X-23 #4

Review: While traveling, X-23 runs into an abused looking girl at a truck stop. X-23 brings up the girl's swollen eye, but the girl doesn't want to talk about it. Before the abused girl(Alice)can tell X-23 why she ran into her, X-23 tells Alice that she knows Alice was sent into the truck stop by a man watching the scene from outside the stop. X-23 tells Alice that she can tell that the man was Alice's pimp, and that she suspects that the man sent Alice inside to try to bring X-23 to work for him. The girl gets freaked out and runs outside to the man, and the two drive off. X-23 leaves and is spotted by a cop, who radios in that he had found her. After some walking, X-23 picks up a scent and walks off the road to find Alice's pimp standing over the corpse of Alice. The pimp explains that he didn't mean to kill the girl, and then draws a gun, but X-23 doesn't care to hear the pimp's explanations and slashes the pimp across the throat, killing him. A bit later, X-23 begins to dig a grave for the girl and she is approached by Gambit. X-23 is curious as to how Gambit found her, and Gambit is his regular mysterious self as to how he located X-23. X-23 tells Gambit that she didn't kill the girl, and Gambit reveals that he didn't believe that X-23 did. Gambit searches the body of the dead pimp and discovers that he was carrying a picture of X-23 on him, meaning that sending Alice to talk to X-23 wasn't random. Gambit gives X-23 a lift on his motorcycle while they ponder over what the picture meant, and who was looking for her. Eventually, X-23 tells Gambit to stop his bike, and the two spot a whole mess of police cars stopped up ahead. Alice walks out of one of the cop cars, which causes Gambit to want to get the hell out of Dodge. Alice tells X-23 that she had information about X-23's mother, which causes X-23 to want to stay, although Gambit tells X-23 that this all seemed like a very bad idea. X-23 explains to Alice that she had seen her corpse, and that she was dead, while Alice tells X-23 that what had happened was because she didn't do her job properly. Alice also explains that the man who X-23 thought was her pimp was actually her handler, and that since Alice had failed her job, her handler had every right to kill her. X-23 finally begins to tire of the vagueness of Alice's answers, and this issue ends with Miss Sinister walking over telling X-23 that she had all sorts of answers to X-23's questions.

Thoughts: This was another good issue of this series, although not quite as amazing as the last issue was. Not only was this issue good, but Marjorie Liu has actually managed to remind me as to why I liked Gambit so much back when I was a kid... You know, before the X-writers destroyed Gambit's mystique with those awful origin stories they saddled him with. Gambit as X-23's friend/watcher was really working for me here. I'm really amazed that Liu has been able to take two characters that I either didn't care about(Gambit)or just flat out didn't like(X-23)and get me invested in them... THAT is a testament to her tremendous skills. So even though Miss Sinister seems to be the major villain of this storyarc, I'm STILL enjoying it. This is series is rapidly and amazingly moving up the ranks of my favorite comics.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Two words, Gambit: Jail Bait.