Weren't the readers predominantly teenaged boys? Wouldn't it be terribly uncool to associate with the geeky chick (yeah, I see her as more Willowy too)?

Not my point. X-Men had become a collection of larger-than-life characters who, while popular, didn't have anything to ground them into a common experience--which is why Kitty was added.

It wasn't a unique trick--"Spider-Man" is probably more a Buffy analog than anything X, but it worked. Kitty was hugely popular, without losing that "normal girl with super powers" feel.

Wait -- so you're saying that although it was in theory geeky, it worked? Or that it wasn't geeky?

I'd say she was pretty geeky at first. Of course, during the Excaliber years they changed her from a somewhat plain techie who still had some shyness issues into a fashion model with a penchant for katanas who more or less took over the leadership role from Captain Britain.

No, I meant geeky (I should have used a better word) for teenaged boys to associate themselves with her.

Of course, during the Excaliber years they changed her from a somewhat plain techie who still had some shyness issues into a fashion model with a penchant for katanas who more or less took over the leadership role from Captain Britain.

Yikes. Seems like a good thing they did a reset. That sounds like every bad World of Darkness character I've ever seen. Did they have her wearing a black trenchcoat and sunglasses at night, too?

Only alternate timeline evil versions. Though she did wear what amounted to a blue trenchcoat.

(I didn't mind them moving her into a sorta leadership role, by the way. She was clearly written as the smartest person on the team, and had more common sense than either Brian Braddock or Nightcrawler. I just object to every woman in comic books ending up looking like a vogue model.)

No, I meant geeky (I should have used a better word) for teenaged boys to associate themselves with her.

I'd say geeky but it worked. I don't think you'd ever get a teenage boy to say, "Man, I feel JUST like this teenage, mutant science-nerd girl!" But I think that was the effect anyway.

a fashion model with a penchant for katanas who more or less took over the leadership role

And Matt maps Excalibur!Kitty straight onto Buffy.

Maybe Joss meant that Kitty was an influence on Buffy-the-universe-concept and not Buffy-the-character, although normal-girl-with-powers does seem very Buffy.

This post brought to you by the hyphen.

For some reason I thought that 1602 and Tales of the Vampires were coming out today. . .they aren't but I went and looked on the website -- looks like Ben Edlund is writing a story and doing the cover for the next TotV.

It looks like 1602 #8 won't be out until March 31, at least according to the Marvel site.