Shadowcat
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Template:Superherobox Shadowcat is the codename of Katherine "Kitty" Anne Pryde, a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. Kitty used the codenames Sprite and Ariel early in her career and is a member of the X-Men. She first appeared in X-Men #129 (January 1980). She is notable as one of the few recognizably Jewish characters in Marvel Comics.
Her co-creator, John Byrne, named the character after a colleague he met in art school (see below).
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Character biography
Katherine "Kitty" Pryde was born in Deerfield, Illinois, United States to Carmen and Theresa Pryde.
Her paternal grandfather Samuel Prydeman was a European Jew, known to have been held in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. His married sister Chava Rosanoff is reported to have died during the Holocaust. Samuel was rescued by the United States Army at the end of World War II in Europe in 1945. He soon immigrated to the United States.
Image:Shadowcat (comics) 2.jpg
As a thirteen year old adolescent, Kitty started suffering from recurring headaches. Unknown to her these headaches resulted from her body trying to cope with her new emerging powers. Kitty was a mutant with the ability to become intangible and walk through solid matter, an ability called "phasing."
Shortly thereafter, Pryde was approached by both Professor Charles Francis Xavier and the Hellfire Club's White Queen, Emma Frost. Taking an instant dislike to the White Queen, she chose to go with Xavier. When Emma kidnapped Xavier and the X-Men, Kitty helped fight to free them. Proving herself in this battle, she joined the X-Men soon after becoming one of the youngest members at the time ever. Initially wearing an old-style X-Men uniform, Kitty took the codename "Sprite" and later dressing in more brightly-colored outfits calling herself "Ariel." From the time of their first meeting, she developed a crush on her teammate Colossus.
One of her earliest adventures with the X-Men involved their kidnapping by the non-humanoid alien race known as the Brood. During this adventure in outer space, Kitty's life was saved by a small alien dragon whom she named Lockheed, who has been her frequent companion since. Kitty and Colossus began a romantic relationship upon their return to Earth. Professor X, in the X-Men's absence, had created a sister team of younger mutants called the New Mutants whom he did not intend to combat other mutants. He intended to place Kitty in that group when she returned to Earth but Kitty, calling the New Mutants (some of whom were older than she was) "the X-Babies", convinced him to allow her to remain in the X-Men. Later, Colossus's seven-year old sister Illyana was kidnapped by the demonic sorcerer Belasco and held in the extradimensional realm known as Limbo, where he trained Illyana as his demonic apprentice. Since time passed more quickly in Limbo than on the Earthly plane, Belasco used magic to artificially age Illyana several years. She eventually escaped him and returned to Earth seconds after she had been kidnapped; she was now a teenager and became Kitty's best friend and roommate. Because of their strong rapport, Kitty would inherit Illyana's Soul Sword, the ultimate expression of Illyana's mystical abilities, if Illyana died or otherwise ceased to exist.
During the 1985 Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries, Kitty became possessed by the demon ninja, Ogun. While in Japan assisting her father, who was caught up in a bit of organized crime, Kitty was brainwashed by Ogun into thinking she was his assassin. Ogun bestowed upon Kitty a virtual lifetime of martial arts training and sent her to kill fellow X-Man, Wolverine, himself a former pupil of Ogun. Now calling herself Shadowcat, Kitty was able to resist Ogun's influence with Wolverine's help and a bit of tough love. Kitty and Wolverine defeated Ogun and in the process formed a strong teacher/student bond with each other which remains to this day. Nevertheless, Kitty returned to the X-Men a changed girl, no longer the innocent Sprite they knew.
Kitty's romance with Colossus came to an end following the Secret Wars miniseries, during which Colossus developed feelings for an alien female that he had met on another planet.
During the Mutant Massacre, she was injured by Harpoon's energy spear and lost control of her phasing abilities and was left in a permanently-phased state. Unable to speak, her body slowly discorporating; a condition that if not stopped would eventually lead to her death. She was eventually cured in the Fantastic Four Versus the X-Men miniseries with the help of both Doctor Doom and Mr. Fantastic. During Kitty's absence from the team, the X-Men had apparently died fighting the Adversary in Texas. Unaware that the extradimensional sorceress Roma had returned the X-Men to life, Kitty and her fellow former X-Men Nightcrawler and Rachel Summers joined the British superheroes Captain Britain and Meggan to form the Britain-based team Excalibur.
It was during her time with Excalibur that Kitty inherited the Soul Sword following the events of the "Inferno" storyline, during which Illyana's time in Limbo had been erased from existence, her demonic form ceased to exist and she was returned to the age she was prior to her kidnapping by Belasco. With the Soul Sword came dominion over Limbo. Kitty eventually lost the Soul Sword and Limbo when Doctor Doom attempted to steal it from her, but his plans were thwarted and the sword and Limbo ended up in the possession of the being known as Darkoth. It was also during her tenure with Excalibur that Kitty became romantically involved with scruffy British bad-boy Peter Wisdom.
Eventually Excalibur disbanded and Kitty ended her relationship with Wisdom. She returned to the X-Men, but left again after the apparent death of Colossus. She went on to attend the University of Chicago trying to give herself a normal life. It was during this time, her father was killed when Cassandra Nova's wild Sentinels destroyed Genosha.
Recently, she once again rejoined the X-Men at the urging of Cyclops and Emma Frost (Astonishing X-Men #1). On one of the new team's first missions, Kitty discovered Colossus alive and imprisoned in a research facility. The full repercussions of this discovery have yet to be seen. She is back to dating him, but was originally worried that she was crowding him, and he needed to work out issues. In fact, Colossus wanted her to come on stronger!
Powers and abilities
Shadowcat possesses the ability to "phase" or literally pass through solid matter by passing her atoms through the spaces between the atoms of the object through which she is moving. Utilizing her phasing ability, she can also walk on air. While phasing, she is intangible and thus invulnerable to physical attacks and telepaths have a hard time reaching her mind in phased form. However the density of adamantium proves deleterious to her phasing, causing her to be severely disoriented if she tries to pass through adamantium or adamantium passes through her. Her phasing powers also disrupt any electronic equipment she passes through. For some time after she discovered her powers, she was only able to phase herself and her clothes along with her. However, she quickly learned to phase other people and objects with her.
Shadowcat is a genius in the field of applied technology such as computers. She is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, having been trained in the arts of aikido and karate. After the martial arts master known as Ogun possessed her and imprinted his mind onto hers, Shadowcat became skilled in the arts of ninjitsu, in which she was later trained extensively by her one time mentor, Wolverine, who also taught her Krav Maga the fighting style of the Mossad. She has had training in gymnastics and is a professional dancer.
The real-life Kitty Pryde
John Byrne revealed that he named Shadowcat "Kitty Pryde" after a classmate from Calgary he met in art school in 1973. Before he got famous, Byrne told his colleague that he liked her name and would use it for his first original character. Pryde (i.e. the real-life woman) at first thought nothing about it, but was eventually overwhelmed by hordes of people associating her with the comic book hero. K. D. Pryde, as she calls herself now, has stated that she has mixed feelings about this [1] [2].
Other Shadowcats
Lightning Force
In one of the many alternate universes in which World War II was won by Germany, Shadowcat was a member of that reality's Excalibur, the Lightning Force. Being Jewish, Kitty was forced to serve alongside Nightcralwer, Meggan and Hauptmann Englande. Shadowcat led a sad existence, and was easily identified by her shaved head and the Star of David tatooed on her forehead.
Cat
In Magik #1, Shadowcat renamed herself "Cat" after she was mutated by Belasco into a more feline form, with cat eyes, whiskers and a tail.
Amalgam
Shadowcat appeared in the Amalgam Comics title Spider-Boy Team-Up merged with Legion of Super-Heroes member Phantom Girl to form the character Phantom Cat. She was a member of the Legion Of Galactic Guardians 2099.
Age of Apocalypse
In the hellish alternate reality called the Age of Apocalypse, Shadowcat did not get to have a fun carefree life. She grew up under harsh circumstances and her nature reflected it. She has short hair, tight clothes, and is a chain smoker. Her parents were killed in the Chicago Culls and she was forcibly recruited into Apocalypse's army by Sabretooth, but was rescued by Colossus. Magneto put Shadowcat under Logan's training so she would become the X-Men's ghost assassin. Kate became a warrior, even donning a pair of metallic retractable claws, and along with Colossus, now her husband, became the teacher of Generation Next after Colossus had refused to continue the war for Xavier's dream. Despite being of a similar age of her trainees, Shadowcat's training was extremely harsh. They succeeded in their first mission to rescue Colossus' sister Illyana, but at the cost of their students' lives. Colossus didn't seem to care because his duty was to his sister first, a point he proved when he accidentally trampled his wife to death at the end of the series.
Ultimate Shadowcat
In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Kitty Pryde was one of the first additions to the core X-Men group. She was the only child of Theresa Pryde, a strong, independent woman who is hinted to have brought up Kitty alone. Kitty had a long-standing crush on Spider-Man which was recently consummated in the Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1, where they hooked up after ending their relationships with their respective ex-partners, Iceman (Bobby Drake) and Mary Jane Watson. In USM #87, Kitty and Peter are dating for the first time in the "real" comic. Brian Michael Bendis, writer of Ultimate Spider-Man, plans to continue with Kitty as a supporting character in USM. [3]. Issue 66 of Ultimate X-men showed Kitty and Spidey on a date. This issue reveals that they spend much of their time hunting criminals to beat up. This effectively makes Kitty his crimefighting partner. However, the next issue shows a singular panel involving the two, where they passionately kiss, showing that the probable (the most likely) reason the two fight crime is to keep their relationship to themselves, and still be seen together in public without questions arising, though Kitty eventually adopts a full masked costume to fight crime with Spider-Man so when seen with Peter Parker, people will be less likely to figure it out.
Appearances in other media
- Kitty appeared as Sprite in "The X-Men Adventure" episode of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends which guest-starred the X-Men (one of four, including cameos).
- In the animated television movie Pryde of the X-Men, Kitty Pryde was voiced by Kath Soucie. In that episode, she was the viewpoint character.
- Kitty appears in Konami's 1992 X-Men video arcade game, as a non-playable character. In this game, she is not known as "Shadowcat"; instead, she plays the "damsel in distress" role.
- Kitty never appeared in the 1990s X-Men animated series, not even in a cameo role.
- In the video game X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, Kitty has a cameo (as a non-playable character) when the player reaching the ruins of the X-Mansion. Her relationship with Colossus remains intact in this version of her character. If the player speaks with her using Colossus, a humorous scene occurs where Kitty scolds Colossus for, what she believes, flirting with the Scarlet Witch. (He was only complimenting her.)
- In the animated series X-Men: Evolution, Kitty is a main character and voiced by Maggie Blue O'Hara. In this continuity, she is a bright and carefree teenage girl who came from a loving family. Her love interest was Avalanche. Shadowcat spoke with a strong valley girl accent early on in the series, which was later dropped after Season 1. As a side note, in this version, she has blue eyes, in contrast to the brown eyes of the mainstream version. This was probably done to match her blue and black X-Men uniform (and taking into account that a brown and black uniform would not have looked so good).
- In the movie X-Men, she was played by Sumela Kay. In the sequel, X2, she was played by Katie Stuart. She will have a supporting role in X-Men 3 and will be played by Ellen Page.
- Kitty is mentioned in the Weezer song "In The Garage".
- Kitty is also mentioned in the song "Missing Link" by Dinosaur Jr and Del the Funky Homosapien from the soundtrack for the movie Judgement Night.
- 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"