Exceptional X-Men #2

[mastermahan]

This issue: Will Kitty get all the way through a date before mutant stuff interrupts? You know the answer already.




(More like Expositional X-Men, yuck yuck yuck)

Comments

[numeronone]

Bigger question: will future writers remember she's bi?

[shadowpsykie]

i mean... she HAS been for a while now so i think it will hold... but even her dating a dude doesn;t change that...

[numeronone]

Oh, no, I didn't mean it like that!

More that it's always been hinted before and never outright stated as it is here, and comics tend to just "reset" big or inclusive changes as soon as the writer who brought them is no longer involved.

See, for instance, that Al Ewing created Charlene McGowan, a compelling character and a trans woman, then established that she had a budding relationship with Doc Sampson aka Doc Sasquatch. Sampson has appeared several times since; Charlene has faded away into the aether.

TL;DR: I'm happy Eve did it but skeptical that Marvel would be able to make it last.

[beyondthefringe]

Of course, given that under Claremont, every female was basically presented as bisexual via subtext...
And given Kitty's long, long history of intensely close female friendships with Illyana and Rachel and Storm...
And given how little chemistry she's ever had with guys (Pete Wisdom? Piotr Rasputin? Yeah no)
She's one of the least surprising X-Men to come out as bisexual in a casual way.

(And I bet we'll see Charlene again, either under Al Ewing's pen, or when some other queer writer has the opportunity.)

[icon_uk]

A whole heck of a lot of Claremont's males were less than 100% hetero too; Kurt and Logan, Charles and Erik, the entirety of the male presenting New Mutants...

[icon_uk]

Heavy exposition in the first couple of issues of a series which has a LOT of new situations and characters to explain I can forgive, provided it doesn't become a habit (Kitty narrating her life to the reader is going to get old quickly)

Interesting they've made Kitty's first open actual going on a date girlfriend NOT Illyana, and not even a mutant (as yet).

Tangential question, what IS Nina wearing? From tat last panel it looks to be an ankle length slashed skirt which, whilst undeniably stylish, seems an odd choice to wear to her cousin's soccer game, even if it is also a date.

I hadn't been paying attention to the new line ups particularly, so am pleased to see that Thao is a tall, rather buff, girl. I confess from the cover I thought that she was male, since she is lacking the usually insisted upon prominent bust. The influence of both writer and artists being female and wanting some variety I hope?

[onsokumaru]

I'm sure that some writer will at some point hook up Illyana with her former babysitter, but I'm glad we dodged that bullet here.

[beyondthefringe]

Until I double-checked, I thought for sure Axo (aka Alex, the color-changing one) was non-binary from the way he was presented, but no, press releases use he/him so... I am happy that comics are getting to the point, very slowly, where I -can- start to wonder/assume that characters might be trans, enby, queer, some combination thereof. I like the variety of appearannces amongst this new trio.

[scorntx]

Hey, when you're a Claremont character it's hard to shake the habit of narrating every little thing you do.


Is... Emma psychically stalking Kat / Kitty?

[icon_uk]

"Yes, yes she is"

[scorntx]

That is considerably uncool.
Even by Emma's catastrophically low standards.

[deh_tommy]

Boundaries are a human concept, mutants have no need for something as archaic as privacy.

[huntleyhaverstock]

Thao quoting MLK Jr.'s Letter From a Birmingham Jail. I dig it.

[blues32]

...who is she talking to in the first page...?

[scorntx]

Herself.
Sounds like a perfectly logical consequence of eighteen beers in fourteen minutes.

[blues32]

I'd think there would be more slurring at that point.

[superfangirl1]

Is Kitty Pryde the same age as Dick grayson? Forever 21?

[scorntx]

When the X-Men go back to basics, they darn well go back to basics.

(However, misunderstandings about which 'basics' they were talking about are the reason Cyclops looks like he's shrunk in the wash.)

[deh_tommy]

Yeah, sorry, but you can’t just go back to wholesome UwU slice of life hijinks after helping establish at least two ethnostates, taking delight in brutally goring your enemies and co-running a revival of the bloody East India Company.

[icon_uk]

And yet somehow no human government is ever held accountable for their umpteenth iteration of "army of forty foot tall genocidal robots" unleashed on society.

[deh_tommy]

That’s ridiculous too, but the narrative always rightfully calls out the Sentinels as bad and wrong and stupid. Krakoa and everything that went down on it will never get a proper reckoning or analysis outside of Beast II’s guilt.

[esmegrey]

I'm liking the series overall, but Kitty narrating out loud to no one in particular is REALLY clunky. Expository dialogue is a common trope, but this...is not working. I could run with it if she was just kinda muttering about her life, but the moment she has to tell herself the name of the woman she's dating, it is like nails on a chalkboard. Takes me right out of the book.

[donnblake]

Oh, wow, I sort of assumed she was on a phone call.

[goattoucher]

I am always delighted to see Slender Kitty.