Another day, another lazy attempt at ‘pandering-via-sexuality-swapping’ by Marvel Comics, this time as the first issue of Exceptional X-Men has outright confirmed that the titular team’s resident wall-walker, Kitty Pryde, is canonically bisexual.
Penned by Eve Ewing with art from Carmen Carnero, Nolan Woodward, and Joe Sabino, the latest entry in the X-Men line’s From The Ashes publishing initiative centers on the aforementioned Kitty Pryde, who in the aftermath of Krakoa’s downfall and the Orchis War is attempting to live a quiet life devoid of any mutant mayhem.
In addition to a finding new home in downtown Chicago and a new job slinging suds, Kitty’s fresh start also sees her putting herself back on the dating scene.
As a result, she eventually snags a date with someone she met on a dating app, the two of them ultimately agreeing to meet-up for the first time to watch a concert being thrown by one of Kitty’s favorite bands.
Unfortunately for Kitty, after arriving at the venue and proceeding to stand around for a good long while without seeing her date, she sadly comes to realize that she’s been stood-up (which actually turns out to not be the case, as it’s eventually shown that Kitty actually mixed up her calendar and arrived to the concert a day early).
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Upon reaching this conclusion, Kitty proceeds to question, “Should I text her? That’s too much. Message in the app?”, thus revealing that her would-be date for the evening was a member of the fairer sex.
Notably, while Exceptional X-Men presents the first outright confirmation of Kitty as bisexual, it is not the first issue to hint at this development.
As seen in 2019’s Marauders Vol. 1 #12, following her first ever ‘return from the dead’ courtesy of Krakoa’s mutant technology, the newly christened Red Queen swears herself to taking revenge against the man who initially put her in the ground, Sebastian Shaw.
In dedication to this mission, Kitty enlists the services of a local tattoo parlor to inscribe a simple, two-word declaration of war against the mutant villain across her knuckles: Kill Shaw.
Following the tattoo’s completion, her adrenaline still running high, the heroine proceeds to ‘thank’ her tattoo artist, a woman, with a kiss.
And though Kitty is shown smiling afterwards, this moment, as well as all of its implications, were never followed-up again until now.
The next issue of Exceptional X-Men is currently set to hit the shelves on October 9th.