I still strongly think that to take characters to where they’d logically become, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll become unrecognisable or unrecognisably evil, but rather go where they’d realistically and practically become. Had writers stuck with giving Kitty Pryde claws and turning her into a clawed ninja, she’d make other characters who fill these niches redundant. Why have X-23 when there’s Kitty to do it.
Same with Psylocke and even Feral. But that would involve either a stronger hands off approach or to cultivate more interests and experiences to pull it off. If Wolverine was compared to Batman, it’s only natural that Kitty Pryde would be X-Men’s Catwoman. In fact a somewhat more precise version in that rather than merely sporting clawed gloves, she has retractile claws like an actual cat.
(That would further tempt people to make her more feline, which I think might unconsciously be why some writers and artists back away from this. She’d ironically be a more successful version of Hank McCoy as cat.)
I still if writers were to commit to giving Kitty Pryde claws, rather than X-23 we’d see a more feline Kitty Pryde anyways.
fynm 