r/X23

A discussion over on Tumblr got me thinking about Laura's background and the fact that it's frankly a miracle she's in any way functional.

The abuse and torture we saw her put through from birth is utterly horrific. In fact any child who experienced the level of abuse Laura was subjected to would have been dead in real life. She survives it only because of her healing factor. But when you think about how severe physical and emotional abuse can impact a person's ability to form normal attachments in adulthood, we have literally no precedent for how what the Facility did to her would have ruined her development simply because no one could survive it for comparison.

While at the time I hated it, in hindsight probably the one thing Hopeless did with her that actually works was the idea that whatever progress she's made, Laura is consciously projecting a false front that she's doing better than she actually is. While the person I've been in the discussion with has made a case that Laura is really a "mean girl" justifying being a bitch with her trauma, my view is that the act is really that pretending she's mentally and emotionally healthier than she actually is. She's doing it because she feels she's "expected" to be better, when she's really deeply and fundamentally fucked up and struggling. She's no longer teetering on the edge of a total emotional collapse, but she's not actually a well person.

This plays into how Surge treats her in the first issue of the Liu book, and the sort of frosty interaction she has with Dust in Avengers Academy. As a surface impression, Laura's habit of serially dropping one friend group for another really doesn't look good and the criticisms of people like Nori would seem to have merit. When the truth is Laura doesn't let anyone know that she's barely holding it together. Not even Logan and Gabby get to see this, and in fact I think it's dubious they would even truly understand; Much of Logan's worst trauma came later in life, and Gabby was actively shielded by the other Sisters to protect her from Alchemax's abuse. Even Akihiro, as hard as his childhood was, can't compare to what Laura experienced from before she could walk.

The only two people that come to mind who could possibly relate to her are Bellona and Fantomex. Both of whom are very, very messed-up, albeit in quite different ways.

Her personal relationships are a mess because she's emotionally incapable of forming and maintaining normal attachments. NYX #8 touches on this in its retcon of what happened during the Babysitting Arc, with Laura being incapable of recognizing that Julian was actually hurting and in need of help, and not that she was ruining him by her influence (or, more recently, that he was acting of his own volition and not being controlled by Empath).

For a while I had the opinion that Laura needed to sit down and apologize to people like Dust and Julian for her failures. But thinking about it more, I think the situation is more complicated than Laura accepting fault. I don't know that she does necessarily need to eat crow or be called out to fix her relationships with others. What she really needs to do is be honest and admit that she's not doing as well as she's tried to present (IMO they should also lean into her resurrection and the whole Talon business contributing by shattering her sense of self). She's still very messed up and floundering, but doesn't even know how to express it because she feels pressured to be seen as healthy because of expectations and stigma.

I think Schultz tried to hint at this with some of Laura's narration in LKW, but it ultimately didn't come across effectively. And it's something I think Marvel should openly confront and explore rather than pretending that Laura is fine and everyone else has the problem.