Wolverine - The Road to Hell

Released yesterday at comic shops everywhere was Wolverine: The Road to Hell.

It's an issue to kick off the all-new Wolverine saga going on right alongside the relaunch of Wolverine and Family titles. Titles such as Daken, X-23, Wolverine, and Uncanny X-Force.

Yup, this is an X-23 blog, you're not mistaken, but this title in question also features a short story featuring X-23 called 'Brace for Impact' written by Dan Way and Marjorie Liu. A rather interesting story. It confirms a couple details like the outcome of Dr. Zander Rice, and a few other snippets. While putting the 'short' in short story, it does manage to keep Laura in character, and help setup what to expect from her upcoming on-going. So far all signs are pointing to great. In this story, albeit quickly, X-23 uses her training, and shines as the one we've all grown to know and love. It's a quite accurate, albeit quick, depiction that really starts to wet the appetite for what's to come.

Personally? I can't wait for the upcoming on-going if this is any indication of what to expect from Marjorie Liu. It treads softly and quickly, but hits the key notes of X-23. She comes across as free to live for herself, not knowing what that means, so engages on her own mission to keep how she was raised from happening to others. Leaving at a cliffhanger to keep the reader hanging on till the new Wolverine Family ongoings start. This really quells my fears of Marjorie Liu taking over the character after her other attempt in the one-shot that seemed too random to truly figure out what the intent was with hiding behind a mcguffin to cover any characterization issues that ran abundant in Laura's usage. Seems the wait between titles has really helped Liu get in touch with the character and how she's portrayed. No Mowgli traits here, just pure unfiltered X-23 in her Pinnochio nature trying to stop her childhood from happening to others. The art itself is complimentary of the story, yielding more panels of great angle usage, and character conveyance, plus it helps that it's purdy to look at too. The art is by Giuseppe Camuncoli, Onofrio Catacchio, and Will Conrad, with colors by Marte Gracia and John Rauch.

I might have to start watching for the Daken title too, as it seems all 3 of these titles may criss-cross in an event to kick them off. Well, the relaunched Wolverine's issue one doesn't feature her, so you may be able to skip that title spottily for now.

And remember, 13 more days to go before X-23 #1 hits shelves.

14 Days to Go!

Just two weeks to go till the X-23 on-going is released. Last week, Marvel in anticipation of these new wolverine spin-offs, released a catch-up info book themselves called "The All-New Wolverine Saga." It covers accurately much info about all the characters, and helps place the X-23 oneshot in the X-23 timeline as happening after X-force but right before curse of the mutants.

I'll be continuing the rest of the reviews soon before issue 1 of x-23 is released, but for now, life is usurping more of my time away from other pursuits.

44 Days Until the X-23 On-Going Starts...

So with 44 days to go till the X-23 on-going starts hitting stands, I'm going to start doing retro reviews of all her appearances to cover the time, and characterization of Laura Kinney to help prepare for the release on September 15th.

I'll also be doing them in story order, as opposed to publishing order, and where I can, I'll be using the TPBs instead of the issues themselves.

I'll be kicking this off tomorrow, with X-23: Innocence Lost. The first publication under the title X-23, and what's officially her Volume 1, since the initial release had no subtitle.

Official MU X-23 figure in the works.

Thanks to CTR, we now know an X-23 Marvel Universe figure is in the works. She'll be sporting what the newest Female body sculpt and articulation will be. Well, read the points of interest yourself.

Curto: The only exception being Kitty Pryde. Basically, We NEED another body type for female figures! Can you tell us anything on this...when we will see that?

Vonner: Yes, we're working on one now in fact.

Curto: Cool. Any hints on who will be the first character to debut it?

Vonner: Um...the character will be a fan-favorite. We're looking at it being X-23. She'll have some new points of articulation in there, we'll address the elbows, hips, and other "regions". This will be our new female figure from now on, and we'll have other "adjustments" as we go along.

Really, it was a toss-up between X-23 and She-Hulk. But the She-Hulk body type was limited because we really can't get a lot of mileage out of that body type. There are really only a few female characters that fit that body type in the Marvel Universe. We want to do a She-Hulk, but we have to think about things from a tooling standpoint, where else we can use the molds.

Curto: Right...well, there's at least 5 different costumes for She-Hulk by herself, and I can think of other characters like Titania, Thundra, and a few others that would fit that bill. But I understand what you are saying...she's considerably bigger than the typical female super-hero.

Vonner: Right. There are other other female characters with that body type that we can touch on, but X-23 offers more variety for us. Plus, here's another thing about X-23...that's Craig Kyle's favorite character.

Curto: Yeah, because he created her for the X-Men Evolution cartoon series...

Vonner: Exactly. Well, he's a real good friend and he's a fan of the line, and he's currently working on this little movie called THOR...he basically pinned me up against the wall and said "X-23. 'nuff said!" and he's kind of a big dude, so I didn't want to challenge him.

Curto: Nice. She's another character that's had a number of different costumes over the years. Which costume will this figure be for her: the "Fang" outfit, X-Men suit, or the X-Force costume, continuing to build that team?

Vonner: It will most likely be the X-Force costume. We already have Wolverine, Warpath, and the fans voted for Archangel for the Marvel.com exclusive. So this will flesh out that team more.

The interview goes further indepth about the line and upcoming selections, be sure to check it out.

Now excuse me, I have to go scream like a little girl in glee.

X-23 Ongoing!

A new X-23 ongoing will be starting soon, according to solicits from Marvel.

X-23 #1
Written by MARJORIE LIU
Penciled by WILL CONRAD
Cover by DANNI SHINYA LUO
Variant Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
Variant Cover by GABRIELE DELL'OTTO
Women of Marvel Variant by JELENA KEVIC-DJURDJEVIC
After the events of Second Coming and the stunning conclusion to X-Force, X-23 strikes out on her own in this all-new ongoing series, written by best-selling author MARJORIE LIU, spinning out of the events of Wolverine #1! X-23 has never had an easy relationship with the rest of the X-Men, but when she learns someone has taken down Wolverine, she must step up to fill his shoes.
40 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99

Starts in September.
Marjorie Liu you might remember from her previous work on the X-23 oneshot. She'll get her chance to prove her skill at writing Laura in an ongoing. So if you were unsure about the oneshot, you'll get a chance to see how well she'd handle the character under prolonged usage. Let's hope she builds on the massive dynamic that Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost have left her with. From the science, and subtle nuances, to the psychology, and doesn't misinterpret the groundwork they've already put forth, while also giving us new, accurate and in character stories with the challenges Laura still has to face.