Laura Kinney a.k.a. X-23. The 23rd attempt at cloning Wolverine is so big.  She's December and January's winner of Mutant of the Month. Her win comes from her part in the last X-Force arc entitled "Not Forgotten" in which X-23 got around quite a bit. Coming off of her battle with Apocalypse and Stryfe, X-23 was on mission to save her friends Surge, Hellion, and Boom Boom. After she had saved Boom Boom and killed The Leper Queen, exhaustion overcame her and she was captured by a new branch of The Facility. There she had her arm cut off by Kimura but that did not slow her down at all. She teamed with a rogue HAMMER agent and took down the complex single handedly....literally. She was found by Wolverine and Domino and taken back to Utopia where she regrew her arm and asked Dr.Nemesis to put her claws back in. It is clear why she is the winner this month after all that. Friendship, destruction, mayhem, and a little depression makes for a good X-Force tale.

Origins has been all about answering questions but this issue raised more. Wolverine finishes making a deal with Banner and Skaar, that we saw at the end of last issue, and then travels back to Utopia leaving us wonder what the deal was. He interrupts an X-Men meeting and at the end of it new pulls aside new recruit Cloak. Wolverine asks him a favor and Cloak initially declines stating he does not want anything to do with what he does outside of the X-Men. This makes us wonder how much they know about X-Force. But Wolverine eventually persuades him and Cloak drops him into the middle of a dispute between the Hand representatives and Silver Samurai. A funny moment occurs when Wolverine pukes on himself after the transport and Cloak gets a kick out of it. Wolverine then engages in a fight with some Yashida ninjas and after a bit Samurai dismisses them and he and Logan do battle. It is revealed here that Romulus was making the arrangement for the Hand and Yashida to join. This asks the questoion of what exactly else does Romulus have his hand in and how big is his empire? Cloak transports the Muramasa blade to Wolverine and this makes the fighting stop and Wolverine asks Samurai to teach him to use the sword.

Remember everyone that Wolverine: Origins is ending at #50 so jump on board before its over!!

X-Necrosha, not only being a plague - I mean...play on Genosha's name, was one heck of bangin' start to this X-Men crossover. For those of you that do not know, X-Necrosha is the story of long time X-Men foe Selene, making her move to destroy the people that she felt destroyed her. Her ancient lover, Eli Bard is backing her with an undead army of mutants that he resurrects using the stolen Techno-Virus from Bastion. Selene starts things off by attacking various X-Teams on the new headquarters of Utopia. She shows great strategic skills by sending the (un)dead team of Hellions to confront Emma Frost. They catch her off guard and attempt to attack her but Cyclops, Domino, and Wolverine jump in to help. Wolverine makes an attempt to end it fast by stabbing a Hellion but the impaling has no effect and Wolvy is knocked into the ocean thus, taking a big player off the board early. The same strategy is used when the resurrected Cypher uses his past with Magma to infiltrate her room and sneak attack her. Another battle highlighted is the resurrected Pyro and Berserker taking on Warpath and Archangel. The story ends with Selene and her Inner Circle stepping on the shores of Hammer Bay, Genosha with the idea of resurrecting the dead.

Dracula, Edward Cullen, Tom Cruise, and even the other Selene have anything on Selene, the Vampyric Black Queen. Selene was born in a time when mankind was just emerging and killed her mother and her entire tribe to ensure her own survival.  She has the mutant ability to psychically drain the life force of anyone she comes close to. She also has an extremely high knowledge of the Black Arts. It has never been defined what her actual mutant power are or what powers are due to black magic. She also has telekinetic abilities that rival Jean Grey's.

Long tormented with a mutant ability that made it impossible to come in contact with another human, Rogue became a bitter person and first came into the Marvel Comics universe as a villian of The Avengers. Time passes and she seeks out Professor Xavier for help and eventually jons the X-Men. For years Rogue dealt with the fact she could never physically love another human being. Enter: Gamit. Rogue fell fast and hard for the Ragin' Cajun and even thought they could never consumate their love for each other their will to someday embrace physical love endured.

Faster than Wolverine, stronger than Sabretooth and Cyber, smarter than Xavier, and old enough to remember the Roman Empire's fall, Romulus. But who exactly is Romulus? Why has no one but a select few ever seen him? Always hidden in shadows and using people like Logan, Daken, Cyber, Sabretooth, and others to carry out the dirty work, Romulus has firmly sealed his place in the worl as a force to be reckoned with. Only nobody knows its actually him causing disasters. How many Marvel events could be tied to Romulus has yet to be determined. But the one thing that is for sure, is that he does cause a lot of destruction. The more meaningless and senseless the slaughter, the better chance is that it was Romulus' doing.

Tabitha Smith is not your typical girl, or for that matter not even your typical mutant. She controls the ability to psyionically create balls of energy, which she calls her “time bombs.” Her mutant manifestation was a little different than most young mutants. A rebellious teen, Tabitha left home at age 13 when her father beat her over the manifestation of her powers. She came under the eye of the powerful Beyonder, who took her in front of the Celestials who forced Tabitha to go back to Earth. She helped the Avengers attack the Beyonder, who felt betrayed by “his only friend.” After that, she joined Vanisher’s Fallen Angels and eventually left to join X-Factor’s X-Terminators and then finally onto Xavier’s Institute to join the New Mutants.

Over the years Tabitha has grown into a formidable mutant, under the tutelage of Xavier and then under Cable in X-Force.Tabitha’s teammates and close friends in X-Force consider her one of the best teammates and friends they could ever have. Although she never sticks with one team very long, she makes her presence known wherever she goes, most notably with her time bombs and quick wit.

Unfortunately, Tabitha's luck would run out shortly after her move to San Francisco with the X-Men. She was kidnapped by the insanely evil Leper Queen, who after X-Force (including former teammate, Warpath) failed to save her, was executed with a bullet in the head.

Tabitha Smith will be remembered as the quick witted, bomb making, Boom Boom, one of the more powerful mutants and best teammates anyone could ask for. Who knows, what the future will hold for Tabitha, with X-Force in the Timescape currently, they just may be able to save her.