Yep. It’s late again. I know. I haven’t even picked up this week’s pull yet, so, you know, gimme a break.
Anyway, I knew who my Crush of the Week was going to be right away last week, so there really is no excuse. My choice was a little bit of a surprise, given how corny and silly the cover of this issue was, but after giving it a read, I’m proud to say that Kitty Pryde of Wolverine and the X-Men is my Crush of the Week!
Those leg warmers totally did it for me. And the shiny pants…
I’ve always liked Kitty Pryde. I was lucky enough to have grown up with some of the first issues of Kitty’s run with the X-Men, back when she was trying to escape evil Emma Frost’s attempts at recruiting her for her own school, dealing with her parents’ constant fighting, and even those damned roller skates she tried to integrate into her costume as Sprite (note: roller skates only work for Dazzler, ever). Years later, when Joss Whedon told the world that some of his inspiration for creating strong, female characters stemmed from his love of Shadowcat, I was totally on board. I can see a little bit of Ms. Pryde in a lot of Whedon’s characters.
Issue #14 of Wolverine and the X-Men was another tie-in to the giant Avengers vs. X-Men storyline that’s been monopolizing the Marvel line for the past couple of months. It also, as a side note, completely proves me right in siding with the Avengers but that’s not the point of this article. The point of this article is that Colossus, one member of the Phoenix Five, has decided that he’s been without Kitty for far too long (they have a long, complicated past that usually winds up with the pair of them romantically involved until tragedy separates them) and goes to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning to claim the headmistress as his own.
Old school of thought: a woman is only as strong as her man who is secure enough to wear such tiny shorts.
Colossus’ presence further stresses out an already stressed out school for mutants caught in the middle of a war between two factions. If you haven’t been reading any Wolverine and the X-Men as part of the AvX story, why are you even reading this? you should know that many of the staff and students are conflicted as to which side to take. On the one hand, they’re primarily a population of mutants so, genetically, they feel drawn to side with Cyclops and his idea of a mutant Utopia all over the globe. However, Wolverine has sided with the Avengers, believing correctly that the X-Men are out of their depth when handling the Phoenix Force.
This conflict comes to a head when Piotr Rasputin comes a-courtin’ Ms. Pryde, asking to take her on a date. Deathlock advises that this can only spell disaster but Kitty knows that a Colossus Phoenix will not take no for an answer. So she puts her alien dragon Lockheed in charge of the school, which is already suffering from a lack of teaching staff due to many joining in the many battles across the world between the X-Men and the Avengers, to go see her one-time love.
Meanwhile, for story’s sake, Bobby Drake, Iceman, is out fighting alongside Cyclops and is starting to see, on his side, that his former friend and fellow first X-Man (because this First X-Men garbage that Marvel’s got going on is just absurd) is way out of touch due to the influence of the Phoenix Force. Told you so.
Colossus takes Kitty to have a romantic seafood dinner, probably assuming that since seafood is a natural aphrodisiac, he’ll get laid. This date takes place in the middle of the ocean so that Colossus can show off his immense Phoenix power. I’m assuming that power is also a natural aphrodisiac. During their conversation, while Piotr attempts to woo his lady love, Kitty spends the entire time trying to get him to see that locking up the Avengers so that they can continue doing “good” around the world isn’t right.
Finding love in all the weird places.
By the way, anyone else seeing any parallels between this and Tony Stark during the Civil War? Anyone? Moving on.
Finally, Colossus starts to see that maybe Kitty isn’t responding that well to his come-ons. Because it can’t have anything to do with his crazy talk, he jumps to the conclusion that the school she runs has clearly changed her priorities too much. As such, the next logical step is to destroy the school and everyone in it.
Colossus, I mean Phoenix, I mean– SMAAAAAAASH!
After some fighting, Kitty finally stands up to Colossus, phasing her hand into his chest as though to pull his heart out. She is a total bad ass and even though the Phoenix energy inside of him burns her and prevents her from killing him, her willingness to kill the man she once loved awakens some doubt in the Russian X-Man and he flees, clearly conflicted.
Iceman and the others from the Jean Grey school return to find a trashed campus. But rather than dwell on what’s just transpired, Kitty just tells them to resume their teaching roles and continues to keep cleaning, still wearing the dress she wore on her date. Bad. Ass.
Kitty grew from a character who, back in the early days of her time with the X-Men, was so enamored with the man who would eventually become a pawn of the Phoenix Force that she almost had no personality (besides kind of annoying. I mean, I loved her, but c’mon) to a strong, powerful woman who doesn’t need a man to dictate the course of her life. This issue was the ultimate metaphor to getting over an unhealthy love and becoming comfortable and secure in yourself. Since her debut in 1980, she’s been a love interest for people like Colossus and Pete Wisdom (remember Excalibur?) and the kid companion to Wolverine, a member of SHIELD, a samurai warrior, and all kinds of other things. But in this issue of Wolverine and the X-Men, Kitty Pryde became an independent woman.
Who needs men when you have women swords.
Kitty Pryde is my Crush of the Week. You go, girl.
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