X-23

X-23: Who she is, her best stories, and every appearance in trade reading order!

March 1, 2017 by krisis

To celebrate the release of Logan in theaters this week, this week I’m releasing a guide that was on on my to-do list for a long time: The Definitive X-23 Collecting Guide and Reading Order.

That might lead you to ask, “Who is X-23, and what does she have to do with Logan?”

It’s a fair question.

You won’t see her name in any of the marketing of this week’s final Hugh Jackman Wolverine film. If you pay attention to such things you’ve probably seen a brooding young girl with a familiar set of claws between her knuckles.

Whether they call her by her codename or not in the film, that girl is X-23. In fact, whether they call her that or not would be a pretty big spoiler about her origins in the film. If you’re 100% spoiler averse when it comes to knowing the comics history of characters in comics movies, you probably should enjoy the trailer again and then stop reading now.

Laura Kinney, X-23 & Wolverine – Definitive Reading Order & Collecting Guide

Updated Apr 22, 2025! The Wolverine – Laura Kinney AKA X-23 definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for comic books, omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated April 2025 with titles scheduled for release through December 2025.

X-23 is the original codename of Wolverine, Laura Kinney. She has been called both Logan’s clone and his daughter, but in her own way she’s Marvel’s Harley Quinn.

That’s because, like Quinn, X-23 originated in a medium other than comics. She was created for the cartoon X-Men Evolution by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, who would also oversee her comics journey for half a decade in a pair of mini-series and on two teams.

Kyle and Yost’s material is stellar from beginning to end. Their run on X-23 often explored the theme of her savagery – how she was raised to be a perfect assassin without being a person.

Afterwards, Author Marjorie Liu took X-23 over for two years for her first solo ongoing title. Liu focused more on X-23’s human side and her internal emotional life, forging connections with Gambit and Jubilee.

Unfortunately, her development goes on a detour from that point.

With the cancellation of her title in the midst of a reshuffling of the X-Men line, X-23 was shipped to Avengers Academy for a year. Christos Gage extended Liu’s work, but it was in a crowded team title. Afterward, Dennis Hopeless picked up X-23 and other Academy cast members for Avengers Arena – where she was cast mostly an unintentional villain.

After the end of Arena, X-23 is adopted by All-New X-Men, weirdly filling out the young cast of the 1960s original X-Men with a Wolverine analog. She’s mostly played for big action beats and romance, but her development finally gets back on track in the aftermath of Wolverine’s death in Wolverines.

Finally, in the wake of Secret Wars, X-23 regained a solo title for the first time in half a decade – this time taking on the mantle of Wolverine(!) while also continuing in All-New X-Men. [Read more…] about Laura Kinney, X-23 & Wolverine – Definitive Reading Order & Collecting Guide

Collecting X-Men regular series as Graphic Novels

The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide on collecting X-Men ongoing series – including X-Men solo series – via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. A part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated April 2016 with titles scheduled for release through December 2016.

he X-Men universe consists of a lot of comic titles as one of Marvel’s most-popular properties and the first after Spider-Man to develop its own set of spin-off series.

Ever since the successive launch of New Mutants, X-Factor, Excalibur, and Wolverine in the 1980s there have never been less than five X-titles in circulation counting both team books and X-Men solo series.

The biggest titles with the lengthiest runs tend to be team books, followed by X-Men solo endeavors from Wolverine, Cable, and Deadpool. However, there are many other X-Men ongoing series that last just a few years and are less collected than their more popular brethren.

This page lists every X-Men ongoing title that occurred in the main Marvel Universe (Earth-616). “Ongoing” means the titles – however brief – were not advertised as limited series (i.e., headlined with “Issue # of N”). The biggest, most-long-running titles will link to their own guides, but titles with a shorter lifespan are explained right here.
[Read more…] about Collecting X-Men regular series as Graphic Novels

Wolverine, Logan – Collecting Guide and Reading Order

Updated May 8, 2025! The definitive, chronological, and up-to-date guide and trade reading order on collecting Wolverine via omnibuses, hardcovers, and trade paperback graphic novels. A part of Crushing Krisis’s Collecting X-Men: A Definitive Guide. Last updated May 2025 with titles scheduled for release through January 2026.

Collecting Wolverine

Wolverine is second only to Spider-Man in sheer quantity of stories told about a single character in the modern Marvel Universe. Collecting his every appearance is a close-to impossible task.

That can make it hard to be a fan who wants to read about your favorite 5’3″ Canucklehead without picking up expensive back issues. Luckily, those comics have been collected into dozens of softcover graphic novels, called “trade paperbacks.”

This guide lists three types of Wolverine collections – ongoing series, limited series where he is a title or starring character, and significant story-arcs. It is split into several sections and eras: [Read more…] about Wolverine, Logan – Collecting Guide and Reading Order