Kitty Pryde has come a long way from being the teenager scared of Wolverine, unsure of her powers and crushing on Russian hunk. Kitty is now central to the X-Men starring in multiple books. I want to share part of Brian Wood’s Marvel.com interview about Kitty’s role on the new, all-female X-Men series:
“Traditionally, Kitty’s the brains of the outfit, and has a tendency to be the smartest one in whatever room she happens to walk into. Her role in this team is the strategist, the fixer, the problem-solver and the deliverer-of-wise-cracks. I like writing her as hyper-capable—well, they all are, really, but each in their own way. Kitty’s way is to be clever as hell, able to read people really well, and [she] is most likely to be the one to get everyone out of an impossible situation.
Kitty has grown up fast and into a leadership role and Wood says he likes writing her mature Kitty.
“I think Kitty works best a little older. It can make her cleverness and dependability less earnest-seeming when its coming from, let’s just say, a 24 year-old than a 16 year-old, at least the way I write. Also, in a general way, I always try and write younger characters older. I think kids are smarter than most people think. Or, at the very least, they’re trying to be smarter and older.
Brian Michael Bendis put Kitty in charge of mentoring the “Young X-Men” from the past in All-New X-Men. Wood he will let Kitty cut loose and see some intense action in his title.
“This title here should be her chance to cut loose a bit. Our missions are really high-action, OTT-type affairs, and this is where she should be in the thick of it. Besides, if she really misses dealing with the dramas back at the Jean Grey School, she can get her fill of the dramas while doing plane-to-plane rescues over the Sierra Nevadas. Plenty of dramas up there. Just wait for issue #4.”
Wood writes Pryde’s powers a specific way in Ultimate Comics X-Men. Wood explains how he’s write to the defensive and offensive aspects of Kitty’s powers:
“Over on ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN, I’ve intentionally limited that Kitty Pryde to her defensive powers. Partly for story reasons, but also there is no shortage of interesting ways to use her phasing power. It’s sort of hard not to. But yeah, she has a whole other aspect to her powers and I’ll absolutely be writing that in this series.”
Storm and Kitty became instant friends in the Claremont era. This book will be a chance for Ororo and “Kitten” to reconnect:
“A key theme of this whole series, not just this intro arc, is one of family. I do believe that in spite of past stories where there was conflict or beef or any sort of bad feelings, there’s a foundation of, at least, respect. And we’ll take it from there. Everything I’ve written and am writing to date has been stories that bring them closer, that justify this team existing.”
Watch for X-Men #2 next week. For more of this interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
This post is dedicated to the Kitty Pryde of the Pacific Northwest! Seeing you and Lockheed always makes my comicon!
By Editor
I have high hopes for this book. I still wish Lorna was on this team.
Agreed. I hope Polaris finds a home after X-Factor ends. Maybe Brian Wood will use her in an upcoming arc? Thanks for the comment!