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Quote1 I'm Jewish. I don't have a quote unquote Jewish-sounding name. I don't look or sound Jewish, whatever that looks or sounds like... So if you didn't know I was Jewish, you might not know... unless I told you. Same goes for my mutation. I don't have to wear a visor or have blue fur all over me. I can walk around. Just a young woman of the world. But... I'm not. Quote2
Kitty Pryde[src]

Kitty Pryde is a Jewish mutant with versatile phasing abilities which allow her to move through solid matter. After her powers first manifested, Pryde was approached both by Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, and the X-Men, a mutant super hero group. Realizing Frost had vile intentions as she captured and tortured the X-Men, Pryde demonstrated immense bravery and freed the X-Men.[36] As Sprite, she became the X-Men's youngest member by enrolling at the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.[5]

Proving to be a controversial but invigorating addition to the team, Pryde had her life completely guided by her tenure with the X-Men, who became her second family. After being brainwashed by the sword master known as Ogun, Pryde connected herself with darker aspects of her soul, adopting the codename Shadowcat for years.[37] She was also a founding member of the British-based mutant team known as Excalibur, experiencing an exceptional adolescence, by growing up as a super hero.[38] As an adult, she returned to the X-Men[39] and, as a mutant super hero, she had a great impact in the world, such as sacrificing her freedom to save Earth,[40] becoming the headmistress of the Xavier's School,[41] and leading the X-Men.[42]

More recently, Pryde had a drastic change of attitude. After mutantkind moved to the island nation of Krakoa, Pryde was seemingly unable to interact with the island's functionalities. As this exclusion put her own identity into question, she started calling herself "Kate" and adopted a more ruthless position, forming the Marauders, a group of mutant raiders who rescue mutants from non-amicable nations.[14] Moreover, she found herself in coalition with Emma Frost, by becoming the Red Queen of the Krakoan Hellfire Trading Company and joining the Quiet Council of Krakoa, the Krakoan governing body.[3] Traumatized and hardened by the tragic events of the third Hellfire Gala, Pryde rejoined the X-Men as Shadowkat.[1]

Quick Answers

What are Kitty Pryde's mutant abilities in the Marvel Universe? toggle section
Kitty Pryde, also known as Shadowcat in the Marvel Universe, possesses unique mutant abilities that awakened when she was 13. Her primary power is the ability to 'phase' her body and anything she touches through solid matter. This was initially considered a passive power, but Kitty has learned to use it in various ways to protect her friends and the world. Additionally, she has the ability to make her molecules super-light or super-dense. Beyond her mutant abilities, Kitty Pryde is also a master of martial arts, a skill she acquired during an adventure with Wolverine. She also has a fire-breathing pet alien dragon named Lockheed.
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How did Kitty Pryde first come into contact with the X-Men? toggle section
Kitty Pryde, also known as Shadowcat, first came into contact with the X-Men when her mutant powers manifested at the age of fifteen. After an incident where she phased through the floor of her bedroom, she was given the X-Men's phone number and asked to summon help. The X-Men, including Phoenix, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler, arrived just in time to save her from Hellfire Club mercenaries. After this encounter, Kitty's parents allowed her to join Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, making her the newest member of the X-Men.
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Why is Kitty Pryde also known as 'Sprite' and 'Shadowcat'? toggle section
Kitty Pryde, a beloved character from the X-Men series, is also known as 'Sprite' and 'Shadowcat' due to her unique mutant abilities. As 'Sprite', she embodies her youthful and spirited personality. The name 'Shadowcat', on the other hand, reflects her power to phase through solid objects, much like a shadow. These aliases help to distinguish her abilities and character traits within the Marvel universe.
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What role did Kitty Pryde play in the rescue of the X-Men from Emma Frost? toggle section
Kitty Pryde, also known as Shadowcat, played a crucial role in the rescue of the X-Men from Emma Frost. When the X-Men were captured, Kitty was able to use her unique phasing abilities to infiltrate the enemy's defenses. She was able to walk through walls and other solid objects, making her the perfect candidate for a rescue mission. Kitty's bravery and skills were instrumental in saving her fellow X-Men, showcasing why she is such a valued member of the team.
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What is the significance of Kitty Pryde's Jewish heritage in her character development? toggle section
Kitty Pryde's Jewish heritage plays a significant role in her character development. As a Jewish character, she often wears a Star of David necklace, symbolizing her faith. Her cultural memories of the Holocaust make her particularly sensitive to prejudice, whether it's against mutants, humans, or any alien species. This sensitivity is especially heightened when it involves camps or imprisonment, reflecting the historical experiences of the Jewish community during World War II. This aspect of her character not only adds depth to her personality but also allows her to serve as a symbol against prejudice and discrimination in the Marvel universe.
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History

Origin[]

Katherine Pryde was the daughter of Carmen and Theresa Pryde, and was born in Deerfield, Illinois.[26]

According to the hologram of Operation Zero Tolerance's Shadowcat sub-file 604842, Katherine Pryde, as a baby, was abducted by a Neo and replaced by another baby who would grow as Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat, of the X-Men. It was decided by the X-Men, who had been subjected to many similar holograms, to stand on the belief that they were nothing else than attempts to disturb them.[43]

Early Years[]

Katherine "Kitty" Anne Pryde was leading the normal life of an extremely gifted thirteen-year-old girl in Deerfield, Illinois when she began suffering increasingly intense headaches. The headaches were a result of Kitty's mutant power emerging. Kitty possesses the ability to pass through solid matter.[11]

Charles Xavier (Earth-616), Ororo Munroe (Earth-616), and Katherine Pryde (Earth-616) from X-Men Vol 1 139 001

Kitty chooses her first code-name

Professor Charles Xavier located Kitty and set to recruit her for his school, and possibly as a new member of his X-Men. The Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club also learned about Kitty, and its White Queen, Emma Frost, went to invite Kitty to her Massachusetts Academy.[11]

Visiting a local malt shop with some of the X-Men, Kitty and Storm began what would evolve into a close friendship. Suddenly, three Hellfire Knights burst into the shop in an attack led by the White Queen. The X-Men were overcome and taken as prisoners. Unwilling to abandon Storm and the others, Kitty hid aboard the Hellfire Club's hovercraft and found the captive X-Men in the Frost International complex where the White Queen was holding them. Storm gave Kitty the X-Men's phone number and asked her to summon help. Phoenix, Cyclops and Nightcrawler arrived in response of the message just in time to save her from Hellfire Club mercenaries. Phoenix comforted the frightened Kitty. Pryde then helped the X-Men in rescuing their captive colleagues. Afterwards, Kitty's father was furious at Xavier for the danger he believed he had placed his daughter in. Phoenix invasively used her mental powers to calm Carmen Pryde's rage.[44]

X-Men[]

Kitty's parents allowed her to join Prof. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. She became the newest member of the X-Men and Kitty spent a great deal of time training. During her first training session in the Danger Room, Kitty easily walked through a scenario that took Professor Xavier weeks to program. Storm christened Kitty with her first code name, Sprite, and took her to dancing lessons at Stevie Hunter’s studio. Kitty quickly developed a crush on Colossus but was uncomfortable around the demon-like Nightcrawler.[45]

Stephanie Hunter (Earth-616), Ororo Munroe (Earth-616) and Katherine Pryde (Earth-616) from X-Men Vol 1 139 001

Kitty meets Stevie Hunter

Thirty years ahead in a possible future, Rachel Summers used her psionic powers to exchange the consciousness and spirit of the adult X-Man Kate Pryde with that of Pryde's teenage self. It was hoped that the adult Kate, in her younger self's body at that earlier time, could warn the X-Men about the assassination attempt on Senator Robert Kelly's life by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants so they could stop it, thereby preventing the chain of events that led to her dystopian future from occurring. After the X-Men saved Senator Kelly, Kate Pryde's consciousness left Kitty's body and returned to her own time, only to find her timeline had not changed. She had only created an alternate timeline.[20][46]

Many adventures soon followed. On Christmas Eve, Kitty destroyed a N'Garai demon by herself when she was left alone in the mansion. Later, Kitty was almost kidnapped by deformed mutant Caliban. Caliban, who only sought friendship, returned to his underground home. Later, after Kitty stowed away on a X-Men mission, Kitty was nearly killed by Magneto. This act made Magneto finally come to realize that he was becoming no better than the Nazis who had murdered his family.[47]

Sometime afterwards, Kitty's parents reconsidered their decision to send her to Xavier's School and enrolled her in the Massachusetts Academy instead. Frost switched bodies with Storm after the later brought Kitty to the new school, but Kitty, Ororo (in Emma’s body) and the other X-Men managed to defeat the Hellfire Cub once more, with Kitty returning to Xavier's.[48]

Illyana Rasputin, Colossus' six-year-old sister, was kidnapped by Belasco and the X-Men followed to Limbo. While there, Kitty was harassed by an alternate version of Nightcrawler, and they rescued her. While returning to their dimension, Belasco grabbed Illyana and Kitty held her arm. Kitty lost her grip for a few seconds and reached back into the portal until she felt an arm and pulled out Illyana. Due to her captivity in Limbo, where she spent years while only mere moments elapsed on Earth, Illyana returned to them as a thirteen-year-old. Kitty and Illyana became very close and seemed to share a link, with Illyana even joining Kitty in Stevie's dance studio and becoming roommates.[49]

When the alien Brood implanted embryos in all of the X-Men, Kitty met the small, alien, dragon-like creature Lockheed. While the X-Men were in space, Xavier formed a new team of mutants, the New Mutants, most of whose members were closer to Kitty in age than the other X-Men were. This time, he would only train them in the use of their special powers, and not send them out into combat. Xavier infuriated Kitty by terminating her X-Men status and moving her to the New Mutants, who she called the "X-Babies."[50] Xavier relented and retained Kitty in the X-Men after Kitty impressed him by defeating two Sidri with the help of Lockheed, who had followed her back to earth. Lockheed became Kitty's constant companion.[51]

Katherine Pryde (Earth-616) from Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 168 001

Professor Xavier is a jerk!

Piotr and Kitty became close, though at the time, both were too shy to fully admit their feelings for each other. However, after surviving the threat by the alien Brood, Kitty and Peter grew closer and started to date. One problem in their relationship was that Kitty was a devout Jew and Colossus was raised as an atheist. Kitty began to grow angry at her parents' divorce.

As the X-Men confronted Dracula over Storm, Kitty was temporarily possessed by Lilith and bit Colossus. Together, Kitty and Piotr attacked Storm, as she was commanded to steal the Montesi Formula for Dracula. While the X-Men battled Dracula, Kitty began to recite the Montesi Formula, but was stopped. Dracula was defeated and Lilith released Kitty, thanking the X-Men for their assistance.[52]

The X-Men encountered the underground community of mutants known as the Morlocks, who had kidnapped one of their former members, Angel. Kitty promised Caliban of the Morlocks her hand in marriage, while deathly sick from Plague, in exchange for aid in saving Piotr and the X-Men's life. Sprite however did not keep her promise and returned to the X-Men.[53] Kitty abandoned her code-name, Sprite, for the Professor's original choice, Ariel.[54]

Katherine Pryde (Earth-616) from Marvel Graphic Novel Vol 1 5 001

Using "Ariel" codename during a training session

While battling the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Colossus was frozen in liquid nitrogen. While attempting to save Colossus, Kitty was kidnapped by Callisto, who intended for her to keep her word and marry Caliban. Caliban released her from her vow, hoping she would one day return to him of her free will, and Colossus was saved by the combined efforts of Rogue and the Morlock, Healer.[55]

Kitty began spending time with her friend, Doug Ramsey, another computer genius, and together they hacked Project Wideawake files. Soon after this, even though Kitty had acted out of love to save him, Piotr started to question the time she was spending with Doug, which even led to Kitty missing scheduled Danger Room sessions. Doug later asked Kitty to accompany him to the Massachusetts Academy, where he had received a scholarship. Believing Emma to be in a coma, Kitty went, and they were both captured by the White Queen. After the New Mutants rescued them, and because of his relationship with Zsaji, Colossus broke up with Kitty.[56][57]

Kitty Pryde Shadow and Flame Vol 1 3 Textless

Possessed by Ogun

Kitty grew close to the X-Man Wolverine, who became a mentor to her. Kitty found that her father was dealing with Japanese gangsters. She followed him to Japan and Kitty was captured and put under the mental control of Ogun, the ninja master who had once been Wolverine's teacher but had since become his enemy. Ogun mentally had Kitty believe that she was his daughter and had been training in the art of ninjutsu. Ogun also cut her hair shorter. Being the only X-Man to receive her call for help, Wolverine soon followed. Kitty was sent to kill Wolverine and injured him greatly, but with help from Yukio, she was restored. Wolverine undertook a crash program to teach Kitty's body, just as Ogun had taught her mind, to become skillful enough in the Japanese martial arts to contend against Ogun. Constantly telling her that she can either train or leave, Kitty eventually realized that Wolverine was giving her a choice that Ogun denied her, and she slowly began to grow out of her childish, spoiled ways. At the end of her training, Kitty assumed the new and permanent code name Shadowcat. Kitty went to face Ogun herself. After being defeated by Ogun, he offered her to join him or die. At that time, Wolverine came to her rescue. Sadly, Wolverine was also overwhelmed and the two of them sat helplessly at Ogun's mercy. In a turn of events, Kitty informed Wolverine that she was scared until he arrived. When he apologized, she stated that she did not want an apology, but life. At that moment, Wolverine turned the battle and defeated Ogun. Kitty regained her innocence that Ogun had taken.[37] Kitty returned and made another costume change.[58]

Kitty went on to rescue the Power Pack from the Morlocks and battled the Beyonder, who briefly transferred Illyana's powers to Kitty.[59]

Kitty and Piotr agreed to be friends after surviving together in Murderworld. Kitty then battled the Gladiators to rescue Sunspot and Magma from their old teammate, Karma. While fighting the Gladiators, the Beyonder brought-out Illyana's dark half, the Darkchylde. She teleported her friends to Limbo and attacked them, until Kitty used Illyana's Soulsword on her and returned her to her natural form. After Kitty and Piotr returned from Murderworld, Kitty and Doug created a program that would alter the Murderworld computers.[60]

Kitty visited the National Holocaust Memorial with Magneto, new member of the X-Men per Professor Xavier's request, and Kitty was amazed to learn that Magneto knew her great-aunt and that he was a hero in the death camp of Auschwitz before they were attacked by the Freedom Force. At this time, the Beyonder brought a young mutant named Boom-Boom to the mansion and the X-Men and New Mutants instinctively attacked them. After having nightmares of Illyana being in trouble from Karnilla, the Norn Queen, the X-Men later traveled to Asgard to rescue Storm and the New Mutants from one of Loki's schemes. While there they battled Fenris, and later, the Beyonder again. Following the conflict, Phoenix decided to simply destroy the entire universe and have it all start over without the Beyonder. Phoenix stole the life force of the X-Men and Starjammers, but Storm's soul convinced her otherwise. After hearing the thoughts of every living being in existence, Phoenix returned the X-Men and Starjammers to life.[61]

While the X-Men rebuilt San Francisco from the battle with the Beyonder, he wiped the New Mutants out of existence and Illyana's Soulsword and armor came into Kitty's possession. Due to her and Illyana's bond, only Kitty retained her memories of the New Mutants until Beyonder brought them back. At this time, the X-Men stayed with Jessica Drew and Kitty accompanied David Ishima to a date. Upon their return, the X-Men were beaten by Freedom Force and about to be taken-in, until the intervention of Officer Bree Morrell. The X-Men then returned to New York. While the X-Men searched for a severely wounded Phoenix after Wolverine had stabbed her in the chest, they were attacked by Nimrod and formed an alliance with the Hellfire Club. Kitty re-calibrated Cerebro, for non telepaths to use, to search for Nightcrawler and Phoenix. Kitty, Piotr, and Magik rescued a weakened Nightcrawler from a gang. After being turned to X-Babies by Mojo, the X-Men battled the New Mutants until they were broken of their mind control and defeated the spineless one.[62]

The X-Men attempted to rescue the Morlocks during the indiscriminate massacre by the Marauders. The Marauder called Harpoon seriously injured the phased Shadowcat with his energy spear, as she leaped between him and Rogue. Although she survived the attack, it adversely affected Kitty's powers so that she could no longer regain her solidity and gradually began to dissipate. Kitty was sent to recover on Muir Island.[63]

Kitty's condition began to worsen, and she was in danger of completely dissipating. Unwilling to watch her die, Magneto went to Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) of the Fantastic Four to use a device that Mr. Fantastic had built. Unsure of the outcome, Mr. Fantastic refused to help Kitty, even after the X-Men begged him, and the X-Men and Fantastic Four briefly battled. At that time, Dr. Doom presented his assistance and, under duress, Storm accepted. While having Psylocke mentally keep Kitty's mind together, Mr. Fantastic reconsidered and traveled to Latveria, where the X-Men initially battled the Fantastic Four again. At the urging of Franklin Richards, Kitty was cured by the combined efforts of Dr. Doom and Mr Fantastic and through intense concentration, Kitty was able to remain solid.[64]

Excalibur[]

Excalibur Vol 1 2 Back Cover

Kitty as Shadowcat

While recovering on Muir Island, Kitty witnessed what seemed to be the X-Men sacrificing themselves on television, in Dallas, Texas. Kitty was later visited by Illyana, who was hysterically blaming Forge for her brother and the X-Men's death and asking Kitty to aid her in killing him. Illyana left furious after Kitty declined to help her.[65]

After having the same continuous dream, Kitty and Nightcrawler summarized that Rachel might have been trying to telepathically reach them. After being attacked by Gatecrasher and the Technet, who were hired by Saturnyne to eliminate Phoenix, Kitty and Meggan Puceanu were captured. After arriving in London and being reunited with Rachel, the combined efforts of Kitty, Nightcrawler, Phoenix, Meggan, and Captain Britain confronted Technet and the Warwolves. During the fight, Kitty was briefly defeated by Joyboy, who forced Kitty to go through a rapid weight gain with his powers, rendering Kitty enormously fat. Despite this setback, the obese Kitty was soon freed by Rachel and the five pulled free, resulting in the defeat of both Technet and the Warwolves, who were sent by Mojo to bring Rachel back. At the urging of Rachel to continue Professor Xavier's dream, Shadowcat and Nightcrawler became founding members of the British-based team Excalibur. [38]

After rescuing hostages in a nightclub, Kitty created a Doppelganger Module to draw-out the remaining Warwolves, by impersonating Rachel. Kitty's plan worked better than she thought and she was captured by the Warwolves. After Kitty was skinned by a Warwolf, Phoenix felt her pain and held her consciousness together, while tracking her to the Warwolves' hide-out. Excalibur rescued Shadowcat, whose intangibility saved her life, and placed the Warwolves on display at the zoo.[66]

After battling the Juggernaut and a group of escaped prisoners, the team addressed Captain Britain's drinking problems, while moving into their new headquarters, Captain Britain's Braddock Lighthouse.[67] Following a trail of counterfeit money, Excalibur traveled to Murderwold and battled the Crazy Gang to rescue Captain Britain's ex-girlfriend, Courtney Ross. While battling the Crazy Gang, Excalibur's bodies were switched with members of the Crazy Gang (except Kitty who stayed hidden). After Kitty entered the virus that she and Doug created into the Murderworld computers and sent Arcade into Murderworld, Courtney restored everyone to their respective bodies, except Rachel, who was possessed. Kitty had to phase in order for Rachel's telepathy to reassert her control. Following Rachel, who sensed her infant brother's telepathic distress, Excalibur traveled to the Empire State Building and battled demons. While there Meggan was brought under the demonic influence of the demon, N'astirh and became the Goblin Princess. Kitty and Captain Britain were transformed into movie characters; as Fast Buck and then a Nightmare on Elm St. look-alike, Captain Britain attempted to kill Kitty. Illyana's eldritch armor and Soulsword covered Kitty and she successfully brought Cap and Meggan out of their enchantments. [68]

Katherine Pryde (Earth-616) and Brian Braddock (Earth-616) from Excalibur Vol 1 7 0001

Kitty uses the Soulsword to free Captain Britain

After the demonic invasion, Kitty returned to the School for Gifted Youngsters to get her old things and was shocked to see it had been destroyed. The New Mutants were also at the site and Kitty began to argue with them, until a newly returned to childhood Illyana yelled at her and Mirage used her power to manifest Doug and the teenage Illyana. Kitty realized her immaturity and apologized to the New Mutants and asked Mirage to "let them go."[69] Excalibur returned home to rescue W.H.O. from the Lightning Force, alternate reality versions of themselves, where Kitty met Widget and, out of fear, disrupted her circuitry. Through their actions battling the Lightning Force, Excalibur was able to return Dr. Moira MacTaggert and Kitty took Widget home with her. Upon returning to the Lighthouse, Kitty and Rachel found the Soulsword embedded in bedrock. Despite using the full extent of power permitted by the Phoenix Force, Rachel was unable to remove the sword, which she surmised only Kitty could remove.[70]

At this time, Kitty became infatuated with the W.H.O. scientist Alistaire Stuart. Stuart ignored the smitten Shadowcat while he found himself attracted to Rachel. While attempting to activate Widget, Kitty briefly stood before a group of aliens in a giant hall, including hairy Excalibur counterparts, until she was returned to her reality and Widget began to eat small, metal objects. After returning to the exchange of Dr. MacTaggert and the Highland Flyer crew with the Lightning Force Reichsrail Train, Reichsminister MacTaggart threw a nuclear grenade and Widget teleported Excalibur and Alistaire into another dimension.[25]

Kitty was deeply affected by Illyana's death from the Legacy Virus. Kitty eventually became romantically involved with her teammate Peter Wisdom.[71] Later, G. W. Bridge, the acting commander of the international law enforcement agency S.H.I.E.L.D., recruited Kitty Pryde to become a temporary S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Bridge explained that the computer system of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying headquarters, the Helicarrier, was failing to recognize any user but her. Pryde soon learned that this was because the spirit of the late Ogun had taken control of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier's computer system. Pryde succeeded in defeating Ogun and, with Wolverine's aid, S.H.I.E.L.D. regained control of the Helicarrier computers.[72]

Shadowcat subsequently returned to Excalibur, where she continued to be a valued member of the team for a time until she decided to return to the United States and the X-Men.

Kitty disappeared for a time after the X-Men's first battle with the Neo Warclan.[73] Following the tragic death of Colossus, and too many loved ones before him, Kitty chose not to return to the team to find a new way to help realize Xavier's dream of peaceful coexistence between man and mutant.[74]

University[]

Having left the super-hero life behind, she went back to Chicago and got herself a full scholarship at Robert Heinlein University, where she would be free to pursue her own destiny.[75]

X-Treme X-Men Vol 1 26 Textless

New Costume

Life away from the X-Men only lasted so long. While studying computer science, her father died in the Sentinel attack on Genosha. After attacking a man who was spouting anti-mutant sentiments, she was placed in therapy. Soon after, the Purity anti-mutant group attempted sabotage on-campus, and evolving Sentinels attacked. Kitty defeated both threats with the help of Karma and Shola Inkose.[76]

Kitty then became involved with Storm's X-Men squad, once again facing William Stryker. Storm then requested her help in fighting Elias Bogan and his mysterious telepath who ended up being Kitty's lost friend Rachel Summers.[77]

Astonishing X-Men[]

Shortly thereafter, Scott Summers and Emma Frost took over the Xavier Institute. Kitty accepted a spot-on Cyclops' squad, while also teaching at the school. She was reluctant, as her dealings with Ms. Frost in the past were anything but friendly. Yet, in their investigation of a claimed cure for mutants, Shadowcat discovered the very much alive Colossus being used as a test subject. After a bit of initial awkwardness, Kitty and Piotr resumed dating and finally consummated their relationship.[78]

Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 6 Textless

Colossus and Shadowcat

Mental projections created by a piece of Cassandra Nova's consciousness, which had been lodged in Emma's mind, utilized Emma's telepathy to orchestrate Nova's escape. Kitty personally took down Frost and imprisoned her, only to fall under a telepathic delusion. Under this delusion, Kitty was made to believe that she and Colossus had conceived a child which was later taken away by the X-Men because its potential mutant abilities were supposedly dangerous. Kitty reacted in the delusion by attempting to rescue the child from a near-inescapable "box" in the depths of the school, unaware that in reality she was freeing Stuff, who contained the trapped consciousness of Cassandra Nova. Kitty collapsed immediately afterward, driven to unconsciousness after Nova tried to transfer her mind into Kitty's body from Emma's body.[79]

Later, Kitty was with a group of X-Men taken to the planet Breakworld by Abigail Brand of S.W.O.R.D. Kitty was phased into an enormous bullet that was launched toward earth by the inhabitants of Breakworld. In a heroic gesture, Kitty phased the entire bullet through one side of the planet and out the other. It was believed she may have been permanently fused to the bullet and was presumed dead.[80][40]

S.W.O.R.D. managed to keep track of the giant bullet using a satellite which fell into the bullet's orbit. Because the bullet's design was to harden as time went on, it became increasingly difficult to break the bullet open. When some asteroid travelers wandered into the bullet's path it looked like the bullet was going to destroy the thousands of lifeforms on the asteroids, but the bullet phased through them - revealing Kitty to be alive.[81]

Return to Earth[]

A few months after, Magneto went to the top of Mount Tamalpais and used his powers to bring her back to Earth but was nearly killed in the act of ripping the bullet apart. When Kitty was about to hug Colossus, she phased through him and couldn't talk. She was placed in a containment unit to ensure that she could be restored to her state prior to when she was taken to Breakworld. Kitty had not slept, gone to the bathroom, eaten, drank, or had any hair and nail growth while she was in the bullet.[82][83]

Katherine Pryde (Earth-616) from Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 530

Kitty in her special phase suit

Colossus, who regularly visited Kitty, asked Emma to help them talk telepathically. She was hesitant at first, but Kitty made Emma feel guilty for being stuck in her intangible state; Emma then accepted, and Kitty told Colossus that she loved him. On another session, Kitty figured out that Emma meant to kill Sebastian Shaw when she heard one of Emma's stray thoughts. She used a suit the X-Club made for her to cancel out her intangibility and let her interact with other people and, along with Emma and Fantomex, went to get Shaw off the island to make sure Emma wouldn't kill him. Shaw broke out of his confinement, however. As he was about to kill Emma, Kitty removed her suit and stuck her hand into his heart. She threatened to kill him if he didn't let Emma go, even though she was not yet capable of becoming solid. He saw through her lie and continued to attack Emma. Emma finally managed to subdue him on her own, wiped his mind, and left him there to live his life away from them.[84]

Breakworld Refugees[]

When Breakworld refugees came to Earth led by Kruun and Haleena, they found hospitality on Utopia. Kitty, alongside with Colossus, known by the Breakworlders as the Powerlord, visited the camp to support the refugees.[citation needed]

Kruun, who wanted to win over Colossus, took the intangible Shadowcat hostage using a Breakworld's metal dagger that was able to cut her. After battling Colossus, Kruun tracked down Kitty on Utopia, until she went to the X-Club's X-Lab, where she was killed and revived as a solid by Haleena during a solo mission ritual where she sacrificed herself. She was revived in the same ritual by Kruun, who was strong enough to survive.[30]

Fear Itself[]

When Kuurth attacked San Francisco, the X-Men failed to stop him. Magik used her powers to teleport herself, Colossus, and Kitty into the Crimson Cosmos and meet with Cyttorak. Illyana told Cyttorak that Cain Marko betrayed him and now served another god; Cyttorak took his power back from Marko. Magik intended to become his new avatar, but Colossus intercepted, becoming the new Juggernaut, much to the displeasure of Kitty who ended up breaking up with him for good.[85]

Jean Grey School[]

Katherine Pryde (Earth-616) from All-New X-Men Vol 1 6 0001

Wolverine had had enough of Scott using kids as soldiers, decided to restart the school, and mutant sides were taken. Kitty sided with Logan,[86] and became the headmistress of the Jean Grey School.[41] Her first day involved Bamfs, the Hellfire Club, Krakoa,[41] Sauron, and Wendigo.[87]

Katherine Pryde (Earth-616) from Wolverine & the X-Men Vol 1 4 0001

Seemingly Pregnant Kitty

Kitty was shocked to find herself seemingly eight months pregnant. [88] It turned out that she wasn't pregnant, but something much worse: her uterus contained Brood drones attempting to kill her from the inside out. The X-Men shrank down to microscopic size and fought the Brood inside Kitty's body.[89] An infected Kitty was forced to fight for her life as adult Brood begin their invasion of the school. Later, she was incapacitated by an alien scientist named Xanto Starblood, who revealed that Kitty's history with the Brood made her the most effective distraction against the real target: Broo.[90] Kitty was injected with centaurian penicillin after the battle ended in order to kill off the remaining Brood inside her.[91] During this time, she was also among the instructors briefly mind controlled into performing alongside the Murder Circus, during which she served as Warbird's cowgirl themed partner, though the teachers were eventually saved by the students.[92]

New Charles Xavier School[]

Kitty left Wolverine's X-Men team and the Jean Grey School after the Battle of the Atom, citing her companions lack of trust in her decisions during the event despite everything she'd given up for them. She took the time displaced X-Men with her, and together they joined Cyclops and his X-Men, at the New Charles Xavier School for Mutants.[93] Not too long after, Kitty met the Guardians of the Galaxy when the young Jean Grey was kidnapped and tried by the Shi'ar for the Phoenix's past crimes.[94] After the adventure ended, Kitty began a long-distance relationship with Guardians of the Galaxy member Star-Lord.[95]

Black Vortex[]

Peter Quill (Earth-616) and Katherine Pryde (Earth-616) from Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men Black Vortex Omega Vol 1 1 001

Peter Quill proposing to Kitty

After Star-Lord was kidnapped by a group of mercenaries known as the Slaughter Squad during one of their long-distance dates, Kitty stole a Quinjet and flew into space to rescue him.[96] Kitty successfully saved Peter from the Squad's boss, who was revealed to be Star-Lord's father J'son.[97] In order to annoy him, Peter and Kitty decided to steal from him. The item they ended up stealing was the Black Vortex, an incredibly powerful artefact with the ability to enhance a person's powers to cosmic scale. In order to decide what to do with it, they called the Guardians of the Galaxy and the X-Men.[98]

During the conflict that ensued, the Black Vortex ended up in the two cosmically empowered X-Men and a Guardian's hands,[99] then with the Kree empire,[100] and back to J'son.[101] J'son used the Black Vortex on his ally Thane to encase the entire planet Spartax in an amber construct, as part of an alliance with the Brood, to let them have the planet.[102] Once the heroes recovered the Vortex, Kitty Pryde submitted to its power in order to be able to phase the entire planet through its amber enclosure and save it. After the dust settled, Kitty not only remained with her cosmic powers, but was also asked by Star-Lord to marry him, and she said yes.[103]

Guardian of the Galaxy[]

Not long after the Black Vortex disappeared, Kitty found out about the election of her fiancée to be the new King of the Spartax Empire.[104] Despite his doubts about taking the job, Kitty reassured him that she would support him no matter what decision he made.[105] Peter decided to accept the decision of the Spartax people and became their new King, leaving the Guardians as well as his role of Star-Lord. Kitty remained at Peter's side for eight months, but his increasing and more demanding obligations eventually made her feel lonely and angry. She found solace in her work as a Guardian of the Galaxy and soon she decided to take over her fiancée's old identity as Star-Lord. This upset Peter, as he believed Kitty was trying to make him look bad on purpose. The two had a fallout and Kitty left Spartax for good to rejoin the Guardians, under Rocket's leadership, as Star-Lord full time. She spent the next eight months traveling with the team and protecting the Galaxy. She fought Yotat the Destroyer and met the Knowhere Corps at some point during those eight months.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 4 6 Women of Power Variant Textless

Kitty as Star-Lord

One day, after taking down a Chitauri spaceship, the Guardians recovered a strange artifact. Since they didn't trust Earth to deal with unknown tech, Kitty suggested taking it to Spartax where Peter could help them identify what it was. After they arrived, they were attacked by a rogue Kree accuser called Hala who accused them of destroying the Kree empire and wanted revenge.[7] Kitty tried to fight her, but she was immune to her powers. Hala almost won the fight, but Kitty managed to rescue the whole team and get them underground, where they regrouped and decided to go rescue Peter who was taken hostage by the female accuser. Following his rescue, the group went back and defeated Hala; Yotat reemerged and attacked them, but he was defeated once again. After both foes were imprisoned, the council reached the decision of removing Peter from his position as king. Kitty helped him escape and rejoin the Guardians as he was branded a wanted man again.[106]

Their reunion did not last long as old wounds reopened between them and both decided to leave the team for a while. After being convinced by Rocket, Kitty decided to call Peter and try to make up, however things did not end well when they met again and both parted ways in worse terms. At that moment each received a message from Tony Stark asking them to deliver the Penultimate Nullifier to Hank Pym. It turned out to be a trap by Collector who hired former Slaughter Lord Raksor the Skrull to trick them inside Collector's fortress.[107] Inside Kitty was forced to remember all her fights with Peter, but after finally telling the whole story in a private interview with Collector, she managed to trick him and escaped with Peter into space. Their ship however was left without power and non-communicative, just floating in space. Feeling they would soon die of asphyxiation, Kitty and Peter finally talked about their problems and forgave each other. Rocket and Groot eventually rescued them and they decided to resume their relationship.[108]

After this, they received information about a Badoon planet that was enslaving aliens. The Guardians decided to free them and separated into groups of two. Kitty went with Peter and infiltrated the planet. After seeing the extent of what the Badoon were really doing and recalling the way her people were treated back on Earth, she left the mission behind to destroy the place completely and mercilessly. This led to the capture of Peter Quill who was attacked during the commotion.[109] Instead of going back to the Guardians, she went on her own to rescue him. Eventually the rest of the Guardians arrived and took control of the planet.[citation needed]

Engagement[]

After freeing the planet, the Guardians received a call from Carol Danvers requesting their help in her fight against Tony Stark. The team voted if they should go back to help Carol; Kitty voted yes. Once there, she tried to communicate with her old team, the X-Men, but received no response. Then she learned the truth about the whole Civil War situation from Peter's mouth including the capture of Thanos and was asked by him to keep this information secret from Gamora.[110] Despite this, Gamora eventually found out and had a big fallout with Quill. The rest of the Guardians felt betrayed as well and decided to leave. Kitty, however, chose to stay with Peter and remained at his and Carol's side until the conclusion of the fight between the latter and Iron Man. When it was all over, she decided to leave Peter like the rest of the Guardians, although in her case, she never provided an explanation why.[111]

X-Men Gold Vol 2 1 Textless

Kitty leading the X-Men

She returned to her hometown in Chicago, deciding to retire from the heroic life once more and live a normal life. But some weeks after she settled down, Storm called her to meet and, once there, she asked Kitty to rejoin the X-Men, this time as leader of the team. Kitty had her doubts at first, not wanting to get involved in more superhero business anymore. But after she went to Limbo to see the school, memories of her past as an X-Man along with a feeling of no direction for the school convinced her to rejoin the team once more. Her first act as leader was to bring back the school, not to Westchester, but to New York City's Central Park, where they'd not be hiding anymore. Piotr and Kitty were reunited, and despite their initial attempt to move forward only as friends,[112] they reignited their romance and Kitty eventually proposed to Piotr, and the two became engaged.[113] However, Kitty backed down at the last second during the wedding ceremony, citing that their messy history together was not a good foundation for a marriage despite their mutual love.[114]

X-Men Disassembled[]

When Nate Grey returned from seclusion and decided to recreate the world into a utopia for mutants through force, he first kidnapped Kitty.[115] Kitty later got free and opposed Nate's efforts with the other X-Men. When Nate realized that his vision for the world would never come about with the X-Men around, he made them vanish in an instant, including Kitty.[116][117]

Age of X-Man[]

Kitty and the others were transported to a different reality created by Nate and a Life Seed in an attempt to create a world where mutants lived in peace, erasing their memories of their previous lives so they didn't resist.[118]

Kitty became a member of Murshid En Sabah Nur's revolutionary group known as the X-Tracts. She was phased inside a statue of Hope Summers as she was hiding from Department X Clerk Iceman. After he left, Kitty came out of the statue to meet up with Eye-Boy who helped her dodge being caught.[119]

Katherine Pryde (Earth-616) from Age of X-Man Apocalypse & the X-Tracts Vol 1 1 001

Kitty had a Menorah in her hand but didn't know what it was. Trevor explained that it was part of an extinct religion know as Judaism and as he mentioned it Kitty started to have a flashback of herself with her mother. He asked her if there was something wrong, but she brushed it off like it was nothing. Then out of nowhere, Trevor kissed Kitty, which startled her. Kitty didn't expect that emotional response from Trevor as she wanted it to be special.[119]

She was later recalled back to the X-Tracts' hideout The Gilded Tomb by Nur in order to perform what he called the Perfect X. Kitty placed her hand on Unveil who used her ability to allow each X-Tract member to focus their minds together in order to share their thoughts and emotions with everyone in the group.[119]

Murshid Nur mentioned his true plans to Kitty and the others. As they held a rally in Central Park, the other X-Tracts would travel to Kazakhstan to retrieve Omega Red.[119]

Kitty was by Apocalypse's side as he gave a peaceful speech in the middle of Central Park. As the crowd enjoyed the words he spread, the X-Men showed up as they believed what was being preached as heresy. Kitty gathered the crowd together to listen to En Sabah Nur say that they believe in love not war.[120]

Kitty was eventually allowed to return to the real world when Nate decided to allow the mutants, he trapped in his reality to leave after he was made to realize the flaws in his reality and approach.[121]

Captain of the Marauders[]

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Captaining the Marauders

Mutant society experienced a drastic change with the establishment of the mutant-exclusive nation of Krakoa,[122] Among the wonders of Krakoan floral technology, Gateways served as entry points for mutants to instantly access the main island. In her first attempt to arrive to the island through this method, Kitty Pryde found herself unable to pass through the portals, or even interact with any form of Krakoan technology. The experience radically affected Pryde as she questioned her place in the new mutant world: she adopted the nickname Kate Pryde, took up drinking, stole a boat to sail to Krakoa by herself, and exhibited uncharacteristically violent behavior. On the island, she was telepathically contacted by Emma Frost, who offered her to help the Hellfire Trading Company's affairs by rescuing mutants from nations that did not recognize Krakoan sovereignty. Having learned about Russian agents restricting mutants from reaching Krakoa, Pryde captained a ship with Iceman, Storm, and Pyro to save the victims. In order to distance the X-Men from their possibly illegal activities, Captain Pryde named her crew the "Marauders".[14] The team met up with Bishop in Taipei, where he informed them about Xavier's murder on Krakoa, prompting Captain Kate Pryde to take the Marauders to a nearby tattoo shop, where she received a set of knuckle tattoos reading "hold fast". The Marauders were determined to sail around the globe as raiders to save mutants. Simultaneously, Captain Kate Pryde accepted the position of the Red Queen of the Hellfire Trading Company[3] and was assigned a seat at the Quiet Council of Krakoa.[123]

Pryde becoming a monarch of Hellfire was an obstacle for Sebastian Shaw's goal of taking complete control of the company since the Marauders foiled his plans of redistributing Krakoan goods for profit,[3] and the alliance between the White Queen Frost and the Red Queen Pryde blocked his political moves. Shaw set a trap for Pryde in Madripoor by working with the anti-mutant group Homines Verendi, who attacked his son Shinobi in order to lure Pryde out into an ambush.[124] As the Marauders assisted the victims, Shaw furtively immobilized Pryde with Krakoan vines that sank and drowned her.[31] Her disappearance raised suspicions, and her lifeless body was eventually found by Bishop.[125] On Krakoa, Kate Pryde's loved ones held a sailor funeral for her. After the ceremony, Lockheed, who had witnessed and survived Shaw's attack, was able to contact Frost and inform her of the truth behind Pryde's murder.[32]

Marauders Vol 1 16 Textless

The Red and White Queens of Hellfire punish the Black King

Fortunately, among Krakoan technological wonders, resurrection was possible via the Five.[126] Initially, the Five could not activate a body husk with Pryde's psyche despite multiple attempts at behest of Xavier.[32] In the eighteenth attempts however, Emma Frost intervened in the process, allowing Pryde to phase through her life pod alive.[32] Together, they kept the truth about Pryde's death a secret in order to get revenge at Shaw.[127] A brutal reckoning ensued to punish Shar for his treachery. At his sanctuary in Blackstone, Frost and Pryde neutralized his powers and maimed him without mercy. To further molest him, Pryde destroyed his collection of whiskey bottles. To finish their glorious revenge, they served him a poisoned drink that left him paralyzed. Pryde and Frost exerted their full control over Shaw both in Hellfire and in the Quiet Council.[128]

In Madripoor, Pryde thanked the people who had taken care of Lockheed while she was gone, when she learned that the Verendi were trying to raze Lowtown in order to gentrify it. To prevent them from doing so, the Hellfire Trading Company outbid them in buying multiple properties to ensure the safety of the people, including the creation of a free hospital for the local community. Revolted with this affront, the Verendi unleashed the new Reavers, composed of people who had been maimed by mutants. In their attack, the Reavers successfully caused an international incident that led the Marauders to be banned from Madripoor.[129] With their protectors gone, the people of Lowtown were pillaged and had their houses destroyed by the Reavers. Captain Pryde swam through the sewers of Madripoor to plant a secret Krakoan Gateway and allow a small team of Morlocks to sneak into the city, fight the Reavers and free Madripoor.[130]

Attributes

Power Grid[186]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Master: Single Form of Combat:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/None:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Enhanced:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Gifted

Powers

Kitty is a mutant whom Nick Fury's intel classified her as power level 7.[131]

Phasing/Intangibility: Kitty possesses the ability to pass through solid matter and objects by passing her atoms through the spaces between the atoms of the object through which she is moving.[citation needed] In this way she and the object through which she is passing could temporarily merge without interacting, and each is unharmed when Kitty had finished passing through the object.[citation needed] This process is called "phasing." When Shadowcat is phasing, she is, for all intents and purposes, intangible.[citation needed] Hence, when attacked, she can shift into a "phasing" state, even if she is not at the time passing through an object, so as to allow oncoming projectiles or energy blasts to pass through her harmlessly, rendering her virtually untouchable.[citation needed] Kitty passes through objects at the same rate of speed at which she was moving before she "entered" them.[citation needed] Following her serious injuries at the hands of the Marauders during the Mutant Massacre,[132] Kitty's phased state became her natural state.[133][38] She only remained solid by concentrating, and reverted to her phased state if that concentration was disrupted. After a number of years, she returned to her original tangible state.[134]

  • Selective Phasing/Intangibility: Kitty can make all or part of her body intangible while leaving the rest solid.[citation needed] Using her phasing ability, Kitty can also freely walk on both air and water. In fact, she can use this ability walk from the ground to the upper stories of a building as if she were climbing a staircase.[135]
  • Phased/Intangible Extension: From the first use of her phasing power, Kitty was able to phase her clothing along with herself.[citation needed] Through practice, she learned to phase other objects along with herself without harm to them, and at one point phased an entire X-Men team.[citation needed] She could also enable someone as big as Colossus to "walk on air" along with her; however, she has to maintain physical contact with the individual or object she phased along with herself for the effect to work with this another.[citation needed] This technique can be used to allow objects to become intangible and pass through bodies or other solid objects such as buildings, planes, or trains.[citation needed]
  • Elemental Intangibility: Allow elements to pass harmlessly through her. Such as water, fire, earth, air, energy, electricity, and even lightning.
  • Phased/Intangible Camouflage: While phased, Kitty can easily blend into the colors of her immediate surroundings and environments, practically making her, and others in physical contact with her, invisible to anything viewing them with the naked eye.[citation needed] Kitty can also become completely invisible and unseen in shadows.[citation needed]
  • Phased/Intangible Disruption: Kitty can easily damage tangible matter by passing right through it.[citation needed] When phasing through an object with an electrical system, the process often disrupts the system's workings.[60] She can selectively disrupt a person's nervous system in the same way.[136]
  • Phased/Intangible Travel: While Kitty is phased the planet continues to spin beneath her, allowing her to travel from east to west at a rate of nine kilometers per minute.[137]

Telepathic Immuninity: When phased telepathic abilities has no effect on her due to there being no mind.[136][138][139] It's suspected that elements of her psyche could reside in different dimensions,[140] a theory that appeared to be supported when she became enhanced by the Black Vortex.[103]

Black Vortex Empowerment: After exposure to the power of the Black Vortex, Kitty's cosmic potential was unleashed, vastly improving on all of her previous abilities, now being able to phase through different planes of existence and ascend to a cosmic plane.[103]

Abilities

Master Martial Artist: Shadowcat possessed moderate expertise of the martial arts of the Japanese ninja and samurai. Shadowcat demonstrated great knowledge of ninja methods of combat when she was mentally possessed by the Ronin Ogun. With the possession over, Shadowcat forgot the knowledge of ninja techniques he gave her, but she retained the knowledge of Japanese martial arts, as well as street-fighting methods taught to her by Wolverine.[141] She also knows Israeli Special Forces Training.[142]

Master Swordsman: Kitty is highly trained at swordplay, especially that used by Japanese samurai and wielding Japanese blades. The Silver Samurai has stated that her skills may surpass those of Wolverine, and she was able to briefly hold her own against the Samurai in a somewhat staged battle.[143]

Dance Training: Kitty is trained in ballet and modern dance. She continued to take dance training under the tutelage of Stevie Hunter and was highly agile.[5]

Expert Pilot: She is a skilled pilot of various aircraft and certain advanced interstellar vehicles.[144]

Genius-level Computer Expert: Kitty was an expert in the field of computer science, demonstrating a genius-level aptitude for programming, modifying, and diagnosing almost any computer system: even those of unfamiliar human and extraterrestrial origin. She used her skills in many high-stress combat situations to great effect, and in combination with her mutant ability to disrupt electrical systems, she was a formidable foe for any enemy relying on advanced technology. She was on par with her former hacking partner Cypher whose mutant gift for languages granted him superhuman skill in the same field (albeit before he was consciously aware of his powers.[145]

Multilingual: She speaks fluent Japanese,[146] Russian,[9] the royal and standard languages of the Shi'ar Empire,[147] and Skrullos.[148] She also has moderate expertise in Gaelic,[citation needed] and knows some profanities in Hebrew.[134]

Weaknesses

Mystical Vulnerability: While phasing Shadowcat was still vulnerable to mystical attacks.

Wade Wilson (Earth-616) and James Howlett (Earth-616) from Deadpool Vol 3 27 0001

Deadpool catching Kitty by surprise

Phasing Limitations: Denser materials were more difficult for Kitty to phase through, sometimes causing her pain. When phasing through Adamantium it makes her sick. Solidifying while in an object could cause serious injury if not death.[144] As it is an active ability, if she can't see an attack coming, she can't phase through it, a fact that the mercenary known as Deadpool once exploited when he knocked her out (taking her by surprise) in order to provoke Wolverine into fighting him for his amusement.[149]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Weapons

Swords: Pair of ninjatō gifted to her by Ogun.[1]

Transportation

New Marauder

Notes

  • Kitty Pryde is Jewish. She is usually seen wearing a Star of David necklace.[11][127] Cultural memories of the Holocaust made her especially sensitive to all kinds of prejudice against mutants, humans, or any alien species, much more if it involves camps or imprisonment.[150]
  • She answered to "Kitty" over "Katherine" since she was three years old.[21]
  • Kitty Pryde is slightly nearsighted.[151]
  • Kitty Pryde attended Robert A. Heinlein School for Engineering and Astrophysics in Chicago on a full scholarship.[152]
  • Kitty Pryde was thirteen (going on fourteen) when she first got her powers and joined the X-Men.[11]
  • While in Japan, Kitty used the email address 'nekochan@jmail.com'. Neko is Japanese for cat.[153]

Relationships[]

Kitty has dated five men. Her preference for older men named Peter is well documented since from all her boyfriends, the names of three of them have been Peter and all five were much older than her. It was later revealed that even her childhood hamster was named Peter.[98]

  • Her first relationship was with Piotr "Peter" Rasputin, a guy she met at the Xavier School after she enrolled there. At first, Piotr just saw Kitty as a little sister despite her showing her intentions to be more than that, but soon his feelings towards her evolved as well and at some point, they decided to try start dating. They went to three dates (two abruptly ended after being attacked by their enemies) before Piotr was kidnapped to participate on the Secret Wars. After the Wars, Piotr broke up with her because of the feelings he had for Zsaji, an alien healer he met during the wars. Some feelings still existed but both decided it was best for them to remain as friends. After many years, however, Piotr died to cure the Legacy Virus. Kitty took this loss pretty hard and realized she never really got over her feelings for him. However, after rejoining the X-Men, she found out Piotr had been resurrected and soon he went back home with Kitty. Both spent a long time flirting with each other until they finally decided to try again and got back together, but two days later Kitty disappeared after being trapped in a giant bullet. After some time, she returned in a permanent intangible state. Despite this, they resumed their relationship and tried to make it work, but eventually, Kitty broke up with him because she realized Piotr wasn't a person who looked forward to a happy long life with her and would have eventually sacrificed himself again, leaving her alone once more.[154] They both remain as friends and are on good terms nowadays, still care a lot about each other despite not being involved together anymore.[42]
    • Under an illusion implanted by Emma Frost, she and Piotr had a son named Michael.[155] There are also two alternate futures where she conceived children with Piotr. In Days of Future Past, they had two children which died under Sentinels attacks[20] (unnamed in the original story but revealed in Secret Wars to have been a boy named Cameron and a girl named Christina[156]). In the Zombieverse, they had a son named Peter Jr. before Colossus was infected.[157] The exact time when this happened is unclear as she was still a teenager at the time Piotr was attacked and turned into a zombie.[158]
  • Her second relationship was with Peter "Pete" Wisdom, a British spy she met at Muir Island while working with Excalibur on England. At first, Kitty strongly disliked Wisdom but warmed up to him pretty quickly after they started working on a mission to help one of Wisdom's friends. During that mission, Kitty met all of Wisdom's friends and saw how much of a good person Wisdom really was despite his general attitude, as well as seeing how great they worked together in fights. Kitty fell for him quickly after that, and Wisdom fell for her as well. However, both were really wary to start a relationship because of the long age difference between them and their past experiences with relationships. Despite all of that, they got together at the end of their mission. Wisdom joined Excalibur and soon they admitted their love for each other. They were together for some time after that until Kitty decided to join S.H.I.E.LD. and met an agent for whom she developed some feelings. A few days after she came back, Wisdom found out about this and broke up with Kitty, despite her taking the blame and reassuring him she still loved him.[159] Both still had feelings for each other after that. Kitty eventually got over them, but Wisdom seems to still have some feelings despite having moved on already. They both talk to each other nowadays, but Kitty prefers to maintain just a professional approach with him.[18]
  • Her third relationship was with Seth, a Neo she met during her time working with NASA in repairing the High Evolutionary space station. Not much is known about this relationship since it happened during the time skip after the High Evolutionary stole the mutants' powers and then gave them back. They met at Cape Canaveral before Kitty started working on the station and dated for six months. She liked how he surfed and how intelligent he was (having argued Quantum Physics on their first date). However, after Kitty and her team finished their work on the space station, Seth betrayed her and revealed his intentions of destroying the space station and eventually the human race. Believing Kitty was a Neo and because he loved her, Seth planned to escape with her; but after Kitty refused and started fighting him, he escaped from the space station alone. Later, Kitty used the suit he prepared for her to escape as well.[73] We never saw if they ever met again before the Neo race was completely wiped out.
  • Her fourth relationship was with Bobby Drake, a guy she met after going back to the X-Men, but with whom she never talked until both left Utopia to go back to Westchester with Wolverine after the Schism. Bobby and Kitty were just acquaintances for a long time, never interacting with each other beyond greetings. However, after an attack by a Krakoa on the grounds of the Jean Grey school, Iceman started thinking about his untapped potential and how following his impulses were working to unleash that potential. While near Kitty, he felt the impulse of kissing her and did it. Kitty didn't reject the kiss but was surprised by it and decided not to inquire into it further. After being infected by a virus that gave her the appearance of a pregnant woman, Kitty got extremely scared at the prospect of becoming a mother and having to grow up fast. She saw herself reflected on Bobby and decided to pursue a relationship with him after being cured. They both had one successful date before the Battle of the Atom started. At this time, Doop had started approaching Kitty in hopes of getting her to marry him. Bobby found out about this but dismissed as a joke. However, when he realized Doop was serious, Bobby demanded an explanation. Kitty then realized that despite all the things Bobby had told her in private, he didn't trust her judgment at all. They officially broke up in the aftermath of the Battle of the Atom.[93] They both talk to each other nowadays. Although they aren't back to their previous 'long acquaintances' approach, they prefer to maintain a 'distant co-workers' attitude.[160]
    • In an alternate future, she and Bobby had a son named Carmen. He inherited both Bobby and Kitty's powers.[161]
  • Her fifth relationship was with Peter Quill, the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy whom he met after the Shi'ar kidnapped one of her students (Jean Grey). Kitty was curious about the Guardians' way of life and after she officially introduced to Peter, she started feeling interested on him as well. After they eventually saved Jean from the Shi'ar, she was really grateful to Peter for helping her. Peter (who was also interested on keeping contact with her) gave her a device that worked as a holographic phone so they could talk with each other whenever they wanted. Kitty accepted and gave Quill a kiss on the cheek, revealing her intentions of pursuing something more than a friendship with him. Despite this, Kitty was still wary about the prospect of dating Quill, since it was a long-distance relationship.[162] Eventually they decided to try holo-dating (having a date with the other as a hologram). But once Peter was captured in the middle of one of their dates, Kitty went to space in order to rescue him. After the rescue, Quill (who wanted something really serious with her) asked Kitty to leave Earth and start living with him on space. Kitty felt that was a big step, but after seeing the stuff that Quill actually did on space, she changed her mind and decided to stay in space with him. After a near death experience during the war against J'son for the Black Vortex, both Kitty and Quill admitted their love for each other, and after the crisis of the Black Vortex passed, Quill proposed marriage to her while floating in space (thanks to Kitty's new cosmic powers). She accepted with tears on her eyes, and they had a dance to seal the deal.[98] They remained together for eight months following Peter's decision to become King of Spartax. After the universe was reformed, Quill started paying less and less attention to her due to his obligations as King. This made Kitty really angry and after ruining his inaugural speech, Kitty left him. They spent the next eight months separated until Quill was ousted from his Empire and returned to the Guardians. After some more fights and escaping the Collector's base, they finally talked about it and decided to try again, this time at a slower pace.[108] However, during the second Civil War, Kitty started to feel distant again and left Peter like the rest of the Guardians in the aftermath.[111] Although no reason was given, she decided their relationship was officially over after this.[163]

Kitty also has developed feelings for plenty of other men as well. However, nothing ever happened with these ones despite her desires and feelings.

  • The first guy she ever fell in love with was a boy in school. She used to follow her around all the time, but she eventually gave up on him after she found out he had anti-Semitic ideas.[164]
  • She had the same interests as Douglas "Doug" Ramsey and began to develop feelings for him while she was dating Colossus.[145] Emma Frost confirmed her feelings for Doug after she captured them both.[165] However, nothing happened between them even after Colossus broke up with her. Doug eventually died and Kitty mourned him for a very long time. After a long time, he came back from the dead, now they remain as friends.
  • She also started developing feelings for a guy she met at a party named Larry Bodine. Larry was a mutant who was afraid of showing his abilities. Kitty liked him but changed her mind after Larry made some anti-mutant jokes in front of her and the New Mutants. This reject and the extreme bullying from some guys at his school led him to commit suicide. Eventually, Kitty found out Larry was just trying to fit in after being taught that Mutants are supposed to be bad, and gave a eulogy at his funeral.[12]
  • She had a crush on Alistaire Stuart, a British guy who worked on the W.H.O. The crush, however, was completely one sided as it was revealed Alistaire was completely infatuated by Rachel. Kitty tried everything to attract Alistaire's attention, but it proved to be futile. She spent a long time being angry about this but eventually got over him. They still remain as friends.[166]
  • She developed strong feelings towards a boy named Alasdhair Kinross, the son of a Lord who lived in old England. After being sent to the past by Rachel's power, Kitty met Alasdhair and instantly felt infatuation towards him.[134] They had a little adventure to rescue Rachel from Nazis. After Alasdhair showed his complete trust towards her, and wasn't even bothered by her mutant powers, Kitty fell completely in love with him, and Alasdhair reciprocated her feelings with the same force. However, she understood the need to come back to her own time and begrudgingly said goodbye after agreeing to become his fiancée. Alasdhair was already dead on the present, so they never had the chance to reunite. She received the Kinross Crown as a reminder of him.[167]
  • She developed feelings for Rigby Fallon, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that was her own age. Her feelings for him developed fast as she saw how intelligent he was while them being the same age. She had the desire to kiss him, and they almost did but were interrupted by other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.[72] However, the idea of having some desire to kiss Rigby was enough to made her feel guilty as she was dating Pete Wisdom at the time. They never met again after Kitty left S.H.I.E.L.D.
  • Doop revealed he had feelings for her and played a big part in destroying Kitty's relationship with Iceman as a result. Kitty was disgusted by the idea at first but eventually grew to like him, gave him a lip kiss, and even agreed to stay with him on the Doopland. Doop was happy but let her go telling her what she really wanted is to avoid making the decision of leaving the Jean Grey School.[168] They were never shown talking again after this.
  • She has also showed attraction towards Thor,[169] Johnny Storm,[170] James Madrox,[171] and Longshot.[172]

There was also some occasions when Kitty was forced into an engagement.

  • She was engaged to the mutant Caliban from the Morlocks. After the X-Men went down to the Morlock Tunnels to rescue Angel, Plague infected Kitty with some kind of a virus. Caliban took care of her but she was worried about the X-Men, so she made a deal with him. If he rescued the X-Men, Kitty would stay with him. The X-Men were saved but Kitty left the tunnels without fulfilling her promise. Eventually the Morlocks came back to make her honor her deal as revenge. Kitty agreed to honor the deal with the condition that they helped her to save Colossus (who was severely injured in combat). Kitty was ready to marry Caliban, but he released her from her vow as he wanted Kitty to love him for real instead of forcing her to do it. Kitty thanked him and Caliban gave her a rose. They decided to stay as friends after that.[173]
  • She was engaged to the Prince William of Earth-1193. This happened while she was traveling through alternate dimensions with Excalibur.[174] Kitty refused Prince William's offer, but the Queen Mother used her magic to transform her into a princess of that realm hoping the Kitty of that realm would confront her and prove her worthiness. The spell wore off and eventually that worlds Kitty confronted her and won the love of Prince William as it was meant to be.

Sexuality[]

  • The creator of Kitty Pryde, Chris Claremont, stated that he had intended the love of Kitty's life to be Rachel Summers and for her to therefore be bisexual; however, this never came to pass during Claremont's run of writing her, because it was forbidden under the Comics Code Authority.[175] After her resurrection as Red Queen, Kate was shown kissing her female tattoo artist,[127] finally confirming that she is in fact bisexual, something which was repeatedly hinted at throughout her history.[176][177][178][179][180]

Trivia

  • Kitty Pryde has gone through many aliases, expressively struggling to decide a definitive visual identity as a super heroine.[10] She has gone by the following names:
    • Sprite: Under the X-Men leader Storm's suggestion, Pryde accepted the first codename Sprite.[5] A sprite is an umbrella term for folkloric entities that are ethereal, a direct reference to Pryde's phasing powers.[181]
    • Ariel: Professor X originally proposed Ariel as her mutant name, which Pryde initially rejected.[5] This identity got applied to her in a couple of stories, most prominently in Marvel Graphic Novel #5, but it was never effectively used in Uncanny X-Men for her. Ariel refers to the character in the Shakespearean play The Tempest and represents a direct opposition to the Morlock Caliban, who is also named after a character from the same play. In the play, both Ariel and Caliban were servants to the sorcerer Prospero, but, while Ariel was a gracious aerial spirit, Caliban was a grotesque creature.
    • Shadowcat / Shadowkat: After being corrupted by Ogun in her sojourn in Japan, Pryde experienced drastic changes in her soul. Embracing the dark aspects of her growth as an adventurer, she chose the name Shadowcat to represent that she was not a "kitty" anymore.[182] Following the third Hellfire Gala, Pryde reassumed the codename. The spelling of this alias was represented as "Shadowkat" in X-Men (Vol. 6) #25.
    • Star-Lord: When Pryde's fiancé Peter Quill abandoned his role as the bandit Star-Lord to assume the throne of Spartax, Pryde stepped in to replace him and temporarily acted with the Guardians of the Galaxy as Star-Lord.[7]
    • Red Queen: Having been invited to join the Hellfire Trading Company board of executives on Krakoa as a monarch, Captain Kate Pryde of the Marauders assumed the position of Red Queen, alongside the other two sects of Hellfire: the White Queen and the Black King.[3] The Hellfire positions are a play with chess pieces. The monarch pieces, Queen and King, correspond to the highest ranked members, the Lords Imperial.
    • It has also been shown that initially she hesitated between the code-names "Phase" and "Phantom Girl," while having Wolverine propose "Mute Girl"[21] and call her "Suburbia."[22] It is unclear where or how these possibilities would fit into the original Uncanny X-Men chronology.
  • Kitty Pryde was intended to be a member of an X-Men "in-training" secondary team, alongside a newly created Willie Evans, Jr. and a not yet created and different version of Caliban. Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter nixed the idea, however, saying it sounded too much like the Legion of Substitute X-Men. The Kitty Pryde we know today would go on to be the only one of the three to join the X-Men.[183]
    Kitty Pride Concept Byrne 1978

    Original character concept by John Byrne, 1978.

  • John Byrne named Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde after a classmate he met in art school in Calgary in 1973.[184]

Cultural References[]

Music[]

  • Kitty Pryde is mentioned in the Weezer song "In the Garage":
    • I've got the Dungeon Master's Guide
    • I've got a twelve-sided die
    • I've got Kitty Pryde
    • And Nightcrawler too
    • Waiting there for me
    • Yes I do, I do
  • Shadowcat is also mentioned in the song "Missing Link" by Dinosaur Jr and Del the Funky Homosapien from the soundtrack for the movie Judgment Night:
    • Bowing, praising, now when I phase in, like Kitty Pryde, city wide, confer to kick the rumor..."
  • Kitty Pryde and the Shadowcats was the name of an all-female band that existed for several years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  • Kitty Pryde is mentioned in the ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead song, "An Ounce Of Prevention."
    • Despite your powers you hated being, A stupid rock star, Kitty Pryde so sweet and innocent, You're all we talk about

Cinema[]

  • In the Spike Lee's film 25th Hour, Edward Norton's character expresses his desire to avoid prison by stating he wishes he was "that girl from X-Men... the one who can walk through walls"
  • Joss Whedon has stated many times that Kitty was one of the major inspirations for the titular Buffy the Vampire Slayer as she appeared in the TV series.

See Also

Links and References

References

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  2. Marvel Graphic Novel #5
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Marauders #2
  4. Uncanny X-Men #193
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 X-Men #139
  6. Guardians of Infinity #8
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol. 4) #1
  8. All-New Doop #2
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  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 X-Men #129
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 New Mutants #45
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  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 Marauders #1
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  16. X-Men: Kitty Pryde - Shadow & Flame #2
  17. Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #2
  18. 18.0 18.1 New Excalibur #1
  19. 19.0 19.1 All-New X-Men #5
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 X-Men #141
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 Wolverine: First Class #1
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  34. Marauders (Vol. 2) #5
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  67. Excalibur #3
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  69. Excalibur #8
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  71. Excalibur #8890
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  73. 73.0 73.1 X-Men (Vol. 2) #100
  74. X-Men (Vol. 2) #110
  75. X-Treme X-Men 2001 #1
  76. Mekanix #16
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  78. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #14
  79. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #1518
  80. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #1924
  81. S.W.O.R.D. #1
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  83. Uncanny X-Men #526
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  86. X-Men: Regenesis #1
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  88. Wolverine & the X-Men #4
  89. Wolverine & the X-Men #5
  90. Wolverine & the X-Men #6
  91. Wolverine & the X-Men #7
  92. Wolverine & the X-Men #2123
  93. 93.0 93.1 X-Men: Battle of the Atom #2
  94. All-New X-Men #22.NOW
  95. Legendary Star-Lord #1
  96. Legendary Star-Lord #6
  97. Legendary Star-Lord #7
  98. 98.0 98.1 98.2 Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men: Black Vortex Alpha #1
  99. Legendary Star-Lord #9
  100. All-New X-Men #38
  101. Nova (Vol. 5) #28
  102. Legendary Star-Lord #10
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  105. Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol. 3) #27
  106. Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol. 4) #5
  107. Star-Lord #6
  108. 108.0 108.1 Star-Lord #8
  109. Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol. 4) #6
  110. Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol. 4) #11
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  112. X-Men: Gold (Vol. 2) #1
  113. X-Men: Gold (Vol. 2) #20
  114. X-Men: Gold (Vol. 2) #30
  115. Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 5) #1
  116. Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 5) #45
  117. Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 5) #810
  118. Age of X-Man Alpha #1
  119. 119.0 119.1 119.2 119.3 Age of X-Man: Apocalypse & the X-Tracts #1
  120. Age of X-Man: The Marvelous X-Men #2
  121. Age of X-Man Omega #1
  122. House of X #1
  123. House of X #6
  124. Marauders #5
  125. Marauders #8
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  128. Marauders #16
  129. Marauders #1718
  130. Marauders #19
  131. Secret War: From the Files of Nick Fury #1
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  138. X-Man #26
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  155. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #17
  156. Years of Future Past #1
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  158. Marvel Zombies: Dead Days #1
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  165. New Mutants #15
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  167. X-Men: True Friends #3
  168. All-New Doop #5
  169. Wolverine: First Class #15
  170. Dazzler #2
  171. Wolverine: First Class #18
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