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X-23/Wolverine, Laura Kinney Reading Order

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Created by writer Craig Kyle, X-23 first appeared – not in a comic book! — in the television series X-Men: Evolution, in season 3 episode 10. At the time, Kyle created her in an attempt to make a Wolverine to “connect more to the younger kids”.  It was a success and, after a second episode, she became so popular, that she ended up in the comics, like Harley Quinn in her time. Her first appearance in comics was in NYX #3, published in February 2004 and written by Joe Quesada before headlining two miniseries written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost where her origins were explained.

In the beginning, X-23 is simply a product of The Facility, an organization that attempted to recreate Weapon X and failed. The geneticist Sarah Kinney thought that cloning was the way to go, but the genome recovered from Wolverine was too damaged. Sarah decided to alter the DNA against the Facility orders and Laura was born. She was trained to kill Wolverine, but when she got the opportunity, she joined the X-Men. Since then, she has realized she was Wolvie’s biological daughter, and eventually, his successor.

Since her first appearance on television, Laura has made quite a name for herself, on the comic book pages, but also on the big screen in the movie Logan. She’s a perfect example of a legacy character done right, well worth having her own reading order.

X-23, Laura Kinney Reading Order

First of all, let’s begin by signaling that Laura Kinney has her own omnibus, though it does not include the more divisive NYX miniseries. Still, a good way to collect her first stories…

  • X-23 Omnibus Vol. 1
    Collects X-23 (2005) #1-6, X-23: Target X #1-6, X-23 (2010a) #1, X-23 (2010b) #1-21, Captain Universe/X-23 #1 And Daken: Dark Wolverine #8-9 — Plus Material From X-Men: To Serve And Protect #2, Wolverine: The Road To Hell And All-New Wolverine Saga.

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X-23 Origins and X-Men debuts (2003 – 2007)

NYX was published before but takes place after the two miniseries, Innocence Lost and Target X, which are X-23’s origin stories.

Also collected in:

After those origin stories, Laura becomes a player in the X-Men world. Specifically, she is brought into the X-Men for Wolverine’s 30th Anniversary, when the mutants investigate a series of mysterious murders in New York City. She made a few appearances before becoming a regular in a title:

With the exception of the Marvel Team-Up issues, all those issues are also collected in X-Men: Reload Vol. 1 – The End of History by Chris Claremont.

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X-23 in New X-Men (2006 – 2008)

The event House of M (see reading order) has transformed the X-Men world, with Laura one of the 200 other mutants still having powers after it. She leaves the Mansion and goes back to San Francisco, but came back when Wolverine calls her to join the New X-Men. And she is still under Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost’s creative pen.

Hulk fistOptional event! World War Hulk takes place here, a minor event for the X-Men, but still one when you can encounter Laura in World War Hulk: X-Men (2007) #1-2, collected in X-Men: World War Hulk. Those issues occur during New X-Men #42.

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X-23 in The X-Force during the Messiah trilogy (2007 – 2010)

After House of M, the “Messiah Complex” storyline redefined the world of the mutants, first with the destruction of the Xavier Institute, then with the disbanding of the X-Men. During that period, Laura becomes a member of the new incarnation of the X-Force team (still written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost).

Before the conclusion of the Messiah trilogy, you can make a little detour with X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back, a miniseries starring Pixie in which X-23 is a major player.

  • X-Men Milestones: Second Coming
    Collects X-Force vol. 3 #26–28; Second Coming: Prepare; X-Men: Second Coming #1–2; Uncanny X-Men #523–525; New Mutants, vol. 3 #12–14; and X-Men: Legacy #235–237

The X-Force run is also collected in those trade paperbacks:

 

X-23: New Solo Adventures (2010 – 2011)

After the events of Second Coming and the conclusion to X-Force, X-23 strikes out on her own, first in a one-shot where she reconnects with NYX, then with a new ongoing series, written by Marjorie Liu.

Venom by Donny Cates Reading Order IconOptional reading! X-23 comes to Las Vegas hunting someone who purchased a vial of her blood in Venom: Circle of Four. She joins Venom, Red Hulk, and Ghost Rider to fight Blackheart.

All of X-23 solo adventures until now have been reprinted into two large volumes:

  • X-23: The Complete Collection Vol. 1
    Collects X-23 Vol. 1, #1-6, X-23: Target X 1–6, Captain Universe/X-23 # 1, X-23 (2010) One-Shot, X-23 Vol. 2, #1-3, and material from X-Men: To Serve and Protect #2
  • X-23: The Complete Collection Vol. 2
    Collects X-23 vol. 3 #4-21, Daken: Dark Wolverine 8–9; Material From Wolverine: The Road To Hell #1, All-New Wolverine Saga #1

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The Avengers Era (2011 – 2013)

Following Fear Itself (see reading order), in which X-23 appears in a few issues (Fear Itself: The Home Front #5-7), and the recent schism that occurred in the X-Men (see reading order), Laura goes to Avengers Academy instead of Wolverine’s school. And so begins the Avengers era, with Avengers Academy, penned by Christos Gage and Mike McKone.

Avengers Vs X-Men Reading OrderAvengers Vs. X-Men! X-23 is one of the only mutants at the Academy and is mostly at the center of thos Avengers Academy ties-in. For the complete event, check out our full Avengers Vs. X-Men reading order.

The Marvel Battle Royale! As part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, the series created by Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker takes 16 young heroes (X-23 is one of them) and pit them against each other in a kill-or-be-killed reality-show-like scenario on Murderworld run by Arcade.

The series has also been reprinted in:

Laura’s affiliation with the Avengers comes to an end. Unlike the other Arena survivors, she did not join the sequel series, Avengers Undercover.

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Back to the X-Men  (2014 – 2015)

From the fallout of the Battle of the Atom, Kitty Pryde takes a leave of absence from the Jean Grey School to help mentor the original 5 X-Men who have joined Cyclops’s New Xavier School for the Gifted to better help change the uncertain future. They encounter and battle the Purifiers hunting new mutants, which results in X-23 being recruited to the team. The title is written by Brian Michael Bendis.

Wolverine Claws Logo - Reading OrderThis is where something unimaginable happened in the Marvel Universe: the Death of Wolverine! For the full story of Wolvie’s death, go check out our Death of Wolverine reading order. Laura is entangled with Logan’s legacy, with various factions scrambling to fill the void! It begins with The Logan Legacy and continues in Wolverines (written by Charles Soule).

Black Widow Logo - Reading OrderTeam-up! Dealing with Wolvie’s death is not easy. As a sort of distraction, Black Widow takes X-23 punching. in Black Widow (2014) #11, collected in Black Widow Vol. 2: Tightly Tangled Web.

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Laura Kinney as All-New Wolverine (2015 – 2018)

Laura Kinney took the Wolverine mantle and is now the star of All-New Wolverine, penned by Tom Taylor. It’s also the introduction of Gabby, one of Laura’s clone sisters, who becomes her companion during those adventures. As Wolverine, she’s also still part of the All-New X-Men!

Civil War IICivil War II! Laura is not present during Apocalypse Wars but appears in a few Civil War II issues (see complete reading order), and find herself in conflict over the precognitive Inhuman Ulysses Cain, following one of his visions, in her own title:

X-Men Reading Order - X-LogoIvX! This is now the Inhumans vs the X-Men (see reading order) in this event in which Laura is a part of as an All-New X-Men member:

Tom Taylor’s run has also been collected in omnibus:

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Marvel Fresh Start and the X-Men of Krakoa (2018 – 2024)

Old characters came back from the dead in this new Marvel Relaunch. First, Jean Grey is back and Laura (with Gabby) is a member of her X-Men team in X-Men Red — by Tom Taylor and Mahmud A. Asrar.

Wolverine Claws Logo - Reading OrderThe Hunt for Wolverine is on! Wolverine returned from the dead following his death and Laura is present in one of the limited series (written by Tom Taylor). Wolverine’s return pushes the character to briefly return to the X-23 codename in her own new title, penned by Mariko Tamaki. See Hunt for Wolverine Reading Order for more information.

X-Men Reading Order - X-LogoA New X-Men crisis begins in Dissembled before leading us to Age of X-Man (see the complete reading order)

X-Men HickmanA new X-Men era begins now, with Jonathan Hickman. Laura becomes one of the inhabitants of the nation of Krakoa and teams up with Psylocke and young Cable in investigating the new threat of Apoth in Fallen Angels. She also goes by the Wolverine codename again and is one of the mutants who enters the Vault (a location in Ecuador where time ran much more quickly).

Also collected in:

X-Men HickmanHellfire Gala! You are cordially invited to join the mutant party to end all mutant parties in the X-Men event Hellfire Gala (see reading order), where Laura is revealed as a member of the newest X-Men lineup, a title penned by Gerry Duggan.

This is the beginning of the Fall of X storyline.

X-Men: From the Ashes (2024-)

As the Krakoa era ended, new series were launched and Laura joined the new NYX series and a new Wolverine series has been announced.

More stories to come

Did we forget an important issue? Did we make a mistake? Let us know in the comments!

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