Saturday, May 21, 2022

Saturday Splash Page #21

 
"The (Metaphorical) Claws Come Out," in X-23 (vol. 2) #11, by Mariko Tamaki (writer), Diego Orlotegui (penciler), Walden Wong (inker), Chris O'Halloran (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer)

After her first ongoing series ended, Laura Kinney had to wait five years to get another, by which time she had a different codename. All New Wolverine ran for 35 issues, and we'll get to it (someday). Almost as soon as it ended, though, she got shunted back to her old codename, and another ongoing series to go with.

This series still focused on Laura trying to deal with her history as a designed weapon. But where previously that had been through either trying to bring her under their control, or focused on the trigger scent that made her go berserk, this series looked at those who were trying to make more weapons like her, minus that inconvenient free will.

But Tamaki seems more interested in the differences in opinion between Laura and Gabby, who is a younger clone version of her. Despite that, differences in age and experience mean they see things differently (which is always something I find interesting to play with about clones.) Not just that Gabby is more versed in pop culture references and phrases (I feel like Tamaki downgrades Laura's knowledge there, as she doesn't even know "K.O." stands for "knockout.") Gabby talks about their birthdays, and Laura dismisses it, acts as though they don't even have birthdays because they're just clones.

More critically, especially in the second half of the book, they see things differently when it comes to who counts as family. When they encounter a clone of Laura with cybernetics but no healing factor, Gabby treats her as another potential sister. Someone to befriend and help the way Laura did for her. Laura sees the "X-Assassin" as just a machine, a damaged weapon. She's not family, she's not even a person. The end of that story would seem to argue in Gabby's favor, although it's undercut somewhat by the fact the X-Assassins were being mass produced and neither she nor Laura hesitated to kill the hell out of all the others.

Juann Cabal drew the first five issues, which involve another group of clones, the Stepford Cuckoos. There's a one-shot drawn by Georges Duarte about Gabby and Laura going undercover at an elementary school. Then Diego Orlotegui took over as artist for the remaining six issues. Cabal's art is a bit closer to photorealistic, his version of Laura is bit bulkier. As I noted in a review of one of All New Wolverine's tpbs, you can see a little more of Logan's genetics in her build when Cabal draws her compared to most artists. Orlotegui exaggerates expressions a bit more, there's more comic effect in his work, when it's warranted. The last two issues have a bit of humor in them, even as they're a continuation of the argument between Gabby and Laura.

OK, we are done with the Xs! Whoo!

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