things are about to get Legend…wait for it…Dary!

Last week i sent in some questions for Liu’s X-Positon on CBR and they got answered! Get a load of this:

Gawdzilla: Somewhere on the Internet (maybe Twitter?), I thought I heard that Laura would be encountering dragons in the near future. What kind of dragons are we talking about here: cute and cuddly like Lockheed, or big, bad world-domination Fing Fang Foom-type of dragons? And if this is happening, when can we look forward to this?

Liu: Um, big. And fire-breathing. Check out the next arc, beginning with issue #17 (which brings Hellion back into Laura’s life).

You hear that folks?

Dragons!

In arc that not only features the return of Hellion, art by Sana Takeda…now has dragons!

That’s like the perfect recipe for awesome!

Even George from CBR thinks so:

Does this mean Hellion gets turned into a dragon? That would be awesome!

Regardless if Hellion becomes a dragon or not this winter X-23 will be awesome

Glad that Sana Takeda is coming back.

That sounds so random

Really hope Hellion doesn't become a dragon. That would be all kinds of sh!t.

@John Valentine: I think it would be kinda cool actually...especially if he could then switch back n forth and if it gave him actual hands back

The rise of Hellion the Burninator is neigh!

I bet Laura is going to save Julian from a dragon, further clarifying his role: damsel in distress :oP

It's still not enough to convince me to buy this title ever again.

It's still not enough to convince me to buy this title ever again.

I gave up after the first few issues.  As far as I was concerned it was utter garbage.  Characters behaving out of character, boring story developments, and great pains taken to sever the core character from any of the connections she had with the previous Kyle & Yost stories.  It was an elongated version of the dreadful one-shot.  I'd rather wipe my arse with fivers than buy this.  So the news that there'll be dragons...?  Big whoop-dee flying doo.  Great, what next?  Sparkly vampires??

@xerox_kitty said:

I gave up after the first few issues. As far as I was concerned it was utter garbage. Characters behaving out of character, boring story developments, and great pains taken to sever the core character from any of the connections she had with the previous Kyle & Yost stories. It was an elongated version of the dreadful one-shot. I'd rather wipe my arse with fivers than buy this. So the news that there'll be dragons...? Big whoop-dee flying doo. Great, what next? Sparkly vampires??

I actually like the series, well, what I've read about it. I didn't see anything terribly out of character in what I read. With regard to the New X-Men: Rockslide was an idiot, Surge was a b!tch, and Dust was being relatively compassionate and making the effort to be nice to and stand up for Laura. Hellion seemed to display his typical arrogance in not wanting to accept help from people but then demonstrated his more sensitive side when talking to Laura.

The X-world really need's Kyle and Yost. Without them, nearly all New X-Men fall by the way-side.

@John Valentine: I agree with your assessment. I like the way Liu portrays Laura as more than just a creepy death machine, and I like that she is not following what seems to be the standard route of making Julian a complete jerk. She remembered the development that Kyle & Yost had given him, showing that he has a good heart; and she definitley put that in the story. I approve of Liu's treatment of my favorite characters! :o)

I agree with K2 and John, in the first arc Liu nailed the NXM. And its been a pretty good fun ride.

Though we already had Vampires(in the form of Jubilee) in the last arc :)

@Gawdzilla said:

I agree with K2 and John, in the first arc Liu nailed the NXM. And its been a pretty good fun ride.

Though we already had Vampires(in the form of Jubilee) in the last arc :)

And if she still had her powers, she would be a sparkly vampire... o,O uh-oh!

Even though I'm not a fan of Jubilee being a vamp...she contains more awesomeness in her pinky finger than certain sparkly vampires do in their whole...universe.

Doing something with Hellion = win.

@xerox_kitty said:

I gave up after the first few issues. As far as I was concerned it was utter garbage. Characters behaving out of character, boring story developments, and great pains taken to sever the core character from any of the connections she had with the previous Kyle & Yost stories. It was an elongated version of the dreadful one-shot. I'd rather wipe my arse with fivers than buy this. So the news that there'll be dragons...? Big whoop-dee flying doo. Great, what next? Sparkly vampires??

O_O lmao um they did vampires already Jubilee guest starred for 3 issues i believe(x-23 and jubilee balance each other out nicely in the arc) The first arc(2 arcs were meh) wasn't great but the series has gotten better, characters being out of character happens a lot in different books but gambit is likable in this series while still doing his charm/flirt thing and laura has developed a lot since the beginning where she moped way more than normal.

I'm just a sucker for x-23 so i will just buy the series for support XD

This title is no fun whatsoever, as random and potentially fun dragons could be.

I appreciated X-23 in NYX, X-Force, and her origin mini, but she's otherwise been made to appeal to the Twilight crowds with her tragic and somber attempts at humanity. Her so-called relationship with Hellion only ups the emo melodrama potential.

I thought you meant she is going to have a threesome with hellion and a dragon.

I am disappoint. 

@katanalauncher:

That could happen too...we'll have to wait and see

Too many questions and way too much time between December and now.

@OldManJoe: issue 17 comes out in nov, X-23 is getting a double release in Nov

@Gawdzilla said:

@OldManJoe: issue 17 comes out in nov, X-23 is getting a double release in Nov

OMG Marvel knows my birthday is in November!! Hell yes!! :-D

Fresh off Liu's twitter:

marjoriemliu Marjorie Liu

I have seen Sana Takeda's art for X-23 #18, and it is glorious, and full of dragons, and almost-kisses.

More Hellion X-23 info:

Nrama: Though it seems that X-23’s not done with X-characters completely — you mentioned in a previous interview that Hellion will be showing up soon, and obviously there’s plenty of history there. How much of an impact will his appearance have on the book?

Liu: They have some unresolved issues, but by the end of this upcoming arc the exact nature of their relationship and feelings will be made explicitly clear.

From a Newsrama interview. Will Hellion/X-23 emerge as a official cannon relationship or will it be something that never was that should have been?

@k2: I wanna see a dragon sliced in half!! >:D

@Gawdzilla: A sparkly Jubilee :)) Its like having her plasma thingies back.

@xerox_kitty said:

I gave up after the first few issues. As far as I was concerned it was utter garbage. Characters behaving out of character, boring story developments, and great pains taken to sever the core character from any of the connections she had with the previous Kyle & Yost stories. It was an elongated version of the dreadful one-shot. I'd rather wipe my arse with fivers than buy this. So the news that there'll be dragons...? Big whoop-dee flying doo. Great, what next? Sparkly vampires??

Well, they did bring Jubilee into a few issues, recently, so you're not too far off on the sparkly vampires bit. It was rife with horrible characterization, but at least the art was pretty.

@rokusan23 said:

@k2: I wanna see a dragon sliced in half!! >:D

Um, why? And why would an X-23 comic feature bisected dragons?

@Gawdzilla said:

Fresh off Liu's twitter:

marjoriemliu Marjorie Liu

I have seen Sana Takeda's art for X-23 #18, and it is glorious, and full of dragons, and almost-kisses.

November is a good month! :-D

@k2 said:

@Gawdzilla said:

Fresh off Liu's twitter:

marjoriemliu Marjorie Liu

I have seen Sana Takeda's art for X-23 #18, and it is glorious, and full of dragons, and almost-kisses.

November is a good month! :-D

Actually #18 comes out in Dec

@Gawdzilla said:

@k2 said:

@Gawdzilla said:

Fresh off Liu's twitter:

marjoriemliu Marjorie Liu

I have seen Sana Takeda's art for X-23 #18, and it is glorious, and full of dragons, and almost-kisses.

November is a good month! :-D

Actually #18 comes out in Dec

Oh. Well at least Hellion shows up in November...and he's still there for December...damn, even better...TWO good months!! ^^

(PS: I'm not hard to please, as you may have noticed. lol)

@k2 said:

@Gawdzilla said:

@k2 said:

@Gawdzilla said:

Fresh off Liu's twitter:

marjoriemliu Marjorie Liu

I have seen Sana Takeda's art for X-23 #18, and it is glorious, and full of dragons, and almost-kisses.

November is a good month! :-D

Actually #18 comes out in Dec

Oh. Well at least Hellion shows up in November...and he's still there for December...damn, even better...TWO good months!! ^^

(PS: I'm not hard to please, as you may have noticed. lol)

I'm well aware of that

After reading #17 I hope Julian is going to

@Kairan1979: I hope so...here's hoping for Julian Keller the Dragonslayer!

@Gawdzilla said:

@Kairan1979: I hope so...here's hoping for Julian Keller the Dragonslayer!

If Julian slays a dragon for Laura...there better be a helix moment, since it'd pretty much be a knight/damsel in distress scenario, with the dragon and all.

@k2: That would be nice, also Franklin and Valeria should think he's awesome...

Ahh who am i kidding...he's going to angst and get his ass kicked...

Check this out

@xerox_kitty said:

I gave up after the first few issues. As far as I was concerned it was utter garbage. Characters behaving out of character, boring story developments, and great pains taken to sever the core character from any of the connections she had with the previous Kyle & Yost stories. It was an elongated version of the dreadful one-shot. I'd rather wipe my arse with fivers than buy this. So the news that there'll be dragons...? Big whoop-dee flying doo. Great, what next? Sparkly vampires??

Didn't know Moderators were such astute trolls. =/ The series hardly went through great pains to cut her ties with the rest of the X-men, or her former life. It was natural for her to leave a place where she wasn't wanted. Her friends were pushing her away because they felt betrayed by her, and she herself didn't know what to do after Wolverine himself told her to start giving herself her own orders, which was at the end of X-Force. This practically begged for a series to be given to her so we could see her grow away from the X-men, and step out of Wolverine's shadow.

As for the characterizations

@John Valentine said:

I actually like the series, well, what I've read about it. I didn't see anything terribly out of character in what I read. With regard to the New X-Men: Rockslide was an idiot, Surge was a b!tch, and Dust was being relatively compassionate and making the effort to be nice to and stand up for Laura. Hellion seemed to display his typical arrogance in not wanting to accept help from people but then demonstrated his more sensitive side when talking to Laura.

The X-world really need's Kyle and Yost. Without them, nearly all New X-Men fall by the way-side.

This guy pretty much nailed the New Mutants aspect, and if you only read the first few issues, then them Gambit, and Storm were probably all you were introduced too. Gambit and Storm were certainly within the realms of their characters. Storm showing maternal concern for a child who was becoming distanced from the rest, and Gambit who's own sordid past could easily provide a kinship with her. Ok, stepping of the soapbox now.

Let down.

GRRRR the ending to #19 has me pissed off. That was really cold.

What happened with Hellion and X-23 upsets me, but this is comics. I can get over it quickly. I just hope Hellion is used more than just the stereotypical school bully in XATXM.

X-23 #19... Poor Julian... That was... harsh. Emasculating... even.

@rokusan23 said:

X-23 #19... Poor Julian... That was... harsh. Emasculating... even.

^ This. Ugh.

GRRRR the ending to #19 has me pissed off. That was really cold.

We need to start sending Marvel saying that we did not enjoy this

@Gawdzilla:A PETITION! Or spamming Kyle and Yost's twitters/blogs/whatever with "Guys please come back! We don't want ms. Liu dead after meeting some HeliX fan (we want to kill her ourselves)" messages.

Hmmmm, maybe it's for the better. WOAH, I said that.

Also like many here i am so beyond disappointed with x23 19. But i was downright angry over how misleading the cover was. Watching X23 and Hellions relationsip over the years has been one of my favorite stories in marvel. It was one of the main reasons why i kept picking up new xmen. I honestly felt that they could grow togther as characters. They were good for each other. Or atleast could have been. I have been waiting patiently for over a year for these two to meet up again. And thats how it ended? It was stomach turning. It was so out of the blue. But the absolute worst part about all of this...is the god damn cover. Saying it was misleading is understatement. Im sitting here like....yes freaking finally. I had to deal with Hellions sudden character digression but at least he and x-23 can finally be together...if only for one issue. And instead we get the abortion that was X-23 #19. I'm like....she stalked this kid, literally. And she thought she was going to die and how does she spends whats to her her last minutes on earth? At Julians side at the hospital. And a year later we get, oh well i don't like you anymore so go f*ck yourself. Excuse me i have to go eat pancakes with that guy you think i'm banging. You know gambit, the guy who threatened to blow off your other limbs. I know marvel is trying to do this whole julian keller heel turn thing, but taking away literally years of character growth isn't the way to do it. And certainly having X-23 snikt his heart out isn't the way to go about it. It will just make him out to be some emo douche bag crying over some girl. Like Anakin Skywalker. Instead of the bad-ass Magneto-esque guy would die for his fellow mutant. And i know X-23's series is getting cancelled and shes moving to Double A. But why the sudden out of character behavior? There are better ways of going about it. And that god damn cover.

@why_you_mad_tho:

I used to like the pairing. It worked when they were at the Institute, but since Messiah Complex we've barely seen them together (okay, once or twice in X-Force Vol.3 and a few times earlier in this volume of X-23, but that's it). How can it work when they're both so different than they were?

I'm not annoyed that they broke up. Fair enough.

The thing I'm annoyed about is how Liu trashed Hellion, made him seem like an abusive ex etc, whilst trying to make X-23 look grown-up and mature. Can't the guy catch a break? This sort of thing destroys everything that Kyle and Yost did with him. It matters so much because Hellion gets such little panel time and events like this serve to depict him now.

Is it really the best thing to have Hellion tied to a character that Marvel's now using as one of their cash-cows? I just hope Hellion ends up becoming the hero he was once shown capable of being. At least Carey showed him to be capable of redemption in his final issue of Legacy.

@John Valentine said:

@why_you_mad_tho:

I used to like the pairing. It worked when they were at the Institute, but since Messiah Complex we've barely seen them together (okay, once or twice in X-Force Vol.3 and a few times earlier in this volume of X-23, but that's it). How can it work when they're both so different than they were?

I'm not annoyed that they broke up. Fair enough.

The thing I'm annoyed about is how Liu trashed Hellion, made him seem like an abusive ex etc, whilst trying to make X-23 look grown-up and mature. Can't the guy catch a break? This sort of thing destroys everything that Kyle and Yost did with him. It matters so much because Hellion gets such little panel time and events like this serve to depict him now.

Is it really the best thing to have Hellion tied to a character that Marvel's now using as one of their cash-cows? I just hope Hellion ends up becoming the hero he was once shown capable of being. At least Carey showed him to be capable of redemption in his final issue of Legacy.

Eh? What was this redemption thing you speak of?

And while I am 100% outraged about the relationship ending, I expected it. And I'm mad at how Hellion is being treated in the comics as well. The problem is, writers consider him to be an extra character to either fill in the role of pincushion or of school bully. It's a very 2-dimensional way to treat a character, making Hellion become flat. He is losing his status as a dynamic character. For some reason Marvel clings to the idea that comics are mainly read by 7-year-old-kids. Each issue has to be 85% action, and any interactions between characters has to be predictable and highschoolish. There can be no lasting relationships, no mature concepts. Even the attempt to 'serious up' the universe by killing off a great deal of characters--or dismembering them--becomes almost poorly written...in that children's style I was talking about. It's starting to feel like it's all for shock value. I would like to see Marvel showing more of the twisted web of complexities that is the human race, with deeper plots, less action and more interaction...like in the work of Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta). Sure I like seeing them use their cool, sparkly powers--but there's got to be a bit more of a balance. Instead of 85/15, how about 50/50? :-)

@k2 said:

@John Valentine said:

@why_you_mad_tho:

I used to like the pairing. It worked when they were at the Institute, but since Messiah Complex we've barely seen them together (okay, once or twice in X-Force Vol.3 and a few times earlier in this volume of X-23, but that's it). How can it work when they're both so different than they were?

I'm not annoyed that they broke up. Fair enough.

The thing I'm annoyed about is how Liu trashed Hellion, made him seem like an abusive ex etc, whilst trying to make X-23 look grown-up and mature. Can't the guy catch a break? This sort of thing destroys everything that Kyle and Yost did with him. It matters so much because Hellion gets such little panel time and events like this serve to depict him now.

Is it really the best thing to have Hellion tied to a character that Marvel's now using as one of their cash-cows? I just hope Hellion ends up becoming the hero he was once shown capable of being. At least Carey showed him to be capable of redemption in his final issue of Legacy.

Eh? What was this redemption thing you speak of?

And while I am 100% outraged about the relationship ending, I expected it. And I'm mad at how Hellion is being treated in the comics as well. The problem is, writers consider him to be an extra character to either fill in the role of pincushion or of school bully. It's a very 2-dimensional way to treat a character, making Hellion become flat. He is losing his status as a dynamic character. For some reason Marvel clings to the idea that comics are mainly read by 7-year-old-kids. Each issue has to be 85% action, and any interactions between characters has to be predictable and highschoolish. There can be no lasting relationships, no mature concepts. Even the attempt to 'serious up' the universe by killing off a great deal of characters--or dismembering them--becomes almost poorly written...in that children's style I was talking about. It's starting to feel like it's all for shock value. I would like to see Marvel showing more of the twisted web of complexities that is the human race, with deeper plots, less action and more interaction...like in the work of Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta). Sure I like seeing them use their cool, sparkly powers--but there's got to be a bit more of a balance. Instead of 85/15, how about 50/50? :-)

I especially like how Carey hints at Julian being Omega level.

I agree with you about Hellion. I just wish someone would continue him on the path Kyle and Yost had set him on during New X-Men and not have him as a bully, a mindless rioter, abusive ex or sulky-angsty amputee.

Please, Marvel, just stop the abuse.