SHADOWCAT
Real Name: Katherine "Kitty" Pryde
Height: 5'4
Weight: 105 lbs.
Eyes: Hazel
Hair: Brown
Group Affiliation: Excalibur
Powers: Phasing
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men 129, January 1980

Kitty Pryde began suffering from terrible headaches at the age of 13 and a half, and strange things began happening to her. She would fall asleep in her bed upstairs, only to awake on the living room floor downstairs. Her mutant phasing ability was beginning to manifest, though she did not know it, a power which would allow her to walk through walls and walk on air. At the same time, her parents were trying to choose a new school for their genius daughter, Emma Frosts (The White Queen) Institution and Professor Xaviers School for Gifted Youngsters being their top two choices. The White Queen wanted Kitty for her school, and also the X-Men out of the way, and so, proceeded to attack them as they were getting to know Kitty. Kitty escaped, and followed the White Queen after she carried off the subdued X-Men. Showing a great deal of spunk, and potential of her phasing power, which was just manifesting, freed them so that they could save themselves. She didn't join the school right away however. It wasn't until after the death of Phoenix and the departure of Cyclops that she came to be with the team.

As the neophyte X-Man "Sprite", Kitty had much to learn, and learn she did… as all the X-men do. The hard way. Her first couple of adventures were not so bad, and she was beginning to develop quite a relationship with Colossus when the team encountered an alien race called the Brood. This was Kitty's first real brush with death as she and all the X-Men were implanted with Brood eggs which would hatch and kill their host. During this adventure, she met an alien creature, a small purple dragon who helped defend her. After the Brood had been dealt with and the team returned to earth, she found that the little dragon had followed her home, stowing away on the ship. She named him Lockheed and they became fast friends, and have remained so ever since. Shortly following that, she was kidnapped by the spirit of Wolverines former mentor, Ogun. Ogun possessed Kitty with the hopes of returning to mortality, and might have succeeded if not for Wolverines interference. Ogun taught her the deadly arts of being a ninja through his possession, talents which she still retains today. She and Wolverine grew very close, and developed a strong bond of friendship which still holds true today. She also had a strong friendship with Colossus' younger sister, Illyana (Magik).

Time passed, and Kitty proved herself time and time again, both alone and with the team, going through several different names and costumes before finally deciding on "Shadowcat" and the blue costume she wore for so long. She and Colossus became estranged when he fell in love with an alien woman during the Secret Wars. She was 15 when her first serious injury occurred during the Mutant Massacre when she was hit by one of the Marauders magical spears. She phased and it passed through her, but it left her in an intangible state, permanently. After a time, it became evident that she was dissipating into nothingness, her very molecules drifting apart due to her inability to become solid again. Only through a truce and union of the scientific minds and efforts of Reed Richards and Dr. Doom was she able to become solid again. It took her some time to fully recover the use of her mutant ability, and while she was recovering on Muir Isle came the news that the X-Men were killed in Dallas during the Fall of the Mutants. With nowhere else to go and her "family" (the X-Men) dead, she joined with Nightcrawler, Captain Britain, Meggan and Phoenix (II) to form a new, Britain based team, called Excalibur.

She proved her mettle time and time again with the new team, going from one adventure to the next, until finally, the Soulsword, which had been possessed by her now dead friend Illyana (Magik) showed up on her doorstep. Kitty was the only one who could wield the weapon, and this came to the attention of Dr. Doom, who came calling to collect his price for saving her life over a year ago. Kitty refused to give it to him, and after a trip through Limbo, finally surrendered the sword to Nightcrawlers girlfriend, Amanda Sefton, who gave it into the care of her mother Margali Szardos, a powerful sorceress. Eventually, she became aware of the X-Mens continued existence, and was reunited with them briefly several times. She remains with Excalibur still, however, and recently found new love with a man named Pete Wisdom. Ironically, at the same time they were coming together, Colossus returned to Earth and joined up with the team. Kitty and Pete have now parted ways, but only time will tell if the spark between Kitty and Colossus will be rekindled.

With the disbandment of Excalibur, Kitty has returned home to original team, the X-Men, along with Colossus and Nightcrawler. Still a spunky teenage girl, she has been through much in the last three years of her life, but she keeps her spirits up and continues to fight to keep the world safe from harm.


Strength level: Shadowcat possesses the normal human strength of a girl of her age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise.

Known superhuman powers: Shadowcat possesses the ability to pass through solid matter 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 can temporarily merge without interacting, and each is unharmed when Shadowcat has finished passing through the object. This process is called "phasing." When Shadowcat is phasing, she is, for all intents ad 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. While phasing Shadowcat is still vulnerable to psionic or mystical attack, however.

Shadowcat passes through objects at the same rate of speed at which she is moving before she "enters" it. Since she is unable to breathe while "inside" an object, she can only continuously phase through solid objects (as when she travels underground) as long as she can hold her breath.

Shadowcat can phase through any material object, even living people. When she phases through an object with an electrical system, the process disrupts the system's workings. She has trained herself to go automatically, by reflex, into a phasing state at any indication of danger, such as a loud noise like a gunshot, in order to protect herself.

Using her phasing ability, Shadowcat can walk on air. In fact, she can use her ability to walk on the air from the ground to the upper stories of a building as if she were climbing a staircase.

From the first use of her phasing power, Shadowcat has been able to phase her clothing along with herself. Through practice she has learned to phase other objects along with herself without harm to them, and can now phase a living person as big as her teammate Colossus along with herself. She can also enable someone as big as Colossus to "walk on air" along with her. However, she must maintain physical contact with the person or object she phases along herself for the effect to work with this other person or object.

Special skills: Shadowcat possesses moderate expertise of the martial arts of the Japanese ninja and samurai. Shadowcat is a genius in computer science. She has continued to take dance training under the tutelage of Stevie Hunter, and is highly agile. Shadowcat demonstrated great knowledge of ninja methods of combat when she was mentally possessed by the Ronon Ogun. With the possession over, Shadowcat has forgotten the knowledge of ninja techniques he gave her, but she has retained the knowledge of Oriental methods of combat taught her by Wolverine.


Updated May 4, 1998

Shadowcat has had guests since March 19, 1998





This history was written by Onyx, please do not use without permission. Stats copied from Marvel Comics.