100th Post!!!
So there are times when people ask, “Mr. Klein, who is your favorite fictional character or favorite superhero?” and I usually retort, “How dare you speak directly to me!” or something along those lines. Or while chatting with a friend (or foe, even strangers sometimes) a third party will ask for some further explanation and I would say something like “Hey, I would love to Kitty Pryde the heck out of you, but let me finish this first”
Either scenario, I get the follow up question:
Who?
Then I say something like, you know, the greatest fictional character of all time! Read a book!
Then they ask which books, and I list:
Christopher L. Bennett’s Watchers on the Wall and Chris Roberson’s The Return.
And if you like two awesome tastes combined to create a mediocre taste, Michael Jan Friedman’s Planet X. Which actually is pretty good as it doesn’t have to much Wesley Crusher or Data in it.
Which then that tips the listener (in most cases) that I’m at least talking about something Star Trek related.
Which all three of those books above are pretty good. The first two have the word X-Men in the title before the actual title but I like to leave that off to make it sound like proper novels. Which, of course, they are but once some people (fools really) are told that they are superhero prose novels, they think less of you. But then I turn it around and think even less of them and I become the winner. That’s how you do it, folks.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Data as much as Brent Spiner does these days but I got burn out on Data centric episodes as it feels, in my memory, like we got 20 of those types of episodes. Then there are the Wesley Crusher episodes from season one that are extremely hard to watch. Add to all of those holodeck episodes (another group of 20 or so) and I just can’t watch Next Generation without wanting to skip certain ones. Though it is my favorite series of Trek. Season three and forward, some great television was done then. I sometimes look back at that era of televsion, along with Quantum Leap, and I can’t imagine what it must have been like airing those shows. Like, was it extremely odd going in and out of commercial breaks, what was it like for the lead in and lead out shows? There should be a website that you can find out what else was aired at the time and see what the competition was and what was the fellow programming. I’ll be interested in that.
If they are still staring at me, I say “The X-Men”s Shadowcat”
Which then a lightbulb goes off in their head and their eyes light up, but then you get that moment where then they don’t recall a Shadowcat being named.
Then I say “the dame that walks through walls”
Then there is that moment, where they say “oh yeah, Juno played her in that one film”
And I respond, “yes, Ellen Page did play her in the third X-Men film (as saying X3 sounds dumb, go ahead and try saying it right now aloud, see?) and she will do so again in next year’s Days of Future Past. Which how annoyed must she be when she found out she wasn’t going to be the star of that film?”
Then I go into the whole “how annoyed must Ellen Page be?” scenario – if I hadn’t lost them by that point.
Sometimes I get a rebuttal of someone silly enough to say something like, “she’s not better than James Bond”
Which then I take a deep and calming breath and say :
Oh, James Bond, you think is a great character? Star of eleven good films out of 23, that James Bond? Star of only like three good novels by his original creator, Ian Fleming. That James Bond? A character who is so much of a dick that he wouldn’t even show up for his nephew’s cartoon back in the 80s? That James Bond?
Then they try to turn it on me and ask me to justify why I like her so much. Which is super simple to explain:
She’s pure awesomeness.
Then I go on living my life.
But seriously, what is there to not like about her, besides that she might have too much going on.
She was the original Introductory character (might not be true but she is the best example of one). She paved the way for characters such as Jubilee, Pixie and Hope Summers.
She was created by John Bryne and developed further by Chris Claremont, and inked by Terry Austin.
She’s from the 80s.
She has been a member of the X-Men, Excalibur and SHIELD.
Some of the finest writers and artist have added to her mythos. That Heroes for Hope special made that possible. Including Alan Moore and Stephen King. Alan Davis has drawn her, as has Chris Bachalo.
She has an awesome companion with Lockheed, the purple alien who has the characteristics of a dragon.
She started out as a 13 ½ year old and now is an amazing young woman.
Her introduction happen in the beginning of the Dark Phoenix Saga.
Has an awesome rivalry with Emma Frost.
Close friends with Wolverine, Magik, Nightcrawler, Rachel Grey and Doug Ramsey. She has this way of bringing out these different sides to these characters. They are not only co-workers of hers, but actually good friends with them.
Joss Whedon has gone on record of saying she was the inspiration for Buffy Summers, of Vampire Slayer fame. Star of his Astonishing Run, thus is awesome in the Motion Comics adaption of those stories, also by John Cassiday and Lauren Martin.
She saved the entire planet single handily in Giant Sized Astonishing X-Men, you’re welcome.
Has awesome marital art skills from both Ogun and Wolverine training.
She’s a brunette, and extremely smart.
She is a dancer.
She worked at a bar once.
She’s from Chicago, and is a Cubs fan.
She left the X-Men to pursue a college degree.
She’s world traveled, space traveled, time traveled and inter-dimensional traveled.
Her mutant power is pretty amazing, being able to phase through items. Which not many people have that power. DC’s Phantom Girl, Heroes DL Hawkins, and Astra of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard, back at Marvel.
Been portrayed by Sumela Kay, Katie Stuart and Ellen Page, live action style.
Star of Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men Evolution (she gets much better past season one when the valley girl voice is dropped) and supporting role in Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon.
She was Katie Andrew’s favorite character in No Ordinary Family. Which was a good show, and I also owned that bust that Katie owns and kept in her locker. I keep my in a box, we’re practically related! Autumn Reeser played Katie on that show.
Wizard named her #13 in their 200 Greatest Comic Characters of All Time. Which isn’t bad. I disagreed but at least she’s in the top 15. She was the highest ranked lady on the list.
IGN ranked her at 47 greatest comic book hero of all time, which was even more insulting! Boo to that website! But they made it up by naming her the 3rd best X-Men
Marvel.com, which you would think they would have gotten it right, named her tenth greatest X-Man.
But she ranks high, is what matters most.
She doesn’t have the flashiest power but she has done a huge amount of different things with that power.
She can walk on air and travel great distances by phasing through the Earth and letting the planet’s own orbit do the hard work of orbiting.
I like that none of her costumes are revealing, she is usually dressed from neck to toe in full outfits. Just like most heroes (mostly males) do.
She’s a funny character, definitely a light character but can be extremely serious as well. She’s as three-dimensional as it gets.
She’s Jewish, which also distinguishes her from other heroes, and her religion is a part of her character. So she has something in common with Ben Grimm.
She is extremely independent and trustworthy.
Only games you can actually play as her is X-Men II: The Fall of the Mutants (a PC game in 1990) and Facebook’s Marvel: Avengers Alliance, which I was crazy addicted to back in the day. I’ve been told you can play as her in the Marvel Super Hero Squad Online game, but I wasn’t able to get it to work on my computer. I keep hoping they announce her as a playable character in the Lego Marvel game.
She has some spectacular busts and statues out on the market. She has three pretty good action figures and inaction figures.
She’s appeared on a few shirts. For whatever reason, she doesn’t get that much marketing material, probably due to her not having a well-known logo or icon. Or even a notable font for her name. The current one isn’t horrible but it isn’t fantastic either.
Her Age of Apocalypse version is pretty bad ass. Her X-Men Forever counterpoint was getting close to that level of bad assery.
I just really like the character and its been a blast to follow her adventures over the years.
Thanks for all of the support and here’s to the next one hundred posts!
. . .
Also, Happy Birthday to Adam Kubert! Without whom, Ultimate Kitty Pryde wouldn’t have looked as good as she did! Does anyone know Danny Miki’s birthday? He was Adam’s inker for the issue and the Internet is letting me down on that information.
Sorry Adam, I thought there was a chance the 100th post would have landed on a different day, though I was tempted to just do your birthday post by itself but had this big 100th celebration idea in my head at the last moment. Next year, pal!
Shadow and Flame with Magik 