Make your heart smile read this issue
OK so I wasn't thrilled with Laura's last arc but it was still a great read. Laura's "misadventures" with the FF are a perfect place for her. This girl has been through a lot and even though the X-Men claimed to be her family it is still just a bunch of mutants living together (who obviously care about each other and welcome her but it's still not an actual family) and not a true family structure like the Reed clan. Laura got to see the real family experience, sort of, she got to see what it's like to be a child in an actual loving family adored and doted by parents a loving uncle and kooky family friend/cousin (Spidey). Since Laura has been soul searching I love seeing her with the Reeds because it's putting her in unfamiliar territory which leads to laughs and Laura learning more about herself and where she wants to go in life. Laura learning about life outside of handlers, covert missions and discovering who she is and what it's like to create her on path in life is the best part of this series and seeing her placed on babysitting duty is just another way for us to get laughs out of Laura's latest adventure and self discovery.
This issue has the Reed family putting Laura in another situation she not familiar with, at all but first we finally get to see her and Hellion catch up...sort of. SIDE NOTE: I love seeing the "family side" of the Reed family instead of always seeing them saving the world and adventuring, Franklin and Valeria are a couple of the cutest and mischievous characters ever and I love it...this concludes the side note. Before Laura is thrust into her new career we get to see how she and Julian are in their "relationship" (we all want to see them together, she can help him let go of his anger and he can teach her how to live) but sadly he of course blows it but I love how Majorie Lui portrays Laura as a lady of few words and yet the few words and Sana Takeda's art say so much about her (or that's just me) and how we see Julian is a troubled jerk but truly has a heart and that he cares for Laura. Big brother Gambit is barely in this issue but again I love seeing him and Laura interact. I knew this was going to be great when our shot of the kids involved an argument about thermo-nuclear devices not being toys. Sure the Reed children kind of steal the show from Laura but how could they not look at them!
IN CONCLUSION
This is just another great chapter of Laura's life and journey of self discovery (how many times have I said that, sorry). The writing of Liu and the artwork of Takeda really capture Laura's personality and reality of her experiences; seriously look at these two pages it's amazing to see how well an awkward encounter like that can be drawn. The only thing I didn't like about this issue was, we were unable to see Laura's thoughts and insights like most other issues (but if they were in included it probably would have kind of ruined our experience as an "omniscient" spectator). Seeing Laura chat with Julian was long-awaited and very well done and I look forward to seeing what happens with the two before #20 but her experience with the kids is worth the price of admission. Do yourself a favor, read this issue and fight to keep this series going.