Logan is the final adventure for Hugh Jackman as the X-Man we’ve all grown to love over the years in the theaters, Wolverine. In it, Logan finds himself old, battered, and trying desperately to find peace for himself in a world that is still topsy turvy and trying to get in his way. As he inches closer and closer toward his final reward, he’s unfortunately impeded by the arrival of a young girl named Laura (X-23) who has abilities very similar to his own. Harboring two claws on each hand instead of three, Laura is a mute who is related to Wolverine in a very strange way. With Logan making his last stand here, could this be an opportunity for the character of X-23 to branch out into her own stories moving forward?
Regardless of her future, you may be wondering what this character is all about. I've got you covered with a rundown of the character from her origins on television and in the comics.
Origin-23
X-23 made her original appearance, not in the comic books, but on the animated television series, X-Men Evolution. Premiering on the Kids' WB network, Evolution followed the X-Men mostly through their high school years, with adults taking the form of Wolverine, Storm, and Professor X with the rest being mostly teenagers rather than the older mutants they once were. Much like the Batman antagonist, Harley Quinn, Laura was originally introduced in an animated series then, thanks to her popularity, brought over to the comic books proper where she continued to skyrocket as time went on. In the cartoon, X-23 was presented as a clone of Wolverine created by the terrorist organization, Hydra, and was given the name because 22 clone experiments were tried in attempting to make a clone of Logan. Created by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, Laura only had appeared in two episodes of the series before fading into limbo until the way was paved for her to enter the world of comics.
In the comic world, her origin story is somewhat similar to that of the one presented in X-Men Evolution, as she is still the 23rd attempt at creating a clone of Wolverine albeit with a much darker twist sans Hydra. In Laura’s first appearances at Marvel Comics, in a series titled NYX, she was a mute prostitute who cuts herself with her own claws to ease her pain. She eventually manages to find herself a new life after tracking her genetic father in Logan and creates a place for herself with the X-Men. After hanging out with the main team, Wolverine eventually, and perhaps unfortunately, puts her murderous skills to use under the darker side of the team with the members of X-Force. X-Force was created as something of a “hit squad” for the X-Men, attempting to put an end to the enemies of the team permanently. Laura’s training and upbringing made her perfect for the team but it took further steps to kill her humanity, so eventually she went off on her own and attempted to find herself outside of the X-Men.
Throughout Laura’s solo adventures, she became more and more upbeat, acting less like a trained, bloodthirsty assassin and more like a girl her own age. She still had various adventures with the X-Men, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and other heroes throughout the Marvel Universe but it wasn’t until the end of the giant crossover, Secret Wars, that Laura truly found her place. Wolverine, in the Marvel Comic Universe, died in a fight with Weapon X, the organization that created him, and in order to continue his legacy, X-23 donned his old costume and currently has her own comic book series titled, All New Wolverine. Currently, Laura continues under the moniker of her “creator” and pals around with an alternate reality version of Wolverine: Old Man Logan. Needless to say, there are a lot of crazy stories to read up on in the comics for X-23.
X-Powers
Obviously, being a clone of the man himself, Laura’s powers are quite similar to Wolverine’s. She has the same claws, the same healing factor, and the same bloodthirst her old man does with a few differences along the way. The most notable of these is the fact that she doesn’t have three claws on each hand as Logan does, but rather has two claws on each hand with a third coming out of each of her feet, which really puts her agility to good use. The reason behind why this is the case is quite disturbing: she was originally born with the same claws that Logan had, but her creators decided to remove her claws, dip them into Adamantium, then reinsert them back into place albeit in different spots. X-23 also has a heightened healing factor that her old man doesn’t quite have in that even if she loses an arm or a leg, she can re-attach them at her convenience and have them heal up once again.
Aside from the healing factor and the claws, Laura was also instilled with a “trigger scent” upon being born. What this essentially does is that once a certain pheromone is released in X-23’s presence, she completely loses her mind and kills anything in her path, friend or foe. Laura’s grappled with this ability for quite some time and it certainly makes her a loose cannon in the presence of her teammates if she unluckily comes into contact with the pheromone. Aside from her powers, X-23 was trained from birth to be one of the best assassins in the world so she’s proficient in several martial arts, a master of weapons, and even subterfuge. You’ll have to see Logan to see how these abilities are brought to the big screen in Laura’s case.
Lights! Camera! Weapon X!
Dafne Keen may be the breakout star to come out of the running time of Logan, but there were several differences between her character here and the one we knew in the comics. Warning for those who have yet to see Logan, some minor spoilers on the way.
First and foremost, in the comics X-23 was never quite presented as an 11 year old girl, hitting the scene in her late teens in the Marvel funny books. Also, the project she was involved in with Weapon X focused entirely on attempting to create clones of Wolverine, with 22 experiments being created before the success of Laura. In Logan, we see that the other clone creations were clones of various un-named mutants, potentially members of the X-Men (though we’re never quite clear on this point).
Laura’s background was also changed significantly from the books as her adoption by the Spanish nurse gave her a fluent understanding of her language—though X-23 had been silent for quite some time in the comics before talking, similar to the film. Her berserker rage remained the same here, though her bones in the film were completely covered with adamantium and in the comics, it was just her claws as she would have her bones broken and sometimes severed completely during her adventures. Much like Wolverine, X-23 even wore a costume of some sort during her appearances in the comic. But in the film, considering the grim and gritty nature of the affair, it would have been a little tricky to portray on screen, but in the future, who knows? Considering her love of X-Men comics, who’s to say whether Laura may don a costume in tribute of her father were she to make a future appearance?
Logan is a dark, mean, vicious, amazing film that brings us an X-23 who proves that while Hugh Jackman may be gone, there may still be a place for adamantium claws to burst through the screen regardless with Dafne Keen.