The first time I read New Mutants I was in a very unconfident and precarious place in my life and I was scared to get weird with it, but now I'm rereading it a few years later and fully planning to just get weird with it this time, sorry in advance. One of the things I'm weird about is I just really like Empath for some reason. I think he sucks in a way I enjoy and I know they don't really interact that much in canon (the Hellions don't really do that much at all, as far as I can tell) but I think it would be great if he and Doug had belligerent sexual tension. Thank you and goodnight.
Relationship Analysis: Why Hellion/X-23 is a Damaging Ship
Honestly, even when I first latched onto this pairing years ago, I didn't quite like it. It felt off, borderline wrong, for Laura to be with this volatile rich kid. It's a good first crush for her, but in terms of permanence, it's not gonna fly.
Those curious, settle down for the dissection of this pairing. Those who are vitriolic towards anything that points out the flaws in the ship, kindly use the door by ignoring this post.
Now, let's start this autopsy.
Hellion: A Living Powder Keg
Now Hellion has understandable reasons for being a live wire. He's been emotionally and verbally abused by his parents, always being second-best in their eyes compared to his older brother, James Keller. This leaves him very vulnerable, and Hellion hates being vulnerable. Because of this, his sympathetic backstory falls flat of being a point of connection due to his egocentric attitude. Without fail in the early 2000s, Hellion sneers down at his fellow classmates at the Xavier Institute, belittles them for either their poor background or mutant powers, and constantly picks a fight with people. Additionally, despite being loyal to his own squad, he's still not kind to them. When Mercury, who cannot keep her clothes on due to her shapeshifting power, lost them during a match, he "teased" her by snatching the lost attire and attempted to egg her into shapeshifting into a naked humanoid form. Wither, a boy with a death touch who is severely traumatized by accidentally killing his father with his newfound mutant power, is verbally insulted by Hellion behind his back fairly often. That's almost worse than doing it to his face, because how would you like it if your team leader said such things about you when you weren't present?
Furthermore, Hellion had a habit of hitting on other girls in order to make the one he actually liked (Wind Dancer) jealous enough to go out with him. No joke, he dated three of the Cuckoo girls at the same time when all he had to do to gain Wind Dancer's hand was be mature.
I understand that these actions lessened before Laura's arrival. However, Hellion never learned from these experiences. He still shot his mouth off after M-Day happened, and thereby lost any chance he had at both a reconciliation and a relationship with Wind Dancer, as she had lost her powers in addition to the other depowered mutants he was picking on. This further emphasizes Hellion's habit of cherry picking who is a target of his jibes and who isn't, which is not what an X-Man is supposed to do, never mind how a boy is supposed to become a man in the world around him. An evident proof of this is how he lashes out at Laura and derogatively calls her a clone once Wind Dancer and the others have left. There was no good reason for him to do so other than that she was a target for his wrath, which is usually a red flag.
And it doesn't improve from there.
After M-Day and all the other crap that goes down (the bus exploding, the attacks, Mercury's kidnapping, etc) just makes his personality worse. Hellion becomes paranoid, yelling at Laura about essentially leaving his line of sight when she had to do so. He's twice as abrasive with the other mutants, and becomes borderline controlling when he forcibly takes Laura and goes with her to find Mercury. Yes, Laura needed backup, but not at the cost of her autonomy. Laura is struggling to be her own person, to make her own choices, to say yes or no to someone genuinely and hold true to that decision. The last thing she needs is a guy who is a paranoid, controlling manchild who refuses to both be humble enough to accept help in his vulnerability, and who never apologizes for his behavior.
And let me tell you, that attitude of Hellion's may be saintly compared to the Facility's treatment of Laura, but it is not okay for an abuse victim like Laura.
Which brings me to my next point.
X-23: A Traumatized Victim
Laura, as I've covered, has suffered brutally at the hands of the Facility. She was beaten into being a weapon from the time she was born, was controlled into killing the only father figure she had at the time, emotionally shut down after her first kill, and when she finally had the courage to not kill one target, she was reimbursed by being forced to kill her own mother. And while that mother allowed a lot of crap to happen to her, she was still her mother, and had just broken them free of the Facility.
And it doesn't get better from there.
Hunted by her abusive trainer Kimura, who was assigned to her after her above father figure's death, Laura initially made her escape to her cousin's home. Although she had a brief duration of experiencing a normal family life for the first time there, Kimura found her and once more brutalized Laura before taunting her with both the implication that she was going to kill her family, and the realization that her family would never be safe if she stayed.
After saving her family and parting ways with them once they were given the new identities her mother had forged, Laura literally attempted a homicide-suicide with herself and Logan. It took the man all he had to talk her down from killing herself, even though he was bleeding out sixty-two different ways from Sunday. And even then, he had to mention he was mailed a copy of her mother's letter before Laura actually broke down in tears and forgot her suicidal desire.
All of this shows how damaged and traumatized Laura is. It makes Hellion look like a spoiled brat complaining about nothing when put next to her.
But unlike Hellion, Laura never uses it as an excuse.
She takes the verbal abuse, the cold shoulders, the snippy comments and distrust lying down. She does this not only because she thinks she deserves it, but because Laura cannot defend or protect herself. She can't tell the difference between a healthy person and an unhealthy person, and if she can, Laura doesn't have the ability to say no to him/her. Abuse victims never get a say in anything, and the notion that they can be strong against the unhealthiness or toxicity in a relationship right out of the gate is disturbingly false. They will submit to the partner's bad behavior because that means less suffering and more short-term safety/happiness. Hellion isn't trying to be unhealthy, but he is frighteningly unhealthy for Laura, even before the Liu run turned these two into a coping mechanism for Liu's relationship at the time.
Conclusion
Hellion is too immature and self-absorbed to be Laura's boyfriend. He needs a woman who can be strong enough to tell him no, knock sense into him, and still open her arms to him when he's finally ready to be vulnerable. He thinks that he and Laura can be a healthy couple because they're both victims, but that's not necessarily true. He doesn't need to help someone out of their pain and struggles: he needs someone who can call him out and still love him for all his flaws, which Laura simply cannot do for him.
Laura needs a man who can and will give her autonomy while still reminding her that she doesn't need to take the whole world on her shoulders. She needs a man who can be gentle, understanding, patient, and willing to pull her out of her self-harming depressive spirals without demeaning her. Laura needs this kind of man because he is supportive and not controlling. Laura has spent her entire childhood being controlled, and has controlled herself for that same amount of time. She needs a man who can give her space when it's needed and still provide her with a home when she's tired.
This is why they are a damaging ship: neither one comes out of it a healthier person, though they may come out wiser as an individual. Perhaps in the near future, I'll do a more thorough essay on how Angel and Laura can actually be written together and written together well.
