This series offers the history of X-23 through flashbacks narrated either by Laura herself or by Captain America, who went up against her when she was a ruthless assassin.

We learn a lot about her here. Starting as a kid where she was trained to be a killer.

In a room similar to the Danger Room, her handlers nearly kill her, but she bounces back.

She was controlled via a “trigger scent” that could be placed on a target. She was manipulated into killing several members of her own family. She did political hits. She also did jobs for Kingpin. Some of this is new information, some is recap of stuff we’ve seen before.

We also meet her sadistic handler from “The Facility” (the evil place that trained her to be a killer).

Her name is Kimura. She is the one who manipulates Laura into going after her own family, which makes her more than a little nuts.

The series culminates with X-23 telling how she tracked and attacked Wolverine, and their battle goes on for several pages of cutting and slashing.

Until Wolverine realizes that Laura has put dirt in his wounds to prevent them from closing. Once Logan is lying on the ground, unable to heal fast enough, she tells him that they both must die because they are weapons that shouldn’t be allowed to live.

PIC

To calm her, Wolverine confesses that he was also forced to kill his own mother.

The series wraps with Captain America and Matt Murdock debating whether to turn X-23 over to SHIELD. Ultimately, Matt convinces Cap that SHIELD will just weaponize her, so they let her go and encourage her to go back to Wolverine to learn from him.

If X-23 is a character you like, this is important canonically. Even if you’re not, it explains a lot of her behavior in subsequent stories and the whole thing is well done.