I do wonder, though - on the topic of Ultimate Rogue - if the bouncing between emotions like a ping-pong ball isn't an implication of her own psychological scars, of which she is sure to have many. We don't actually know much about her history before Weapon X, am I wrong? So it could be deliberate on Kirkman's part, not that that makes it any more palatable.
That's a good point, and yes Rogue and Kurt
should both have crosses to bear, but I'd believe the emotional bouncing more if I had any faith left in the writer to make it if not sympathetic than at least believable. After the Magician's "WRY DON'T U LUV ME I MUST KILL U NOW" vomit bag of an ending, Kirkman would have to transform anime-girl style into Charles Dickens (glowing lights and clothes flying around, baby, let's see it!) before I was willing to give him that kind of credit.
That's probably what I dislike most about Ultimate: they really don't have any form of stability. The writers seem to assume that the people who read Ultimate, already being familiar with Xavier's dream and his personality, don't need that spelled out for them in Ultimate. That's the only reason I can think of to explain why he was so looked up to when he really didn't do much.
The thing about Ultimates was that it was touted as the Marvel Universe
re-set for a new genration. That was the point. And even if everyone was magically implanted with knowledge of the Marvel Universe at birth, for purposes of pacing, plot and character development you still have to SAY what is going on. The characters have to acknowledge ideas and developments to each other in order for the narrative to hold, and they're just not doing that. Clasically, Xavier wasn't just a mentor: he did get out and about a fair deal, or at least did a lot of telepathic coordination and helping out, and the Ultimates storyline has the characters interacting with him as if that were still true. But as you said, there isn't any actual interaction in the story itself to support that, so it feels flat and unbelievable. The story is, as happened with the Emma example you gave, not following through.
Re: Kurt and Kitty's powers, because block quotes make long long posts.
Heh, I think the efficacy of a character's power depends largely on not only what is useful for a story, but also how much the writer likes that character. Any Kurt could easily, say, teleport Logan's head off, as his AoA self did to Deadpool, but it would just never occur to 616 Kurt to do that. He's a warrior, but he's not a violent person, and so many of these stories which revolve around who can give out and take a bigger beating just can't support that sort of character. Ultimate Nightcrawler
is a violent person, whether he started out that way or was made so by Weapon X, just as Kurt in X2 was mind-controlled to be vicious and as such took out ALL of White House Security (omg so kick-ass!). Also, while a moving target is hard to hit and a teleporting one doubly so, all it takes is one good shot to knock him out, just like an normal human - once one of the officers managed to hit movie Kurt, it snapped him right out and he fled rather than fight.
Maybe that distinction is why 616 Kurt is so hard for writers to deal with. He CAN kick major tush, but unless someone makes him lose his temper (and we know he has one!), it's never his first instinct to do so. It's why even though it's sad that Kurt didn't come back for another movie, it was understandable that he wouldn't want to be on the X-Team because he doesn't want to fight people.
I think the difference between 616 Kurt and his Ultimate and Movieverse counterparts is that Prof X himself actively saved him from a mob that was on the verge of truly killing him. It was a life debt to start with, an incredibly noble thing to do for a stranger, and something that Kurt would never want another mutant to go through. It was something worth fighting for. It wasn't as immediate a danger for the other Kurts, but that desire to prevent others from being harmed did bring Ultimate Kurt back to join up later when Magneto started acting up, and hopefully we'll see movie Kurt again for similar reasons.
As for Kitty, her phasing power has been used offensively quite a few times, either as the best of all armor classes in close combat (you CAN'T hit me ha ha!), or to screw up the enemy's technology big time, or to scare them or phase them through a wall or somesuch. She also recently took out Emma Frost and the rest of the Hellfire Club in AXM - and phased through Pete's head, threatening just about the same thing as that heart incident in the fanfic you mention! When her phasing power isn't useful, writers consistently fall back on her l33t ninja skillz. Kitty does just fine for herself, from what I've seen.
Heh, sorry that was all over the place. HI I LIKE TALKING ABOUT KURT!
[Edited on 3/6/2007 by tsukechick]