One key to the staying power of the X-Men is that the cast contains hundreds of memorable characters, each of which is someone's favorite mutant. Gabby Kinney is a recent addition to that mythos, having originated in Tom Taylor and David Lopez's All-New Wolverine in 2015, but the pint-sized berserker immediately garnered a strong fanbase. Gabby has been missing from Marvel's pages since the series that featured her ended nearly a year ago. Fortunately for the character's holdouts, a recent set of tweets from the creators of X-Force confirms that the character will return to the series in an issue soon to be released.
Gabby Kinney, also known by the superhero codename Honey Badger, is a clone of a clone. When Logan died, the Wolverine mantle passed on to Laura Kinney, a clone of Logan with all his powers. (Fans of Logan will remember a much younger Laura appearing in the series.) In her series' first arc, the All-New Wolverine discovered that the company Alchemax had secretly created more Wolverine clones using Laura's genes. Most of them died in attempts to get revenge on their creators, but Gabby, the youngest and least traumatized, survived and was adopted by her sister/mother/template Laura. Gabby has only one claw on each arm, but her healing factor is stronger, pairing infinite regeneration with zero pain response. She also makes friends easily, bonding instantly with both the actual wolverine Jonathan and fellow living weapon Deadpool.
When Logan returned, Laura gave up her spin on the iconic yellow-and-blue costume and returned to the name she was assigned at birth, X-23. This constituted a step back in the character's development, but it was a temporary one. After the Dawn of X relaunch, Laura reappeared in the pages of X-Men in full Wolverine gear, and Logan made it clear to both her and readers that she has an equal claim to the title. But her adopted family member was still missing in action.
On March 7th, 2020, X-Force artist Joshua Cassara posted a tweet wishing "a good Saturday" to the Twitter public, especially comics-industry peers working through the weekend. The tweet was accompanied by an inked panel of Gabby in costume, recognizable by her goggles and distinctive facial scarring. Benjamin Percy, currently writing both X-Force and Wolverine for Marvel, confirmed the teaser. The author quoted the Tweet and added the teaser "Coming soon in X-Force 9".
Both tweets were met with a torrent of praise from X-Fans: panels highlighting standout Honey Badger moments, laudatory GIFs, and heart emojis. The reactions also included burning questions surrounding the compassionate killing machine's revival. Has she aged up, in a similar way to Laura becoming an adult in time to receive her own book? Will she continue to use the codename Honey Badger, or will she prefer the title "Scout", a title she adopted in the closing pages of the X-23 series? Fans will find out when X-Force #9 releases on March 18th, 2020.
Source: Joshua Cassara, Benjamin Percy