Things get meaner. Oh man, I hate it when I am right.

It seems that things are on a continual downward spiral for X23. For those of you not following the series, shame on you. When you are finished covering your head with ashes and plucking out your beard, I suggest you check out some of the past reviews on X23 to bring you up to speed. In short, X23 is a clone of Wolverine, except that she is a girl. To make matters more complicated, Zander Rice, whose father was killed by Wolverine, and Sarah Kinney, X23’s surrogate mother, head the project that created this pug-faced little killer. Meanwhile, Zander had an affair with his boss/father-figure’s wife and got her pregnant. Now, he refuses to let her tell Sutter (the boss) that their child is actually Zander’s, and it seems that Zander is having trouble choosing whether to kill X23 or use her to kill Sutter and his family. Talk about awkward Christmases.

Craig Kile’s and Christopher Yost’s writing is as intriguing as it is cruel, and that means it is really good. Despite the deplorably sad situation of X23, I keep awaiting each issue with eagerness for its bittersweet story. However, I do have a problem with the art in this issue, a lot of problems. In the past, the art was always good except when Billy Tan (penciler) and Jon Sybal (inks) got a little over ambitious with the backgrounds, but this issue is not very good at all. In fact, some cells are just plain bad. The comic sometimes looks like an assortment of ill-drawn sketches. I don’t know what the deal is, but I do know that X23 has suffered a blow to the quality of its art. Another thing is that they really need to pick an age for X23 and quit changing it. Is she a little girl? Is she a sexy killing machine? She is whatever age her role calls for it seems. Still, I have to say that the cover by Tan is just great.

I believe I have said what I needed to say. Just remember that X23 is going to be a big player in the Marvel Universe. So, do yourself a favor and get her original series, because you can only kick yourself so many times before you get gangrene.

-Fumanchu