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"Professor Xavier is a jerk!"
―Kate Pryde

History[]

Origin[]

Katherine Pryde is the daughter of Carmen and Theresa Pryde, and was born in Deerfield, Illinois.

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.

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.

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Kitty's introduction

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Some time 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.

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.

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." 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.

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.

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. Kitty abandoned her code-name, Sprite, for the Professor's original choice, Ariel.

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.

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.

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. Kitty returned and made another costume change.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Excalibur[]

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.

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 battled Technet and the Warwolves, during which Kitty was briefly defeated by Joyboy, who used his powers to make her corporal, but she also became fat. Despite this brief setback, the five pulled free and this resulted 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.

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.

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. 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.

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." 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.

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.

Kitty was deeply affected by Illyana's death from the Legacy Virus. Kitty eventually became romantically involved with her teammate Peter Wisdom. 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 travellers 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jean Grey School[]

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

Kitty was shocked to find herself seemingly eight months pregnant. 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. 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. Kitty was injected with centaurian penicillin after the battle ended in order to kill off the remaining Brood inside her. During this time, she was also among the instructors briefly brainwashed 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.

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. 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. After the adventure ended, Kitty began a long-distance relationship with Guardians of the Galaxy member Star-Lord.

Black Vortex[]

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Kitty and Star-Lord

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. Kitty successfully saved Peter from the Squad's boss, who was revealed to be Star-Lord's father J'son. 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.

During the conflict that ensued, the Black Vortex ended up in the two cosmically empowered X-Men and a Guardian's hands, then with the Kree empire, and back to J'son. 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. 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.

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. Despite his doubts about taking the job, Kitty reassured him that she would support him no matter what decision he made. 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 fianceé'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.

One day, after taking down a Chitauri spaceship, the Guardians recovered an 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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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, they reignited their romance and Kitty eventually proposed to Piotr, and the two became engaged. 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Marauders[]

After Charles Xavier and his allies established the mutant-exclusive nation of Krakoa, Kitty found herself somehow unable to pass through the Krakoan gateways, the entry points into Krakoa that were planted all over the world. Only capable of accessing the island by boat, Kitty, now calling herself Kate as a reflection of her dissatisfaction at not being able to interact with Krakoan environments, accepted Emma Frost's offer to captain a ship to liberate mutants trapped inside hostile countries and unable to reach Krakoa. After freeing a group of captive mutants from a rogue group of Russian agents with the help of Iceman, Storm and Pyro, she named the new team the "Marauders" to distance the X-Men from their future activities. The team eventually found themselves meeting up with Bishop in Taipei, where he quickly informed them about Xavier's murder on Krakoa. Kate Pryde then took the Marauders to a nearby tattoo shop. After receiving a set of knuckle tattoos, Kate accepted the role of the "new" Red Queen of the Hellfire Trading Company and was assigned a seat at the Spring table of the Quiet Council of Krakoa.

When Emma Frost appointed Kate as the Red Queen, this became an obstacle for Sebastian Shaw's goal of taking complete control of the company. Shaw thought that Kate's inability to pass through the Krakoan gateways also meant that the Five would be unable to resurrect her if she died. He hired the anti-mutant group Homines Verendi to attack his son Shinobi in order to lure Kate out into an ambush. After immobilizing Lockheed and dropping him into the water, Shaw wrapped Kate with Krakoan plants that nullified her powers and sank her. Lockheed was able to survive, but Kate drowned. Her body was later found by Bishop.

Initially, the Five couldn't create a clone body for Kate, despite multiple attempts at the behest of Xavier. Egg suggested that for unknown reasons, she simply couldn't be resurrected. After eighteen attempts however, she was brought back when Emma Frost realized that, unlike other mutants, Kate had to phase through her cocoon rather than break out of it.

After Krakoa's contest with Arakko was done, Kate and Emma Frost got revenge on Shaw for his treachery. They invaded his house, at Blackstone, and neutralized his powers, so they could punch him without holding back. Kate drank some of his vintage bottles and used her powers on Shaw without mercy. When she was done, Storm arrived with Lockheed, who bit off Shaw's eye and threw it in the fireplace. To finish their glorious revenge, they served him a poisoned drink that left him crippled and unable to walk. In an ironical display of generosity, Kate then gave Shaw an eyepatch to hide the horrible scars on his eye.

Attributes[]

Powers[]

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

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. 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. This process is called "phasing." When Shadowcat is phasing, she is, for all intents and purposes, intangible. 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. Kitty passes through objects at the same rate of speed at which she was moving before she "entered" them. Following her serious injuries at the hands of the Marauders during the Mutant Massacre, Kitty's phased state became her natural state. 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.

  • Selective Phasing/Intangibility: Kitty can make all or part of her body intangible while leaving the rest solid. 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.
  • Phased/Intangible Extension: From the first use of her phasing power, Kitty was able to phase her clothing along with herself. 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. 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. 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.
  • 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. Kitty can also become completely invisible and unseen in shadows.
  • Phased/Intangible Disruption: Kitty can easily damage tangible matter by passing right through it. When phasing through an object with an electrical system, the process often disrupts the system's workings. She can selectively disrupt a person's nervous system in the same way.
  • 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 kilometres per minute.

Telepathic Resistance: Kitty's thoughts were highly erratic when phased as if there was no mind to telepathically affect. It's suspected that elements of her psyche could reside in different dimensions, a theory that appeared to be supported when she became enhanced by the Black Vortex.

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.

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. She also knows Israeli Special Forces Training.

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.

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.

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

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.

Multilingual: She speaks fluent Japanese, Russian, the royal and standard languages of the Shi'ar Empire, and Skrullos. She also has moderate expertise in Gaelic, and knows some profanities in Hebrew.

Weaknesses[]

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

Phasing Limitations: Since she was unable to breathe while "inside" an object, she could only continuously phase through solid objects (as when she travelled underground) as long as she could hold her breath. 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. 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.

Notes[]

  • Kitty Pryde is Jewish. 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. For instance, in All-New X-Men #13 Kitty says "I'm Jewish. I don't have a quote-unquote Jewish-sounding name. I don't have 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. When I was 13 before my mutation kicked in I was in love with this boy at school. In love, I followed him around because I was an idiotic 13-year old girl... And one day he saw a rabbi walking across the street and he made the worst anti-Semitic comment... Ever. He said this awful thing and laughed. Laughed and laughed. And --- And my heart sank and then my blood boiled. I mean boiled. I turned to him and growled: I'm Jewish! And he just stared at me like he didn't even realize he said something wrong. Or he didn't know how to compute what I just said. But when I got home, after I was done crying my eyes out my first heartbreak... I realized I was... Maybe for the first time ever... I was proud of myself. I am Jewish. I am a mutant. And I want people to know who and what I am. I tell people because, Hey, if we're going to have a problem with it... I'd like to know now." On occasions, she has also worn the Star of David necklace especially in her teenage years.
  • Kitty has gone through many costumes along with other aliases. Professor X originally proposed 'Ariel', which Kitty rejected, but accepted Storm's proposal of 'Sprite' . Later retcons have her initially hesitate between the code-names "Phase" and "Phantom Girl," while having Wolverine propose "Mute Girl," and call her "Suburbia.", although it's unclear where or how this would fit into the original UXM chronology. While primarily appearing in the school uniform in her early appearances, she eventually tries several self-designed costumes of very short duration, including one with rollerskates . The codename 'Ariel', which she rejected, gets applied to her in a couple of outside sources with problematic continuity, but is never once used in Uncanny X-Men for her. She ultimately adopts the codename Shadowcat after her sojourn in Japan with Wolverine. She became Star-Lord when she briefly dated Peter Quill and, as of Marauders, she's Captain Kate Pryde and the Red Queen.
  • She answered to "Kitty" over "Katherine" since she was three years old.
  • Kitty Pryde is slightly nearsighted.
  • Kitty Pryde attended Robert A. Heinlein School for Engineering and Astrophysics in Chicago on a full scholarship.
  • Kate was 13 (going on fourteen) when she first got her powers and joined the X-Men.
  • While in Japan, Kitty used the email address 'nekochan@jmail.com'. Neko is Japanese for cat.

Trivia[]

  • 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.
  • John Byrne named Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde after a classmate he met in art school in Calgary in 1973.
  • 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. After her resurrection as Red Queen, Kate was shown kissing her female tattoo artist, finally confirming that she is in fact bisexual, something which was repeatedly hinted at throughout her history.
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