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TRDLcomics — TRDL - X23 Redesign
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Published: 2012-02-18 02:03:32 +0000 UTC; Views: 4696; Favourites: 123; Downloads: 87
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TRDL 2012 Series, No. 13 – Madamoiselle Massacre (TRDL Cryptohistorical Redesign of X-23)This was done for the TRDL R3 Jam this week, the subject being X-23, from the X-books…
X-23 has always been a a character that appealed to my aesthetic sensibility, thanks to Josh Middelton’s art. Long black hair, gothic-tinged outfits with a smattering of schoolgirl chic, and blood splatter everywhere. However, the character beats themselves did not. She’s an assassin! She’s on the run as a street kid! She’s a Wolverine clone! She has a third effing claw in the foot! But whatever, she really grew on me in the current X-Force book. For this piece, I did a TRDL Cryptohistorical Redesign, setting her in the late 1800′s. She is a woman trained to kill by mysterious, unfamiliar foreigners that arrived by train and promptly disappeared, this young woman snatched from her happy home and forced into a dark servitude for her new masters. Mentally conditioned and filled with rage, she moves through New England, targeting men of science, politics and industry for unknown reasons. Using a custom harness employing tensioned rods, bracing her arms when striking with meat hooks brutally affixed to iron bracers around her fists, she delivers terrible, mortal wounds in her targets that leave the local constabulary convinced the foul affairs were the result of animal attacks.
Process notes here:
[link]
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Comments: 32
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That's an interesting steampunk design.
However, I don't understand your description here: ''However, the character beats themselves did not. She’s an assassin! She’s on the run as a street kid! She’s a Wolverine clone! She has a third effing claw in the foot!'' - Right...So what's the problem here? 
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Just my opinion, pay no mind...
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But...what IS your opinion exactly? I couldn't make it anything out of that sentence you wrote.
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Keeping in mind that I haven't read all the X-23 appearances, just some of the stuff where she has been integrated into the larger Marvel U and a few of the solo issues... but it felt to me like she was kludged together, as a concept, to appeal to the same boys, who previously obsessed about Wolverine at age 12, but now have hit puberty at age 13. There's nothing wrong with that, and sure, most of mainstream comics is like that. But I didn't understand some of the design logic. Like, what's the rationale for a single claw in the center of the foot and two on the hands? Certainly boot knives have been around for centuries, but it's really awkward to draw the full length claw getting stabby out of her foot, and I don't understand why they would sacrifice the hand claw to do it (though there's no need for more than one hand claw anyway)... I just didn't find much THERE there when she was first created. Over the years, I felt they added complexity to her characterization and I grew more interested. I most recently was reading her in X-Force (the black ops team version)...
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You know, i've seen some other people questioned her footclaws as well, but I nevr undertsood WHY you guys are so obsessed with bringing logic here. 
And what do you mean by ''appeal to boys who liked Wolverine at 12''? She was not intended to be a young female alternative for Wolverine mind you. Please, she's so much more better then that.
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Again, just my perspective. Why do you think she wasn't a young female alternative to wolverine? She was written into the X-Men Evolution cartoon to allow them to have a Wolverine cipher without having to use the original character, then dropped into NYX with a similar origin story and more design tweaks to play up the similarity. She was identified as a genetic twin based on the experimentation with Logan's DNA, so both in media continuity, and in creator/editor intent, she was a female Wolverine. That said, I've never actually heard Kyle or Yost say that Kyle, or Producer pressure on X-Men Evolution, was encouraging the Wolverine cipher for the show to be female in order to be more exciting for the pubertic teens watching the show, but I recall it being talked about around the time it was translated to comics. Huddleston was getting both attention and criticism for his salacious cover art for the X-23 miniseries, which was trading on sexy japanese schoolgirl imagery and was somewhat teen pr0nish in implication, at least to those doing the criticizing. I happened to find that cover art amazing and it actually drew me into the book, and interested me more in the character than I had from the promos or hearing about her from the cartoon.
I just felt like over the years they didn't seem to know what to do with her until X-Force. Dont get me wrong: there are tons of literal and figurative clones in comics with little real reason, that in my mind don't serve much purpose until they are given complex characterization that addresses their identity. A good example is Steel, in DC lore. He was just a Superman cipher, but they eventually developed enough backstory and reason for his existence to tell unique stories that he grew beyond that 'kinda-like-Superman' start. By the time I was reading Uncanny X-Force, X-23 had become more interesting than Wolvie himself. Which was good.
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Hell, I don't know. Maybe she WAS created for that reason, but then I just deny it. Because she has become so much more then a replacement for Wolvie.
And really, the Uncanny X-Men made you like X-23 even more? Because the Uncanny X-Men was considered trash when it came to this matter, as I saw alot of people complaining about her being written exremely out-of-character in the Uncanny X-Men.
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Uncanny X-Force... the black ops team that was going until the recent Phoenix Force Avengers v X-Men business.
It had Wolverine, Arcangel, Psylocke, X-23, Deadpool and Fantomex. Very well drawn and some interesting plotlines...
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No, her inclusion in UNCANNY X-MEN was pretty weak indeed!
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OOOHH, silly me! I miss-read your comment!
But yeah, she was an amazing member in the X-Force, as expected.
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What did they do with the character for the Marvel Now craziness?
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As of now? She's currently in the Avengers Arena comic.
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No idea, I myself haven't been able to keep track.
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srsly
I find it pretty disorganized
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Well, if you kept track of her, it wouldn't feel so disorganized.
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Thank you! I had a great time with it...
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Hey thanks!
I'll be doing quite a few cyrptohistorical redesigns of characters in the coming months...
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Amazing!! I would like to see the Wolverine based on this timeline, that would be interesting!
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i have some ideas. though i jump around in time... he could be from an unexpected period...
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And I bet he could fit any era very well!
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Great redesign!!!
I love these semi-victorian steam punk reworks
I have to admit I love the idea behind the character. She may be a Wolverine Clone, but the way she grew up gives her a 'unique' character angle. Most characters are humans, like you and me. They have a 'normal' life and happen to have superpowers. She is an indoctrinated killing machine with no real notion of the concept of a personal life. Also the third claw... it's been done, Tarantula had them. Also, very sneaky ninja and all, climbing claws also had foot versions.
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I don't know what it is, but steampunk has sort off grown on me.
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In the early days, what would become 'steampunk' was just speculative revisionist history fiction, often woven into they cyberpunk framework, like The Difference Engine or Diamond Age. As it sort of latched onto the late victorian/rise of the industrial age, it fused with that period futurism style like Jules Verne and others, and suddenly we had impossible technology, steam and gear tech, lots of gender-equal adventuring, and science dorkery. I LOVED it. Over recent years, a lot of that imagery has bled into Burning Man and other dance/rave cultural stuff and lost some contextualization in my opinion. But I love designing in this framework.
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