In Defense of Kitty Pryde #WomenInFiction #MarchMadness

In Defense of Kitty Pryde

I’m heartbroken. There’s no other way to put it. Kitty Pryde and Amy Pond, two of my personal favorite fictional females, are forced to square off against one another in the first round of our March Madness Tournament. No matter what happens, I have to say goodbye to one of them without seeing her win a single matchup. The feels are too big.

So it was with mixed emotions that I received the results of our first ballots, only to find that the public had just as hard a time as I did deciding between these two awesome characters. We have a tie on our hands, people.

“Why mixed emotions?”, you may ask. Simple. This only prolongs the pain. A tournament is a tournament, and only one can move on to the next round. (Yes, I checked.  Frank won’t let us do a triple threat match in round two. Sorry, I tried.)

So the time has come to put on our grown-up hats and make the tough decisions. This I what I finally decided, and why.

I choose Kitty Pryde.

When you look at it rationally, the choice is pretty clear. Kitty is just a deeper, more complex character than Amy. She’s an adventurer, a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, a paranormal investigator, a school teacher, just to name a few. But she’s more than just these “jobs.” She has outside interests. She’s a computer nerd, and avid gamer. She sometimes struggles with what it means to be a Jewish super hero. There’s a richness to her character that, sadly, we didn’t have enough time to get with Amy Pond.

It’s only natural that Kitty Pryde is my favorite X-Man. Like many my age, my first exposure to the X-Men was the old cartoon Pryde of the X-Men. Although I didn’t know it at the time, the premise for the cartoon mirrors the first appearances of Kitty in the comics. She comes to the school as an outsider, being exposed for the first time to the daily insanity that is life as an X-Man. Kitty is the audience’s surrogate in the story. She looks at events that more jaded X-Men regard as commonplace with an unabashed childlike wonder. While you can argue that this is also true for Amy Pond, Kitty Pryde has roughly thirty more years worth of stories under her belt. Amy looks at everything the Doctor shows her as if it is new and amazing. Kitty had the chance to evolve, and is now a tested veteran. If she sees something new, there is a good chance she’s probably seen something similar before, but she still maintains that original sense of wonder. Holding on to that wonder, despite familiarity, gives her an edge. Pond loves her life because everything is new. Kitty loves her life because everything is awesome.(Cue overrated-song-of-the-moment)

She doesn’t have the supermodel looks of Jean Grey or Emma Frost. She doesn’t have a cool code name (Not for lack of trying, mind you (I’m actually fond of the “Professor K” her students are currently using in the comics). She’s one of the only X-Men who feel like someone you might actually know. So it is with a heavy heart that I bid a fond farewell to the plucky Miss Pond, and proudly declare “Make Mine Kitty!”

– Pete

Agree? Disagree? Just want to have your voice heard?

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[caption:
Image Credit: Marvel Comics, Mark Brooks, cover Uncanny X-Men #522]
About Big Poppa Pete 15 Articles
Among Loud Idiots fans, Big Poppa Pete is known as “The Hot One,” not for his obvious physical attractiveness, but because his internal body temperature is over 5,000 degrees Centigrade. That’s hotter than most white dwarf stars, even Peter Dinklage. BPP is so hot, that the air in a four yard radius around him melts. Yes, the air melts. He also enjoys stamp collecting.