X-23 #9 - Picking Up The (Awesome) Slack

In my time as a comic book connoisseur and misanthropic drunk I've learned one important life lesson. One awesome comic can overshadow three lousy comics. It's a given that a good deal of the books on the racks are complete and utter crap. It's those select few that make comics a worthwhile outlet, a vice almost in the same league as hookers and blow. I bring this up because the long-awaited arc that pits X-23 against Daken started so strong and then faltered. X-23 #8 was an awesome book, so much so that my mouth went dry from drooling over the awesome. Then Daken #8 came along and while it wasn't terrible, it was so mediocre compared to X-23 #8 that it felt like pepper sprayed right after getting a great blow-job. The momentum faltered more than Sarah Palin at a spelling bee, but it didn't stop completely. The arc still have two more parts left and I'm more than willing to see this arc by Marjorie Liu and Daniel Way to the end.

What made the last issue so underwhelming was how confusing it was. The scenes jumped around, losing all sense of pacing and flow. It was hard to tell just what the hell was going on at times. One moment Daken and X-23 are in the same scene. The next he's talking with Tyger. Then they find the mysterious Malcolm Concord who seems intent on bringing back Weapon X. Somehow Daken led X-23 to him and it's not even clear whether it was part of a plan or just dumb luck. It doesn't matter how awesome the premise of a book is or how great the art is. If you need a fucking diagram to map out what's going on and still have trouble figuring it out, it's a lot harder to enjoy. It's like a beautiful hooker who won't shut the hell up about the last episode of the Jersey Shore when you're trying to enjoy a good fuck. The only part of that issue that's really important to remember is that in the end, Concord got the better of X-23. He drugged her and Gambit. Then he threw X-23 in the trunk and Daken was probably jerking off in excitement as douche-bags are so prone to do.

X-23 #9 has a much clearer transition to begin with. X-23 is in a special cell that's about as spacious as a Japanese subway at rush hour. Concord is there taunting her, which is understandable. X-23 did rip his fucking finger nails out in the last issue. You would almost expect the guy to put her in an oven. But he's nothing if not a pragmatist. He makes it clear to X-23 that despite the torture, he's going to get what he wants from her. Usually when a scary man says that to a teenage girl, it's leads to the kind of stories that Fox News would jump all over. This one is ten times worse than that and anybody who has read X-23's mini (which you should totally get if you haven't) has an idea of what she's in for.

While X-23 is about to get a little R&R in Hell, Gambit wakes up in the comfortable dwelling of a beautiful woman. Concord wasn't interested in snot-nosed Cajuns it seems. That or he has a daughter that he would rather not see bent over a blackjack table screaming how she hit the jackpot. He finds out from Tyger that X-23 is gone and Daken screwed them over, as if that should come as a shock to anyone. They share a nice moment, but there really doesn't seem to be much purpose to this scene other than Gambit finding out he's failed X-23 again. He ties to keep her out of trouble, but like half the teenage girls from my high school graduating class trouble is more drawn to teenage girls than R. Kelly on Jerry Springer.

That's the last anyone will see of Gambit in this issue. Everything else is about X-23 and Daken, as well it should be. Daken still shows that he's in the major league of douche-bags when he has a meeting with Concord. He allowed him to capture X-23. Now he's interested in what he's going to do with her, presumably so he can laugh his ass off in between banging hookers. Concord mentions something that X-23 fans should remember from her mini (again, get that book if you haven't already), the trigger scent. This scent is something that was developed by X-23's creators so that when she sniffs it, she goes into a homicidal rage that's almost unstoppable. It's like Pacman Jones at a strip club.

It's the perfect weapon, yet he claims to have no interest in testing on her (yet). Daken doesn't seem too thrilled about the idea of Weapon X starting up again, but what he expect him do to by helping him capture X-23? Force her to work in a sweatshop wearing lingerie? That might make too much sense in this context, disturbing it may be.

This conversation of the trigger scent leads directly to a scene right out of Miami Vice. A goofy looking guy on the dock is selling some very illegal shit to an attractive woman in a cloak. The product isn't your typical brick of Columbia imported blow or pictures of Paris Hilton going down on a goat. It's the trigger scent. That's right, one scene leads to a clear transition of another. It's what the last issue lacked and it makes this issue feel a lot more coherent. I know it's one of those little things, but when you're reading a comic book it's a big fucking deal. It's not clear who the woman is. It could be X-23 or someone else. But right now, the trigger scent is in play at that always fucks X-23 up more than a night of binge drinking with Jack Nickelson.

We go back to our trip into hell. Laura now finds herself in a twisted cross between the last Saw movie and an episode of House. It's a scene she's been in before, bound and surrounded by crazy doctors who likely lost their medical licenses doing lousy boob jobs. She's strapped to the world's worst massage chair and then the doctors prepare to use a fucking chainsaw to cut her open. There are very few things comic fans can agree on, but most will concede that using a chainsaw is pretty fucking awesome. Daken watches over briefly. He has a few cryptic words, but he doesn't stick around. You would think he would record this so he can jerk off to it later, but this is Daken. He's more unpredictable than the John Goodman's eating habits.

It's a gruesome moment. One that can only be appropriate in an X-23 comic. There's actually a "SPLERCH" sound effect to describe the noise the chainsaw makes when it cuts into her. It's a noise that you hear in your mind and can never unhear.X-23 describes the moment in a nice monologue. Whereas a less ballsy teenage girl would be whining for their mommies and daddies, she takes it the same way most people deal with a mosquito bite.

As brutal as this scene is, it's only a prelude. You can't expect Laura to just lie there and take it like Mike Tyson's old prison bitch. Like Wolverine, she fights back. She breaks free. Now it's not entirely clear how this happens, but Daken's earlier words seem to hint that he helped her. It's a very non-dick move from a guy that makes an Olympic sport out of them. Whatever the reason, X-23 goes off on these pissant excuse for doctors and it's such a satisfying scene that you only throw up a little.

After the blood stops staining everything in the room, Laura meets up with Daken. He confirms that he helped free her. So first he helped Concord capture her. Then he helped free her. Either this guy has a split personality or he's just so bored that he can't stop fucking with people in more than one way. X-23 understandably slugs him one. It seems like a good time for the X-23/Daken battle to resume, but then he reveals that he has a file that she would have had to kill a lot more people to get her hands on. It's a file covering everything about the facility that made her. Yet somehow Daken just leaves it for her to look at. He doesn't consider it betraying. He calls it "borrowing your presence." Not sure what that entails, but it still sounds like a dick move.

This file prevents X-23 from tearing into Daken for the moment. Daken claims he didn't know Concord was starting another Weapon X, but seriously what else could he have wanted a clone of Wolverine for? Being a douche-bag doesn't mean he's fucking dumb. But to his credit, Daken says he helped Concord so he could dig a little deeper and find out more. It's still not clear how much bullshit he's stepping in, but it's a nice mystery. One that's a lot more coherent than his usual decadent antics.

He and X-23 also have a nice conversation about how different they are. She was raised in a lab. He was raised by Romulus. She's a clone. He's the product of good old fashioned boning. Yet one of them actually has a sliver of humanity that makes them a decent person. Even though Daken is a classically made human, he doesn't understand being human as much as X-23. It's a startling contrast between the two characters and one that provide great depth to a comic that has been more soaked with blood than Madonna on PMS.

It leads to another scene with another drug deal. The same woman in the cloak from before is buying more trigger scent. Again, it's not clear who she is. But she's packing a fucking gun and takes out the generous black market assholes that sold the stuff to her. Now usually Daken is the one that makes the dick moves, but this one takes the cake. Say what you will about the black market, they're still a business. If you start killing the generous folk who sell you all those juicy vices at a somewhat bloated price, you'll never get your ill-gotten merchandise again. You would have to wait until Ron Paul is elected president, which will likely be never.

This scene really doesn't do much other than act as filler from the last scene and give another excuse for more bloodshed. It's the same problem the previous issue had. It had scenes that seemed too much like filler. Now maybe this scene will have more meaning in the next issue, but that's not clear nor is it even hinted at. It just feels like a scene you can skip over because it's a bloodier repeat of an earlier scene. These pages could go to so much better use, like maybe a close up of Psylocke's ass or Rogue's cleavage. But I digress.

After their little philosophical chat, X-23 and Daken probe further into Concord's facility. Even if they're inclined to cut each others' heads off, they're more inclined to cut Concord's off first. Daken leads her to another part of the facility. Along the way they run into more out-of-work doctors. Since these guys aren't armed with any chainsaws, they do what you would expect doctors to do in that position. They run like cowards. I would mock this with a little girl joke, but given what X-23 did to the doctors that carved her up earlier I fully respect such cowardice. They have my respect for doing the most logical thing and not pissing themselves in the process.

It saves Daken and X-23 the trouble of more killing. Some readers might be a little disappointed. If this comic hasn't had enough bloodshed yet then you might want to go back to group therapy and tell the doctors about the dreams of raining blood you've been having. That would be useful information for any doctor NOT working at Weapon X knock-offs to have. But as soon as they leave, X-23 and Daken face another challenge. X-23 goes to what she thought was crying. Then someone decided that all of Concord's dirty secrets need to be let out for some fresh air. So all those fancy locked doors open and out pour a hoard of monsters. It shows that Concord didn't just rely on X-23 to bring back Weapon X. He did some homework and this would certainly qualify him as a straight-A student.

It's a twist that doesn't feel like a twist. X-23 and Daken now have to stop fighting each other and debating who's more human than who. When facing an army of monsters, those petty differences just don't seem as important. It sets the stage for an extra bloody conclusion and if you're not drooling over the possibilities, you either just came from the dentist or you're dead.

Going back to what I said earlier about one good comic overshadowing three bad comics, I'll say outright that this was a damn good comic. It had a lot fewer flaws than Daken #8. It was coherent. It was action-packed. It was bloody. It was even shocking at times, showing some depth and character development to go along with that blood. Marjorie Liu's touch is apparent in this book. She has a great feel for characterization and adding a touch of heart to scenes that otherwise qualify as torture porn. The moments with X-23 when she was strapped to the table was powerful in addition to being gruesome. Daken's actions make him seem less like a douche and more like someone with a half-logical plan. Yet the conflict between the two is still there and gets more complicated as the book goes on. Now at the end it looks like they have to work together. It's a great flow for a book and one that lends so many possibilities.

There were still a few flaws that seemed to carry over from the last book. There was some filler material, namely with the drug deal for the trigger scent. There were also some shaky transitions, like how X-23 and Daken went from debating humanity to just exploring the facility. Daken still comes off as a tool, but towards the end he does seem to have a more coherent plan. It still isn't clear what he's after and his dialog didn't seem as refined as X-23's. It still helps that it makes more sense in the end. It would help even more if the path to that end was a bit smoother.

X-23 #9 didn't fully rescue the series. It wasn't in need of complete redemption from the last issue. It just needed a story that would get the Collision arc back on track. And it worked. Minor flaws aside, X-23 #9 brought the arc back into focus and set the stage for a very eventful conclusion. For that I give X-23 #9 a 4 out of 5. It's not perfect yet. All the pieces still need to fall into place. Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu have done an amazing job with this story. It's awesome mixed with blood. What more can you ask for? Nuff said!

Daken #8 - The X-23/Daken Saga Continues

I've made no secret of my disdain of Daken. I liken him to a cross between Gordan Gecko and David Lee Roth, a douche-bag so full of himself that he's fuck his own ass if he could. I never really bothered with his ongoing. If I wanted to read two dozen pages of some degenerate asshole I'd read one of Donald Trump's books. But he's not the only Wolverine spin-off in the Marvel Universe. X-23 has endeared herself to me much more. She's a far superior character in that she doesn't have to act like a complete asshole to set herself apart from her predecessor. She's her own character and under Marjorie Liu, her new series has been a monument to awesome.

Now after each character has waded through their own pool of shit, they're finally set to clash in a story entitled Collision. It reviewed the first part in X-23 #8. It was a story that did everything right. It brought X-23 and Gambit to mean streets of Madripoor. It showed why Madripoor makes Tijuana look like a Saudi Arabian religious compound. It also put X-23 and Daken within stabbing distance of one another and they took full advantage of it. The issue ended with the two characters bloodied and pissed off. Daken #8 picks up right after that. Can the series continue even within the pages where the douchiness is so thick that you can't read it around an open flame?

Well Daken #8 starts from Daken's perspective and not X-23's. He's still staring down X-23, seeing Wolverine in her eyes and not in a good way. They're both in a position to tear into each other like a pack of hungry wolves that just broke into John Goodman's refrigerator. Then all that heated action that made the end of the last issue so thrilling takes an unexpected turn. Instead of fighting on, Daken does what can't be describe as exceedingly douchy. But it can be described as exceedingly fucked up because he just asks X-23 to take his hand, after his inner musings blatantly state he sees Wolverine in her. If that's not fucked up enough, X-23 does this even though she says he doesn't need him. I don't know if this was Marjorie Liu's idea or Daniel Way's, but it's more fucked up than Gary Busey's psych evaluation.

I really wish I could figure out what the fuck happened here. I would need the brain of Stephen Hawkings and whatever medications Michael Jackson was taking to make sense of it. Just after X-23 flat out rejects Daken's hand, Tyger shows up. She was a big player in the last issue and now somehow she's at the scene. It's not clear whether Daken goes to her or she comes to him. But for reasons that defy modern physics, X-23 just completely disappears. It doesn't show her walking away. It doesn't show her escaping. No attempt is made to explain this shit. Daken just talks to Tyger, who reminds him she helped him get control of Madripoor and he's responsible. But trying to teach an asshole like Daken responsibility is like trying to teach abstinence to a porn star. It's a waste of words.

Again, there's another fucked up scene transition. There's no narration. There's no mention of where X-23 went or what Tyger even wants Daken to do. He just goes on his merry way, reciting lines from old poems and sounding like a douche-bag with every line. So that epic fight that unfolded against X-23 and Daken in the last issue amounts to precisely dick. It makes no sense and there's no flow to this book.

So when Daken finally meets up with the mysterious Malcolm Concord that was revealed in the pages of X-23, it has about as much impact as Brett Favre saying he's going to retire. There's not a whole lot of groundbreaking revelations here other than Daken seems to want to launch his flesh rocket into Concord's chocolate factor. That and he wants Concord to make a new Weapon X program that will make him even more powerful than his predecessor. It's the kind of douche-bag behavior you would expect from Daken, but it's low even for him.

Concord seems to want X-23 as a test subject and who wouldn't? Damaged teenage girls who want to kill the people who fuck them up are just so easy to mess with. It's about as groundbreaking as another porn star claiming to nailed Tiger Woods. So it basically confirms what X-23 suspected. Daken was working with Concord and the Weapon X program is up and running again, just as boobalicious Miss Sinister claimed in the previous arc. I want to say that this is another dick move because unlike every other Wolverine spin-off, Daken is actually embracing Weapon X. Yeah, it makes him different. But the way he goes about it still makes him a douche. However, he's not above screwing Weapon X over as he screws everybody over both pornographically and figuratively.

So it's also not terribly surprising when X-23 emerges with Gambit to basically fuck Concord up. Again, this comes after X-23 saying she doesn't need Daken's help. It's not really a twist. It's basically showing one thing and doing the other. It's like hypocrisy only it doesn't get you a job as a treasury secretary after you've skimped on your taxes. I wish I could figure out how the course of events unfolded, but I re-read this comic several times and still couldn't get it down. I don't know if it was poor planning or it's like the movie Inception where it's purposefully confusing. That may work in movies where Leo Dicapprio is there to make the women go into orgasmic fits, but in a comic book like this you might as well try teaching brain surgery with a coloring book.

X-23 doesn't waste time with Concord. Apparently she was following Daken, but again it's hard to figure out because her fight with Daken basically ended on a WTF note. Now that she has Concord in her grasp, she prepares to have a little chat with him. And by chat I mean in the way Freddy Kruger chats with whining teenage girls. She explains to him how she was taught all the fine elements of torture at an age when most girls are just learning to dress like sluts from Miley Cyrus inspired concerts. She demonstrates that by tearing off some of Concord's nails. For a teenage girl, it's pretty badass and it's a nice touch for X-23. She's been basically written out of the issue to this point and she makes a powerful statement that hurts like hell just to think about.

While Concord is getting the kind of pedicure you can only get from a Somalian warlord, Daken decides to follow his dick again and flirt with Gambit. Keep in mind, he's doing this while a man is being tortured. This is the sort of thing that gives him a boner and he has the gall to use it by asking Gambit to take a cruise down the Hershey highway with him. Now you could argue Gambit is a bit of a douche, but his bullshit smells like summer roses compared to the stomach-melting stench of Daken exudes.

Even the worst Gambit haters in the world of comic fandom have to admit that Daken is a few rungs lower on the ladder of assholes. You can't help but forgive some of the guy's flaws when he starts tearing into Daken the same way X-23 should have done in the first few pages of the issue. Daken does seem to get under Gambit's skin, pointing out correctly that he's a scoundrel who would rob his grandmother and kick her in the face yet find some twisted way to justify it. He'll likely do that to X-23 as well. Daken may not be wrong, but he still deserves the beating he gets from Gambit and it's not the kind that'll give him another boner (I think).

Unfortunately, Gambit makes the same mistake as X-23 and doesn't keep pounding Daken until he's a metrosexual puddle of puss. While he was busy keeping his ass away from Daken's other claw, Malcolm Concord managed to stick X-23 with a needle. And that's not a porno joke either. Somehow while this deranged teenage girl was torturing him, he found a way to take her out. Every parent in the world would get on their knees and suck Concord's dick if he shared with them his secrets. Unfortunately, this is never shown and when Gambit sees it he ends up getting knocked out. I can only assume Daken will find a way to have his way with him off panels.

So the big fight between X-23 and Daken falters in the same way a party at frat house house falters. Someone gets knocked out, some homoerotic innuendo is shared, and someone gets knocked unconscious and thrown into the trunk of a car. There's no implied date rape, but given this is Daken we're talking about it could have happened off-panel. It makes me wonder why he doesn't ditch Madripoor and just enroll in some underachieving college where he can indulge in all the reckless poon and degrading violence that a degenerate like him could want. Unfortunately, it doesn't do X-23 much good. She was pushed aside in this issue and shuffled around like personalities of Mike Meyers. Yet it all ends with her getting thrown in the trunk. It's an underwhelming end to a disappointing book.

Now before I score this let me state outright that I understand this is a Daken book. It makes sense for him to take center stage. I don't mind that he had more panel time than X-23. I do mind that it wasn't developed in a very coherent way. The fight that began in X-23 #8 was just completely cut off so Daken could do his own thing. It felt like a string of choppy transitions that left one too many gaping plot holes. Did X-23 just stand there after Daken went off to meet Tyger? What the hell did Daken hope to gain by reaching out to X-23? It just seemed like an excuse to stop the fight so the story with Malcolm Concord could unfold. It's a messy way to tell a story and it really stunts the momentum that this book had in the last issue.

That's not to say it was terrible. The book definitely picked up steam as it neared the end. X-23's confrontation with Concord was very powerful and it involved an exploding car, so I'll give bonus points to that. Also, Gambit got to play a bigger part by beating up Daken when he tried to flirt with him. That's definitely a plus because Gambit hasn't really done much in the past two issues of X-23. It's nice to see him finally partake in a major fight. It would have a lot more impact if the story was actually well-organized. That way the fight would feel more natural. Sadly, the weak beginning of the issue really stunts the potential of this book.

There is still one issue left of the Collision arc. It's set to conclude in X-23 #9. I'm still excited about it, but this issue really left me underwhelmed. It's not a terrible book. It has all the potential necessary to be as awesome as X-23 #8, but it just doesn't follow through. The latter half of the book is solid while the first half is a mess. So in the interest of balance I give Daken #8 a 2.5 out of 5. If you only read half the book, you'll get plenty of awesome. It just depends on which half you read. The X-23/Daken battle has been pretty entertaining so far, but this was definitely a hiccup. It has every potential to finish strong. Like a witness to a drunken bar fight, it just needs to be coherent. Nuff said!

X-23 #8 - Clash of Awesome

It's finally here! No, the Iphone 5 hasn't been announced and Marvel hasn't agreed to do day-and-date digital release to their catalog yet. And no, this isn't a late April Fools Day joke. The event that is being billed as damaged teenage girl versus sexually confused douche-bag is here! That's right, X-23 and Daken are finally set to claw the everloving shit out of each other and not in the way that gives Daken a boner for once.

This has been a match-up that's been more hyped than a Patriots/Colts game. Marjorie Liu writes X-23 and Daniel Way writes Daken. Both have been building towards an eventual grudge match between the two messed up offspring of Wolverine. One has boobs. One of them loves the occasional dip into Hershey river. Now I haven't followed Daken all that closely. I never grew very fond of him as I tend not to grow fond of anyone who is such a colossal douche-bag that they would fuck their own shadow if it had a hole. But he is a part of Wolverine's story and so I have tried to keep up. Even as X-23 ventured off into her own series under Marjorie Liu, it's been a given that these two adamantium loving Wolverine mini-mes would clash. Well Marvel seems to understand that this is the kind of bloody grudge-match that gets fans more giddy than a baby in a topless bar. And it begins with X-23 #8.

I've been a big fan of this series from the beginning. Marjorie Liu has brought new life to X-23 and taken her places that have been great for her character, even if some of those places involve Sinister with boobs. During the lead-up to this story, X-23 found out from the boobilicious Sinister that a man named Malcom Concord was trying to kick start that beat up old monster truck known as Weapon X. With help from Gambit that doesn't involve wearing shoe-string thong panties for once, she's tracked him to Madripoor. This is an environment so hostile that shotgun shells are used as currency and beating the shit out of a rival gang is a required part of your tax form. And wouldn't you know it? Daken has set up shop there. A place like this is like a mix of Disneyland and the Playboy Mansion. Since the previous issue dealt with X-23 getting to Madripoor, this issue begins with her going on the hunt.

With Gambit struggling to keep up, she starts stalking Daken like a deranged Star Trek fan living inside William Shatner's dumpster. Along the way she fights off some guy who wants to use her in a gang-bang. For all she knows, it's a gang-bang that Daken just got finished warming up in. She gets pretty close without Daken noticing. That or he's just too much of a douche to feel threatened. Then right behind her one of Madripoor's many random crimes unfolds. Some faceless guy gets abducted. Why this would surprise X-23 is strange, but she deems it important enough to halt her hunt and help out. I suppose there needs to be some balance in Madripoor in the time between cock fights and donkey shows.

It turns out this isn't just random heroics. Once she gives them the adamantium special, she tells them that they reek of a certain scent and it isn't from spending the night with Amy Winehouse. She finds out they're working for Malcom Concord. It seems Concord is giving Daken a run for his money in the douche-bag department because he's using Madripoor's "leave law and order at the door with your dignity" policy to his advantage. He's been kidnapping children and not in the same way the Disney channel does it. As much as she wants to give Daken a few new holes that he can't use to pleasure himself, she hasn't forgotten Concord. So Gambit finally contributes by saying he knows someone he can help. It's very reasonable to assume that it's someone he's boned.

Sure enough, the help comes in the form of a beautiful woman who embraces him the same way Twilight fans embrace locks of Robert Pattinson's pubic hair. She's Tyger Tyger, a hot chick who dresses like Psylocke and kicks almost as much ass. As it turns out, she has a lot of influence in Madripoor. A beautiful woman that can make men think with the wrong head goes a long ways in a place where needless brutality is an Olympic sport. She's in a perfect position to help X-23 find Daken, who she believes knows where Malcom Concord is. It's a stroke of Madripoor luck and it doesn't even require a bribe.

So the next day, they put on a bit of a show. Tyger asked X-23 how her acting skills are so when they actually visit Tyger in her office where she plays the part of the Madripoor godmother whose ring you have to kiss to set up a brothel there's a sense of mystery. They act as though they didn't meet the previous night. They basically enter as if they're just fishing for information. They ask the same question about the abductions, Daken, and Malcom Concord. Tyger writes them off as if they're lobbyist for the UN asking to cut back on the opium exports without having the decency to offer a bribe. It gets heated and Tyger makes a nice dick joke about X-23 being Wolverine's clone. Because what comic can't be made more awesome with a dick joke? Since there's no bribe coming her way, she kicks them out of her office and X-23 leaves her usual threat.

If it's an acting job it may win a Golden Globe, but not an Oscar. Yet it's enough to convince Daken, whose brain rarely gets the blood it requires since he's so busy screwing other people over both literally and figuratively. As soon as Gambit and X-23 leave, Daken shows up. He had been hiding in a secret compartment the whole time and after hearing X-23's little rant, he's acutally intrigued enough to stop enriching brothel owners.

Now this scene is a bit complicated because remember, Tyger asked X-23 about her acting skills earlier. There's the sense that the whole meeting in Tyger's office was just a show. Daken doesn't know that, but the reader knows that. It's a scene that can get confusing real easily, but if you don't read the damn comic backwards it is easy to follow. It's a rare show of dramatic irony, something that only those who didn't skip English class in 12th grade can appreciate. In a comic book, that's pretty damn awesome.

X-23 and Gambit return to the lawless streets of Madripoor, waiting for their little ruse to bear fruit. X-23 takes a moment to enjoy the exotic cuisine, admitting in the process that her sense of taste was fucked up by Weapon X and fast food while living with the X-men. It doesn't take long for Daken to finally show his face in all his douche-baggy glory. They joke a little about X-23 being a clone and whether or not that technically makes her Daken's mother. As disturbing a concept that may be, once X-23 flashes her claws shit gets real.

It finally begins! The battle against X-23 and Daken is on! It's conflicted teenage clone vs. egotistical metrosexual douche! You couldn't get a more fitting fight if you pitted Mike Tyson against Hulk Hogan.

Daken shows early on that he fights dirty and not in a way I can make a gay joke about. He's not above using special weapons to give him an edge. His glowing claw thingy is akin to a brass knuckle laced with barb wire. As soon as the Madripoor rent-a-cops show up, X-23 takes the fight out of the streets so they can maim each other without being disturbed. X-23 is basically proving that she's the clone of Wolverine and using more than just her claws. It's a powerful moment when she pins him to the ground and tells him to look her in the eye. Usually this is the part where Daken would get a boner, but this isn't that kind of fight. He throws her right off him and start ripping into each other like a sadomasochist in a knife store. It leads to a two page spread of pure awesome. We knew this fight was coming and this comic doesn't try to finish it in a single page. You may find yourself staring at the spread with such awe that your eyes fall out. No worries. That's nothing a little crazy glue and duct tape can't fix!

It gets bloody and heated. It's the kind of violence you would expect in any comic that involves Wolverine or his offspring. They fight their way up a flight of stairs and to a roof. They only catch their breath for a small panel and then they go at it again. X-23 tries to throw him off a building, but Daken makes sure she comes along for the ride. It makes for another great spread that shows just how evenly matched these two characters are. One is guided by teenage angst. The other is guided by egotistical douchiness. It's a classic example of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object!

This is the kind if fight you don't want to see end. Sadly, this comic runs out of ink just after X-23 and Daken get a mouthful of pavement. A fall that would usually leave two people more crippled than Russian cage fighters is nothing more than a scratch to these two. They rise up and get ready to go at it again. That's where the comic cuts out. The fight is set to continue in Daken #8. It's simply too big to finish in one comic. Normally I hate waiting almost as much as I hate waking up hung over in someone else's back yard with magic marker all over my face and a dog licking my balls. However, for a battle this intense I'm more than willing to wait! This isn't something that can or should be resolved in one comic. More is needed to truly show the caliber of awesome that such a clash is capable of.

Now with all the anticipation of the Daken/X-23 fight being built up, it would have been easy for this comic to stumble. It could have turned out bland, filled with nothing but mindless slashing and no real progression. It could have turned out as a boring setup issue, having little action and only setting readers up for a cliff-hanger at the end with no real action to get excited about. But it didn't happen. The first issue of the Daken/X-23 clash struck a perfect balance between setting up the fight and carrying it out. Marjorie Liu set the stage and then blew it up in a way that floods the brain with every kind of awesome chemicals. If books like this came in pill form, the DEA would have raided Marvel's office by now and declared it a drug bust.

There are very few ways in which this book is flawed. Some may be a bit confused by the scenes with Tyger Tyger. The whole notion of X-23 and Gambit acting like they never met Tyger before she leads them to Daken may fly over the heads of some readers. It's not so convoluted that you have to re-read it multiple times. Just reading the section twice should clarify what's going on. The case can be made that some scenes act as filler, but if you were to remove those scenes the book would be a bit less coherent. At times it feels as though more pages could have been dedicated to the main fight, but even if that's true there is still a great balance within the pages and it is still plenty awesome.

I've been eagerly awaiting this comic so much that I almost went bald tearing my hair out with impatience. I'm glad it finally arrived and delivered everything I hoped it would. It's a great feeling when a book lives up to and exceed your expectations. Marjorie Liu has made that a habit with her run on X-23. That's why I give X-23 #8 a perfect 5 out of 5. You couldn't have started a major event like this any better. The fight between X-23 and Daken deserves to be epic. It's not quite on the scale of Wolverine and Sabretooth just yet, but it could very well get there! Even if it doesn't, this first issue has put the clash between X-23 and Daken on the same epic scale. That alone is a hell of an accomplishment! Nuff said.