Katherine Anne "Kitty" Pryde is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. The character first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #129 (January 1980) and was co-created by writer-artist John Byrne and writer Chris Claremont. A mutant, Pryde possesses a "phasing" ability that allows her to pass through objects, hence she is intangible while using this ability. The author, James Kakalios, is a physics professor. Pages 254-255: "With our improved understanding of physics, we can now more accurately describe Kitty Pryde's mutant power as being able to alter her macroscopic quantum wave function, increasing her tunneling probability to near 100 percent at will." Page 255: "How, when she's is 'phasing' and immaterial, can she walk?" This power also disrupts any electrical field she passes through, and lets her simulate levitation.
The youngest to join the X-Men, she was first portrayed as a "kid sister" to many older members of the group, filling the role of literary foil to the more established characters. She occasionally used the codenames Sprite and Ariel, cycling through several uniforms until settling on her trademark black-and-gold costume. In later comic books, she becomes schooled in fighting techniques and receives ninja stealth training, which combine with her powers to make her one of the X-Men's most proficient and reliable combatants. She is frequently deployed on surveillance and espionage missions.
During the miniseries Kitty Pryde and Wolverine, she was renamed Shadowcat, the alias she would be most associated with, and shifted to a more mature depiction in her subsequent appearances. Pryde would eventually abandon her nickname, "Kitty", and switch to "Kate". She was one of the main cast of characters depicted in the original Excalibur title. After momentarily joining the Guardians of the Galaxy, she assumed her then-fiancé's superhero identity as the Star-Lord (Star-Lady). In the series Marauders, she was informally known as Captain Kate Pryde and the Red Queen of the Hellfire Trading Company. After rejoining the X-Men in the "Fall of X" relaunch, she assumes the name Shadowkat.
In the 20th Century Fox X-Men film series, Kitty Pryde was initially portrayed by young actresses in cameos; Sumela Kay in X-Men (2000) and Katie Stuart in X2 (2003). Later, Elliot Page portrayed the character in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) in full-length appearances.
Publication history 1980s and 1990s: Creation and introduction Kitty Pryde was introduced into the X-Men title as the result of a Marvel Comics editorial dictate that the series depict a school for mutant children. The Uncanny X-Men artist John Byrne named Kitty Pryde after a classmate he met in art school (Canada's Alberta College of Art and Design) in 1973. Byrne had told Pryde he liked her name and asked her permission to use it, promising to name his first original comics character after her. Byrne drew the character to slightly resemble an adolescent Sigourney Weaver.The X-Men Companion, Volume II. 1982. Fantagraphics Books, Inc.
The fictional Kitty Pryde first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #129 (January 1980), by writer Chris Claremont and artist Byrne, as a highly intelligent 13-year-old girl. Claremont said several elements of the character's personality were derived from those of X-Men editor Louise Simonson's daughter, Julie. Claremont and Byrne made the new character a full-fledged X-Man in issue #139, where she was codenamed "Sprite". She was the main character in issues #141–142, the "Days of Future Past" storyline, where she is possessed by the consciousness of her older self, "Kate", who time travels from a dystopian future back to the present to get the X-Men to help her prevent an eventual mass extermination of mutants. The six-issue miniseries Kitty Pryde and Wolverine (1984–1985), written by Claremont, is a coming-of-age storyline in which she matures from a girl to a young woman, adopting the new name "Shadowcat".
In the late 1980s, Kitty joined the British-based super team, Excalibur, where she remained for roughly ten years before coming back to the X-Men.
Kitty Pryde appeared in three 3-issue miniseries in the 1990s; she teamed up with Pete Wisdom in 1996 for Pryde and Wisdom, recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1997 for Kitty Pryde, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and with Rachel Summers for 1999's X-Men: True Friends. True Friends was initially planned as a 1984 graphic novel by Chris Claremont, starring Pryde and Magik, but it was never published.
2000s and 2010s In the early 2000s, she disappeared from the spotlight after semi-retiring from superhero work. She was featured in the 2002 mini-series Mekanix and came back to the main X-Men books in 2004 under the pen of Joss Whedon in Astonishing X-Men, while also appearing as a supporting character in X-Treme X-Men. In 2005, the 5 issue miniseries X-Men: Kitty Pryde - Shadow & Flame was published. She remained a part of the X-Men books until 2008 when she was absent for 2 years after the events of Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men.
After returning in Uncanny X-Men #521 (February, 2010), she was featured in Jason Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men and Brian Michael Bendis' All-New X-Men books.
In early 2015, she joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. After the Secret Wars event, she adopted her new alias, Star-Lord (first believed to be Star-Lady). She was featured in the 2019 Age of X-Man crossover event.
2020s: Krakoa and From the Ashes Kitty Pryde was featured during the Krakoan Age of X-Men comics, notably as the star of Marauders. In 2020, Kitty Pryde was revealed to be bisexual.Marauders #12 Her co-creator, Chris Claremont, said he had always intended this to be the case, considering Rachel Summers as a possible love interest for Pryde. However, Claremont said he was not allowed to show this at the time, as he claimed on the "Xplain the X-Men" podcast in 2016. She also featured in the 2023 third volume of X-Treme X-Men.
Pryde was featured during the Fall of X storyline. During the X-Men: From the Ashes relaunch, Kitty Pryde is teaching young mutants in the 2025 series Exceptional X-Men.
Shadowcat's popularity had a profound effect on the real-life Kitty Pryde, who became so overwhelmed by attention from fans that she abbreviated her name to K.D. Pryde to avoid association with the character. She has since stated she has mixed feelings about her fame, saying she values Byrne's comics for their entertainment and artistic value, but wishes more people would appreciate her as more than just Shadowcat's namesake.
Fictional character biography Katherine Anne "Kitty" Pryde was born in Deerfield, Illinois, to Carmen and Theresa Pryde. She is an Ashkenazi Jewish-American and her paternal grandfather, Samuel Prydeman, was held in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Kitty started to have headaches at age thirteen, signaling the emergence of her mutant powers. She was approached by both the X-Men's Charles Xavier and the Hellfire Club's White Queen, Emma Frost, both of whom hoped to recruit her for their respective causes. Kitty was unnerved by Frost, observing that the White Queen looked at her as if she were "something good to eat." She got along better with Xavier and the three X-Men who escorted him, quickly becoming friends with Ororo Munroe. Ororo told Kitty who she really was and about the X-Men, which made the teenager even more enthusiastic about attending Xavier's school.
Their conversation was cut short when they (along with Wolverine and Colossus) were attacked by armored mercenaries in the employ of Frost and the Hellfire Club. The X-Men defeated their assailants, but were subdued by the White Queen's telepathic powers immediately after. In the confusion, Kitty was separated from the X-Men, and not captured along with them.The Uncanny X-Men #129 She managed to contact Cyclops, Phoenix, and Nightcrawler.The Uncanny X-Men #130 With the help of Dazzler and Pryde, those X-Men rescued their teammates from the Hellfire Club.The Uncanny X-Men #131
The White Queen appeared to perish in the battle, which meant she was no longer competing with Xavier for the approval of Kitty's parents. Kitty's parents had not heard from her in more than a day, because during that time she was first being pursued by the Hellfire Club's men and then working with the X-Men to save their friends. All they knew was Kitty had left with Xavier's "students" to get a soda, there had been reports that the soda shop had been blown up, and Kitty had been missing since. Therefore, they were angry at Xavier when he finally returned with Kitty in tow. At first, it seemed like there was no chance of Kitty being allowed to attend the school and join the X-Men. Phoenix then used her considerable telepathic power to erase the memories of Kitty's parents and plant false ones, resulting in a complete shift in their attitude towards Xavier. Kitty was then allowed to enroll at Xavier's school with her parents' blessing, becoming the youngest member of the team.
Joining the X-Men Kitty joined the X-Men,The Uncanny X-Men #138 and assumed the costumed identity of Sprite.The Uncanny X-Men #139 Early in her career as an X-Man, Kitty's adult self from an alternate future took possession of her body in the present to help X-Men thwart the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly by the second Brotherhood of Mutants.The Uncanny X-Men #141-142 Kitty then singlehandedly defeated a N'Garai demon.The Uncanny X-Men #143 Kitty also briefly attended the White Queen's Massachusetts Academy when her parents became convinced that she needed to be with students of her own age, but following a failed attempt to subdue the X-Men, Frost revoked Kitty's admission.The Uncanny X-Men #151-152
During her teen years, Kitty fostered a number of close relationships with others at the school and in the X-Men. She developed a crush on Colossus and became close friends with his little sister Illyana Rasputin. Initially uneasy around Nightcrawler and other mutants with physical deformities, Kitty finally overcame her fears and became close friends with him. Kitty also befriended Lockheed, an intelligent alien resembling a dragon,The Uncanny X-Men #166 who followed her home after a mission in outer space.The Uncanny X-Men #168 Lockheed is extremely loyal to Kitty, and the two of them share a psychic bond. Wolverine became something of a mentor to Kitty despite his usually gruff personality. Storm came to view Kitty as the daughter she never had.
Though Xavier has threatened to reassign Kitty to the New Mutants, a team of younger mutants he established in the absence of the X-Men, ever since the X-Men returned from outer space,The Uncanny X-Men #167 she never ended up joining the group, who she derisively calls the "X-Babies". Kitty was later abducted by the Morlocks and nearly forced to wed Caliban.The Uncanny X-Men #177-179 She was then abducted by the White Queen, but rescued by the New Mutants.The New Mutants #15-17