SHADOW CAT BIO
Real Name: Katherine "Kitty" Pryde
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 110 lbs
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Hazel
Group: Excalibur
Identity: Secret
Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record
Former aliases: Ariel I, Sprite, Cat
Occupation: Student, adventurer
Origin: Deerfield, Illinois, USA
Marital status: Single
First appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #129
Known relatives: Carmen (father, divorced), Theresa ("Terri," mother, divorced),
Samuel Prydeman (grandfather, deceased), Chava Rosanoff (great-aunt, deceased)
Theresa “Terri” Pryde (mother)
Samuel Prydeman (grandfather, deceased)
Chava Rosanoff (great-aunt, deceased)
Base of operations: (current) Muir Island off the coast of Scotland, (former)
Exalibur's lighthouse off the coast of Britain, Professor Xavier's School for
Gifted Youngsters, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York; Moira
MacTaggert's Mutant Research Center, Muir Island, Scotland
Group affiliation: (current) Excalibur, (formerly) X-Men, S.H.I.E.L.D.
First appearance: X-MEN (first series) #129
Mutant Powers: Shadowcat has the ability to pass through solid objects by moving
the atoms of her body through the spaces between the objects atoms. She calls
this process "phasing". When she is attacked, she can enter her phased state,
allowing projectiles or energy blasts to pass through her harmlessly. Shadowcat
is still vulnerable to psionic or mystic attacks while phased.
She cannot breathe while phasing, hence she can only phase for as long as she
can hold her breath.
Shadowcat can phase through any material, including people. Phasing through
electrical systems causes them to become disrupted. Using her phasing ability,
she can walk on air, effectively allowing her the ability of flight.
Shadowcat has always had the ability to phase her clothing with her, but with
practice she has learned to phase other objects as well. She has also learned to
phase a team-mate with her and can allow them to "air walk" for as long as they
remain in contact with her.
First Appearance: X-Men (Vol 1) #129
History: Katherine Pryde lived a normal life in Illinois until she began
suffering severe head-aches at age thirteen. Professor Xavier had located her
with Cerebro, his mutant detecting computer, and set out with three of his X-Men
in order to contact Kitty and possibly recruit her. Unknown to the X-Men, the
mercenary Warhawk had attached a device to Cerebro allowing the Inner Circle of
the Hellfire Club to monitor its activities. The Inner Circle learned of Kitty's
existence and sent Emma Frost to contact her.
Xavier and Frost both trained mutants in the use of their powers under the cover
of schools. They had both intended to recruit Kitty without alerting her parents
to the fact that their daughter was a mutant.
Even Kitty herself did not know that she was a mutant, and did not discover her
powers until the night Emma Frost arrived to talk to Kitty's parents. Kitty
retired to her upstairs bedroom suffering her worst headache ever. As she lay on
her bed wishing her headache would go away, she suddenly found herself lying on
the floor on the level below. She had unknowingly used her phasing power for the
first time.
As Frost left, the X-Men arrived, and Kitty took them to the local malt shop.
Here the X-Men were attacked by members of the Hellfire Club. Surprised, she
found herself phasing through the wall, where she subsequently passed out due to
unfamiliarity with her powers. Emma Frost overcame the X-Men with her telepathic
powers, and had them taken to her hovercraft.
Kitty had awoken, and unwilling to abandon her new friends, she snuck aboard the
hovercraft. She used her powers to locate the X-Men within the Frost Industries
complex where they had been taken. Kitty called the rest of the X-Men, despite
attempts to capture her by Hellfire agents.
She was almost captured after calling for help, but was saved by the rest of the
X-Men. Kitty then helped to rescue the captured X-Men.
Kitty's mother was enraged by her daughter's disappearance, although Phoenix
used her telepathic powers to calm the woman, who then allowed Kitty to enrol at
Xavier's school. Here she joined the X-Men taking on the name Sprite, and later
changing to Ariel.
Kitty's friendship with Storm has continued although her best friend was Illyana
Rasputin, whose recent death from the Legacy Virus deeply affected Kitty. She
has also had a short lived romance with Colossus, with whom she still remains
close friends, and is often accompanied by a small dragon-like creature named
Lockheed, who she met while on another planet with the X-Men.
A friendship has also developed with the X-Man Wolverine. While in Japan, Kitty
was captured and put under the mental control of Ogun, a martial arts master who
had once been Wolverine's mentor. Wolverine gave Kitty a crash course in martial
arts so she could contend against Ogun. At the end of her training, Kitty took
on the name Shadowcat.
During the Morlock Massacre, Shadowcat was injured by one of Harpoon's energy
spears. This affected her powers, making her unable to maintain her solidity.
She was later cured of this affliction.
Shadowcat became a founding member of Excalibur, a British super team. Here she
began a romance with fellow member, Pete Wisdom.
Kitty has also spent a short time as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, where she once again
faced Ogun.
After Excalibur was disbanded, Kitty returned to the X-Men along with Colossus
and Nightcrawler, where she continued to serve until her recent disappearance in
space while battling the Neo.
BIO # 2
BRIEF HISTORY
Kitty lived an ordinary life, except for her being a genius on electronics and
computers, until her latent mutant powers were exposed. First, she had strong
headaches. Later, she discovered her ability to pass through solid objects like
a ghost. Besides, if those objects were electronic, they broke. Emma Frost, who
had founded the Hellions as a branch of the Hellfire Club, tried to recruit her
for her Massachusset Academy, which was a cover for her illegal activities, but
Charles Xavier got her first. Believing it was for the best, he telephatically
pushed her parents into choosing Xavier's school rather than most reputed
Massachusset Academy. She joined shortly after Phoenix's death.
Being the younger member of the team was not as wonderful as she had imagined,
but she finally accepted the X Men as her family, specially after her parents
divorced. She soon became close to Nightcrawler. She also adopted Ororo as a
mother figure and started to date Colossus. She also became his sister Illyana's
best friend. Their bond was so strong that Illyana's dark powers and soulsword
went to her when she was powerless.
Her relationship with Peter was complicated. According to the team, she was
still too young to become romantically involved. Peter was five years older than
her and she was far more intelligent and educated than him. She also had a
special friend as young and bright as her: Doug Ramsey. Nevertheless, Kitty was
faithful to Peter until he went to the Secret Wars and fell in love with alien
healer Zsaji. When he returned, he dropped her.
ITo forget Peter, she visited her father. Unfortunately, she discovered that he
was involved with the yakuza and had serious troubles. The girl secretely
followed him to Japan. There, she was possessed by ninja demon Ogun and adquired
mastery on several ninja abilities. Kitty was rescued by Logan, who shares a
very special father-like relationship with her. The experience made her grow.
Years later, Kitty got seriously injured during a confrontation against The
Marauders, losing the capacity to turn herself solid. Fortunately, Reed Richards
and Victor von Doom worked together to save her and she slowly recovered. While
taking some rest at Muir Isle, she watched the X-Men death broadcasted on TV, so
she teamed with Nightcrawler, Rachel, Captain Britain and Meggan to create
Excalibur in order to keep Xavier's dream alive.
During her years in Excalibur, Kitty had a crush on Alistaire Stuart, who only
had eyes for her friend Rachel. Then, Pete Wisdom came into her life and, even
though she hated him at first, she finally fell in love with him. However, their
age difference and Pete's attitude ruined their relationship, specially after
she got attracted to a boy of her age during her stage as SHIELD agent to
destroy Ogun's spirit, who had infiltrated in their computers. When Illyana
Rasputin fell victim to the legacy virus, her soulsword went to Kitty. That made
her the target of warlocks Darkmoor and Gravemoss, who wanted its power for
themselves. Daytripper helped Kitty to defeat them and Kitty gave the sword to
her. After Captain Britain and Meggan married, Excalibur was dissolved and Kitty
returned to the X Men.
After several adventures with them, she turned rebellious and hardened. When the
Neo attacked the NASA spatial station where the X Men were staying, Kitty helped
them escape but got separated from them. She used a space suit to return to
earth, but it took her some time. When she arrived there, she found out that
Colossus had sacrificed his life to host the cure for the Legacy Virus. She took
it hard. She returned Colossus' ashes to Siberia and abandoned the X Men to
return to college. She has asked the X Men to respect her privacy and has
removed all electronic trace of her from the X-Men's computer systems. She is
currently in Chicago astrophysics department, working with Doctor Simon Benes
and other geniouses in the advanced physics tutorial. She has a full
scholarship, but she prefers to live outside the campus. To pay for her
expenses, she works for his neighbour Dylan Maguire in the "Hell Belles" bar.
She has found her old friend Karma living around. Unfortunately, there is a
strong antimutant student branch in the place known as Purity which is capable
of terrorist attacks and worse.
History: Katherine "Kitty" Pryde was a thirteen-and-a-half year old girl living
in Deerfield, Illinois who led a normal life but then began suffering headaches
of steadily increasing frequency, duration, and intensity. Unknown to her or her
parents, the headaches were a result of her mutant power emerging.
Meanwhile, Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men, a team of mutant
adventurers whom he trained in the use of their superhuman powers, located Kitty
with his device for finding superhuman mutants, Cerebro. He and three of the
X-Men, Colossus, Storm, and Wolverine, set out for Deerfield to contact her and
possibly recruit her as a member of the X-Men. Unknown to Xavier, the mercenary
Warhawk had planted a device that enabled his employers in the Inner Circle of
the Hellfire Club to monitor Cerebro's activities. The Inner Circle thus also
learned about Kitty Pryde, and one of its leaders, Emma Frost, the White Queen,
also went to contact her.
Xavier trained superhuman mutants at his so-called School for Gifted Youngsters,
whereas Frost was headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy, where she also
secretly trained young superhuman mutants such as the Hellions in the use of
their powers. Hence, Xavier and Frost would each approach Pryde and her parents
as the heads of private schools seeking to recruit her as a talented student.
Neither Xavier nor Frost intended to reveal to Kitty's parents that their
daughter was a mutant.
Kitty herself was unaware that she was mutant or that she had a superhuman power
until the afternoon that Frost arrived to speak to her parents. While Frost was
downstairs, Kitty went to her room upstairs, suffering her worst headache ever.
Lying on her bed, she closed her eyes, wishing the headache would stop. It did.
Kitty opened her eyes, and, to her surprise, found herself lying on the floor of
her living room. Without knowing it, Kitty had used her "phasing" power for the
first time, and had passed through her bed and the floor into the room below.
As Frost left, Xavier and his three X-Men arrived. The three X-Men took Kitty to
a local malt shop, where Kitty and Storm began what evolved into a close
friendship. Suddenly three Hellfire Club mercenaries burst into the shop and
attacked the X-Men. Surprised and frightened, Kitty moved out of the way and
found herself passing through the wall. Landing outside, she fell unconscious
since she was still not used to utilizing her power. The White Queen used her
telepathic powers to overcome the three X-Men, whom the Hellfire Club took into
their hovercraft.
But the brave Kitty had decided to snoop around the hovercraft before it took
off, and discovered the X-Men were aboard as prisoners. Unwilling to desert her
new friend Storm or the others, she hid aboard the craft and used her new powers
to find the captive X-Men in the Frost Industries complex to which the White
Queen had taken them. Storm gave Kitty the X-Men's phone number and asked her to
summon help. But one of the Hellfire Club mercenaries spotted Pryde, and the
White Queen ordered her capture. Using her powers, Pryde got away long enough to
phone the number.
Two Hellfire Club mercenaries in a car were just about to capture Pryde in
Chicago when they were halted by the Jean Grey version of Phoenix, who had just
arrived with her fellow X-Men Cyclops and Nightcrawler in response to Kitty's
message. Phoenix found and comforted the frightened Kitty, who told her story to
her and her X-Men colleagues. Pryde then helped the X-Men and their ally, the
Dazzler, in rescuing their captive colleagues.
Phoenix used her mental powers to calm Carmen Pryde's rage over his daughter's
disappearance. Mr. and Mrs. Pryde allowed Kitty to join Xavier's school, and
soon afterwards she became the newest member of the X-Men. She originally took
the code name Sprite, but later changed it to Ariel. Kitty quickly became a
valuable member of the X-Men, so much so that Xavier retained her in the X-Men
even after founding a new team, the New Mutants, most of whose members were
closer to Kitty in age than the other X-Men were.
Kitty's friendship with Storm has continued, but her best friend was Illyana
Rasputin, the New Mutant called Magik. Kitty was deeply affected by Illyana's
recent death from the Legacy Virus. Kitty had a romance with her fellow X-Man
Colossus, and although it proved to be short-lived, they remain friends today.
Kitty's constant companion is the small, alien, dragon-like creature Lockheed,
whom she met when the X-Men were on another planet.
Over time Kitty also grew close to the X-Man Wolverine, who became a mentor to
her. While in Japan, Kitty was captured and put under the mental control of Ogun,
the martial arts master who had once been Wolverine's teacher but had since
become his enemy. Wolverine undertook a crash program to teach Kitty to become
skillful enough in the Japanese martial arts to contend against Ogun. At the end
of her training Kitty assumed the new code name Shadowcat, which she still uses
today.
During the massacre of the mutant Morlocks by the Marauders, the Marauder called
Harpoon injured Shadowcat with his energy spear. It also adversely affected her
powers so that she could no longer regain her solidity. She was cured by the
combined efforts of Doctor Doom and the Fantastic Four's Mister Fantastic.
Subsequently, Shadowcat became a founding member of the new British-based team
of adventurers Excalibur. She eventually became romantically involved with her
teammate Peter Wisdom.
Later at 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 has subsequently returned to Excalibur, where she has continued to be
a valued member of the team. When Excalibur disbanded, Shadowcat returned to the
United States and the X-Men. Following the tragic death of Colossus, and too
many loved ones before him, Kitty left the team to find a new way to help
realize Xavier's dream of peaceful coexistence between man and mutant. That road
led her to a life away from the front lines of genetic conflict at an unnamed
university, where she would be free to pursue her own destiny.
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.
Kitty began having extreme headaches as an early teen. Her headaches gradually
disappeared as her powers began to manifest themselves.
When she was 13, her parents took her to Emma Frost, the White Queen and leader
of the Hellfire Club for schooling and control of her powers.
After a bout with The X-Men, The Hellfire Club and it's students were no longer
able to maintain anonymity. Professor Xavier stepped in and recruited Kitty to
his school.
As the youngest member of The X-men, she took on a mother-daughter relationship
with Storm who guided her in womanhood. She took the name of Sprite as she began
her journey with the team.
Professor Xavier helped her gain control of her phasing at many levels as well
as developing her education. She became a master at computers any many other
kinds of technology.
As she entered her late teens, she developed a crush on fellow member Colossus,
which eventually turned into a lasting deep love between the two. They never
engaged in a relationship due to Colossus' concern for Kitty's age.
Between being the youngest, being left out because of it and her broken heart
she withdrew into herself until Wolverine joined the team.
She took on the name, Shadowcat and began to train with Wolverine in the martial
arts. Her solitude drew her to Wolverine in a deep friendship which became very
deep. Wolverine rarely got close but he could relate to her loneliness and took
her under his wing and returned her friendship.
While on an off-planet mission against the Brood, she found a lonely little
dragon and adopted him (with Professor Xavier's permission, of course) and named
him Lockheed. Lockheed has been her constant companion ever since.
During the Mutant Massacre, Harpoon injured Kitty with a spear of energy and she
lost her ability to become tangible again. She remain "ghost-like" until Dr.
Doom and Mr. Fantastic cured her.
She became the founding member of Excalibur, but is always faithful and loyal to
The X-men and comes to their aide when needed.