Kitty Pryde Changed XMen Comics (And Pop Culture) Forever

Kitty Pryde Changed X-Men Comics (And Pop Culture) Forever

Kitty Pryde is more important to the X-Men than fans may think – and the young mutant has had a massive impact on popular culture as well.

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Kitty Pryde Changed XMen Comics (And Pop Culture) Forever

Kitty Pryde changed the X-Men forever – and pop culture, too. In 1980, legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont and renowned artist John Byrne unveiled the character. They’d come up with the idea of turning Xavier’s mansion into a school once again, with the next generation of X-Men in training – and wearing the traditional yellow-and-black costumes until they graduated. The idea was nixed by editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, who said it sounded too much like the “Legion of Substitute X-Men,” but Kitty at least made it into the main books.

Kitty’s original look was supposed to be evocative of a young Sigourney Weaver. As Byrne recalled in The X-Men Companion, “A young Sigourney Weaver was how the face started to evolve when I started looking for the face. A couple of them started to look that way and I said, ‘Okay, that’s fine. She can grow up to be Sigourney Weaver. That’s a nice image.'” Claremont took the idea in a slightly different direction – he had Kitty become the team genius, simply because the X-Men didn’t have one at the time – and neither he nor Byrne settled on a codename before the books were printed. Ironically, that became part of Kitty’s charm; she was the mutant who just couldn’t make up her mind on what to call herself, and who had a terrible taste in costume designs to boot.

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Nobody could have predicted just how influential Kitty Pryde would be. In a recent Twitter thread, The Claremont Run noted Kitty became Claremont’s favorite “viewpoint character,” the lens through which readers experienced the X-Men. It was a smart move because Claremont was indulging in increasingly adult themes. Kitty made her debut in the middle of the Dark Phoenix Saga – and her youthful perspective heightened the narrative impact. But Claremont was quick to ensure readers that Kitty was a capable and competent new addition. Days of Future Past shows she was the one member of the X-Men able to survive in a dystopian future, while another issue saw her stalked by a N’Garai demon in an issue that, appropriately enough, seemed evocative of the movie Alien. Kitty was the perfect POV character, drawing new readers into the X-Men’s world, adding a touch of levity and humanity to some of the darkest superhero stories.

An entire generation of comic book readers fell in love with Kitty Pryde – literally. Brian Bendis openly admits she was his comic book crush, which explains why Kitty wound up dating Peter Parker in his Ultimate Spider-Man relaunch. Warren Ellis infamously aged her up so she could have a relationship with the mutant Pete Wisdom, who was basically Ellis’ own analog in the Marvel Comics Universe. But her greatest impact was through Joss Whedon, who recalled that famous issue of a teenager who was capable enough to take down a demon when he was creating Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In fact, Whedon has gone so far as to refer to Kitty as the mother of Buffy, the main inspiration for the Slayer.

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The current X-Men books are dining out on nostalgia, with Kitty – now Kate – Pryde played a major role in Gerry Duggan’s Marauders series. In the modern X-Men books, the entire mutant race has gathered on the living island of Krakoa, using its biotechnology to travel across the world through gateways while synergizing mutant powers and Cerebro technology to conquer death. Duggan exploited the emotional connection most long-term readers have with Kate, penning a story in which she initially couldn’t use the gateways – and potentially couldn’t be resurrected. It was a smart narrative trick, reinforcing the sense of discomfort and uncertainty many readers had with the new era. That arc was resolved and the problem turned out to be a result of how Kate’s powers interact with the new mutant biotechnology. Now, she’s settled in with the ruling council of Krakoa, symbolizing readers becoming more comfortable with the X-Men’s strange new status quo.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/x-men-kitty-kate-pryde-changed-pop-culture/

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