Thoughts

Things take a dark turn in the second issue, where teenage hijinks turn into ninja brainwashing. You can definitely see in all this why Al Milgrom was chosen as the artist, given that I wasn’t sure about it last issue. Here he captures a lot of the visually dynamic training/fighting that lies at the heart of the story.

Kitty is captured/brainwashed and retrained, being set up to take on Wolverine. We’ve been here before with Claremont’s brainwashing – its a trope he’s come back to a lot. And often it comes across as Clive Barker-lite allusions to Domination. All possession of souls, unleashing the evil and yet folk embracing this sexy darkness.

So its some relief that this issue doesn’t really do any of that. Kitty’s conversion to evil is done through a storyline of regression and training. There is a strict master – and Kitty turns into someone impulsive and evil, but I guess knowing the character is thirteen – Claremont this one time resists the urge to go all Hellfire on this.

As a result, it’s another fun issue but very different to the previous one. The contrast is part of the enjoyment. Where is it all going to go next?

Fun Panel

Kid Kitty Ninja!