We open with the Micronauts who are having problems with an epic battle between good and evil (the usual situation for super heroes). They see a peace loving planet get wiped out before their eyes and try to figure out what purpose war serves as they watch both sides die by the thousands. A soldier shows up who tells them that fear drives the soldiers to do the horrific acts that are being done and so the good guys go after the ultimate bad guy. The bad guy, who we do not know who he is yet, destroys a planet, whomps all over the micronauts and sends Acturus (leader of the good guys) and his living ship Bioship on the run through the space wall to Earth.

Meanwhile Kitty and Illyana are wishing that they were outside since the weather is perfect and most of the X-men are by the pool. But they still have school work to do. Kitty sulks out loud to Illyana and a little too loudly mentally so that Professor Xavier hears her and gives her added time in psionic defenses because she had projected so much. The Professor is giving the New Mutants hints about the Danger Room when suddenly he is hit by a bolt. Sunspot grabs him before he hits the ground from the control room above and he sees that Professor Xavier was attacked by a mini-alien, namely Baron Kazra who tells Sunspot that they had traced the evil entity's prescence to Professor Xavier and so he had to die so the Microverse could live. Of COURSE the New Mutants take exception to that...and get their bottoms whomped on. The X-men show up just in time. Kitty arrives just when the tide of battle is turning and the X-men seem to be on the losing end. She phases through the small being, hoping to short circut his armor. It works...too well. She and the Baron change bodies. Kitty's mind is trapped in the Baron's armor and the Baron in Kitty's body realizes that he can use this to his advantage and get a good shot at the Professor later, so he plays along. The Bioship asks for the X-men's help and so the X-men prepare to get reduced in size so they can enter the microverse. The Baron is feeling quite pleased with himself that he's faking everyone out so well. Lockheed catches onto the deception right away and tries to barbeque him/her though, which makes everyone look at who they think is Kitty very oddly. The X-men get shrunk and the Bioship says that he will try to return the X-men in the same shape her found them. Proffessor Xavier is more than a little worried, though, and just hopes that they will be okay.

My Opinion: Don't get me wrong, this issue is well written and it does have Kitty in it throughout, but I had a hard time getting into the story the first couple of times I read through the issue. Probably because the Micronauts were more alien to me than the Shiar ever were and having a new Universe that is just about four inches tall is a bit weird to me. But, as Kitty issues go this one is a keeper, never the less, because it has some cool Kitty and Illyana moments in it and Kitty is throughout all of these issues even if she is in a different body or her body is being used by the Baron.

We open with a battle in the Microverse where the Fairy Queen gets shot down by enemy invaders and other mayhem. Meanwhile, Marionette (one of the Micronauts) gets separated from the other X-men and Micronauts, not knowing how that happened, she climbs a hill and sees an arena. She gets there only to reach the middle of it and be taken over by an unseen force and made to dance for the pleasure of the crowd. The leader of the Micronauts, elsewhere, sees all of the Micronauts dead. He starts to freak out a little bit and then he falls into a pit, finding himself with the rest of the Micronauts. When they hit the floor there is a glowing door telling them to step inside. They find themselves in the room where the big bad guy is and they are brainwashed to his way of thinking.

Back at the mansion the New Mutants realize that Professor X is sleeping and quiet down what they are doing while in the Microverse the bad guy suddenly suffers a horrible moment of weakness and then recovers. He tells the Micronauts that they will torment the Microverse and then the Macroverse itself and dresses them up in X-men uniforms.

The X-men are on the Micronaut's ship and are taken to Baron Kazra's homeworld. Baron Kazra's servant and Wolverine get into a spat about who is the true bad guy, Wolverine of the mind that Baron Kazra is. Baron Kazra, trapped in Kitty's body, starts to realize exactly how intelligent the X-men really are and thinks about how it is to his advantage for the X-men not to know that he is indeed in Kitty's body. Storm knows that the robot that is supposed to be Baron Kazra is lying but she can not tell where because he tells half truths. Kitty is trapped in Kazra's body but has no control over it, instead Kazra, whose psi-powers are much more powerful controls both Kitty's body and Kazra's body. Kitty continues to try and break free, but can not.

Storm starts to suspect that something is going on, but since none of them are telepaths she doesn't know what to do. Kazra in Kitty's body doesn't know how to phase. The X-men end up at an exact duplicate of the X-mansion and are attacked by the Micronauts/X-men and the Micronauts are full sized versions of the X-men, not just small like the X-men are at the moment. The X-men end up captured by the big bad guy and we THINK Kitty ends up with control of Kazra's body, but we're not sure.

My Opinion: Good LORD this series gets confusing and convoluted. I'm sure I would enjoy it a lot more if I was a Micronauts fan and knew what was going on, but at the same time I do not know any of the characters, am not familiar with the plots of the Microverse, and I just find the whole thing a bit confusing. Kitty is good in the issue though, for what little she's in it and in a different body. The art is very good as well.

We start with Charles' Xavier in bed at the mansion having nightmares about his students and he fears he will never see them again.

We then flash to where the X-men and the Micronauts are now united after regaining consciousness and are fighting scads of dog soldiers. All of the X-men use the powers at their command, as do the Micronauts, to take down the enemy soldiers. It is an impressive sight. Xavier feels each death of the soldiers as if it were his own where he is asleep. All of the X-men are using any means to NOT kill the soldiers if they can help it, with the exception of Kitty (the evil guy is still possessing her by the way). She's going around snapping necks like it's nothing or phasing people into walls. Not pretty stuff.

The dog soldiers surrender. Kitty jumps in and says that they must kill the captives, but Huntarr, a Micronaut, stops her from doing it. The entity then appears and makes all of them cow at his feet. He picks up Arcturus and in seconds destroys the man to dust to teach him not to speak out of turn. He then reforms him with but a thought. Kitty asks permission to destroy the dog soldiers, but the entity takes that pleasure himself and destroys the dog soldiers in droves with a thought.

Professor Xavier screams and howls as the deaths assault him, but he can not wake up no matter how hard he tries. The New Mutants come in and try to figure out what is wrong, but can't find anything. Dani and Rahne know something is seriously wrong, but the New Mutants finally leave since Professor Xavier seems to be sleeping peacefully again. They do not notice the tears that start to run down Xavier's face as he sleeps.

The entity has the head Dog Soldier send back a message to Baron Karza right before with a snap of his fingers he brings the entire structure that the dog soldiers had been in down. Baron Kazra, now controlled by Kitty hears of everything that has happened. She starts making "changes" to Baron Kazra's regime that his servants do not like, but she doesn't care. She goes her own way and tries to figure out what has happened to her and how to reverse the situation. She tries to figure out what the body she is stuck in can do and starts changing forms. She scerams out in frustration that she's Kitty Pryde and we switch to Baron Kazra stuck in Kitty's body. Her body is in a very slutty outfit and the entity shows up with wine and luxuries. We wonder what he is going to ask "her" to do and Baron Kazra distracts him and asks where the X-men are. He says they were not as loyal so they were sent elsewhere.

The X-men and the Micronauts wake up in prison. They figure out a plan and feel a moment of team spirit and hope. Back at the mansion, Dani is taking care of Professor Xavier when he gently takes over her body and he uses her as a psychic "bypass" as it were to escape onto the astreal plane to try and stop what was happening. He finds the entity there and starts to do battle. Back in the Microverse Kitty's body/Baron Kazra senses the entity leave his body and she stabs him in the back. He falls to the floor and Baron Kazra wonders if he was able to defeat the entity so easily. He then decides the X-men must die in order to regain order. Xavier and the entity continue to battle in a huge super psychic battle and Professor Xavier makes a very bad bad discovery.

The entity is him. His ID as it were. Xavier is horrified. The entity seems to win and we switch back to the X-men and Micronauts who have managed to escape.

The X-men are in Baron Kazra's/Kitty's crosshairs on one of the castle tower guns and we switch back to the New Mutants who think that Charles is doing better because he is sleeping peacefully again, but they do not realize that the evil entity has taken over.

My Opinion: Okay, I complained during the first two comics that they were confusing and really they were but THIS ISSUE makes up for both of them in that it makes EVERYTHING come together. Kitty, even in Baron Kazra's body is completely in character. Xavier battling himself was pretty cool to see. And man, I've always thought that Xavier's dark side was super-creepy and I still think it, more so, after reading this series.

We open in a very sick panel sequence in which Professor Xavier's evil side/The Entity psychically rapes Dani Moonstar and makes her his slave. We then switch to the Microverse. Peter stops Baron Kazra/Kitty from killing the X-men and Nightcrawler bamfs up and hits her in the face before he realizes that it is who he THINKS is Kitty. She glares at him with murder in her eyes and phases through the rock behind her and ends up back in the room with the Entity's body. He/she grabs a gun and tries to figure out what to do when Baron Kazra's body/Kitty shows up and shoots her with one of the body's hands, holding her to a wall. The Micronauts and the X-men show up at this moment and try to stop Kitty from reclaiming her body. Professor Xavier stops them from attacking Kitty. He's stuck in the Entity's body and doesn't have too long to live with the knife in his back, but he gets the whole situation with Kitty's body and stuff figured out and tells the X-men what is going on and how the Entity is now controlling Charles's body and they must do something about it.

It is then that they find out the Baron Kazra's right hand man is making an attempt to take over the throne. The bioship shows up when the leader of the Micronauts calls him and tehy are all beamed aboard as the planet gets nailed to heck below them. They are flying away when the fairy member of the Micronauts, Fireflyte, screams in agony and they find out that the barrier between the Macroverse and the Microverse is being eradicated. Suddenly a shot of energy comes from space and just obliterates the Microverse right before the X-men and the Micronauts get ripped into the Macroverse by Fireflyte before they can all be killed by the entity. She ends up in a coma because of it and all of them, even Baron Kazra, fear what will happen if they do not stop the entity.

The New Mutants attack the ship at that moment under the Entity's control. The X-men, still small because the Bioship can not spare the power less he and Professor Xavier die to restore them to normal size, defend themselves against the New Mutants. Professor Xavier is with Kurt on the ship and he tells Kurt frankly that he wants the body he is in to die but he wants the X-men to create a distraction to distract the entity so he has a chance and he also tells Kurt that he wants him to keep the body of the Entity alive until he says otherwise and if necessary he wants Kurt to kill him.

The X-men and the Micronauts are trying not to hurt the New Mutants and yet at the same time take them down. The bioship gets attacked and Professor Xavier leaves his body while Kurt tries to figure out what to do in case the ship's life support goes out because it is in too much pain to cope anymore.

Xavier in astreal form goes into the mansion and finds Illyana unconscious with Lockheed standing over her. The entity seems to not have been able to do anything but knock the girl unconscious. Lockheed senses Xavier's presence and Xavier asks if he looked over Illyana because he knows that she is Kitty's friend right when Lockheed sniffs the air, stiffens, lets out a roar and goes flying through the window, sensing that Kitty is in trouble.

The entity tries to use Xavier's memories against him then, but Xavier is too smart for him. Lockheed meanwhile, scatters the New Mutants and scares the crap out of them, with Kitty cheering him on. He senses that Kitty is in Baron Kazra's body and so doesn't hurt Kitty's soul but he does attack her body to try and force Baron Kazra out of it. It doesn't work. Instead Baron Kazra phases into a rock and tries to get away. The Entity then realizes he has been played for a fool all this time and tries to get Kitty and the Baron to kill each other. Professor Xavier tries to get the Baron to phase into Kitty so that the two of them will switch bodies again, but it doesn't work. Fireflyte then starts to sing to help them out and the two phase together and scream.

Kitty is once again in her own body and the Baron teleports away. The bioship, meanwhile, no longer able to sustain life support, including his own, and Kurt has to run with Professor Xavier before the two of them are killed. The Professor and the Entity do a final battle and Professor Xavier takes a moment of split concentration the entity has to cause a stroke in his own body so that both he and the entity would die. The entity's body disappears and the X-men rush Professor Xavier to the infirmary to make sure he is okay. The X-men think that they are going to be stuck at six inches tall forever but the Bioship, in a last noble act, sacrifices himself to return them all to normal size. Professor Xavier is now back to normal and tells them about how he faked the entity out and made The Entity believe that he had committed suicide to destroy him. The entity had fled back to his own body, but his body was already dead and so he had destroyed himself. Ending moment and the Micronauts return to the Microverse.

My Opinion: The beginning two issues were confusing, but never dull. The last two issues kicked some major butt and I gotta say, even though I love Kitty, this issue was one of the coolest Lockheed moments I've seen in quite a while. I'm going to scan it right now and keep it just so I can read it again and again. It was that cool. Kitty does good in this issue too and things come together very well I gotta say. I'd buy this mini-series again I think.

A rare Magik story that co-stars Kitty. It is a very good story too.

We open with Magik looking down at her Bloodstar pendant and reflecting back on her life with Belesco and her plight that one day her and Belesco will have a fight and one of them will die. She then realizes it has started snowing and down below the New Mutants go out and play in the snow. She looks at the New Mutants and realizes how different she is from them. She reflects that the only person she is truly comfortable around and can let down her guard with is Kitty, but Kitty is away on a mission with the X-men. Professor Xavier looks down at her and wonders why he can not read her mind and what is going on inside her skull.

Roberto and the others notice her and Roberto offers Illyana his coat because she's only in a sweater and he assumes she must be freezing. He doesn't realize that Illyana spent years in a frozen Hell and she is pretty much immune to the cold. Meanwhile, S'ym looks on from the shadows, waiting for his opportunity to snatch Illyana.

We then flash to dance class at Stevie's and Doug runs in after class and asks that the New Mutants tell Kitty he needs to talk to her and it's super important.

The New Mutants then go shopping and Dani realizes that it is Illyana's birthday. Illyana hadn't reminded anybody because she doesn't mind if they don't celebrate it at all.

S'ym, meanwhile, at the mansion takes on Professor Xavier and kicks his butt. When the New Mutants get home, everything is dark and the New Mutants start to get nervous that Professor Xavier didn't have any lights on and they don't want to wreck the surprise party they are planning for him by having him realize something is going on mentally. Illyana says that the Professor can't read her mentally and she'll scout the grounds and make sure the coast is clear and so she goes into the mansion quietly while hearing the New Mutants talking about how she is scary like Selene (an energy vampire demoness basically). She realizes that in some ways they are justified to feel that way as she sneaks up and goes itno Professor Xavier's quarters to check on him. Illyana reflects how lucky she is and how blessed to have Kitty for a friend who accepts her without reservation.

S'ym attacks Magik and all of her magic fails her due to sheer terror. Her mutant powers don't and she hurls the New Mutants into Limbo (doing a great tie in to the Magik LS) and then hurls them back into reality and into the living room where S'ym is crushing the air from her lungs. The New Mutants go in to get Illyana rescued and Dani ends up calling up S'ym's greatest fear. It isn't pretty. Belesco pops up and then turns into Darkchild. Stevie grabs Illyana in his moment of fear and Amara coats S'ym in lava but it doesn't work and the New Mutants get whomped on. Stevie runs with Illyana in a VERY cool Stevie Hunter moment. Stevie finally collapses just from sheer exhaustion and Illyana regains consciousness right when she needs to to save them both. She defeats S'ym and makes him renounce Belesco and serve her. She explains what happened in Limbo, a bit, to Stevie and then does a spell on Stevie's memories to make her remember only that Illyana saved them with her mutant powers, not her sorcery.

Later the X-men return to find a volcano in their living room as well as a car. The X-men join the party and the Professor talks to Illyana about if she ever needs to talk to let him know and hen he dances with her. All realize his legs are fully healed and he can walk again. Cheers all around. We end with Doug calling Kitty outside and telling her he has been accepted to the Massachusetts Academy and Kitty starts to panic about what Emma might want with him.

My Opinion: Yeah, yeah. I KNOW that Kitty is in this issue for like two pages, but you know what? I don't care. This story still involves Kitty a lot because it shows just how close her and Illyana were and how precious the friendship was to both her and Illyana. And it's a way awesome Magik story too, so I'm leaving the summary.

Angelica is a 13 year old girl who is a mutant, but hasn't discovered it yet. All she knows is that she's starting a new school and that she loves her grandmother (or Nana as Angelica calls her) more than anything else in the world. We then find out that Nana is dying because she's just an old woman and her body is wearing out.

Angelica isn't well liked at her new school by the popular kids, but she doesn't care because her grandmother told her she was special. So she just lets the kids comments slide off her back. Then one of the cute boys at school show her to the office and introduces himself and she's immediately hated by the popular girls then.

We then switch focus a bit to the X-mansion where Kitty, Kurt and Professor Xavier are working on Cerebro and talking about finding new mutants. The New Mutants are playing volleyball outside while they are doing that.

The focus then shifts to the Massachusetts Academy and Emma Frost who is looking for new mutants as well.

Angelica is having a bad time in lunch when her powers flare up a bit causing a milk to explode. The White Queen almost has a lock on her when that happens, but loses it before she can be sure where it is coming from. We then switch back to school where Angelica has detention for her milk blowing up all over her teacher and she's talked into joining an ice sculpting contest by Chuck (the cute guy who showed her around school earlier). Angelica is having a good feeling about the ice sculpting contest and winning it. The popular girls are determined to get back at her though because Chuck is showing interest in Angelica and not Cas, one of the popular girls. So, they destroy her ice sculpture before it can be judged. To top off what turns out to be a really horrible day for poor Angelica she finds out that her grandmother has died while she was at school. Angelica loses it and her powers start flaring up a lot.

After the funeral, Angelica shows her dad that she has powers, but she doesn't know what to do about it. The X-men have gotten readings, now that Cerebro is done, that there is a new mutant that needs help, but before they can get to Angelica, Emma Frost gets to her first.

Xavier feels sorry for Angelica as the limo pulls away and he hopes that she'll be alright.

My Opinion: This is a good issue in a lot of ways, but on one level I hate it. Mainly because of the feelings it brings from memory for me. I was like Angelica. A new kid that was hated by the popular crowd of girls for no reason and MAN does this issue know about how cruel and truly evil girls can be. They nine times out of ten won't beat you up but they will try to destroy your life and make you miserable. I for one am glad I'm out of Junior High and I'm sure a lot of other girls are too.

We open with Professor Xavier playing basketball and ending up having a heart to heart talk with Ororo about her mohawk and her attitude change. We then switch to the arcade where Kitty is kicking major butt at an arcade game and is bragging to Doug that she's winning. She ends up blowing up the chip in the machine because she gets too high of a score and her and Doug get kicked out of the arcade, even though Kitty offers to not only fix the machine but make it better. Turns out the two of them had been kicked out of like every arcade in town. They go to McDonalds and Kitty talks to Doug about Ororo. Doug then talks to Kitty about the Massachusetts academy and Kitty tells him she hated going there for the week she was there. Kitty then tries to figure out to herself what Emma Frost could possibly want with Doug.

We then switch to a scene where Piotr is cutting down a tree, still recovering from his injuries from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants attack and he basically throws a jealous fit about Doug Ramsey to Wolverine. Wolverine tells Piotr that Kitty loves him and she keeps her promises, but Piotr is already having doubts about their relationship.

We flip again to Ororo at a green house and she ends up beating up some thugs who are attacking an older couple and she starts to realize exactly how scary she is when she scares the crap out of the couple she is trying to save. She is then called to the mansion by Professor Xavier and he tells them all about Doug and Emma Frost's interest in him. Kitty for the first time finds out that Doug is a mutant and he can speak an language. Professor Xavier tells the X-men of his plan to have Kitty go with Doug to the Academy to protect him and call for help if she needs it.

She then, on her way back to her dorm, gets swept out a window by Storm and into the air where she and Ororo have a heart to heart talk about Ororo's changes and how Kitty should try to accept them. Kitty, after a somewhat confusing conversation (in my mind anyway because it sounds like Kitty has to accept that Ororo has gone completely nuts) agrees to try and accept Ororo for her new self.

We then flick to the airport where Kitty and Doug get on a plane to Massachusetts, with Kitty wondering why Piotr is acting so cold to her, and when they are in the air Kitty hears a familiar voice and sees Emma Frost. She calls telepathically for help, but Professor Xavier can't hear her because the mysterious presence that has been giving him heck for months has finally been pinpointed and the X-men get sucked into a dimensional gate.

My Opinion: This is an "okay" Kitty issue storywise. I mean the scene with her and Doug at the mall is classic and the whole Kitty and Ororo heart to heart was something that needed to be done. But, basically, this was a Ororo story issue and Kitty was in it only to talk about Ororo and her problems that I could see. But, on the other hand, one thing that this book is worth getting for if nothing else, is the art. My GOD it looks awesome! John Romita, Jr, does the art in this issue and he does a superb job. Kitty and Doug look great.

This is actually a continuation of the last issue. Illyana sits in her room and casts a spell to astreal project so she can go and check on Kitty. She finds Kitty in the clutches of the White Queen. Kitty tells the White Queen where to stick her offers of joining the Hellfire Club (yet another issue that supports my theory that something really sick is going on in the mind of Emma Frost to have this type of fixation on Kitty) and Emma Frost shows her that Doug is in a mental illusion state where he believes Kitty is with him and that he loves Kitty. Kitty doesn't take the news well and tells Emma she is lying. Emma says that Kitty, too, has feelings for Doug but that she was denying them. Kitty said he was just a friend (and they remained such, never risking their friendship for a potential romance, which I think makes them better friends in my mind). Emma threatens Kitty that if she doesn't join the Hellfire Club that she would destroy Kitty's parents financially. Kitty then, in the middle of telling her that it wasn't fair that she would even use that type of ammo sees Illyana's astreal form right before Emma Frost does. She hits Illyana's astreal form with a psi-bolt.

Back at the mansion the New Mutants hear the screams from Illyana's room. They run in to find demons everywhere and they are coming out of Illyana's eyes. They attack the demons but the demons disappear as soon as they are touched so the New Mutants do more damage to each other than the demons could possibly do to them. Dani tries to get to Illyana, but is attacked by demons and she ends up falling and hitting her head. She feels the demons tearing at her so in desperation she conjours their greatest fear, which is a grown up Darkchild. The Darkchild then picks her up and lays her on the bed, much to her surprise because she only conjours illusions, but then she finally comes out of it saying that Darkchild was evil and Illyana wasn't evil. Illayna, looking like herself, thanks her for the vote of confidence. She then comes clean with the New Mutants about her being a sorceress and tells them that the things that were attacking them were just psychic familiars and weren't really dangerous and she tells them about the danger that Kitty is in. She then thinks about how Kitty could see her astreal form and what that could mean, but dismisses it with the thought of getting Kitty out of there.

The New Mutants call all the other super hero teams for back up but they are all out of town or busy (talk about realism, although in this case it's due to the Secret Wars) and they decide that they are going to have to go after Kitty themselves after Illyana basically calls them cowards and tells them she is going after Kitty herself. They try to decide how to get to Snow Valley. Illyana's control over her light disks is still too haphazard to trust and Sam doesn't think he can fly that far with passengers. They end up taking the bus. Rahne stares at Illyana the entire trip and Sam asks her what is up. She doesn't like Illyana being a witch because with the way she was raised witches are evil and products of Satan. Sam shoots her down hard because he knows the bible as well as Rahne and he tells her how it is. She comes to accept a bit that maybe Reverand Craig didn't know everything. Rahne tells him she misses having a family and Sam offers to share his. She's touched and delighted at the prospect.

We then flash to them arriving inside the Hellfire Academy where Amara burns through the floor. They reach what they think is Kitty only to realize that it is a hologram. Emma then appears in hologram form with Kitty and gloats that they will be members of the Hellfire Academy and Kitty is already lost. Illyana vows that she will use her powers to suck the Academy into Hell itself if Kitty has been harmed in any way.

My Opinion: This issue and in the issues with the Asgard lead a lot of people to believe that Kitty has a gift called "Astreal Sight" and that she can see people in their astreal forms when they are in the same room with her. I tend to disagree because in Asgard everyone had weird powers and in this instance Kitty and Illyana are like soul sisters, so I think that Kitty probably could see her. I don't think Kitty can see everyone in their astreal form or she would have seen a lot of other people doing different things in different issues (like, say, Professor Xavier or someone) so I think it's just a neat little quirk they introduce with Kitty every once in a while.

Personally I liked this issue. It doesn't have Kitty in it much, again, but it still has everything to do WITH Kitty and rescuing her from Emma Frost, so I think it counts. And it stars Illyana, so of course it's almost as good =).

The New Mutants are in trouble and are surrounded by Hellfire Club goons and Illyana is calling herself five types of stupid for getting them into this mess when Sam gives a silent cue to Amara who conjours an Earthquake and knocks out the power. When the emergency power kicks in the New Mutants are gone.

Kitty is being held captive by Emma Frost who tells Kitty to stop struggling against her bonds. Kitty, predictably, doesn't listen. Kitty asks what Emma is going to do to the New Mutants and Emma says she is going to control them just like she is going to control Kitty. Emma gives Kitty the option of slave or ruler and Kitty chooses C: to be left alone in peace. Emma doesn't give her that option.

We then flash to the New Mutants again, who end up taking out a couple of guards and stealing the uniforms. The guards won't talk until Dani tortures them with their greatest fear and she does a little angsting about how her power only hurts people. Illyana starts to realize that maybe she and Dani have a bit in common and the two of them dress up in the guard costumes (being the only two that could fit into them). Sam follows Amara out another route and Berto and Rahne take another. Amara melts down the generator with her powers.

We then flash to Emma and Kitty and Kitty is elated and cheering the kids on. Emma isn't pleased.

We then flash to Amara and Sam who have been spotted but don't know it yet. We then see Illyana and Dani who are trying to find Kitty. They get spotted but since they are in Hellfire uniforms they don't have to worry about being found out. They walk on, but we realize they are being followed. Roberto gets taken out by another member of the Hellions where and Rahne are in a different part of the building. Rahne attacks him in her wolf form and then changes shape in mid attack, taking him by surprise and she defeats him, only to be taken out by Roulette.

Warpath is already showing signs of not liking how the Hellions do business (the later member of X-force). Berto gets up again only to be taken out by Roulette. He is in agony from something she did to him and Warpath feels sorry for Roberto.

Dani feels Rahne's pain where Rahne is getting crushed by a piece of furniture. Dani can't shut the pain out. Illyana tries to help her but is attacked by Catseye and then Tarot attacks Dani. Sam and Amara are getting taken out by Empath when Doug walks up and and asks what they are doing there. Sam takes the distraction to snap out of his trance and nail Empath, hard. Jetstream then hits Sam and they go flying toward a tree. Sam wakes up and flies away right when Jetstream flies into the tree and takes himself out of the fight. Empath takes control of Amara who tries to then nail Sam with everything she's got, but his field protects him and she ends up nailing Jetstream. Sam watches the guy fall and afters ome deliberation saves him, only to then get nailed by Amara. Empath gloats over Sam's death enough to let his control of Amara slip and Amara is about to kill Empath to avenge Sam when he pops up from the ground and nails Empath.

Doug is just blown away and can't wait to tell Kitty that the others have mutant powers right when Emma Frost shows up. She takes all of them under her mind control. Tarot's creation, meanwhile, takes control of Dani, but then Illyana loses it when she sees Dani turning into a demon. She calls the Soul Sword and destroys the Satan image that had been attacking Dani and then goes after Tarot with murder in her eyes. Tarot summons the Knight of Swords to protect her and Illyana gets struck by a horses's hoof. Emma can not grasp Illyana's mind at all and so Illyana grabs Dani and runs for it with her light disks.

My Opinion: I liked this issue a lot just because it shows how great of a team the New Mutants were for one. It shows how very cool Magik is for another. And it shows that Kitty really can punch Emma Frost's buttons when she wants to as well. And it shows what type of willpower Kitty really has to stop Emma from taking over her mind all that time when you see how easy it was for Emma to take over all of the New Mutants.

We start out with a meeting of the Hellions and you get to see exactly how disfunctional the team really is. Kitty is now being held prisoner with the rest of the New Mutants in the dorms. Kitty explains that the room is surrounded by a field that stops their mutant powers. Kitty tells them that their chances of thinking of a plan aren't great because the mental defenses Professor Xavier taught them are no match for Emma's mind powers. Bobby is still in agony with his back and Kitty tells him to lie on his stomach so she could massage his back since she learned the techniques in dance class. She asks the New Mutants why they came to rescue her and they tell her about the X-men, Avengers and FF being kidnapped. Kitty is seriously depressed at that news and explains to them the brainwashing the White Queen has in store for them. Amara tells her to cheer up because Dani and Illyana got away and there is still hope.

Meanwhile in Limbo Illyana is out cold and Dani is chasing off demons to protect her. S'ym shows up to help and Illyana wakes in her old bedroom. She isn't pleased to be in Limbo again. Dani finds out that not only is Illyana a sorceress she's a Magus and ruler of Limbo. Dani watches Illyana cast a healing spell and just doesn't get it because Illyana casts white magic but faces the wrong direction, that direction used to cast dark magic inside the magic pentagram, so she can't figure out if Illyana is good or evil. Illyana is pretty wiped after the spell but still manages and the two of them take off back into the fire.

They pop back into reality to find that a year has passed since they left and the New Mutants and Kitty are super friends with the Hellions. Illyana decides to go back in time with Dani and stop it from happening. They end up a week from the date of the fight and go to check on the others after Dani tries to call the X-mansion. Dani wakes Rahne but then the Hellions come in and capture her and Illyana. They challenge the New Mutants to a fight and if they lose they have to join the Hellions. Dani, as team leader, accepts. Sam and Jetstream fight for the freedom of the New Mutants. Sam doesn't seem to be doing well but Roberto gives him some good advice and Sam takes it. He beats Jetstream and the New Mutants figure they are free, but they end up with Emma and Sabastian Shaw coming in at that moment.

The New Mutants start fighting to get past those two and Kitty slips away in the confusion and fries the control panels. Emma and Sebastian get their people out of there and while the New Mutants make for the exit, Rahne starts to drag Roberto, who is unconscious, to the exit and is aided by Catseye. Catseye and Rahne start a friendship at that point. Illyana teleports them home and there is a lead in to the next New Mutants.

My Opinion: Good issue and it was a nice touch that Kitty saved their bacon at the end since the New Mutants had gone through so much trouble to rescue her. Good tit for tat there.

The X-men have finally returned from the Secret Wars and Kitty is in for an unpleasant surprise. Piotr fell in love with a healer while away and doesn't want to be with her anymore. Kitty is worse then grief stricken. She makes an excuse to leave Piotr where he had broken the news to her on the cliffs and Kitty looks up to see Ororo watching her, realizing that all of the X-men must know by now. She goes back to her room and Illyana asks her if she's okay. Lockheed is worried and Kitty assures him she's fine right before she starts to cry and buries her head in her teddy bear. Illyana pulls her into a hug and just holds her while she cries.

Storm and Rogue do a little bonding in the Danger Room.

Logan, in one of my favorite Logan moments ever, tells Piotr they are going out for a long overdue talk. Kurt bamfs down when they are leaving and reminds Logan that he promised not to do anything without Kurt and he thinks it would be best if Piotr and Logan had a referee for the evening. Logan just says, "Wonderful" and they drive to town.

Kitty, meanwhile is packing to go and visit her dad and maybe afterward, her mom. She tells Ororo that she hates Piotr with all her heart, and yet she loves him. She realizes she can't even fight for Piotr because she can't fight a ghost. Ororo holds her when she bursts into tears again.

Back at the bar, Kurt asks Piotr to get the first round of drinks and then tells Logan that he should take it easy on Piotr because he's just a boy. Wolverine has no pity for Piotr and says boy or man Piotr has to face the consequences of his actions and Wolverine is going to take a piece out of him *cheers*.

They then get Piotr hopelessly drunk and Wolverine tells him he owes Kitty an apology and them an explaination. He then tells Piotr bluntly what he felt for the healer wasn't love and Piotr tells him he's wrong. He also tells Piotr he's hurting two people he cares for, Piotr's hurting himself and Kitty. Wolverine basically tells Piotr that he was just running away from Kitty and committment. Piotr asks if Wolverine was calling him a coward and Wolverine says yup right when Wolverine senses Juggernaut is in the bar just relaxing. Piotr doesn't want to leave when Wolverine does and ends up dumping his beer all over Juggernaut and Wolverine realizes Piotr is about to get his hide handed to him. Kurt is about to step into the fight when Wolverine stops him and just watches Piotr getting beat on with a smile on his face *cheers some more*. Wolverine is even willing to pay the damages to the bar just to watch Piotr get beat on *still more cheering*.

After it is over and Piotr beaten, surprsingly Juggernaut pays for the damages because it was a good scrap. Piotr rips into Wolverine saying that they should have helped him because X-men are supposed to stand by each other and they had betrayed that trust. Wolverine tears back into Piotr by saying that yeah they should stand by each other through thick and thin and that he hadn't done that for Kitty. His closing argument to Piotr is classic...

"She's fourteen, Peter. But to save you, she agreed to marry Caliban and join the Morlocks. If Caliban hadn't released her from that vow, she'd be there today. You never even said, 'thank you.' Food for thought, eh?"

Wolverine than tells Kurt that boy or not Piotr owed Kitty a chance, even if it had been one to work the relationship out but it was like Piotr had cut Kitty out of his heart. Piotr, he said, owed Kitty giri -- a blood debt obligation -- and he welshed. He said no one could do that to a person they loved and respected. Wolverine made him learn the hard way a little bit of how Kitty felt and he felt that Piotr had learned a valuable lesson.

My Opinion: If I had been a bystander in this issue when Wolverine nailed some of those lessons home to Piotr I would have hugged him, hairy little runt stinking of bad cigars and booze or not and damn the consequences. This is a great issue seriously and you should get it now. It is a very important step in Kitty's life and lead into the "Kitty Pryde and Wolverine" LS so it's a good one to have. Great story and the art is stupendous (even if John Romita Jr made a boo boo and had Kitty in short hair BEFORE going off to Japan). Buy it today.

Kitty is home with her dad and has been out ice skating. She makes sure no one is around and phases through the door of the bank to wait for her dad to get off work. She hears voices and a sound like her dad getting hit and she screams to be let into the conference room. A Japanese goon answers it and Kitty runs to her father. Her father is in an argument with Ogun about whether he's going to be pushed around or not and tells Ogun to leave his daughter out of anything they are doing. Kitty gets introduced to the goons and she finds out that they were the organization that had recently purchased the bank. Kitty meets Ogun's eyes and realizes right away that he's a monster. She finds out that they are going to take her dad to Japan and knows that he's not coming back. She tries to figure out what to do next. Her dad buys her taxi fare to the airport to return to Xavier's but she uses it instead to go to the airport and jump onto her dad's plane. She ends up in the luggage compartment first, but then uses her brain and stows away in the regular part of the plane. She is found by a stewardess who realizes she's a stow away and they talk for most of the flight. When the plane lands Kitty is to be turned over the Japanese police, but Kitty phases out of the plane. Kitty runs into the subway to avoid getting caught and you find out she knows Japanese because of Professor Xavier when the X-men first visited it. Kitty gets Shigematsu's address from information since he's the owner that her dad was talking about and heads in that direction.

When she finally gets there, Kitty realizes she has four bucks to her name and is in a hideous pink skating outfit so when it starts to rain she takes cover in the office building to get some sleep where she does in one of the offices. A cleaning lady finds her and screams for the security and Kitty phases before she's shot. She airwalks down to the street below, realizing exactly how sleazy these guys really are. Kitty gets soaked to the skin by the rain as she's running away. She starts to come down with a horrible cold. She ends up at an ATM and tries to rob it with her phasing ability out of sheer desperation so she can get shelter. But she is freaked when the alarm sounds and drops all of the cash and runs for her life as the police are already on her tail. She phases into the sewer where she is swept away and Kitty doing everything in her power not to drown. We then reflect to the next morning where Kitty is curled in a doorway. She is horrified that she's a thief now and doesn't know what to do, so she calls home collect. Wolverine asks her what is going on when he hears who is calling and from where, but Kitty hangs up because she's too ashamed to talk to him.

She breaks into the bank headquarters, after seeing her face plastered on TV wanted for robbing an ATM, and hears her dad talking to Shigematsu and agreeing to launder money for him. Kitty, in a moment of weakness, screams for her father.

My Opinion: If you are a true Kitty Pryde fan you already own this series and can quote it off the cuff. If you are just learning about Kitty you need to get this series to see where Kitty's sudden change from being a somewhat light hearted mature heroine to grown up, "my innocence died suddenly" Kitty takes over. Get it now.

Kitty has overheard a conversation she so should not have. She ends up taking on Shigematsu's goons while her dad looks on begging them to leave her alone. She is so angry with her dad and hurt and betrayed feeling that he is a crook she really does enjoy wiping the floor with them all. She then makes a run for it.

Ogun talks to Shigematsu and tells him that since he has helped Shigematsu he wants Kitty in repayment. Shigematsu agrees completely like the true scum sucking leechbag he is. Carmen hears his daughter's name mentioned and tries to take on Ogun, telling him to leave his daughter alone. Ogun whomps him easily. Ogun tells him that Kitty is his now and Carmen better accept it or he will die horribly and do they understand each other. Carmen says yes.

Kitty knows better than to stick around. She phases down through the skyscraper, crying all the way and wishing she'd never followed her dad at all. She is starting to get REALLY sick on top of everything else and is running a pretty good fever. She's having problems staying on her feet as she makes her way down the basement level, phasing all the way. Kitty realizes the only one she can reach out to here is Lady Mariko and realizes it's a good plan if she can find her.

She is making her way through the basement when Ogun, with a creepy demon mask on gasses her and she is knocked unconscious.

Wolverine is flying to Japan and is having SLIGHT problems getting through security with his metal laced skeleton until he produces papers that the Canadian goverment had given him years before. He tells the guard he is going to Japan on business and takes off down the tarmac.

Kitty meanwhile is paralyzed in place, standing in a small beam of light that is illuminating her like a spotlight. She doesn't know where she is or what is going on. Ogun dances out of the shadows with a sword and starts to terrify her by bringing it within inches of killing her every time he swings it. He shreds her outfit. He starts sort of a dance with the blade and after several more paces taps her lightly on the back of the throat with it and pulls it away. He then hits the front of her neck, the back of her legs and other parts and she can do nothing because she is struck dumb. She can't even speak. He hacks off all of Kitty's hair into a buzz cut and then shreds her outfit down the back. He then swings with all of his might toward the top of her head and Kitty figures she's done for. But he doesn't kill her. He taps her head at the last minute and she collapses to the ground. She then meets his eyes and is done for.

Ogun takes a piece of Kitty's soul and reshapes it and reshapes her into his image. In her mind she is transported back to a baby and is raised by Ogun to be his protege. She does well for him and by the time we are back to the present Kitty has no knowledge of who she is, has all of the skills of Ogun and there is no she and Ogun anymore, just her and he combined. She puts on his mask and is in a black ninja outfit now. She sheaths his sword and leaves the basement, forever changed.

Back at Shigematsu's home, he comes in only to have the lights not work. Wolverine is waiting for him. He kills all of Shigematsu's guards and asks Shigematsu where Kitty is. Shigematsu plays stupid until Wolverine explains to him that Kitty is considered family by he and Mariko and if he harms one hair on Kitty's head he will answer to not only Wolverine by the whole of clan Yashida. Shigematsu, with Wolverine's claws at his throat, calls Ogun and tells him what Wolverine wants. Ogun then goes and tells Kitty, after testing her mettle against some of his other men (who Kitty then beats) to go and kill Wolverine and she is all too happy to accomodate him.

My Opinion: Well guys and gals this is the issue where Kitty officially starts her journey into ninja training. It is also the issue where you get to realize why Kitty would grow up a lot when she wakes up to what Ogun did to her. It is also the issue where Kitty loses most of her hair and it took a LOT of time in Marvel time for her to grow it back again to the point it was as long as it was in Excalibur (which of course that type of continuity doesn't hold true anymore in comics). Well onto the next issue!

We open with Logan and Yukio touching bases again in Japan. Yukio tries to kill him, he beats her and they...well let's say that the implication is that they have sex. Then we swing to later where the two of them are talking and Wolverine tells Yukio, again that he loves Mariko and Yukio just can't see what he sees in the woman. They then get on the topic of Kitty and Wolverine explains what happened and that he is at the temple to get Kitty. Yukio, nor Wolverine, trust Shigematsu and so Yukio takes up a position so she has his back. Wolverine then gets attacked he gets an arrow in the leg that is poisoned. He ends up fighting the Ninja who is in a demon mask and he thinks he has them with a death strike but it does nothing. He doesn't get how he missed them but tries again and again to kill them. Wolverine lunges and goes right off the building. He realizes how leathal the toxin is and knows that he has to hide to let his healing factor have a chance to heal his body and so he crawls into a pile of garbage to hide, feeling he's let Kitty down completely.

Yukio is at Shigematsu's headquarters to check things out and roaming around finds Carmen drunk in an office. She then gets attacked by one of the body guards. She has him on the ropes when Carmen interupts her and she and Carmen end up getting the tables turned on them and get flung off a building. Yukio savors the experience and grabbing a window washing unit on the side of the building stops the two of them from going splat and one side of the rope breaks, sending the cart crashing through the window on the side of the sky scraper. The two of them are covered in scratches, but Yukio realizes that the two of them are needed elsewhere so she doesn't go back after the fat evil guard she was taking on before.

Wolverine has recovered from the poison and goes after the ninja again. He realizes when he misses again that something isn't kosher and when the ninja takes off to regroup he realizes that the ninja isn't a "he" but a "she". When the ninja phases inside a train Wolverine realizes they are a phasing mutant.

Yukio is having Carmen follow Wolverine's whereabouts in the car while she listens and gives him directions from the police scanner. Carmen isn't keen on any of this because he's sort of a coward, but Yukio smacks him down as she jumps from the car to find Wolverine.

Wolverine is chasing after the ninja, hot on their heels so they don't have a chance to rest. He's trying to run her into the ground until she collapses because he wants some answers now more than ever. The train ends up heading right toward the ninja and they are too worn out to phase so Wolverine tackles them out of the way. The mask has been knocked off in the scrap and Wolverine, even though he had his suspicions, is shocked when he sees Kitty's face. It's enough for her to get the drop on him and stab him through the heart with her sword.

My Opinion: Even Ogun in this issues says that Kitty was better at some ninja skills than he was at her age, which I thought was actually a pretty impressive compliment, even if it was from a horrible ninja demon guy. The issue really shows what type of warrior Wolverine is too, although it doesn't give a nice picture of Kitty's dad at all (I still don't like the character...he seems one huge coward to me). Everything comes together well I thought.

We open with Yukio speeding along roads she shouldn't really take at that speed in the bad weather that is going on or even in good weather really. Kitty is tied up in the car and Wolverine is in bad shape in the back seat with Carmen. Carmen is complaining up a storm to the point that Yukio basically tells him to shut up or she is going to throw him off a cliff. She squeals the car to a halt and hauls Carmen out of the car. She roughs him up a bit and tells him that she is tired of his arrogance, his cowardice and his mouth. When he gets back into the car, realizing that Yukio would indeed kill him if she didn't need the extra pair of hands, he sees Kitty booking out the other side of the car. Yukio curses as she chases after Kitty because the drugs should have kept her knocked out for hours yet her mutant metabolism had burned them out super fast. Kitty is still recovering though, so Yukio knows she has a chance.

She reflects back to when she hit Kitty with the drugged darts after Kitty had cut Wolverine down and Yukio had realized that Kitty had Ogun's skills and was happy she'd done a mortal blow to Wolverine. Yukio tackles Kitty and then kicks her off balance. Kitty lunges for her and Yukio throws herself into the wind and off a cliff, coming back at Kitty from behind and she knocks Kitty out again. She then drags her back to the car and they make their way to the strong hold of the clan Yashida. By the time they get there Wolverine is standing up with aid of a walking stick.

Kitty is having nightmares about Ogun and wakes to find Wolverine. She is happy to see him and hugs him only to have him tell her to watch the injury he is recovering from and she remembers it all. She is horrified and terrified when she realizes what she is. She explains to Wolverine why she went it alone to try and keep things a family matter for her family's honor. Wolverine understands and asks Kitty what Ogun did to her, but she can't remember everything that he had done because her memories are jumbled. Kitty asks how Wolverine knows Ogun and Wolverine reveals that Ogun used to be his sensei and he had tried to do to him what he had done to Kitty, but Wolverine had run away. Kitty also finds out that Ogun might very well be an immortal guy from ancient Japan.

Wolverine brings Kitty out to the rock garden and gives her a rake and she thinks its silly. Wolverine then goes inside and Yukio and he have an argument about whether or not Kitty is going to remain Ogun's. Yukio doesn't think she'll recover, Wolverine refuses to give up without a fight. He goes outside and finds Kitty meditating, the garden shaped into beautiful patterns that are unified together. Kitty is proud of her work until Wolverine REALLY makes her look at it and Kitty realizes she shouldn't have even known how to do what she had done and that the garden was completely unlike her, perfect and unified, like what a Zen master would do only after a lifetime of study. Kitty is horrified and asks Wolverine what Ogun did to her. His best guess is magic or some form of psi powers.

Kitty wants to run home to Professor Xavier but Wolverine tells her if she runs away she's going to keep running and he's speaking from experience. He hands Kitty the honor blade, a sword that represents all that is good and noble in the Samurai. If she can hold it than her soul is good and noble. Kitty can't hold it for more than two seconds. Wolverine tells her he isn't going to stop until she can hold it for as long as he tells her without even breaking a sweat. Kitty thinks it's impossible.

And so Kitty's training begins. She swims in freezing cold rivers and goes through the training to make her body strong, but she still can't hold the sword. Wolverine is worried. He then gets a call from Professor Xavier asking what is going on and why Wolverine and Kitty are hiding. Wolverine will explain nothing and tells him that it's a private matter and basically to butt out. He then finds out that Mac from Alpha Flight has been killed and Storm has been attacked by Federal agents and stripped of her powers. Wolverine doesn't take Mac's death well because he was a good friend and he owed Mac and Heather his humanity. He goes out and screams in grief at the moon. He can't leave to go to the funeral or to try and help Storm or he'll lose Kitty too and he refuses to do that.

My Opinion: Is down a little further :-).

A big bad evil called "The Adversary" and Illyana ends up whomping all over it with her Soul Sword and the X-men finally find out she's a sorceress. Piotr just thinks of her as his sister, still once he hears the whole story and hugs her. Forge and Storm have a confrontation and Storm leaves the area with the X-men even though Forge is upset at how things are ending between them. Magneto is recovered in the Bermuda Triangle by Lee Forester when he is being attacked by sharks.

Kurt calls a meeting of the X-men and begs Ororo to come even though she has no powers. Rachel, Illyana and Roberto are sitting on the stairs and we find out that Wolverine had been called about the meeting but refused to come because of something to have to do with Kitty. Illyana hopes that Kitty is okay. And that is about all there is with Kitty in this issue.

Kurt calls Xavier out on the carpet about keeping the X-men together if everyone is going to try and kill them. He doesn't want to see any more people hurt. He brings up Jean Grey getting killed and Rachel...well...goes ballistic would be a good way to put it. She makes everyone's minds hurt, she blows into the room and throws things around telekinetically, etc. We find out about Rachel's future and how important all of the X-men are to her and why she is so upset that she will never be born into this reality. She shows them all what she lived through and why they need to stick together.

Piotr, true to selfishness, realizes that he and Katya were married in that reality and wonders if there is hope for them yet and if that is what he wants.

The rest of the X-men realize how horrible that future was but Rachel tells them they can't split up because they were HOPE in the future. They kept the dream alive till the very end and it was need. Kurt doesn't like it, but he stays and the X-men embrace.

Opinion: Good issue if you want to see Illyana kick some major butt and see what Rachel sees and how she sees the dream. It really puts things in perspective. Kitty is a foot note though, so if you want a Kitty issue don't buy this.

Continuation of the 4th part of Kitty Pryde and Wolverine.

We flash to Kitty and Wolverine running through a snow storm. Kitty is now wearing a pink gi instead of the white or black she's been seen in previously, which makes me wonder about color symbolism, but who knows? The snow storm is due to Thor and other events happening in the Marvel Universe at that time. Kitty is grieving over Storm and tells Wolverine she is sorry for Mac and he tells her to change the subject. She ends up falling in the snow and twisting her ankle. She asks Wolverine for help and he refuses telling her that she's not badly hurt and to help herself. He tells her to struggle or die, it was her choice and she screams it isn't fair as he walks away. Wolverine tells her to take the hand she's dealt and win anyway. He walks away with her still in the snow.

Wolverine barely makes it back with his injuries and the cold and Yukio and Carmen are waiting for him. When Carmen finds out that Kitty had fallen and Wolverine had left her he goes ballistic, but he needn't have bothered because Kitty walks right past them into the house. She ends up sitting in a hot tub for hours and then comes to an epithany that what if she just HELD the honor blade instead of TRYING so hard to hold it. And she does and sits there for days.

Finally the next night Kitty goes to Wolverine's bedside and leaves the honor blade by his head. She is planning on heading back to America, figuring that she's no match for Ogun.

My Opinion: Watching Kitty's training is way cool. Everyone should read it just to realize how sometimes you do indeed have to be cruel to be kind.

Kitty terrifies Shigematsu and tells him that if he EVER goes after her or her father again she'd kill him and Shigematsu, knowing what Ogun has done to her, agrees and takes her very seriously. She does this by popping out of his desk and scaring the crap out of him and then tackling him to the floor. She then phases out of the building into thin air and starts to air dance down, feeling pretty good about what she'd done to Shigematsu. A police helicopter spies her but she just bows to them in mid-air and solidifies, dropping like a stone. The helicopter pilots report to base that they hadn't seen anything after she's gone, feeling relieved that she's no longer in their sights.

She phases through a building and leaves her outer clothing in the floor as she falls. She lands on the bottom floor to catch the train in a brand new outfit, which resembles her classic blue on in Excalibur, but a bit primative (it's got a black leather jacket that has tight sleeves, light blue gloves and pants and black leather boots, as well as a yellow scarf and white belt. She also has on dark eyeshadow around her eyes as sort of a mask. Kitty gets on the train and reflects on her life with the X-men and her life period and if it would have been better had she never joined. She looks at the reflection of herself in the window and is disgusted with her hair. She then realizes that even if she had the choice to live a normal life she wouldn't because she was never the type to do what society or her parents expected of her. She would always make her own way. And she realizes, she is no longer a Kitty anymore, she's grown up. She's now a cat. And she finds she likes the shadows a lot more than daylight. And so, the codename of Shadowcat is born (yay!!!!!!!!!!!). She feels Shadowcat suits her better than her old codenames and she knows that she is going after Ogun to live out her life the way she chooses and that Wolverine will then have to avenge her.

We switch to Yukio and Wolverine talking on the balcony at the Yashida Clan stronghold and Wolverine then reveals to Carmen that Kity has gone after Ogun. Yukio tells Carmen off again and says she doesn't consider him a man at all. Logan stops her from doing any damage to Carmen and prepares to go after Kitty and Ogun.

We then flash to Mariko's home where Logan's foster daughter meets Mariko when she comes home from work. Everything is happy and hunky dory and then Mariko hears something. Mariko KNOWS there is something seriously wrong and goes to check it out, but doesn't find anything and so she heads back into the lighted part of the house.

Wolverine calls Carmen out on the red carpet when they are on the plane going to rescue Kitty. Carmen explains how his bank was helping people in Deerfield during the recession. Wolverine doesn't think much of Carmen and tells him so. He tells him that yeah, in the beginning, his heart was probably in the right place, but then he made deals with Shigematsu even though he knew what type of man Shigematsu was. And when it came down to being courageous or saving his own skin Carmen had chosen to save his own skin. Carmen says he never wanted Kitty involved and Wolverine tells him that Carmen is a fool for thinking that because Kitty was his daughter, loved him and assumed he was the victim. When times got tough she had expected her father to be at least as honorable and courageous as she was and he had let her down all the way. Wolverine then tells Carmen that Kitty feels she needs to prove herself free of Ogun by confronting him and so Ogun will probably kill Kitty. If he doesn't and Ogun takes Kitty over again Wolverine will kill Kitty. And he tells Yukio that even though he loves Ogun like a brother, father and sensei all rolled into one for what he did to Kitty, Logan is going to kill him or be killed.

Back at Mariko's, Ogun is sitting over Mariko's bed and goes for the death strike, but the blade passes harmlessly through her head. And then he finds out it was Kitty dressed up like Mariko and she got the drop on him. Kitty goes in for the kill but Ogun, of course, beats her and so Kitty doesn't even slow down and runs through a door to get the heck out of there. Kitty waits for him to come through the door, blinds him with a kimono and nails him in the gut only to realize he's wearing body armor. He then gets away with a flash bomb. Ogun then starts a game of cat and mouse and starts to torment Kitty. Kitty continues fight him and he continues to get away when she hears a scream that sounds like Mariko so she runs to help, only to find Mariko safe and sound. She realizes how much of a fool she was when Ogun crashes through the window. Kitty phases Mariko and the child away through the floor and tells them to run for it, pulling a throwing star from her leg as she does so. She realizes the throwing star is drugged but she won't give up and let Mariko and the child die. Ogun tackles her through a window.

Kitty is doing pretty good, actually, and is whomping on Ogun pretty hard and Ogun asks her again to yield. She says no and he gets ticked. He locks eyes with her and tries to mesmerize her again, but she resists. He is even more ticked because he doesn't know how it is possible that she resisted him. He is about to strike her dead, finally realizing she will never be his again, when Wolverine shows up.

My Opinion: Cool issue. Man I love this series. And this IS THE FIRST time Kitty EVER uses the codename of Shadowcat and when she comes up with it, so if you read something different elsewhere, they lie or are misinformed. Because THIS is the issue. Worth the investment to own it!

Also the fight scene between Kitty and Ogun is superbly done. Even the panels are done in such a way that it is continuous motion as Kitty just keeps pounding as fast as she can at Ogun to try and get the drop on him. Ogun keeps matching her and it shows how much of a match they are, but Kitty keeps hammering at him. It's almost like a succession of punches things happen so fast in the panels. It is VERY well done!

Ogun and Wolverine rumble hard in this rumble, but the first round goes to Ogun. Wolverine runns away to regroup and think about options. Ogun looks back at Kitty and then jumps over the side of the building to go after Wolverine just like Wolverine hoped he would. Mariko runs out of the building just as Yukio peels up in her car with Carmen. Mariko explains what happened and Yukio isn't happy about it. Yukio then explains to Mariko what happened to Kitty and Mariko is upset on Kitty's behalf and worried for both her and Logan. Carmen tackles both ladies out of the way right when the car gets blown up. And it's Yukio vs. the fat man round two. Yukio is battling him and Kitty decides that maybe the drugs have worn off enough to air walk. She phases through the building and drops like a stone, but manages to phase right before she hits the ground and ends up phasing through the thug Yukio is fighting. Yukio admires her entrance and Kitty tells her not to call her a kitten anymore but to call her Shadowcat. Carmen was terrifed Kitty was going to die from a fall like that and Kitty makes a comment about practice making perfect. Yukio wipes the floor with the thug and Kitty airwalks away with Carmen making the comment that she doesn't have a prayer against Ogun. Kitty then tells him that he should understand by now that Wolverine is risking everything for her and she owes him the same.

Wolverine and Ogun battle through Japan with Wolverine not doing very well but Wolverine is too stubborn to quit.

We flash to Yukio and Mariko who realize that Carmen is missing. Yukio wipes her hands of him and is taking Mariko and her daughter to a safe house. Carmen meanwhile, realizes exactly how badly he has not lived up to be half the person his daughter was and wants to try and do better by her and be an honorable human being. And so he does the right thing. He goes to the American Embassy and turns himself in and prepares to turn everyone else in the scandal in as well.

Kitty air walks across town and ends up at a building under construction right before she passes out and doesn't quite make it to a safe place before she loses her ability to phase any further. Ogun is waiting for her and actually pulls her onto the nearest floor. Ogun says she is the perfect choice for his pupil that she was able to do so much and throws her across the room to land at Wolverine's feet pretty much. Wolverine tells her it's hopeless and he's sorry and she gets mad and yells at him not to give her sorry but to give her life.

Wolverine snaps out of his self pity mode and takes on Ogun. Wolverine resolves himself that he will either kill or be killed right when Ogun stabs him through. Wolverine then lets his eyes meet Ogun's and goes berserk. At that point the battle is lost for Ogun and he knows it. he hurts Wolverine time and again but Wolverine doesn't feel anything. He's a living, breathing, killing machine. He defeats Ogun and tells Kitty the killing blow is hers. She runs with the blade and runs full tilt at Ogun and Wolverine worries all is lost. But she can't kill him. She then realizes that Wolverine was testing her to see if Ogun still had a hold on her. She asks Wolverine what he would have done if she had killed him and Wolverine pops his claws. That's all Kitty needed to know.

Ogun picks up the sword Kitty had tossed aside when she couldn't kill him and runs at her to kill her. Wolverine yells at her to phase and she does right before Ogun slashes her back apart. Wolverine's claws kill Ogun and Ogun's sword only cuts skin deep because of Wolverine's metal skeleton. Wolverine is upset and thinks that the only reason he won was because he was no more than an animal. Kitty convinces him differently.

Later they meet up with Cameron and find out what he did. Kitty is proud of him and hugs him. Logan, Mariko, Kitty, Logan's foster daughter and Carmen go out for ice cream. Seeing Mariko and Logan together, Yukio chooses to be left out. Markio wonders at the ice cream parlor if Kitty will ever truly recover from what Ogun did to her and Logan says that life is a continual process of change and this was no different than when Kitty had an illness that almost killed her as a child. She almost died but she got better and the same thing happened here. The experience would always be with her, as would the scars, but she would continue on. It is a great ending because it shows Kitty digging into a huge sundae, showing she was already moving on with her life.

My Opinion: This issue actually revolves mainly around Ogun and Wolverine, but man it is well done anyway. Not only does the battle with Kitty and Ogun look great on panel but it also gives you monologues for Kitty and Logan so you get an idea of what both of them are thinking. It's a pretty cool way to do it. And the fact that Kitty had to give a lecture to Wolverine at the end shows how much she grew up and gained wisdom in a short period of time. It also reveals that Kitty was deathly ill as a child and almost died, a very interesting little tid bit that explains some things about Kitty's character too. This series is meant to be read by Kitty fans so go and buy it. If you're a Wolverine fan go and buy it too because it's a great Wolverine series as well.

We start out with a danger room session, sorta outside with Nightcrawler, Rogue and Colossus. Colossus' mind isn't on the game however and Rogue tells him he's no use if he's not thinking of the matter at hand. He tells her that Kitty is coming in from the airport and while he wanted to go and meet her he didn't want to hurt her anymore than he already had. He also starts to wonder if he still loved Kitty or not and is confused.

Kurt tests to see if Rogue has Carol's seventh sense by tickling her until she gets fed up and knowing where he will strike next due to the seventh sense nails him.

She flies off and he talks to Piotr right before they get nailed by a bright light. It encompasses the mansion and then disappears.

At the airport Ororo and Professor Xavier along with a few others wait for Kitty's plane to arrive. Professor Xavier and Ororo talk about the loss of her powers as well as her continued love for Forge. Ororo smiles as she watches the plane arrive and Professor Xavier wishes there was a way he could help her.

Illyana is holding a bag with Lockheed inside. He is having problems staying put until Kitty arrives and Illyana tells him to quit it. He grumps but finally obeys. Illyana thinks and calls her brother every kind of coward she can think up for not coming and facing the music with Kitty to start to get past the akward phase in their friendship.

Rachel ease drops on some thoughts and gets upset by anti-mutant thought and talk and she goes into deep thought about the entire situation and then thinks about Kitty and how she was like a surgate mother to her in her timeline and the last time she ever saw Kate and how it all went down. She remembers how Kate had said some words and she'd gotten sucked back into time to this timestream. We then see Kitty who grabs her shoulder, bringing her back to reality and asks if she's okay. Rachel recognizes her but Kitty doesn't recognize Rachel. Kitty and Ororo embrace and Lockheed pops out of the bag, estatic to see Kitty again.

Kitty then remembers Rachel and turns around, remembering how Rachel looked after her in the future and she remembered her name. Rachel is shocked as all get out because Kitty had been drugged and shouldn't have remembered anything.

Piotr and Kurt check out the bright light and they see techno-organic things everywhere. All life seemed to have been taken over by techno-organics. Rogue then meets Warlock's daddy, a very nasty bad guy by the name of Magus. She flies away and Piotr pounds the heck out of the guy in hopes of defeating him. But he gets caught. Nightcrawler short circuts Magus and Piotr gets away. Rogue absorbs Magus' powers and is in a very weird state.

The X-men show up to shift through the rubble that was Magus' ship and find out what is going on. The police show up and finding nothing the police officer leaves to only get eaten by Magus. He shifts his form to make himself look like a human being and is going to look for Warlock that way.

Later after teaching his classes at MIT, Professor Xavier is on his way home and is attacked by a group of thugs, there are too many of them for him to take out with his powers and he is beaten almost to death. When the thugs leave a strange being drags him into an alley and we see a card from Xavier's students wishing him a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year as the parting panel.

My Opinion: Kitty isn't in this issue much but it is worth buying just for those parts leading up to her coming back. Watching Illyana fight with Lockheed is cute for one.