Comics / Comic Reviews / Marvel Comics

X-23 Innocence Lost Review

By Gareth Atha
June 14, 2006 - 16:28

This graphic novel collects issues one to six of the new X-23 comic, collecting together the "Innoncence Lost" story line. This story explains the origins of X-23, a relatively new character who was introduced in Uncanny X-Men #450 and NYX #3. We discover her origins, her motives, and we even see a little of her personality. The story begins with Wolverine, and the coating of his bones with Adamantium. One of the surgeons killed when Wolverine escapes has a son, Zander Rice, and it is Rice who proves to be the main malefactor of the story. Years later, Rice carries on his father's work, experiemnting on subjects with accelerated healing to turn them into the perfect weapon. When all else fails, they turn to cloning teh original specimen, Wolverine, and X-23 is born.

Overall this book is very well presented. At 144 pages, it is long enough to tell the story in full without sparing any of the details, and also short enough to be read in one sitting. On the cover is a beautiful illustration of X-23 in full battle mode. The artwork looks very sharp and clean, and the colours are bold and well defined. The drawings of the character's faces, particularly those of X-23 and Dr Kinney, X-23's surrogate mother, are very well done, and Tan really captures the emotion on the character's faces. The artwork in this book only serves to bolster the already strong story telling. The original line work looks as though it has been done in pen and ink, with the book's bold colours laid over the top. This is a technoque which is becoming much more popular in comics these days and works well to add to the whole cyber-punk feel of the story.

The writing is fast paced and well done. You really get to know the character during the course of the story. The character's dialogue is sharp, with nothing unecessary included. There are a few key scenes in the book that really show X-23's humanity, and even emotions, which is good as these didn't really come to the fore during the character's journey in NYX.

This is a fantastic graphic novel, and well worth every penny. We can expect great things from both this character, and the creative team behind her. A must for newcomers to the character and the Wolverine/X-Men afficionados alike. Although die-hard Wolverine fans may complain that X-23 has claws on her feet, but this can be exlpained by X-23 being female, and therefore not an exact genetic copy of Wolverine. This book is HIGHLY recomended.

[Craig Kyle has also worked on Ultimate Avengers and is Marvel's VP of animation]

Questons? Comments? Email me at gareth@comicbookbin.com

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12