Kitty Pryde finally kissed a girl this week

In the last issue of Marauders, X-Men fans finally saw Kate Pryde come back to life, seven months after she was betrayed and murdered by Sebastian Shaw. in this week’s issue, they got something they’ve been waiting way, way longer for.

Kitty Pryde kissed a girl.

If you’re not deep into the X-Men, you could easily miss the decades of fan and fan-academic conversation around Kitty Pryde’s sexuality, as crafted by Chris Claremont, X-Men architect of over 15 years and the writer who made mutants a household name. Kitty has always had strong and intimate emotional bonds with other girls her age, in a time when depiction of happy queer characters in superhero comics was rare by edict. In a 2016 interview, Claremont confirmed that if he’d had his druthers, Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers would have been partners in canon, and not just subtext.

So while one kiss might not seem like a big deal — or might feel like it came out of nowhere, for a character who’s been paired with Colossus for years — this is indeed a milestone in X-Men history.

What else is happening in the pages of our favorite comics? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. There may not be enough context. If you missed the last one, read this.

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Marauders #12

Image: Gerry Duggan, Matteo Lolli/Marvel Comics

The girl in question is an unnamed tattoo artist, who helped Kate out with one of the annoyances of mutant resurrection: You don’t come back with your tattoos! The entire issue is about Kate reaffirming her identity, her place in Krakoa, her relationships with other X-Men, and her plan to get revenge on Sebastian Shaw. Kissing a girl is part of that reaffirmation. Kitty is bi. Or bicurious. Or just queer. Welcome out of the closet, Shadowcat.

Now give her a girlfriend, Marvel.

Rise of Ultraman #1

Marvel’s Ultraman series kicked off this week, attempting to bring the tokusatsu hero to a Western comics audience. Our review had to focus on the entire comic but I personally would like to focus on the fake kaiju PSAs in the back of the book, drawn by Gurihiru, which are awesome.

Fly Me to the Moon

Image: Kenjiro Hata/Shogakukan

Fly Me to the Moon turns manga romance tropes on their head by putting the wedding first.

Wonder Woman #762

Image: Mariko Tamaki, Carlo Barberi/DC Comics

Max Lord has a daughter, she’s got illusion powers, and she’s making Wonder Woman’s life rather difficult. I am VERY disappointed that the cute bunny is evil.

Empyre: Aftermath Avengers

Image: Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti/Marvel Comics

Empyre: Aftermath Avengers, despite its dumb title and even dumber title treatment, is the kind of issue I wish every big event comic would be like — it’s packed with hints at the future and references to Marvel’s dense past, but it pairs each one of them with earned emotional beats and long-awaited payoffs for fans. It’s a shame this thing is a tie-in. Even if you weren’t really feeling Empyre, check this one out.

Dark Nights: Death Metal Trinity Crisis

I respect that Dark Nights: Death Metal Trinity Crisis has established that if Batman somehow became ruler of Apokolips he would rebrand mother boxes to “Alfred boxes” but you also could have called them MARTHA BOXES. I mean, COME ON.

Empyre: Fallout Fantastic Four

Image: Dan Slott, Sean Izaaakse/Marvel Comics

Looks like Uatu the Watcher is back. I mention this only so that I can remind everyone that Nick Fury — the David Hasselhoff one, not the Samuel L. Jackson one — has been subbing in for Uatu the Watcher for a while now, except he calls himself The Unseen. Comics are wacky.

Harley Quinn: Black + White + Red #11

I just really like how cool Harley looks in this panel from Otto Schmidt. The pose, the costume, the facial expression. Sometimes a comic’s art is good and you love it. It’s not complicated!