The six-part miniseries which revealed X-23's backstory had the same writers as the X-Men: Evolution episodes that introduced her, Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost.^[156]
• Laura had no citizenship prior to Krakoa.^[7]
• X-23's watch-timer in her self-titled limited series was always set to 22 minutes.^[34]
• While under the Trigger scent influence, she is a mindless killer that destroys anything in her path.
• The choice of her name, Laura, was influenced by Logan.^{[citation needed]}
• In the two page spread of X-23 #3, she kills people around the world, the times shown are Craig Kyle's friends' birthdays.^{[citation needed]}
• Talon was Laura's official X-Men code name assigned when she joined the New X-Men, not the more commonly used X-23.^[50]
• Laura demonstrates a preference for spicy foods. During her first solo series she tells Gambit this is because her diet under the facility was nutritious, but very bland.^[149] One of her favorite dishes is a takeout order called a "Twenty-Five with Chicken" (with all the flavor of Twenty-Five).^[111]
• At some point, Logan adopts Laura as his daughter, telling her that she's more than just his clone.^[157]
• Laura has demonstrated a violent aversion to, if not outright hatred of, human or sex traffickers:
  • She once summarily beheaded a pimp she caught abusing a prostitute.^[65]
  • Upon meeting the first Alice clone, she mistakenly identified her as an abused prostitute (she was actually attempting to lure her into capture for Miss Sinister). When the girl's failure resulted in her execution by her handler, Laura angrily murdered him in retaliation, still believing him to be a pimp.^[67]
  • When taunted by a former member of Zebra Daddy's gang over her past, she stabbed him in the groin with her claws and angrily told him he would never have her or any other woman, before leading Jubilee on an impromptu mission to shut down his trafficking operation that may have resulted in the deaths of several other members of the organization.^[72]
  • She also came to blows with Captain Ash upon uncovering her trafficking operations while en route to Madripoor, and later made a point of attacking her supplier, Yvgeny.^[158]
  • However she does not seem to have the same reaction to the Johns themselves; when mistaken for a prostitute while trying to relax after Logan's death, she let the man propositioning her down easy after rejecting his advances, and later saved his life when the club they were in was attacked by the Happy Clams.^[99]
• In Generations:The Best, Logan states Laura has his mother's eyes.
• Laura is 20 years old at the time of All-New Wolverine.^[121]

• X-23 has been known to practice self-harm,^[9] and has injured herself on a consistent basis using her claws from a young age. She was first seen engaging in the behavior after killing her sensei under the effects of the trigger scent.^[32]
• Wolverine established when introducing her to the other X-children that she could kill all of them if she wanted to, so that they better not give her a reason to, however, that remains to be seen.^[159]
• Laura has expressed a close friendship with her cousin Megan, who was one of the first people to treat her as a human being. She also is close with Cessily,^[9] Hellion,^[9] Gambit, and the other New X-Men, though her exterior makes it difficult to judge her true feelings for most of the team.^{[citation needed]}
• During her time with the X-Men, Shadowcat, Marvel Girl, and Psylocke counted her as a friend.^[43][160]
• Her healing factor acts faster than Wolverine's due to the lack of Adamantium in her body, but since she is so young, it fluctuates to the point that it becomes slower more often than faster.^{[citation needed]}
• An alternate version of Deadpool has stated to Laura that in his past (possibly her future) there was an X-29 who was much funnier.^[161] This can be an alternate version of her or another clone. Soon after there was a story arc with the Facility attempting to clone X-23.^[75] Of course, this could also be Deadpool just messing with her since no one ever knows when he is being serious or not.
• It's stated that Laura Kinney, 'professional hard-case with zero patience', thinks bananas smell like nail polish remover.^[162]
• At the end of Wolverines Laura had her healing factor drained by Siphon. However in All-New Wolverine it has been restored and is operating at its normal capacity. How she regained her healing abilities has not been explained.
• Concept art by All-New Wolverine artist David López places Laura's apartment at an address of 634 Melrose Ave. in the Bronx. The apartment design is based on a real building located at 645 Melrose.^[163]
• Laura once stated to Storm that she never loses at chess.^[164]

Clone Or Not[]

Cloning Process[]

Extracting/Obtaining the damage DNA. Reassembling/Reconstructing DNA's hereditary information (Genome) and the X chromosome using a protein base biotechnology and phylogenetic inference method. Repairing is accomplished by surveying the DNA for any unwanted modifications (damage) once found enzymes are cut into the DNA to remove the damaged DNA. Rebuilding this is accomplished by proteins called DNA polymerases, and there are several kinds of these in each cell. Since the DNA damage is in one strand at a time, the other strand has the information required to copy itself. After the DNA synthesis, there is a ligation process in which the gaps in the DNA are sealed and a new, intact double helix is formed. Replacing the nuclei of the Ovarian Egg with the restored genetic material of Wolverine. At this point, the egg of the host is considered fertilized. The embryo is then transferred into the womb of Sarah for gestation. By a process of maternal inheritance the baby will develop traits of the carrier (mother) through mitochondrial DNA in the Uterus. The baby will also have identical genetics to Wolverine.^{[citation needed]}

It would eventually be confirmed Laura was indeed not a clone at all, but rather the genetic daughter of Logan and Sarah Kinney after Tony Stark viewed Laura's genetic material in a database compiled by Sinister, who had noted substantial amounts of Sarah's DNA in her genetic code.^[18] How Sarah's DNA came to be part of Laura's genome (such as whether Sarah used her own genetic material to repair the damaged sections) has yet to be explored.

A Letter from Laura's Mother[]

Recommended Reading[]

• NYX #3-7
• Uncanny X-Men #450-451
• X-23 #1-6
• X-23: Target X #1-6
• X-Force (Vol. 3) #17-20
• X-23 (Vol. 3) #1-3
• All-New X-Men #19-20
• Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #1-7
• Wolverines #1-20
• All-New Wolverine #1-6