It's just "Jean died, then Cyclops was all alone, the Jean came back" completely leaving out the fact that when he was a mutant leader making all kinds of hard choices he constantly had Emma at this side. She was the one at this side when he fucking died, for Pete's sake.
Illyana has probably been holding a lot of that in for a long time. Also, kind of surprised we didn't get anymore of the parents flashback beyond what we saw in the preview. Maybe we'll see more of what happened back then in the final issue.
Right now a lot of X-fans are eagerly awaiting the next season of X-Men '97. But Magik fans are probably wondering if there will be any follow up on the Magik tease from the end of season 1.
Even if Magik was to be brought into the show there's a question of where she would go. There doesn't seem to be any counterpart of the New Mutants that exist in that show, especially with Sunspot being a part of X-Force and Wolfsbane as a part of X-Factor.
But with Nightcrawler being a part of the main X-team instead of being on Excalibur one place she be is on that team. Where she could replace him as him as the teleporter with a sword. You could even potentially have an unbodyswapped version of Psylocke serving as the team telepath. So you would have a lineup of Shadowcat, Magik, Psylocke, Captain Britain and Meggan. I think that could be really cool.
Even setting aside any criticisms you might have against the stories she has been in I feel like by sheer volume we're just getting way less stuff for Kitty than for a lot of the other major X-Men right now.
All the Louisiana X-Men, which includes Rogue, Gambit, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Jubilee as well as the Alaskan X-Men with characters like Cyclops, Magneto, Magik and Psylocke are all on bi-weekly books. So even if a character doesn't have a major appearance in a given issue you only have to wait two weeks before getting another update.
Meanwhile, Kitty is one of the biggest names amongst the X-Men that was left out of the bi-weekly books and put in a monthly book that wasn't a solo series. Exceptional was the only one out of the three big titles labelled "X-Men" that was on the Stegman promotional art that wasn't biweekly.
There was also a full six months between the end of Exceptional and the start of United. A hell of a lot longer wait than for any of the other books. And once United actually started Kitty seems to be little more than a glorified extra so far.
And even with her making a return to being an X-Man there is still next to nothing. I feel like her return should have been made into a bigger deal. It was a whole thing during the Fall of Krakoa that she was leaving, it's one of the big ramifications we see in the epilogue to the Fall of the House of X event. But her returning is just treated with zero fanfare. She seems to be treated as an X-Man again in X-Men United with no real major mention given to her being back.
There's also the fact that she seems to not be involved with any of the upcoming events. Right now we have several upcoming events that will involve the X-Men and Kitty doesn't seem to be set to even appear in any of them. It seems like the closest Kitty might get to interacting with the rest of the X-Men world will be this years Hellfire Murder Mystery. But that story seems set to mostly focus on Wolverine and Jubilee.
It will soon be two years since the end of Krakoa and in that time all we've gotten is a depression storyline that was started, wasn't developed, and was then wrapped up so unceremoniously it might as well have ended off page. While also segmenting Kitty away from any of her friends and allies that we might want to see her interact with. I feel like Marvel should be able to do a lot more than that.
For the briefest of moment we once again had absolutely peak...
And then they just threw it away
Image source: Immortal X-Men #1
One of the biggest reasons Kittys arc in Exceptional X-Men falls really flat is just how underdeveloped it is. There's a lot of set up in the first 2-3 issues. Where we're introduced to her PTSD, her desire to have a normal life and so on. Then this is never really explored in any greater detail as Kitty is just kind of around, helping out the kids. Then by #13 we find out that she's kind of fine now.
This scene in #11 is one of the only scenes outside the first few issues where we actually get to see Kitty introspect. Where we get a clearer insight into what she is feeling right now. And it requires here to just be talking to herself. It would be so much easier with thought balloons.
And if we had thought balloons not just in this issue but in several of the preceding issues that allowed us to follow along with what Kitty was thinking and feeling as well as how her state of mind was progressing then her change of heart in #13 might not have felt so out of nowhere.
Thought balloons are a tool to give us insight into what a character is thinking and feeling in any given moment. Without them it becomes so much harder to communicate a characters arc and state of mind without things taking an absurd amount of time. It's like how in musicals a lot of songs are either an "I want" song or an "I am" song. They tell us stuff about that character or what they want. A comic without thought balloons can so often end up feeling like a musical without any songs. They're not utilising the mediums best way of communicating character.
Really highlights the differences in the two version.
Image source. Excalibur (1988) #17
I think laying it out like this really highlights how little was done with this plotline. There's next to nothing for most of the series and by the time the comics feels ready to actually do something it's time for the comic to get cancelled.
Given how Kitty was at least marketed as the books main character they really should have done more with Kitty actually exploring her bisexuality for the first time. Now whenever Kittys first actually queer relationship is discussed instead of having an actually juicy or interesting story we have this nothing of a storyline.
I initially really enjoyed Exceptional and felt that it had a lot of potential but the more I reflect back on the series and think about it the more disappointed I feel. So much of that potential wasn't really utilised and even outside of how Kitty was handled the book feels disappointing.
Obviously you can say that it only had 13 issues but that's not nothing. If you utilise your time well a lot can be done in 13 issues.
Image sources: Exceptional X-Men #2, #4, #6, #8 & #11
The version of Kitty we have in the X-Men movies is pretty underwritten. In The Last Stand it feels like she's largely there to cause relationship drama between Iceman and Rogue. But it is pretty cool that she's one of the only people in the movies to bring up the famous "Protect those that hate and fear us" line. Shame they deleted this.