Personally, I think this is a MUCH more impressive feat than straight Bullet Timing.

Laura ambushing Bucky by hanging from the ceiling by her claws may be one of the most Laura things I’ve seen in a LONG time.

This is actually why a lot of Laura’s fans HATE how Liu cut her off from the New X-Men — especially Dust, Mercury, and Hellion — and started hammering the relationship with Logan.

Logan was a HORRIBLE father to her under Kyle and Yost. He dumped her at the school, making no other real effort to help her. Hell, he laid the groundwork for a lot of Emma’s efforts to drive her out by reinforcing to her peers that she could kill them all if she wanted, threatening to alienate her. His treatment of her in X-Force — IE screaming at her that her life means less than Wolfsbane’s — was outright abusive. He calls Cyclops out for putting her on the team because Laura can’t understand the concept of choice and free will, so interpreted Scott’s invitation as an ORDER, not something she could decline, and yet punishes LAURA for doing it rather than show a child who is struggling compassion and understanding.

The first person at Xavier’s to try reaching out to her on any level was Dust. Then came Julian.

A lot of people exaggerate her rocky first meeting with Hellion as “bullying” her, but their first two interactions were Julian lashing out after a fight with Sofia and her just happening to be standing there, (so it could have been ANYONE) and him poking fun at her about playing Wolverine in the Danger Room sim. However, their next interaction, when Emma tried to have her taken out during the “try outs,” Julian took it on himself to protect her, then later strained his powers to exhaustion saving her from Nimrod. This built up further in Mercury Falling: Julian was the first person who tried to actually SHOW her she didn’t have to be a killer; when they confronted Kimura and Laura begged him to kill her, Julian made the point that they can be better than that. NO ONE had ever tried to tell her it was OK not to be a killer.

Logan did NOTHING for her. Captain America would have given her to SHIELD, who would have just used her for themselves, were it not for a last minute change of heart.

And of course there’s also Mercury. Cessily stood up for her against and called out Emma for how terribly she was treating her, and made an honest effort to befriend her when she picked up on Laura’s confused feelings for Julian.

These were relationships that MATTERED, but Liu threw them away to force a relationship with Logan because she wanted him to be her father. Even though he had never been anything but emotionally abusive towards her, and completely, utterly failed to do ANYTHING to help her.

And the worst part despite everything those three had done for her, she writes them out of her life as if they were never really her friends in the first place. Dust only got a few lines standing up to her when the other kids confronted her about X-Force. Mercury DIDN’T EVEN APPEAR AT ALL. And the way she threw Julian under the bus was frankly disgusting.

So no, I’m not going to sing the praises of Marjorie Liu.

Keep in mind we don’t really know what Laura’s response to this was, because it immediately cuts to Laura approaching Julian again. The hand hold in that last panel is suggestive but not necessarily indicative. Friends can hold hands in circumstances like this. Otherwise, there’s not a lot to really go on to judge what Laura’s feelings actually are. Especially since the entire scene up to this point had been to build around and establish…

In terms of the page you’re referencing, I would also compare here:

The hand on Julian’s shoulder in the first panel is pretty innocuous, as that’s a common gesture of support or solidarity. However touching foreheads like this while Laura holds the back of his head/neck in the middle panel is much more significant. This is a VERY intimate gesture. It’s not impossible for it to be platonic, but it’s not particularly likely, either, especially once you factor in their history.

And then there’s this:

Kiden’s expression in the inset panel looks hurt to me.

I think the structure, content, and context of this is very telling, and suggests that Kiden took her shot and Laura turned her down.

This wouldn’t rule out a love triangle altogether, but it would make it a one-sided one with Kiden on the outside looking in.

I’m also not convinced we can rule out Local as one side of this polygon, either, so we could see Kiden back off having already been rejected as a romantic partner, and Local being Julian’s competition instead.

Hopefully, issue 9 will help to clarify the situation, as I suspect the secondary focus of the issue will be Laura and Julian cleaning up Empath and the Cuckoos so this will get a bit more exposition/exploration.

Also, I don’t think we can necessarily rely on the casting of Dafne Keen as indicative of what direction this is going to go. The books are, ostensibly, independent of the films.

I think people who freak out over Laura’s early appearances don’t actually understand her.

She’s dark and deep and complex and I roll my eyes when people clutch their pearls at her mini skirts.

Did you know hypersexuality is a symptom of sex abuse, which is something Laura went through?

Did you know hypersexuality doesn’t always mean having a lot of sex, but can also be things like wearing revealing clothing?

YOU call it sexualizing.

I call it representation.

As the girl IN REAL LIFE (I’m not a FICTIONAL SUPER HERO) who dressed like a whore underaged, stop saying people are weird for drawing Laura like she was in her early days. I like seeing myself in her. I like feeling like I can overcome things because of a cute little dark haired green eyed slut shamed mutant.

If you don’t like what she represents, then you don’t actually like her. Call it being “woke” or whatever you call it these days, it’s actually just being sensitive and trying to pretend to identify with something you actually know nothing about.

Find another character.

I’m incredibly disappointed that Kyle himself is one of those slut shamers. He can not like the direction Marvel chose for her first appearance, that’s fine. But then he had to go and act like being “made a whore” diminishes her as a character by connecting female value to perceptions of her sexuality.

It’s inherently misogynistic, and worse, trivializes a VERY REAL PROBLEM that thousands of women and girls experience as victims of human trafficking. Society sees them as “ruined” because of the misguided attitude that women only have value if they’re “pure” or “innocent” that’s STILL pervasive in the West.

Laura would be a perfect means of addressing what’s wrong with this if Marvel wasn’t too chicken shit to confront it.

(It should be noted, though, that in-universe Laura picked up her manner of dress from Megan, not because of her own experiences with abuse)

To be fair, Laura is proof that the people involved with Weapon X did learn their lesson from Logan:

1. Rather than start with an adult who had already developed a mind and identity of their own, they decided to grow their subject from scratch, and raised her to not have any sense of self or choice.
2. As a failsafe, they prepared Kimura as a countermeasure in case X-23 went rogue as Logan did.
3. As a secondary failsafe, they developed the trigger scent and conditioned her to it to ensure she couldn’t refuse an order to kill, again establishing control.

And these measures worked. For much of her life Laura was lost without some figure of authority directing her, and was unable to properly make decisions for herself. She even had a perfect chance to escape after Rice abandoned her on one mission: The Facility thought she was dead, so Laura could have simply slipped away. But because the Facility was all she knew, she instinctively went back.

The Facility made three key mistakes:

1. Sutter was blindly trusting of Rice, and didn’t take action when he undermined Sarah and even threatened the well-being of the project itself, even when Sarah herself tried to warn him Rice was being excessively cruel.
2. They didn’t account for someone sabotaging the project from within, and Sarah wasn’t properly dealt with once it was clear she was becoming a liability (which was the result of #1).
3. Kimura was apparently not at the installation at the time of Laura’s escape, judging by her arrival later with the response/search team.

Had Sutter kept Rice under better control and not allowed him to vent his pettiness and vindictiveness against Sarah and Laura, Sarah may never have become disillusioned with the project in the first place (especially if she had not been forced to carry Laura to term herself and been made her caretaker entirely because Rice wanted to punish her for defying him).

Once Sarah began pushing back against the brutal treatment Laura was subjected to, Sutter should have relieved or otherwise removed her and not tried to use Laura as leverage to keep her under control (and vice-versa). And had Rice not used the trigger on Sarah as a sick play to further torment Laura and just shot her if he wanted her dead, she would never have been able to kick off her plan to bring the project down.

Finally, had Kimura actually been at the installation, Laura likely would not have been able to escape even if Sarah succeeded in freeing her from her cell.

It’s called “branding.”

Say “Wolverine” in a forum full of comics readers, and 99% will assume you mean Logan and now you have to correct them.

Say “Laura” and you’re still going to get a lot of confused looks because most casual readers aren’t going to think of them by their “real” names.

Say “X-23” and there’s no possibility for confusion.

It’s not dehumanizing. It’s not intended to belittle her as a character. It’s entirely a matter of clarity precisely to avoid the problems of two characters going by the same name at the same time.

There’s a BIG difference between this and insisting on using the name in-universe.

Full Solicit at Official Cover:

Generation X-23 #1

      New Ongoing Series, On Sale February 2026 

      Written by JODY HOUSER 

      Art by JACOPO CAMAGNI 

      Cover by PARTHA PRATIM SARKAR 

      HER NAME IS WOLVERINE. BUT THE LEGEND OF X-23 GROWS. LAURA KINNEY was brainwashed and trained from birth to be the ultimate assassin as X-23. She’s long put that life behind her…but it seems she hasn’t quite outrun it yet! When LAURA and GABBY encounter someone who seems to be their LONG LOST FRIEND, the harrowing plot they uncover will turn their worlds upside down. The next generation of X-subjects is here, and they follow in the deadly footsteps of X-23! Featuring a host of new heroes and villains, Generation X-23 have a surprise in store for the WOLVERINE!

I’m not familiar with Houser, but she did some work on the well-received Renew Your Vows book. I’ve done a quick look into Camagni’s art and I don’t have any complaints there.

Welcome to the X-23 fandom, Jody Houser. I hope you survive the experience.