Well, colour me surprised: I actually enjoyed a Marvel volume collection from before the 2010s, and the only one directly related to the X-Men.
'X-23: The Complete Collection Vol. 1' is a good starting point to getting to know who Laura Kinney, aka X-23, really is. She can so easily be dismissed as just a teenage female version of Wolverine - not helped that she is his literal clone; another attempt at Weapon X. I know I rolled my eyes upon first hearing about her in the 'X-Men' lore years ago, in the 'X-Men: Evolution' cartoon she debuted in, rather than the movie 'Logan', aka 'Wolverine movie no. 9 in less than two decades'. This '"opposite sex clone" trope, where popular male heroes receive the distaff counterpart treatment, and where quite frankly a disturbing number of the female clones are very young and objectified, seems like quite frankly lazy writing, and an example of the myriad of lazy ways of introducing female characters who exist sorely in relation to an already-established male character.
But the writing in this collection is nuanced, heartfelt, poignant, and clever enough for any concerns over why X-23 was created in the first place to be overlooked. It contains complex mother-daughter bonds (yes, plural), non-boring superhero comic science, a steady pace for an origin story, the right amount of bloody violence and death without being gratuitous or losing heart and purpose, and as little dialogue as is necessary: nothing feels cluttered with too much exposition, and it lets the gorgeous, action-packed artwork speak for the story just so that the near-400 pages fly by. Anyone who has never read an 'X-Men' comic before can still get invested in this without a lot of confusion or pointless continuity jackhammers.
As is expected from anything 'X-Men', men and women in 'X-23' can be both supportive and be monsters to one another. And you could safely say that all government authorities in superhero universes, especially if they mostly consist of giant laboratories, are corrupt, cutthroat, hypocritical, and idiotic (why do the scientists never consider that raising a clone to be an inhumane assassin might have serious consequences and backfire easily and spectacularly? Don't they ever watch movies? They are not simply one-dimensional and morally-bankrupt, they are really stupid).
Laura herself is an interesting character with a lot of emotional baggage to carry around with her throughout her young, tragic existence. Not a normal teenage girl by any means, due to her cold, sterile, torturous and abusive imprisonment of an upbringing at the hands of the evil Facility, she's quiet, reserved, intelligent but antisocial. Once the heartbreaking saga of her origin, leading to her escape, is told, she is fighting to the death at every corner of her life - her ignorance of the outside world - using her Wolverine adamantium claws. And she doesn't just use them on others; she continuously self-harms as well. To the Facility she was nothing but a specimen built to be the ultimate weapon: a Weapon X project that of course went horribly wrong. Poor Laura flips between trying to fit in and sympathizing with others, like her traumatized cousin Megan and the X-Men, and not bothering and coming close to embracing the killer she was created to be by the Facility. She had been forced to murder dozens of people back then, and again throughout her journey and "freedom" - in cold blood. Can she never escape this after all? Is it what she wants?
Laura is fierce and, in the end, not loyal to anybody, because she belongs to nobody but herself. Not to the Facility; not to the X-Force, lead by no one's favourite X-Man, Cyclops (the prick); not to Wolverine, a father figure; nor Storm, a mother figure; nor her inner and outer space and time demons (don't ask, it's comic books).
Laura Kinney's story is one about choice, and having or seeking a conscience, and redemption, and finding out whether or not she has a soul. She is Pinocchio, of which the book was read to her by her scientist mother Sarah Kinney against the Facility's wishes, searching for a way to become a real human. She's damn powerful, and capable of helping others (female friends ahoy!) when in need, plus her vulnerabilities are presented as both a source of strength and weakness to her in her ultimately-human complexity.
To complete X-23's anti-heroine appeal, she also sports a biker girl/Emo girl get-up after escaping the Facility, and sadly a few artists' panels in some of the issues can't seem to resist literally drawing attention to her backside, and to a bare cleavage and midriff, even though she is a small child in her teens. X-ing typical.
The final issue where Laura teams up with Ghost Rider more than makes up for that, however, no matter how short the story is. It wraps things up nicely in a quaint little bow of hellfire.
So I do recommend 'X-23: The Complete Collection Vol. 1', for the collected issues are on the whole enjoyable, fun, thought-provoking, intricate, and profound. Satisfying.
Final Score: 4/5
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