X-23 (designated as X23-23, also known as Laura) is a mutant, artificially created by the Transigen Project to use as a soldier. She is also the biological daughter of Wolverine with similar powers, including regeneration and adamantium claws.
Biography
Logan
Laura was created along with Rictor, Jonah, Gideon, Rebecca, Delilah, Bobby, Charlotte, Joey, Jamaica, Mira, Tamara, Stephen, April, Tomás, Erica, Jackson, and Julie by Zander Rice as part of the Transigen Project. Rice used genetic samples from mutants to create new embryos that were carried by captured women. Her biological father was Wolverine, having been created with genetic DNA samples acquired by the Alkali Lake team, and thus she shared his healing factor and retractable claws. Transigen coated her claws with adamantium but not her entire skeleton.
The mutant children were supposed to become soldiers but were deemed failures after the creation of X-24. After the X-24 project was a success, and the X-23 project a failure, Transigen scheduled all the other subjects for termination. With the help of the nurses, who had grown attached to the children, Rictor and the mutant children escaped to find Eden, a safe haven in North Dakota, while Laura was spirited away and adopted by her nurse, Gabriela Lopez, who had named Laura. Gabriela wanted to get Laura to North Dakota, where a safe haven for mutants, known as Eden was, and tried to find Logan and him to help them.
After Gabriela was killed by the Reavers, Laura ended up in the company of Logan and Charles Xavier on the run. As they headed north, they were constantly dogged by the Reavers and also X-24, which resulted in Xavier's death. Alone with Logan, the pair headed for North Dakota – Laura because she believed that Eden existed, and Logan to prove that it did not. Arriving, they found a small group of children led by Rictor.
Along with the other children, Laura headed north to cross the border into Canada. They were followed by the Reavers and Laura fought alongside Logan to protect the others. When X-24 mortally wounded Logan, Laura killed him by shooting him with an adamantium bullet through the head. She comforted Logan as he died, then buried him. As a final testament to him, she removed the cross marking his grave and turned it on its side, creating an "X" and left with her friends to cross the border.
Non-Canon
X-Men: The Official Game (Gameboy Version)
X-23 was at Alkali Lake to find out about her past. She was looking for Colonel William Stryker when the X-Men came. She thought they were bad people and she attacked them. There she fought Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Iceman. She was defeated and said she was going to try and find answers.
Powers, Abilities, & Weaknesses
- "She's like you. Very much like you."
- ―Professor X regarding X-23's powers to Wolverine
- Regenerative Healing Factor - X-23's primary mutant power is an accelerated healing factor that enables her to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissues with far greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. She is capable of fully healing injuries resulting in massive tissue damage and blood loss, such as slash wounds and puncture wounds within a matter of seconds.[1]
- Psionic Resistance - X-23 and Logan were both not fully incapacitated by Charles Xavier's seizure-induced psychic attacks, allowing them to not only remain able to move, but potentially able to survive the fatal affects of the seizures.
- Retractable Claws - X-23 has two retractable adamantium claws in both of hands, and one in each foot. Her hand claws extend between finger's knuckles and the foot claws emerge above the base of her toes. Xavier accredits this to her gender, akin to how the lioness is the superior hunter of the feline breed.[1]
- Enhanced Strength - X-23 is strong enough to overpower adults far larger than herself with ease. Combined with her acrobatic ability, she was able was to defeat several Reavers, even when one of them had managed to pin her down with a cybernetic hand. She later flipped a store clerk over her head and onto the floor with one hand, before Logan stopped her from killing him.
- Enhanced Agility - X-23 possesses a high amount of flexibility and agility. She is able to perform gymnastic maneuvers, such as flips and springs, with little to no difficulty, in order to overwhelm her opponents. She is potentially faster than her father because she never had her entire skeleton infused with adamantium; only her claws.
Equipment
- Adamantium Claws - At some point during her training under Transigen Project, she was put through a similar adamantium infusion as her father had to his entire skeleton. Unlike him however, she received this infusion only to her claws, refining them into sleek blades.
Relationships
- Wolverine † - Biological Father
- Thomas Logan † - Grandfather (via Wolverine)
- Elizabeth Howlett † - Grandmother (via Wolverine)
- Sabretooth - Uncle (via Wolverine)
Trivia
- Her origin is altered slightly for the film, specifically, in the comics she was born in Canada from Sarah Kinney while in the movie she has an unnamed mother, and was born in Mexico instead.
- Throughout the film she shows a great attachment to Charles Xavier that mirrors Logan's, seeing him as a grandfather figure, due to the kindness he shows her from their first meeting, to the point that she shields him from bullets during their escape, holds his hand after his second seizure, and becomes enraged at seeing him fatally stabbed by X-24.
- When she first meets Donald Pierce, he tries to get her to calm down and retract her claws. This mirrors William Stryker in X2: X-Men United, however unlike Stryker, Donald was unsuccessful in calming Laura down.
- Laura had an attachment to the X-Men Comics, and apparently considered them fact, as it's suggested she envisioned Logan as he was portrayed in those said comics, and Eden a real place.
- According to director James Mangold, there was a cut scene where Laura finds a photo of Jean Grey in Logan's jacket and asks whether Jean is her mother, prompting Logan to crumple the photo and toss it away.
- As Laura is still young, her healing isn't as efficient as Logan's. This is showcased during her first encounter with the Reavers, as it took several seconds for the blood flow to stop after being impaled, as well as some bullet wounds to close. Later, it's shown she was put under with anesthetics, something that was proven to be unable to happen to Logan in X2; and in Origins, it was explained by Stryker that Logan's healing was far too powerful for him to be affected by the anesthesia.
- Since only her claws are adamantium and not her whole skeleton, it is unlikely she'll begin to die of the adamantium poisoning her father suffered in old age.
External links
Laura on the Marvel Wiki
Laura on Wikipedia