I was going to do this entire thing like a news article and do it objectively and third-person like but I decided against it, mainly because, like many others out there, the reason that this campaign didn't go well was because of deeply personal reasons.

First off, I'd like to thank all of those that wrote in. There were few that did write, but the few that wrote obviously cared about what they were saying and I did get a bunch of e-mails from people who didn't want to write letters because they figured that Marvel wouldn't listen anyway. I just thought it was only fair to them, and to Kitty fans everywhere, to state that after all of these months of trying to get people to care enough to write to Marvel and failing that I am giving up the campaign. And unlike others who would proclaim the letter writing campaign a success even if it wasn't, I felt that those of you out there in internet-land deserved the truth. Unlike Marvel and Claremont, I felt that it was only right that ONE person out there was straight with you and say "I failed to make it work".

The campaign totaled five letters and two offers to help with the campaign and that was it when it came to actual writing into Marvel types of letters. In some of those letters, though, I found that people shared the same concerns and frustrations that all of us have and I'd like to share them here, in case Marvel ignores the letters when I send the letters off to them.

Kitty Pryde fans have given up. It is as simple as that. And I can't blame them. I am actually one of those Kitty Pryde fans who have gotten so fed up and so angry and so disappointed, if not for the fact that I love what Alan Davis and Warren Ellis did with the character (not to mention my old...of all things "CLAREMONT" back issues), I'd have shut this site down and just plain walked away a couple of weeks ago because I had reached my limit of CRAP that they are doing to Kitty. The reasons the fans have given up on their favorite character, many fans who have been reading Kitty for 20+ years? Read on my friends and find out.

Claremont, the man who is trying his hardest to write her because in his words "I know her better than anyone", has screwed up her character beyond recognition. He has tried to make her an alien. That failed. He gave her tons of piercings, made her into a psycho-witch and decided to turn her into a lesbian. Unfortunately THAT succeeded. The lesbian thing wouldn't bother us, Mr. Claremont if it MADE ANY SENSE!!!! But like everything you do anymore, the entire thing is meant to shock people and you just throw these things at us out of left field.

Kitty and Rachel, it turns out, are now a "maybe couple". Kitty and Rachel together as a couple makes more sense than her and Karma, I'll give you that, but it doesn't fit with either character (not that being lesbian fit Karma or Dani either mind you). Rachel has always been hung up over Franklin and while I can see her getting over his death, I would think that she wouldn't be able to have a normal relationship because of her "I am a horrible person who killed everyone I love" complex that is still a core piece of her character. She has "victim of emotional abuse potential" written all over her.

On Kitty's end, I could NEVER see Kitty being happy in a relationship with someone like Rachel. Kitty always envied Rachel in her body, personality and ability to attract men. So, jealousy would run out of control with Kitty I'm sure, not to mention just plain envy on her part. That and Kitty's and Rachel's relationship was always more maternal in scope than sexual and I find it, frankly, disturbing. As do others. And that made more Kitty fans walk away. That and Kitty, until Mechanix, has always been the "drooling over hunky men" type and I find it against her character to suddenly turn lesbian or bi-sexual. I'm sorry but she's been around gorgeous women forever. I'd think she would have noticed them on more than an envying level a couple of times.

Another thing that made people upset and stop reading X-men was the six-month gap and how Kitty's personality dramatically changed and she turned into a new person without any explaination at all. Once again, we can thank Mr. Claremont for that.

Yet another complaint was that Marvel, for some odd reason, seems to want to wipe the fact that Kitty Pryde and Pete Wisdom ever dated off the face of the universe. Kitty refers to Piotr more than she does Pete and that ticked off a lot of people and made them walk away. Claremont does not want to acknowledge that Kitty and Pete ever existed for two reasons. One, he hates Pete Wisdom (he's stated that) and two, he doesn't believe any writing but what he's done counts. His exact words. He doesn't acknowledge anything that Alan Davis did, even though Alan Davis wrote Kitty almost as long, or maybe even longer, than Claremont himself did. He will not acknowledge that Kitty and Pete were a couple and so Marvel must play along and not acknowledge it either.

The main thing that I find among Kitty fans though, is helplessness. That runs throughout most every letter, every post, every question I get asked. See, Marvel tells you if you don't like something go and talk to the writer about it. So, Kitty fans go and talk to Claremont on his forum, or they e-mail him. And that is where the helplessness kicks in because Claremont not only tells them that he's going to be very vague about what he's doing with Kitty, he always says that the fans don't know Kitty as well as he does and he's going to do with her what he wants and there is NOTHING anyone can do about it. He has come forward and stated that Kitty fans hate his guts and are constantly complaining to him, but he turns a blind eye to the fact that THOSE are the people who he should be listening to. He complains about fans shooting down his storylines, which most writers would come to think that MAYBE the reasons those plots are getting shot down is because they are contrary to the character and aren't right, but not him. He just plugs right along and does what he wants. He says straight out that Kitty is his and he'll do as he pleases with her so tough luck to all you fans of Kitty for the last 20 years because he's going to do what he wants with her.

I'd like to take this opportunity to defend a man who, to Excalibur fans, is hand in hand with the term "horrible writer", Ben Raab. At least Ben Raab knew that he wasn't doing his best writing on Excalibur, but he defended it with editorial controls and the fact that he was brought on to hatchet the book to death. At least HE actually listened to fans and he liked the characters he was writing and knew, at least generally, who and what he was writing. He might reply to a complaint with "I'm sorry there's nothing I can do about it", but he at least read what the fans wrote him. Claremont, I don't even think that man reads anything before telling fans off.

And so, fans have given up and just stopped buying Marvel books. A lot of them walked away when Marvel uncerimoniously decided to cancel Excalibur because they wanted the money for other books (or whatever reason) and break Pryde and Wisdom up because Claremont wanted Kitty single (that's a rumor but I've heard it in so many places and Claremont has basically said it's true that I tend to treat it like an "almost fact"). I was one of the people who walked away at that point.

I knew many, though, who stayed on through all the bad years to follow Kitty come what may, but Claremont just beat those fans up so much (some of who were HUGE Claremont fans mind you) that even they walked away. I find this tragic and feel like somehow Kitty's fans have slipped through the cracks. I'm not even mad for me, I'm mad for those fans who DIDN'T give up, who had faith in Claremont and Marvel and were determined that Kitty was going to be fixed, and Marvel and Claremont let them down horribly. I find that very unfair and infuriating.

I just wanted to post this here for all to read, because darn it, the opinion of Kitty fans SHOULD matter and should be considered. Even if it is by the small audience who comes here and reads this post/editorial.

The Kitty Pryde letter writing campaign is over. May Kitty live on in her true form in all of our memories and not be forgotten.

Sincerely,