A Very Unpopular Opinion

This is an opinion that is probably very unpopular among readers of Marvel comics but...

I don't like Kitty Pryde.

At all. In fact, I find the character putrid, vapid and a mix of unlikely, fanboy cliches that are just tedious.

The thing is, she was the sort of character I really wanted to like as a kid. She was young, a bit of a newbie, she was smart, and she had a cool power.

But they couldn't stop there. Not only was she smart and like, the youngest X-Man ever at the time, no, she *also* was super-duper at computers. Which okay, I can deal with, as much as I will never be that smart, some people are.

But she's also like a master class chess player who could beat Professor Xavier. Which...is less appealing to me. I mean, I can see how the skills that make one good at computers could also make someone good at chess. And that some kids *are* capable of beating very strategically-minded, experienced adults.

But *why* is this necessary. She's already smart and the youngest X-Man ever, by this point. Why did she need to be *so* special?

And it got weirder. Okay, not only is she a hacker/programmer, chess genius, youngest X-Man ever...she's also a ballet dancer. Okay, now it's getting silly. Yes, there are genius children out there, but superheroing usually isn't in their repetoire.

And not to mention the L33t Ninja skills trained into her by Wolverine!

(I'm not even gonna get into the little magic dragon. I think I've made my point)

Now all of these would be forgiveable if she had the personality to back them up. Heck, if she were a bitch, like Emma or M, or really disorganized/disheveled like others, or just completely socially inept like most other genius-types, it'd be okay.

But no, she's all that *and* sweet and kind and approachable. A sweet little flower for Colossus to court and protect. And somehow amidst all those traits, I've never seen anyone actually convince me that there was a *character* beneath all those achievements and blanket traits. Where was her depth, her presence? Why does it seem like someone just put a bunch of surface traits on strips of paper, pulled them out of a hat, and said, "Okay, here's your character."

Give me flawed and dim and silly Jubilee *anyday*.

Well, except maybe in Excaliber. Excalibur did the impossible in that it took two characters that I had thought were one trick wonders in X-Men: Nightcrawler and Shadowcat, and actually highlighted their complexities and strength of personality. Well, in Kurt's case at least. With Kitty, they had done something else.

They were letting her grow up. And it was interesting. The uber-achievements were being toned down, and she was finally split from that insipid relationship with Colossus. For the first time, I actually felt like there was a character beneath the teenage fanboys audibly wanking over each panel. (We get it, geek women are hot. Now how about a *realistic* one.)

Pairing her with Pete Wisdom was a brilliant move too, I thought. (And I always love naming puns...heh) Like him or hate him, he brought out a side of Kitty that was fascinating. With Colossus, Kitty was constantly emphasized by her youth as a junior, subordinate partner to be protected. For all that Wisdom was presumably older than Colossus, he actually respected Kitty. Wisdom didn't want a princess to protect, he wanted a partner. One that would keep up with him and even take the lead.

The relationship was actually, refreshingly, adult. (Not to mention that for the first time EVER, that stupid dragon wasn't a waste of space. It was endlessly amusing watching him torment Pete and never being sure if he really was talking or Pete was just batshit crazy or both). Kitty was confident, mature, and showed more spark and animation arguing with Pete than *ever* in her existance before. They also toned down the hacker/genius/ballet/ninja aspects, focusing mostly on the tech stuff. Which was fine with me.

Of course this didn't last. For whatever reason, adult-Kitty wasn't as "appealing" or whatever. So they broke her off with Wisdom (forcing him from Excalibur...damnit, he was so much more interesting. They could have done whole issues of him and Moira MacTaggert arguing and I'd have been thrilled...actually now there was a May-December relationship that would have been a blast, but I digress). But really, if that was all they'd done, it would have been okay. Adult-Kitty on her own could have been a great character too.

But not too long after that, she began to revert to teenage-hood again. And they moved her back to the X-Men where she could be precocious genius ninja girl again. And apparently, they've even got her paired with Colossus (Which pisses me off to no end, considering his behavior in Excalibur, even if he was out of his mind...I would not be dating the guy who nearly beat my boyfriend to *death* because he was still obsessed with me. His fault or not.) I admit, I've read maybe one issue some time back and dropped it in disgust. I just don't care.

I want the adult back. I want the woman who was interesting and imperfect, young, talented, but not insanely so. I want the woman who turned down her childhood crush for an adult, equal partnership, even *if* they wouldn't ultimately stay together. I want the woman who'd I want dynamic change to have occured and to be acknowledged, rather than a reversion to the tedious status quo. That irritating child grew, organically, into a woman I was actually starting to admire and even love. And I want her back!

But that's not gonna happen, the fanboys have spoken. *Damnit*