Escaping the void.
Now all grown up, X-23/Laura is shocked to see
Logan, the father-figure she had buried. Her bond with him rekindled, she'll fight side-by-side with the "worst" Wolverine to help him and Deadpool.
Yes, she has grown up, which raises more of an issue in her case than in others'. Like, yes, these are all human actors, not animated or digital characters - they age - but an adult at (say) age 52 looks fundamentally identical to the way they did at age 33, while a child at age 19 barely even looks like the same species as a child at age 12; that's just how growing up works. So if this is specifically the same Laura from Logan (Earth-17315), rather than a multiversal variant, we have to ask: what did she do to get pruned from a world that was, by the TVA's own estimation, already dying? It's better than getting stuck in amber for decades, but there's a big gap between "this girl is too short to reach the pedals" and "this woman looks old enough to rent a car," and we want to know what happened in that time.
The figure includes two heads, both with the same portrait of Dafne Keen. Not, like, one calm and one angry or anything, two identical faces. They're set apart by the hair, with the head in the package having hair that hangs straight down, and the alternate having hair blowing to the side - basically, you can make her "meaningful conversation" or "wild fight" X-23. But come on, shouldn't the fighty one be snarling? (Yes. Yes it should.)
Unlike the rest of her teammates, Laura wears people clothes: combat boots, gret jeans, a fitted T-shirt, and a vest. It's not colorful, by any means, but it suits her and will be easy to cosplay for anyone
who wants to. They did consider giving her a costume, judging by the concept art, but that may have made audiences think she wasn't "our" X-23. The vest is a separate piece, and removable, since she wasn't wearing it when she was first introduced. Doing that, though will reveal that it's not a vest: the little sleeves are painted to match the jacket, not the shirt, so clearly they belong with the outer garment. Just pretend you don't notice, maybe. Her hands are sculpted with fingerless gloves, though the set also includes alternates that are bare. Why? She's never shown without gloves, so what are those about? This is like Blade's eyes all over again.
Her shirt isn't actual merch, but something made for the movie. It seems to be a band shirt, with an image of a white and blue eagle,
outlined in red with a starburst behind it. The name of the band is apparently "Savage," and the shirt is from their 1974 world tour. Now, obviously 1974 is the year Wolverine was introduced to the comics, and "savage" is an adjective that adequately describes him, but why such a roundabout reference? Why not name the band "Evolution" and put the tour in 2003? The digital printing is a bit pixely up close, but in person, behind her jacket and her hair, you won't really notice.
Laura's got all six of her claws out: two in each hand, and one in each foot. They're removable, so she doesn't have to be 100% dangerous all the time. Love when they do that! It beats permanent claws easily.
And speaking of things that are better than we currently expect, she's got shin swivels! Right there at the top of the boot! Like a real Marvel Legend should! The figure has a barbell head, a balljointed neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, double-hinged elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, a balljoint chest, swivel waist, balljoint hips, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, swivel shins (yay!), and swivel/hinge ankles. The head with the flowing hair is more poseable than the one with the straight hair, of course.
Her accessories include a tan backpack, Juggernaut's helmet, and her sunglasses. Those were a great callback to Logan, seeing her put on the silly pink shades she got on her roadtrip all those years ago. They're molded from a translucent, smoky plastic,
so light will actually come through the lenses, and the frames are solid thanks to paint. You have to flex the hair away from the head a little bit to get the glasses in place, but once you do, they'll stay on securely. The helmet is a new mold, obviously: not only would it be ridiculous to expect Hasbro to blinly reuse the 2007 sculpt nearly 20 years later, the design was also changed slightly for Deadpool 3. The helmet is sculpted with pits ans cracks, and there's even a spot that looks like concrete that's crumbled away to reveal the rebar within. Neat!
It was sad that we never got a Laura from Logan, but then, we barely even got Logan from Logan! Apparently the first drafts of Deadpool 3 talked a lot about X-23, but didn't actually feature her at all; getting Dafne Keen back was the right choice, no question, and it's awesome Hasbro has decided to do a figure of her.
-- 06/17/26
What did she do to get pruned? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
|