You'd think the Weapon X scientists would have learned from the disasterous events of Wolverine's Weapon X training. Writers Craig Kyle and Chris Yost make it clear that they did not in their Marvel Comics 2006-2008 series X-23, when Facility scientists give creating an unstoppable assassin another shot.
X-23 is one of a number of the X-Men's female super heroes, including Scarlet Witch, Emma Frost and Rogue.
X-23: Appearance and Traits
X-23 is a female clone of Wolverine. The DNA that the Weapon X scientists used to create the clone contained a damaged Y chromosome, rendering X-23 female. X-23 has black hair and green eyes and has Wolverine's bone claws, enhanced sight, smell and hearing, and healing factor. She has 2 knuckles claws instead of Wolverine's 3, but unlike him X-23 has a claw that pops out of each foot. Her series suggests that she has a faster healing factor than Wolverine. Her time in Weapon X assassin training gave her all the fighting skills that Wolverine possesses, in addition to a stronger, better adamantium skeleton.
X-23, New Weapon X Assassin
X-23 origin is largely revealed against the narration of a letter from her "mother" in her Innocence Lost storyline. X-23 was created to be another assassin like Wolverine, except this time the scientists succeed in using her for hundreds of assassin missions. X-23 has an accelerated training period, and she is "rented" out as a hit man by Weapon X scientists. She kills doezens by the time she is 13.
Wolverine had escaped before he could be used as an assassin. Like Wolverine, X-23 was endowed with a heightened sensitivity to a "Trigger Scent" which, when put on a target, causes X-23 to fly into a murderous rampage and afterwards she remembers nothing.
X-23 Origins: Sarah Kinney and The Facility
X-23's training and development were especially brutal due to a personal grudge of one of her creators, whose father was killed by Wolverine during his escape rampage from the original Weapon X. She was treated not a person but as a tool, never even given a name. Her only compassion came from her surrogate mother, Sarah Kinney, who was also a scientist on the team but who left her an apology letter explaining her "daughter's" origin.
X-23 Finds Wolverine, Other Female Superheroes
After escaping from a life of an assassin tool, X-23 seeks out Wolverine at the Professor X's mansion. There she is integrated into the general X-Men universe and has continued her sucessful X-23 series of life as a teenage ex-assassin.
X-23 currently helps out the X-Men team. In her Target X series, she joins the family of a relative of Sarah Kinney and attempts public schooling. After rescuing with and eventually bonding with her cousin of roughly the same age, X-23 adopts the name of Laura Kinney.
X-23 Graphic Novels and Comics
- X-23: Innocent Lost
- X-23: Target X
- X-23: NYX
- Uncanny X-Men #450-496
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