Finally for this week, X-Men: Kitty Pryde - Shadow & Flame, another of those miniseries with titles so ridiculously long that nobody can remember them for more than thirty seconds.  For god's sake, just call it Kitty Pryde.  It'll sell just as many copies.

Anyhow, the first issue of this series came out in a week that I skipped, so a few words about the premise are in order.  It's another Akira Yoshida miniseries, and once again it's set in Japan.  Yoshida has talked about wanting to do a series of stories setting out the Marvel Universe's Japanese history, which gave the worrying impression that this might be a sequel to Wolverine: Soultaker.

It isn't, but the actual parent book is a lot more obscure.  It's really a follow-up to the Kitty Pryde & Wolverine miniseries from over twenty years ago, although the plot also throws in the giant dragon who turned up in one issue of Uncanny immediately after the original Secret Wars.  We're dealing here with stories that came out before most of the current audience were reading comics, and indeed before a large chunk were reading, period.  It's the sort of thing that would benefit from a rather better recap.

Nonetheless, it's actually not bad at all.  It's a thriller story - Kitty is lured to Japan by the secret services, who want her to help recover the giant dragon.  Meanwhile, a bunch of ninja are after her, for reasons unknown.  It's a perfectly effective story, decently paced, and with a solid grasp of the character.

Best of all, it's got Paul Smith on art, and you can never go too far wrong with him.  There's some top notch storytelling in here, albeit that the action sequences are a little choppy at times.  Smith is the sort of solid veteran who really knows how to sell the story, and he's precisely what this book needs.  Surely there have got to be higher profile assignments for somebody like him.

Great art, solid story.  Can't complain about that.

Rating: A-

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