The X-23 miniseries wraps up, after a surprisingly decent sales performance.  Apparently there's more demand for a distaff Wolverine than you might expect.

Of course, we all know basically where the final issue is going - she's got to end up in place for NYX, so clearly she's going to escape, and it's pretty likely that she's going to get her revenge on the series' primary villain Xander Rice.  And indeed she does.  None of this will come as a surprise to anyone, which isn't to say that it doesn't still provide a satisfying payoff.

The more interesting part is what the book does with the story of X-23's mother Sarah Kinney, which had a bit more latitude to it.  That's perhaps one reason why Sarah's been used as the protagonist for this series.  Quite aside from the fact that X-23 is dysfunctional to the point of autism and virtually unworkable as a point-of-view character, there's more uncertainty about Sarah's fate.

I'm in two minds about the payoff that we get.  The idea seems to be that, having killed off Xander and blown up the complex, X-23 makes her way outside and meets Sarah.  But it turns out that Xander daubed Sarah with the trigger scent when he brushed against her last issue, so X-23 automatically kills her, only to break down in tears immediately afterwards.  The end.

To take a minor point first, the involvement of the trigger scent perhaps doesn't come across quite as clearly as it might do.  Nobody actually explains it in the dialogue, and for some reason it isn't included in the plot recap - which is a bit of an oversight considering that it's a key plot point.  Instead the creators try to get the point across with glowing blue colouring to represent scent, which probably works if you have plot developments from several months ago fresh in your mind, but may be a little optimistic for more casual readers.  On first reading, to be honest, I thought the idea was that Sarah was simply carrying Xander's scent and that was why X-23 attacked her. 

Still, it'll read fine in the trade.  So - does it work?  Well... it's a suitably ambivalent ending.  Given the state of the character in NYX and Uncanny X-Men, they could hardly do a finish where she triumphs entirely over her programming.  The story sets us up for that, but pulls back at the last moment.  X-23 isn't entirely defined by the programming, but it's still overpowering everything else in her personality.  Fundamentally, it's a downbeat ending which establishes that she's still a badly damaged personality at the mercy of impulses she can't control, to the extent that her own personality is virtually inseparable from the programming.  Even when she's acting of her own volition, it's still just to kill things and blow things up.  If it's a nature versus nurture story, then nurture wins hands down.

To take the most optimistic reading, the story at least holds out the possibility of further change - after all, Sarah manages to complete her redemption arc before dying, and X-23 at least displays some level of independent thought.  But, other than the mechanical aspects of defeating the bad guys, X-23 gets only minimal victories in her internal conflicts - which are the ones that truly concern her.

Perhaps the most thoroughly depressing origin miniseries the X-books have ever produced, but in fairness, that's because it's following the classic tragedy template for Sarah's story.  (Reforms too late, gets killed anyway.)  X-23 is a fundamentally depressing concept, and by taking the brainwashing aspects of Wolverine's origin out to this degree, the creators have at least come up with a distinct take on the concept - a character who is so fundamentally damaged that she barely has a personality at all.  While Wolverine's story is about his attempts to shake off his programming, X-23's story is about whether there's anything else in there.  The answer from this series is "Yes, but there might not be much of it."

Rating: A-

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