Review: ‘Generation X-23’ #1 Kicks Off A Unique Journey

With every “generation” of X-Men, we inevitably get that era’s young mutant team. Whether it was the New Mutants, Generation X, or New X-Men, it happens over and over again. The current iteration of X-Men has found theirs, but Generation X-23 already is showing how it’s going to be different.

Jody Houser, Jacopo Camagni, Erick Arciniega, and Ariana Maher launch the X-Men’s newest — and deadliest — generation of young mutants.

Laura and Gabby Kinney have found their mission protecting young mutants who can’t protect themselves as Wolverine and Scout. However, they’re about to be thrust into a mission they never expected. Someone is experimenting on young mutants, and their only hope isn’t Wolverine … It’s X-23.

The problem with a lot of Laura Kinney stories — whether she’s using the name Wolverine or X-23 — is that they always go back into the same well. She was a test tube baby. She was experimented on. She was a child assassin. Those are important parts of her character, but she’s grown so much that they shouldn’t define her any more.

Houser knows that here, and she makes an important choice. When it comes to tropes, it’s important to avoid them, or lean in and redefine them. Houser is clearly planning on the latter, as she uses the status quo left behind from NYX and Laura Kinney: Wolverine to set up the series. Her take on Laura isn’t just a heroic young woman wanting to help — she’s a trauma and abuse survivor looking to keep others from her same fate.

In that vein, she does a great job writing her leads. Laura has the right mix of fierce loyalty, stoic distance and righteous anger. Gabby is a wonderful mix of youthful enthusiasm and wild ferocity. They’ve been written apart for far too long, and I’m so glad to see them reunited on page. I hope that Houser will do equally interesting things with the characters introduced on the final pages, because this is such a strong start and introduction for them.

Camagni fits very squarely in Marvel’s house style, but I really love the energy that he puts into this story. Any Wolverine story needs to be action forward, and he does that incredibly well. However, he and Arciniega team up for some of the most interesting looking superpower effects I’ve seen in an X-Men book in a long time. They create an effect that’s both visually interesting and disorienting, mixing the line art and color art together in a great example of how they can synthesize a stronger whole.

Arciniega also mixes yellows with other colors throughout the issue. It gives Laura a strong presence on the page, which unifies the action and scene changes visually, without being distracting. It’s a nice (and subtle) touch that shows how color theory enhances a story.

Maher continues to get better and better. Laura and Gabby have a patter to their dialogue, that Maher is able to capture without making it dominate the art. She also makes Laura’s captions feel weighty, and not like exposition.

Generation X-23 #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.