I actually think the least Mary Sue Kitty Pryde could be’s found in Age of Apocalypse and X-Men Forever to some extent. But given she’s sometimes shown to be a deadly clawed assassin or even clawed with a seriously bad temper (at least in X-Men Forever), that’d mean considering the more realistic or logical option. She’s trained a lot with Wolverine and actually did have claws from time to time.
She’s also trained to be a ninja. It’d be much more realistic for Kitty Pryde to become the character Psylocke ended up as. She’d also make X-23 redundant. But that would involve seriously considering the logically realistic option (at least within the context of her trajectory) to the point where rather than being a highly idealised character, she’d probably be X-Men’s most formidable hitwoman.
The very fact that Psylocke’s transformation was literally undone suggests she wasn’t meant to become this. Kitty could’ve easily become this and that would’ve stuck. Keep in mind that realism in here means going where the character would naturally go/become. Though that would be realising that either Kitty has real flaws or that writers would have to develop guts to do so.
If Age of Apocalypse’s any indication.
fynm 