Plot points aplenty
The good
Liu waste's no time with this issue, gambit's behaviour in the first few pages is entirely within his character and works well to take him out of the book for the time being so we can focus on Laura and her antagonists. The conversation between x-23 & Miss Sinister is spot on for continuity, Liu makes clear that Claudine is no ordinary clone and I like that the plot points raised in the first arc are still being played with here and not dropped.
I like that Gambit's presence was addressed here, some people have wondered why he's been included. Well from an editorial position it makes sense, he's not doing anything in the x-books, Laura needs a foil to have dialogue with and Gambit's got some history that fits. From a storyline position it now makes sense too, I'm glad it was addressed.
Lots of plot points going forward here, the whole sinister situation, weapon x, Laura's hand. Lot's of balls to juggle and Liu's doing it well
The Bad
This arc does seem only serve to reintroduce a character who's been dead for some time now, it makes sense as there's not many super-badguys in the books any more -Magneto's a good guy, Kid-Apocalypse got...well read x-force, Stryfe's in a future timeline being spanked by future apocalypse, the hellfire club's a bit meh, I don't see sublime as a major threat, sentinels aren't there any more, Nimrod was destroyed and Bastion's gone too.
So while it isn't great that this arc doesn't really add to Laura's journey it does set up some good plot points and may lead to filling a pretty big gap for the x-universe so I'm okay with it.
The Nitpicking
Nothing
To sum up this issue's great, I'm really enjoying Liu's take on X-23. While I'm not the biggest Gambit fan I do think he works well as a sidekick to Laura, she needs someone to converse with. The multiple plot points set up or picked back up again in this book are relevant and well-exceuted. Art's good, and while I cant say this was a WOW book I can't say anything bad about it really.
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