With Iceman in town, things should be pretty cool. But that is proving to be far from the case for Kitty Pryde. Your Major Spoilers review of Exceptional X-Men #4 from Marvel Comics, awaits!

EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #4

Writer: Eve L. Ewing
Artist: Carmen Carnero
Colorist: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 25th, 2024

Previously in Exceptional X-Men: Kitty Pryde wanted to simply move on with her life and start fresh in Chicago. But, she soon found herself inadvertently caring for a trio of young mutants. Things then get stranger, as Emma Frost first shows up to help her train, but then Iceman shortly after.

BREAK A LEG

Exceptional X-Men #4 opens with Bronze going through a day at school when she notices a poster for musical tryouts. Things then transition to her training session with Emma after school. She’s struggling with controlling her transformations. Bobby and Emma give her some advice and tell her to attend the tryouts. After work, Kitty Pryde makes it home to discover that Iceman is already there with her roommate making dinner. After surviving a dinner with the two of them, Kitty confronts Bobby in the kitchen and tells him to go home. The next day at tryouts, a portal opens, and a monster comes through, forcing Bronze to take action and send it back home. At training, Kitty steps outside and overhears Bobby talking mysteriously to someone on the phone. Kitty threatens his life before discovering that Bobby is talking to Rogue, prompting Kitty to angrily explain why she doesn’t want contact with the X-Men.

A BIGGER METAPHOR

One of the core themes so far in this series has been Kitty’s desire to simply be left alone from the X-Men and given a chance to have her own life, but having X-Men stuff thrown on her. In a way, this can also be applied to the series as a whole, as for the first three issues, there hasn’t been much interaction between this title and the other X-Men books. This really becomes a thing in Exceptional X-Men #4, though, as multiple things from other X-Men books, both present and past, are thrust into this issue. This really drives home the idea that to Kitty, the X-Men have become her biggest villains since they refuse to leave her alone. There’s also a nice juxtaposition between Bronze’s story and Kitty’s story here. With the former having a fairly lighthearted adventure where she learns a nice, positive lesson for herself, while Kitty is wrestling with having straight-up murdered people during Fall of X, and none of her old friends letting her forget it, and then the way these two stories sort of collide into each other feels like it’s priming things for some complex character interactions down the road. There were a couple things that felt off though. In particular, the way that Bronze talks to the audience didn’t land. It looks like it was supposed to be a riff on high school movies from the 90s and 2000s, but it just felt out of place here. Also, while they do give reference to where it comes from, the demon thing that attacks Bronze, pretty much just comes out of nowhere and the whole interaction read as kind of cheesy,

NITPICK TIME

The art in Exceptional X-Men is good. I still love the haircut they gave Kitty, it has good facial expressions throughout, and the coloring on Bronze’s skin when she’s in metal form is wonderful. But, the uniforms on the cover still don’t completely match the ones in the book. It’s not a big deal of course, but the uniform on the cover that they keep showing Bronze in, is better than the one she wears inside the book. That being said, I do still enjoy the design of the younger mutant’s training costumes.

BOTTOM LINE: A COUPLE OF ROUGH SPOTS, BUT STILL GOOD

Exceptional X-Men #4 works on multiple levels both internally and as a statement for the series as a whole. It’s also a great moment for Kitty’s character arc. There are some moments though that feel less fleshed out and just there for something to happen. But it still feels like a strong moment that can easily be the foundation for more to come. 4 out of 5 stars.

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