Marvel’s What If… Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force, by Rebecca Podos – A Book Review

Marvel has been asking the question “What If?” since 1977, opening its heroes to new interpretations and brave new worlds. After the success of the animated Disney+ streaming show of the same name, Marvel has now taken this storytelling device into novelization. Tapping authors across genres to reinvent their characters for new readers.

Beginning with What If… Loki Was Worthy? by Madeleine Roux, released by Random House Worlds in the Spring of 2024, these adult novels are non-canon stories that push out at the constraints of our interconnected Cinematic Universe. By placing familiar characters in unfamiliar situations, we learn more about their foundational identities – what makes them heroes, villains, and ultimately fascinating characters that we return to read about week after week.

After What If… Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? by Seanan McGuire and What If… Marc Spector Was Host to Venom? by Mike Chen, we have Rebecca Podos bringing us the answer to the question What If… Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force? In this installment, the unthinkable happens: Kitty Pryde becomes host to the Phoenix Force! I know, spoiler alert.

What’s great about this book, though, is that it posits and answers foundational questions about Kitty Pryde and, ultimately, all of us. Would we be these versions of ourselves if we were raised differently, or elsewhere? Is who we imagine ourselves to be something primal or is it an amalgamation of all we’ve encountered in our lives? Truly, the classic Nature vs Nurture argument.

From the official website: “The year is 1990: The X-Men all perished more than a decade ago, and Kitty Pryde is no hero. Emma Frost rescued Kitty from an obscure existence as a mere rebellious teen kicked out of boarding school, terrified of ever being discovered as a mutant. After growing up under the tutelage of the White Queen, Kitty is an apex predator of a superior species, yet she lives alone in a tiny, rundown apartment, preferring isolation to a knife in the back. What is her alternative? The world is what it is.

But sometimes Kitty isn’t so sure of that. Sometimes it feels like she phases right out of her own life. Breathe in: She’s suddenly surrounded by friends she’s never known, living out events that never happened. Breathe out: It’s all back to normal. Kitty always shoves these flashes down, until someone from that other life finds her. This familiar stranger, Betsy Braddock, is a rambling confirmation that something is wrong with their world.

Betsy has a wild theory and if it’s right, Kitty’s only shot at changing the present is to free-fall into the past. The girls follow a tenuous psychic trail back to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in its glory days and embed themselves with the X-Men. There they discover that the inflection point that will unravel their future revolves around a certain omega-level mutant, destined to become the Phoenix. But little do Kitty and Betsy know, they’re not alone in their search.

The year is 1975: Jean Grey has weeks left to live. The Whisperer is coming. He has recruited an ally and accounted for every foreseeable variable. He will leave nothing to chance. He will lead this reality to its Doom.”

That’s right: the big bad is none other than Victor Von Doom, which isn’t a spoiler if you’ve seen the book’s cover. I LOVE the way Rebecca Podos writes Doom – she understands him in a way that he understands himself. Podos’s Doom doesn’t lie because he believes in his mission so thoroughly that deception and subterfuge are beneath him. He is an unassailable missile of singular purpose. If you’re a Doctor Doom fan, this is a depiction of him that will undoubtedly delight you.

I was able to speak with Rebecca Podos about her experience writing this novel for Marvel and playing with these characters in this particular sandbox, which you can see here:

Overall Score: 7/10

I really enjoyed reading this novel and devoured it in only two days. The characters are also fully-rendered and the narrative is kept fresh by alternating perspectives and timelines. This is a great book for Kitty Pryde fans, Betsy Braddock fans, X-Men fans, and especially Dr. Doom fans. There is already a placeholder on Penguin Random House Canada for July 7, 2026 for a part five in this series. So I’d recommend this book if you’re already in on the series or even if you want to jump in before it continues.

I have to admit that I haven’t read any of Rebecca Podos’s other novels, so if you have, let me know which ones I should start with. Also, let us know if you’ve read this book or any of the others in this ongoing series and if we should go back and read the other three. As always, check back here for our book reviews and everything else we cover here at Nerd Initiative.