Random Happenstance

I wasn't feeling great the other day--annoyed at work, and some age-related upper ass pain--but I managed to treat myself to seventy-some dollar books from a local store. There weren't any full limiteds: I'm missing a issue of Masks and of Duncan Rouleau's Metal Men, but those should be be fun reads. And yet today, we've got a random issue of another limited: from 2003, Mekanix #5, "Bad Moon Rising" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Juan Bobillo, inks by Marcelo Sosa. Cover by Cecilia Calle.

Remind me again why this series was titled "Mekanix," and not something more marketable, like "The Kitty Pryde Show." She gets top billing as Shadowcat, but Karma also guest-stars: I think she was another of Claremont's favorites, although bad stuff often seemed to happen to her repeatedly under other writers. This issue, they fight "a smaller version of the Mega-Sentinel that wiped out Genosha." Karma's mind-control powers aren't any help, but she's still down to fight to save her younger siblings; while the Sentinel already seemed to have counter-measures to Kitty's phasing powers. Luckily, their telekinetic friend Shola is able crush it into nothingness.

Too close to today's headlines, Kitty has been put on double-(not)-secret probation at the University of Chicago; I believe for punching out racists. Discouraged, she still gets sucked into a debate with mean girl Alice Tremaine, who represents Purity, the web face of the Voice of Humanity. (Were they related to the Friends of Humanity?) But, Kitty doesn't get to deliver the verbal knockout punch this issue, as more Sentinels arrive...

I haven't read the rest of this, but while the previous four issue probably flesh out the supporting cast, feels a little thin plot-wise. This might also have been setting up a Kitty/Karma relationship (or college experimentation...) that I'm not sure was touched again later.