Title: Innocence Lost – Conclusion
Published By: Marvel Comics
Story: Craig Kyle
Writer: Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost
Pencils: Billy Tan
Inks: Jon Sibal
Colors: Brian Haberlin
Letters: VC’s Cory Petit
Editor: Axel Alonso
Publisher: Dan Buckley
How do you create a monster?
Train a young girl in nothing but the killing arts?
Yeah, that works.
Make sure she is made of the DNA of one of the fiercest men alive?
Fine, that would work too.
Never let her taste freedom, except when she is on ‘missions’?
YES YES YES – they all work… now shut up.
STORY!
This is the last chapter of X-23 which was created by Craig Kyle. The book slowly but surely has found itself on people’s favorite current mini-series lists.. why? Because it’s well written – it’s thought provoking – and it’s a good story.
When I read that they were going to be doing another offshoot Wolverine Weapon X story, I groaned just like many in comicdon. It’s been done and there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to Canadians and their want to create a bigger and brighter warrior. That all well may be entirely true, but when you put such an emotional and sad spin on it like Kyle & Yost have done – you don’t mind reading it again.
What makes this story unique is that it is as much a story about X-23’s mother as it is about X-23 herself. The bond that they share, the reason they are together, and how they try to fix the shambles they have made each other’s lives.
At the end, the story is tragedy. I want to tell you what happens, but a good reader should be able to pick it up from last issue. Expect it to be done well, because it is.
I’m being so vague, but that’s so I don’t ruin anything. Does it have a big action sequence, and closure on what was being done to X-23… yes. Do we find out her true name… yes. The emotion that comes out of those last few pages though, is poetically good.
Art!
Billy Tan & John Sibal draw a beautiful book together. X-23 comes across with a sadness in every panel that she’s not Snikting and Destroying. In those panels she is a feral beast that’s unstoppable. That’s the key to it – duality.
Wolverine is very rarely a dual character these days. Mired in honor and angst, Millar’s recent killer story is the only one to catch him on the other side of his coin since he gained back his adamantium. X-23 doesn’t seem to have a choice in her emotional states, and the art reflects it. On pages where she is walking, it doesn’t matter that there are trained guards sighting her to shoot her. It doesn’t matter that she is walking through a minefield.. she just seems sad.
Then when it is necessary – that sadness just disappears.
It is most excellent.
Overall!
So my flaw with the book is that I want to know how she ended up in NYX, but the last page shows her already in mainstream X-Continuity. The decision to skip that period is probably best, since it’s based around a book that hasn’t come out in a very long time, and is lost in the layers of continuity. It probably is for the best, really.
It is sad to me that I’ve watched Kyle create this character for the last 6 months, and in the same period of time, watched as Claremont has made me not give a damn about her.
Someday Marvel will find a duality… just like X-23 does.
So I’m giving X-23 a fairly high rating. Not pinnacle best, but pretty damn close – because I really thought this closed it perfectly and brought us up to speed in a way few mini-series ever do.
