Want more tales of Kate (back then, Kitty) Pryde’s time at the University of Chicago? Hoping for more interstitial comics in which Chris Claremont himself tells stories that fill in the gaps in one of the Claremont runs? You’re in luck with X-Treme X-Men (volume three) #1, written by Claremont, art by Salvador Larroca, colors by GURU-eFX, letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles.
I am either the ideal reader for X-Treme X-Men #1, or a far less than ideal one: my overidentification with Kate (formerly Kitty) Pryde is a matter of public record, I’ve spent an unhealthy proportion of my life in the bowels of large universities. And if there’s one part of Kate’s life from which I want yet more stories, it is certainly the weeks or months in the Mekanix miniseries (2002-03), when Kate’s stint as a graduate student in Hyde Park got interrupted by anti-mutant hate groups, by nanosentinels, by bartending in what looked like black leather (and not much of it), and by a very, very close friendship with then-Chicago librarian Xi’an Coy Manh, who was (as usual) just trying to look out for her gal pals and her vulnerable siblings.
First the good news. The people here look like people in 1980s and/or 2000s comic books, and Kate looks like Kate (though with straight hair like mine). Claremont says somewhere that he works with Larroca these days whenever he can, and I can see why: the costumes, the action sequences, the faces give the consistent impression of a good artist and a great writer in sync, and if you suffered through the strangely angular, would-be manga style and early digital colors of Mekanix you know what a blessing that is. I’m visually drawn into these melodramatic scenes — even the dream scenes — rather than pushed out of them (as with parts of Mekanix).
Now for the questionable Orientalism.
Almost the whole of X-Treme X-Men #1 addresses, not graduate student unionization, dangerous metallurgy, town-gown conflict, or anything else you’d expect from a story set at the U of C, but… Ogun. Remember him? Devil-mask “Japanese” demon with an impeccable ninja pedigree, possessed Kitty during much of Kitty Pryde & Wolverine (1985), left her with a psychic hangover, a stronger-than-ever bond with Wolverine, and otherwise inexplicable-but-convenient ninja powers? That guy?
Dude’s back, first in a vivid dream and then in real life, as the series’ ongoing Big Bad. Kitty has forced him out of her own head for good (“he’s been hiding in my head all this time,” she explains). The psychic pain the warring duo broadcast led her, um, roommate Rachel Summers to send out an APB. As Bishop puts it, hefting one of his big guns (two, if you count his biceps), “Rachel sent out a ‘Mayday.’ Storm mobilized the team.”
That would be the X-Treme team, from the series of the same name that ran twenty years ago: Ororo, Bishop, Sage, Gambit, a temporarily de-powered Rogue, Lockheed (who greets his fave human with “YahYahYahYah”), Lila Cheney (for long-distance teleportation purposes), and of course Logan, the first and shortest Wolverine. [Editor’s Note: Wolverine wasn’t officially part of the regular X-Treme X-Men roster then or now; it’s made clear here Lila is pulling him from whatever adventures he was up to between the end of Grant Morrison’s New X-Men and the start of Chuck Austen’s X-Men. -Anal-Retentive Austin]
It’s good to see them all in one place. It’s even better to see their body language and their dialogue as they promise to support one another and take care of a Shadowcat in distress. Check out Rachel levitating above what may or may not be the best friends’ one shared bed. Claremont has said in interviews that Kitty and Rachel are pretty much his OTP. But Rachel didn’t — or couldn’t — figure in Mekanix at all; presumably she’s moved in recently.
After all this psychic struggle, Kitty could use all kinds of mutant support. Lila even promises a celestial vacation, but Kitty (as she was called then) will have none of it. Nor will Ororo: “We must find him” (that is, Ogun) “before anyone else can be hurt.” Storm has a plan: If he acquires a new host, we set that person free…. Rachel and Logan are our hunters. Find his trail, then his hiding place. Lead us to him. Keep any innocents safe from harm.”
Sounds good to me. Not so good: the hate group Purity, active on campus just as it was in Mekanix. I imagine we’ll hear from them, and see more of our gal pals, and get more over-the-top Claremont dialogue (“Know this, mutant– our struggle is far from over”), and see more of Chicago, next time out. Is “Chris Claremont’s X-Treme X-Men volume two number one” the most original X-comic you’ll read this year, or this week? It is not. Does it push all the nostalgia buttons? It does. Could it turn into something that adds to, rather than recapping, the mythos around these parts of Kitty Pryde’s life, either the Chicago period or the Tokyo trip? It hasn’t, yet, but it could: I’m happy to stick around and find out. As Storm tells Kitty, “Every life needs new experiences.” Truer words have rarely been said.
Cat Tracks
- Rogue has a giant tattoo down her left arm. Looks great. Also shows us that she’s been de-powered, since no artist could safely do that for her without touching her bare skin.
- Logan says Kitty’s scent has changed since she threw Ogun out of her head, or maybe she’s absorbed part of his essence instead? “He’s a part of me now, and I’m a part of him.” Huh.
- Storm also has a lightning bolt tattoo, or makeup, on the shaved side of her head. Anyone remember when she got it? Have we seen it before?
Stephanie Burt is Professor of English at Harvard. Her podcast about superhero role playing games is Team-Up Moves, with Fiona Hopkins; her latest book of poems is We Are Mermaids. Her nose still hurts from that thing with the gate.
