X-23 #4

Laura hits the open road and runs into danger and everybody's favorite Cajun 
 
The Good  
Will Conrad and Marco Checchetto continue to provide excellent interior artwork. There's a soft texture and inexplicable prettiness to it that's made fully alive by Rauch's colors. 
 
Liu's writing, while not as long as issues past, still has it's highlights here. She really has a handle on Laura's social awkwardness that's really endearing. She really reads like someone who's knowledge of the world and others comes from programming and not necessarily experience. Her matter of fact conversation with a young lady she encounters on the road named alice is quite amusing. Bloodshed seems to follow Laura everywhere she goes and this issue is no different. We get a good look at how that effects Laura. You can see how her disparate experiences with the Young X-Men and X-Force have influenced her out look on life, death, and morality.  
 
For a while now I've been really bored with Gambit. That being said, I love the way Marjorie Liu puts him to use here. He's humorous and equipped with his trademark roughish charm. His interaction with Laura here is handled quite well. Laura takes a life this issue and she expects to be judged and pretty harshly for doing so. Gambit, having a checkered past himself, does just the opposite what other X-Men would do in this scenario. He doesn't impugn her actions, nor does he make excuses for them. He simply and genuinely talks to her and listens to her. I'm looking forward to seeing how he plays into this story. You get the feel that he knows a good bit more than he's letting on about what's going on.

The Bad 
As has been par the course for this series I hate this cover. I didn't like the manga inspired covers all that much. They just failed to capture the feel of the series to me. Well this is a move in the right direction but Jason Keith drops the ball nonetheless. For starters Laura doesn't look like Laura. I don't know who this chick is but she looks too old to be laura. Also Laura looks a bit exotic, more ethnic. And her pose here is just awkward and off putting. I mean what is she doing? her hair implies motion but the lack of background makes it unclear what's going on. Is she flying down towards the audience? Because it looks like she posing in front of fan. And her legs look really weired upon closer inspection.   
 
I noticed it last issue but it shows more so here. While all the monologuing and dialog gives us a nice peek into Laura's mind it also sets a very, very slow pace for the series. I really hope she starts to move the plot forward with something big next issue. The biggest strength of her character redefining Black Widow run was that she was able to give us in depth character analysis balanced with action and dynamic pacing.  
  
I knew Sinister would play a big part in this new arc, but I hope Liu doesn't do the oh so expected with her. From this issue and the dialog surrounding her, it looks like that very well may be the case though.  

The Verdict  
BUY THIS SERIES
Marjorie Liu's a very talented writer and Laura's a character with so much potential to be mined. I believe that this writer and this character were meant for one another. This series and issue has it's minor issues but is highly rewarding. Because it was so bogged down in the current Wolverine in Hell event for it's first 3 issues I feel like it's truly just beginning now and despite it's slow start I believe it's going to grow into something great.