X-23 (Comic Book) - TV Tropes

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The best at what she does.

"All I know is, while I'm wearing this, he isn't gone. And neither am I. I'm Laura Kinney. I'm X-23. And I'm Wolverine."

— X-23, on taking up the Wolverine name

The X-23 comic books, published by Marvel Comics, are eponymously named for the main character, Laura Kinney, a.k.a. X-23. X-23's character page is here.

Created by Craig Kyle and his writing partner Christopher Yost, the character first appeared in two episodes of X-Men: Evolution in 2003 as an alternative to giving Logan more focus or using other Marvel heroes. X-23 quickly became an Ensemble Dark Horse and was written into the comics the following year. She made her comics debut with NYX #3 (February, 2004), featuring a similar background to her Evolution counterpart except even Darker and Edgier.

X-23 was created by the Weapon X offshoot known as the Facility,^noteHYDRA in Evolution using a damaged sample of Wolverine's DNA. The damage was greatest on the Y chromosome, so after several attempts at a direct clone Dr. Deborah Risman in Evolution, and the similar Dr. Sarah Kinney in the comics, eventually had the brilliant idea to create a female copy instead by duplicating the X chromosome. At last the 23rd attempt to create the female clone of Weapon X was successful, thus X-23. For years, she was thought to be a clone of Logan, but it was eventually revealed Sarah used some of her own DNA to complete the damaged sample, making X-23 Logan's biological daughter.

She grew up being trained to be an assassin, so that the Facility could sell her talents to the highest bidder. X-23 endured severe emotional and physical abuse in order to remove such weaknesses as emotion and self worth. Her creator, the one scientist who treated her like a child, tried to free her, but X-23 had been conditioned with a special "trigger scent" that would forcefully throw her into a Berserker Rage, forcing X to kill her. In her dying words, Dr. Kinney named her Laura.^note

After tracking down Logan she was invited to join the X-Men, and has been a mainstay in the X-Men books ever since. X-23 became a Breakout Character after her introduction, and is perhaps the most successful and popular X-Man introduced during the 2000s.

X-23 made her live-action debut in Logan, the third Wolverine-focused movie in the X-Men film series, portrayed by Dafne Keen. For tropes specific to her movie incarnation, see this page.

Notable Comics Appearances