If you haven’t been keeping up with X-23, and frankly at this point, I wouldn’t blame you if you weren’t, allow me to fill you in. In the midst of her soul searching journey with Gambit, X-23 has discovered that the former director of Weapon X, Malcolm Colcord, is thinking about restarting the project.
I mean, why not? It turned out so well with X-23.
This isn’t really news. We saw them creating many more clones at the end of the mini-series, and truth be told, unless you are completely new to Marvel comics, you know that Weapon X is always just beneath the surface of most Wolverine and family series.
X-23 wants to track down Colcord, and so she and Gambit head to Madripoor, a cesspool of depravity. Last issue, as a means of gaining passage to the island, we saw the duo infiltrate a pirate base in the hopes of saving a police informant. The issue read very much like a filler. That said, the art was insanely cool. Kudos to Sana Takeda for that absolutely gorgeous issue. The art in issue 8 is also quite good though much more traditional.
Back to the story. Laura is tracking her, what… brother… son… ? She believes Daken knows where Colcord is and intends to get the information from him.
I’ve been having a difficult time with Marjorie Liu’s writing for X-23. Too often, it feels as though it is being written on the fly. Such a big deal was made about whether or not there would be a meet-up between X-23 and Daken, and finally it occurs in this issue. And I am underwhelmed.
The setup to lure Daken to X-23 is weak, transparent and the fact that they made him fall for it only furthers my belief that he is one of the weakest links in the current Marvel line-up. I’ve very little use for the character, having read through all the current issues, and this did nothing to change that opinion.
Furthermore, the inevitable fight scene between the two is terribly choreographed. Gambit is nowhere to be seen, the pacing is choppy, and quite frankly, X-23 should be able to slice him like a side order of sushi. She is a trained assassin. From birth, she’s known little else. Daken should not pose this much of a problem for her.
However in an attempt to sell more comics and capitalize on the popularity of characters with the term “snikt” in their vocabulary, this fight continues in Daken #8. I was not impressed with this issue of X-23… and somehow I’ve a sense that I’ll feel the same about Daken #8.
On a final note, someone should inform cover artist Kalman Andrasofszky that Daken’s claws are not coated in adamantium.
X-23 Issue 8: “Collision, Part 1”
Marvel Comics
Story: Marjorie Liu
Art: Ryan Stegman, Michael Babinksi, John Rauch
