The Journey of a Lost Girl
To begin this is a really solid issue in this series. There is great story telling and character development from Marjorie Liu and you can see the progression of the character over time. The artwork from Sana Takeda is also quite good. I can really see the emotion on Laure and Jubilee's faces throughout the issue. I really like Takeda's take on Jubilee, in fact this is the best I have seen Jubilee drawn since she became a vampire.
This issue is the completion of, well lets call it the Paris Arc. Laura and Gambit are in Paris as Laura tries to reconcile her past with who she is and who she will become. By Laura's harsh life experience this is a coming of age story, minus the sappy romance. The issue starts with Laura under the effects of the trigger scent which turns her into a kill machine fighting Jubilee. Wolverine gets in the middle and gets stabbed in the stomach. Whats a gut wound between friends. Coming to her senses just in time to notice other people in the subway coming under the effect of the killer gas. Eventually they manage to stop people from killing one another.
The real meat of the issue is whats comes after where the mysterious stranger leaves Laura a bundle of goodies to help her in her search for truth/answers. The interaction between Remy and Logan was good. I like where Logan gave Remy a hard time about being a nurse maid. What was even better is the interaction between Jubilee and Laura and their budding friendship. Who would understand better than Laura the conflict in Jubilee about killing and not killing. Jubilee even as a vampire is still more in touch with her humanity that Laura has ever been. They seem like they could become good friends.
Of all the X-Men with a myriad of sad tales and woe, X-23 is perhaps the one I feel the most sympathy for. She can't even claim she was just a normal kid living her life till some giant robot came and ... or a villain tried to get her to join their organization and ... or she was born a certain way and people hate and fear her for it. No, she was created and conditioned to be a killing machine from birth. Even Wolverine had a life before the Weapon X program (several considering how long he has lived). Laura has been defiled and abused in the most horrible ways and is trying to build a life for herself where she does not define herself as a weapon, but the fact that being a weapon is just another aspect of her personality.
Overall I would rate this issue a 4 out of 5
