Characters / Marvel Comics: Kitty Pryde

aka: Kitty Pryde

Katherine Anne "Kate" Pryde / Sprite / Ariel / Shadowcat / Star-Lord / Red Queen / Shadowkat

Kitty and Lockheed.

^{Click here to see her as the Red Queen}

^{Click here to see her as Shadowkat}

Nationality: American, Krakoan

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #129 (January 1980)

"Even without any super-powers, I'll never settle for what society — or my parents — expects of me. I'm not a kitty anymore — much as I wish differently — I've grown up. I'm a cat. And I like the shadows a whole lot more than the daylight."

— Shadowcat

Katherine "Kate" Pryde, formerly known as "Kitty", (also known under alias Sprite, Ariel, the Red Queen, the woman behind the legend of the Star-Lord, and the most famously-known Shadowcat) is a Marvel Comics character created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne and associated with the superhero teams X-Men and Excalibur. Her debut was in Uncanny X-Men #129 (January 1980), but she wouldn't join the team until after the famous Dark Phoenix Saga at issue 138. She's one of the most recognizable characters in the history of the franchise (having appeared in almost every single X-Men media with the notable exception of the '90s animated series) and probably the most well-known Jewish female superhero in the Marvel Universe (and maybe comics), and the first openly Jewish superhero in comics.

Kitty was a nerdy, plucky, rather plain city girl whose genius intellect made her an outcast among people her own age. Soon she became the viewpoint character for younger readers, and due to her young age, became quite popular between the male teenage demographic who wanted to become her boyfriend (something that would get her plenty of importance and spotlight a generation later, when those same teenagers started to run the Asylum). At 13 years of age, Kitty discovered her ability to become intangible at will and walk on thin air, and soon both Emma Frost and Charles Xavier started pursuing her to convince her to join their respective academies. Although her parents prefered Emma's school, Xavier would end up winning after Kitty quickly bonded with her new Cool Big Sis Storm, but soon the White Queen attacked and kidnapped the X-Men but failed at capturing Kitty. Later Kitty went through one of the most horrible nights of her life as the Hellfire club chased her through all the city trying to capture her, but ultimately she ended up saving the X-Men. After the incident, she decided to join the X-Men and became the youngest member to ever join until then (later she would be matched and maybe surpassed by other young members). She later adopted a pet dragon from outer space, started dating Colossus (the first of plenty of guys named Peter she would end up dating), and Wolverine and Storm became surrogate parental figures for her.

After a period with the X-Men and the New Mutants, she went to England and became one of the founders of Excalibur along with two fellow members Nightcrawler and Rachel Summers; as well as Psylocke's twin brother Captain Britain and his Magical Girlfriend Meggan. Later she started dating a reformed spy named Pete Wisdom (a guy just like John Constantine but with less magic). She was also briefly recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. to repair the computer system of their helicarrier.

She later would return to the X-Men and then leave again only to return once more when the mansion was rebuilt again, she became an important member of the team and later would start dating Colossus again (don't worry, this time, she dumped him), but her time with the X-Men would be short lived, for she would soon get trapped inside a giant bullet that she phased through Earth (it was as ridiculously awesome as it sounds). She eventually was brought back by Magneto and later when the X-Men split into two teams, Wolverine-led team and Cyclops-led team, Kitty sided with Wolverine. During this time, she became the headmistress of the new Jean Grey school (after the school was destroyed and rebuilt again), and started dating Iceman (just like in the movies, but with less Rogue and more awkward moments). However, she would eventually leave Wolverine's team and the Jean Grey School, disappointed and disillusioned by her comrades' actions during the Battle of the Atom storyline. She took the time-displaced X-Men with her, and together they joined Cyclops and his X-Men, at the new Xavier School. She took the responsibility to teach and train the time-displaced original five X-Men, who affectionately called her "Professor K".

At this point, she started dating the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill, also known as the legendary Star-Lord. This relationship soon pushed her to confront her fears of space, and later also the fears she had of losing control of her powers that had affected her for so long. After a nasty incident with an ancient cosmic artifact, she conquered said fears and decided she wanted to live in space with Peter Quill. Kitty also joined the Guardians of the Galaxy, as the new Star-Lord, taking the place of Quill in the team while he was busy being the King of the Spartax empire. She spend sixteen months living with the Guardians, and eight being the Star-Lord without Quill. But soon, unfortunately for Quill, the politicians of his Empire turned on him after a nasty event with the Kree. Peter once again returned to the team so Kitty changed her codename to Star-Lady. The team kept having adventures together until one day Carol Danvers requested their aid to deal with a fight between super-heroes on Earth about a new Inhuman who could predict future events. During this fight, the Guardians' ship was blown up and all the team got stranded on Earth. Kitty decided it was best for her to quit the super-hero life again and try to live a normal life dedicated to pursue her dreams.

However, after a few weeks after this decision, Storm knocked at her door, asking her to come back to the X-Men. Kitty didn't want to go back, especially after all the X-Men had done in the past under the various other leaders, including Storm. But Ororo promised her things would be different now, because she was willing to give Kitty the position of leader and headmistress of the school. Even with this, Kitty was doubtful, but after seeing the current state of the school after the war with the Inhumans, she accepted to come back and lead the X-Men.

When all of mutantdom moves to Krakoa, Kate,^note Tired of being seen as the X-Men's kid sister, she stopped going by Kitty. can only get there by boat, as she's the only mutant the gates won't work for, joins the Hellfire Trading Corporation as the Red Queen and sails the world liberating mutants from countries which won't let them leave. This position also gives her one of the twelve seats on the Quiet Council, Krakoa's governing body. Following the invasion of Krakoa by Orchis, Kate became filled with vengeance and anger and, upon slaughtering a group of Orchis soldiers, reclaimed a set of Japanese swords from the old school and reclaimed her old Shadowcat name, renaming herself "Shadowkat".

As an X-Man, her greatest assets are her cleverness, hacking skills, athleticism, physical combat training, and her natural ability to lead; as well as her powers that have become stronger with time (after the Black Vortex saga, her control over her powers is almost complete, being able to phase and unphase objects of any size at will without much effort. And all this without counting her multiverse cosmical godly powers that are still dormant inside).

Also she has been engaged to marry more than once, most famously to both Peter Rasputin and Peter Quill (she willingly said 'yes' to both). Despite this, she never went through with it, and remains up to this day, forever single.

Kitty was originally named after an acquaintance of John Byrne's. Her popularity had a profound effect on the real-life Kitty, who changed her name to avoid the unwanted attention of comic fans. She has no relation to the artist Kitty Pryde.

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Kitty Pryde provides examples of:

#-H

• Achievements in Ignorance: Her first Danger Room segment, where her goal was to simply reach the other end of the room. Kitty was so nervous she shut her eyes and made herself intangible. She made to the end with no obstacle able to stop her.
• Action Fashionista: She went through a period where she was designing her own costumes, especially when she gets her hands on an alien device that allows instant clothes changes. However, being a young teenager at the time, she tended to have a questionable taste in fashion.
• Action Girl: She goes into action not only with her intangibility powers, but she also possess natural martial arts skills, taught by Wolverine.
• Affectionate Nickname: "Kitty" is a nickname to begin with. Colossus calls her "Katya". In her early days in the X-Men, Storm called her "Kitten", Nightcrawler "Kätzchen" ('Kitten' in German) and Wolverine "Pun'kin". Even Magneto has a moment, right before he passes out from exhaustion after retrieving her in bullet form, he calls her "tzatzkeleh", a Yiddish word meaning "kitten".
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Colossus aside, she clearly likes men who have a dark side and an edge. Somewhat exaggerated in her relationship with Star-Lord. Quill was working hard to become a man who a good girl like Kitty could love, but she just wanted him to be as bad as he could be without harming innocents or killing anyone, and take her with him of course.
  Kitty: Peter... let's do something bad. (Peter laughs thinking she meant something sexual) Not like that, you perv. I wanna do bad things like you do.
• Amicable Exes: After their break up, Kitty and Bobby eventually grow very close.
• And Show It to You: In a "What If?" story, Kitty phases her hand into Emma Frost's chest cavity from behind and then out through the front of her chest, ripping out her heart in the process. Emma survives just long enough to see her own heart in Kitty's hand.
  Kitty: Huh, whaddaya know? Never imagined you actually had one of these.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Her Black Vortex empowerment allowed her to phase between dimensions, letting her touch the minds of her past, present and alternate selves. She only came back because of her love of Peter Quill.
• Audience Surrogate: Shadowcat is the primary narrator and the POV tends to focus on her in Astonishing X-Men.
• Badass Adorable: An incredibly adorable and dorky Jewish brunette with the power to be virtually untouchable and phase her fingers through your brain. She grows more badass over the years as she gets further combat training from other characters to the point she becomes the leader of the X-Men at various times.
• Badass Bookworm: In addition to knowing martial arts, she is good with computers.
• Badass Teacher / Cool Teacher: Becomes one for timely-displaced original five X-Men.
• Battle Couple: Her with all of her boyfriends.
• Beginner's Luck: In her first appearance, the Hellfire Club has completely defeated and captured the X-Men except for her who luckily phased through the wall out of fear. Later, thanks to her powers, she quietly infiltrates Emma Frost's ship and headquarters, calls the X-Men for help and manages to rescue Wolverine (although she is finally defeated after rescuing him).
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: She learned martial arts (both Ninjutsu and Krav Maga) from Wolverine himself, in addition to being an Intangible Woman.
• Boyish Short Hair: Even when her most well known appearance is with long hair, there have been times when she sported short haircuts. It usually comes with a darker or more serious attitude for her.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Done by Ogun, Wolverine's Evil Mentor. She got better thanks to Wolverine and his friend Yukio.
• Brainy Brunette: She's an expert in the field of computer science, demonstrating genius-level aptitude for programming, modifying, and diagnosing almost any computer system: even those of unfamiliar human and extraterrestrial origin.
• Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: She subverted this trope for years. For every "Break Up" scenario she had, there was never a "Make up" scenario happening afterwards. Colossus was the closest to it after they broke up, they decided to stay friends until they got together again after 20 years, but then they broke up again. After so many years, she finally got one of these on "The Black Vortex", where she started fighting with her boyfriend, Peter Quill, over if using the Vortex was a good idea, after many disasters and her almost dying, Quill realized his mistake and apologize to her which prompts her to forgive him and break out the L word.
• But I Can't Be Pregnant!: A small story arc in Wolverine and the X-Men (Marvel Comics). It turns out she was right, she wasn't pregnant. She was infected with Brood.
• Character Development: She started out as a slightly whiny and tantrum-prone teenager who preferred the company of the good-looking X-Men like Storm and Colossus while shunning Wolverine and Nightcrawler, and whose answer to every challenge was just walk through it and run away. Now? She's one of the most levelheaded and reliable X-Men, and Wolverine and Nightcrawler are among her closest friends.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Ironic for a girl who has the power to phase through almost everything, but Kitty is often very clingy towards Colossus. This was very evident during Chris Claremont's run where Kitty flips out when Professor X separates her from the X-Men and therefore by proxy separating Kitty from her Russian love.
• Code Name: Flip-flopped. She had a couple of early pseudonyms, Ariel and Sprite: eventually she settled on Shadowcat: more recently, she inherited 'Star Lord' (but doesn't use it much, what with the gender-specific implication.) However, her real name hasn't been kept secret and many just refer to her by name.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Byrne drew her to look like an adolescent Sigourney Weaver.
  • During his time as an artist on Excalibur, Alan Davis based her appearance on a young Katharine Hepburn.
• Coming of Age Story: The mini-series "Kitty Pryde and Wolverine" was this for her.
• Conflict Ball: Used to have this with Emma Frost. These days she is among Kate's closest friends.
• Cousin Oliver: Kitty Pryde was originally one of the more famous examples in Marvel Comics. She was introduced to the cast of X-Men just as the five original X-Men were hitting their mid-20s, and after the team had been retooled as a group of adult superheroes. She was just a teenager in her first appearance and essentially played the same Audience Surrogate role as Jean Grey in the very first issue. Fans generally agree that this wasn't a bad thing; in fact, Kitty pretty quickly became one of the series' most popular and prominent characters, and she's fondly remembered as one of Chris Claremont's best contributions to the franchise.
• Dead Guy Junior: A handful of alternate futures show that, were she to ever have children, she would name at least one of them for her father, who died during Cassandra Nova's genocide of Genosha.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not often, but pretty good when she does.
• Dimensional Traveler: Sometimes when her powers are suped up she can phase through dimensional walls.
• Dragon Rider: Lockheed occasionally has the ability to grow large enough to carry her and the other X-Men. (It's usually inverted, since her shoulder is his preferred method of travel.)
• Dragon Tamer: She has a cat-sized pet alien dragon named Lockheed that is smart enough to understand human speech and is a surprisingly formidable combatant for his size. When we see things from Lockheed's perspective, we discover that he's actually extremely intelligent and considers Kitty to be his pet.
• The Dreaded: She is considered a top severe threat in O.N.E.’s files on all mutanrs. This is a level Cyclops isn’t even considered to be.
• Dressed to Plunder: As the Red Queen she has a strong pirate aesthetic with a red naval longcoat, cutlass, tall boots, and getting "Hold Fast" and then "Kill Shaw" after her resurrection gave her a new body tattooed on her knuckles. Makes sense given she's got her own ship and crew as Captain of the Hellfire Trading Company. Lockheed even serves as a replacement for a Pirate Parrot.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Karma, a lesbian member in New Mutants, had a one-sided crush on Kitty.
• Face–Heel Turn: She's one of heroes who is inverted into evil in AXIS and appears as main antagonist in tie-in comic AXIS: Revolutions #3. That is, at least, until the reinversion spell was cast, however.
• Face Your Fears: Kitty was terrified of space; but at the same time, she started a relationship with famous space outlaw Peter Quill. Naturally, Quill was captured and it was up to Kitty to conquer her fears and go rescue him. She did it and later, Peter helped her to overcome her fear completely to the point of her deciding to stay in space with him.
• Fanservice Pack: Kitty has always been cute (if sometimes showing dubious taste in costumes) but definitely got hotter over the years. It helped that she was allowed to age over time, gradually going from a 13-year-old Tagalong Kid to a sexy, confident 20-something. This culminated with her appearance in Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, where she had an unexpectedly risque nude scene and finally got around to sleeping with Colossus after almost 30 years (although in her defense, he was dead for some of that time).
• Familiar: The relationship between Kitty and her pet dragon, Lockheed, fits the trope fairly nicely, despite not being of a supernatural nature.
• The Fatalist: Inverted; she's well aware that a lot of people hate her for being a mutant, and has even dealt with anti-Semitism on several occasions, but she takes it in stride.
  Kitty: I've been an X-Man since I was fourteen. It's like wearing a big sign saying "Please try and kill me, I like it."
• Feather Boa Constrictor: Kitty has been known to wear Lockheed (a small alien dragon) around her neck.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Emma Frost. Contrast their relationship in Astonishing X-men (spite and hate) with the one they have in Marauders (trust, love and loyalty).
• First Kiss: Kitty’s first kiss was kissing Colossus on the cheek at Christmas with a sneaky use of mistletoe◊. Kitty gave him the full lip lock later, but Colossus broke it off reminding Kitty of the age difference between them. It wasn’t till Astonishing X-Men where Colossus and an older Kitty made out as two consenting adults.
• Forgot About His Powers: Writers sometimes forget that, after the events of the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries, she's a highly competent martial artist and formidable kunoichi.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Whenever she gets a crush on a man she would get very jealous of any other girl giving him attention or vice-versa and either lash out at them or scheme to sabotage them. She seems to have mostly grown out of it.
• Has a Type: Kitty seems to prefer guys named "Peter". In one language or another, anyway. She's had relationships with Colossus (Pyotr Rasputin), Star-Lord (Peter Quill), and Pete Wisdom. In the Ultimate comics, Kitty even dated Spider-Man—Peter Parker, not Miles Morales.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: While it's great on defense, insubstantiality doesn't seem like it would be much good for winning fights. But you'd be surprised. Not to mention the multiple occasions where she and alternate versions of herself are said to have a mind existing on multiple planes of existence, in one continuity being compared to Jean Grey's mind. She can also phase her hands into your brain to induce aneurysms or take out your heart if she gets the urge.
• Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of Joss Whedon's run, she used her power to phase the Breakworld warhead through the Earth and any other planet in its path, with the side effect of trapping her within it for all time. Fortunately, Magneto pulled her out of it when Matt Fraction took over.
• Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: In X-Men: True Friends, when Kitty and Rachel Summers are sent back through time to the late '30s, Kitty gives serious thought to assassinating Hitler and most of his cabinet. Instead, she ends up helping rescue Rachel from the Shadow King, while protecting a young girl named Lilibet from Wolfgang Von Strucker.
• Hot Teacher: She is a teacher who is considered quite hot nowadays (even when it used to be the contrary in-universe before). Funnily subverted with young Iceman who didn't consider her hot at all, even though his older self was actually dating her at the time.

I-N

• I Am What I Am: She gives one of these speeches to the Original 5 while discussing whether mutants should be proud of being called that or not.
• Ideal Hero: Everyone thinks she is this so much to the point that, after the Schism, Cyclops remarked how she was the teammate he regretted losing the most because she was the best of them. Of course, in reality she isn't as "ideal" as everyone think she is, and she is always up to the idea of having some fun doing the "wrong" things, but she always tries to be the best person she can and knows which are the lines she will never cross very well.
• The Immodest Orgasm: When she and Colossus finally consummated their relationship, Kitty's phasing powers kicked in mid-coitus and she ended up in the TV lounge... behind the sofa on which a much younger student was sitting.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: During her time on Excalibur an examination showed her connection to the incredibly dark magic of the soulsword but also evaluated her as so pure in character she should be able to use it untainted.
• Intangibility: Her mutant ability to not fall through the floor, while not explained well, has nothing to do with the actual, physical floor (which she can pass through if she chooses) and, as such, can be used without a floor. She often walks on air by visualizing an invisible staircase. Later works have treated it as slow flight. This tends not to show up in adaptations.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Many. Wolverine, Emma and Storm who are older; and X-23 who is younger.
• Irony: Utterly hated Emma when they were on Astonishing X-men. By the time of Marauders, they're basically besties.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can be this with everyone, sometimes without even knowing it thanks to her stubborn personality.
• Jewish and Nerdy: She's Jewish and in the comics, she wears Star of David necklace.
• Karma Houdini: The fallout of X-Men Gold #30. Piotr is astonishingly chill with Kitty literally calling the wedding off as he's trying to put her ring on. So chill, in fact, that Kitty thinks things are cool... and is then surprised to find Piotr leaving after the wedding. At no point does anyone particularly mention that she humiliated them in front of all their friends.
• Kid Sidekick: She started out as a sidekick to Wolverine until she had grown into an independent woman when she moved to Excalibur.
• Kryptonite Factor:
  • There are some substance which she can't phase easily like Adamantium which causes her a great deal of pain when phasing through hit. Also, even while phased she can be poisoned or susceptible to gas agents.
  • Kitty's big weak point is that while she's intangible, she can't breathe, so she can only stay phased for as long as she can hold her breath.
  • In a crossover with the Teen Titans, Darkseid used shackles Kitty couldn't phase through. He explained that the shackles were absolutely frozen and molecularly dense, so there was no space between the atoms for her body to slip through.
• The Leader: She is the team leader of the original X-Men while they are in the present.
• "Leave Your Quest" Test: She tried to get out of the superhero lifestyle a few times. The longest might have been when she decided she had had enough of the superhero life, after Colossus died to cure the Legacy virus, so she left the X-Men and tried to start a normal life and achieve Xavier dream without having to fight in the X-Men. Of course, after a while, she was dragged back again into the X-Men and has stayed there ever since.
  Rachel: (while rebuilding the X-Mansion) Must drive you crazy, Kitty. Every time you try to bust loose of this place, you get pulled in.
• Little Miss Badass: She's a master ninja (and experienced superhero and expert hacker) by the age of 14, thanks in part to some Year Inside, Hour Outside training by Wolverine's Evil Mentor.
• McNinja: Aside from being possessed by Ogun which turned her into one, Wolverine also taught her to become skillful enough in the Japanese martial arts, including kendo and ninjutsu, to contend against Ogun.
• Morality Chain: She's developed this role toward Jean, who suffers from Power Incontinence and panic attacks. Kitty is entirely aware of how bad it would be for Jean to turn into a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Pillars of Moral Character: She's the only one who submitted to the Black Vortex for entirely selfless, incorruptible reasons.
• Morality Pet
  • She is sometimes this role for Wolverine.
  • She is very often this to Illyana Rasputin. Illyana has hurt a ton of people in her time, but the one she absolutely refuses to hurt is Kate.
• Naïve Newcomer: She starts as one.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: She got mad at her boyfriend Peter Quill for calling Wolverine, who had recently died, a "roughneck badass" and kept demanding an apology until Quill finally gave her one.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Mutant ninja hacker genius superhero with a pet dragon.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: After being possessed and abused by Ogun, Kitty was very afraid of him and of the idea of becoming him. After a harsh training under Wolverine, she finally overcame her fears; confronted Ogun, no longer afraid of him, and defeated him.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Ultimately Subverted; Kitty was originally envisioned as the team's teenager but Chris Claremont actually keeps aging her up during his run. Later, editors begrudgingly aged her even more during Excalibur so that her relationship with Pete Wisdom didn't look too creepy.
• Not Quite Flight: Kitty can walk on air using the Required Secondary Power that stops her phasing power from pulling her down into the earth. Which gets her where she needs to go, but at a normal walking pace.

O-Z

• Official Couple: She has had many partners. Colossus, Pete Wisdom, Iceman, Star-Lord.
• Older and Wiser: She was the youngest member of the X-Men at the time of her debut, nowadays she is replacing Professor X as the leader and teacher of the Original X-Men. She also was the Head-Mistress of the new Jean Grey school for a time and at one point this was even lampshaded by her pointing out how the students were referring now to her as she used to do it with the Professor.
• Old Flame: After she found Colossus still alive during Astonishing X-Men, they both realized they still liked each other a lot. They tried to make it work again and for some time it worked, but ultimately, they broke up again.
• Old Shame: In-Universe, the "roller disco" outfit described below in Rummage Sale Reject. In one issue, she burns it, while in another, Iceman teases her about it.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Her atrocious attempt to design her own outfit keeps popping up at times to embarrass her.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted, not only has she dated to three guys named Peter, but it turns out that she named a childhood pet Peter as well.
• The One That Got Away: Pete Wisdom might be the only guy so far to be this for her. Colossus was this back in the 80s but nowadays he's not anymore after they got back together and Kitty dumped him this time.
• Parental Substitute: Two examples.
  • Wolverine and her have a father/daughter dynamic and this is how she described him once.
  Shadowcat: I don't know that I'll ever get married, because every time I meet a man I can't help comparing them to him. And there's just no chance in Hell they can ever measure up.
  • On the other side, Storm is a mother-figure to her. Storm has more than once called her a daughter and Kate never denies it.
• Pillars of Moral Character: She's regularly demonstrated to have exceptional moral character among her peers. She's gotten away with using the N-word twice to make a point when racism against mutants is demonstrated by her black human friends. During the Black Vortex crossover event she's the only person who submits to the eponymous artifact out of necessity and thus retains her sense of self and not go mad with the power it gives her.
• Power Incontinence:
  • Back in the '80s, Shadowcat was stuck in her ghost state after her powers went haywire when she tried to phase an injured Rogue through the signature weapon of the Marauder Harpoon in the Mutant Massacre crossover.
  • In the Utopia era, she was brought out of the space bullet by the repowered Magneto. However, because she had been in her phased state too long, she was now stuck in her ghost state and not to mention, she could not speak or touch anyone.
• Primal Fear: One of the things she used to fear the most, despite her superhero lifestyle, was death. Also, another thing she started fearing a lot was space thanks to her experience inside the giant bullet that almost killed her and left her in a permanent state of phasing for a time.
• Queer Establishing Moment: After decades of subtext and fan speculation under Chris Claremont, Marauders #12 finally sees Kitty come out as bisexual when she kisses the female tattoo artist who gives her her "Kill Shaw" tattoo.
• Religious Bruiser: Is Jewish and devout.
• Required Secondary Powers: Her airwalk ability is necessary for her phasing ability as a whole to make sense because without it there’s nothing keeping her from falling through the ground if she tries to walk through an entirely solid object since her entire body would need to phase through it.
• Resurrection/Death Loop: In Marauders, Kate (who was having problems with her interactions with Krakoa already) gets killed by the Sebastian Shaw in Issue 6, and every attempt to revive her through the Five's method ends with her dying in her egg. It wasn't until Issue 11 when Emma Frost realizes that Kate's natural instinct is to phase through rather than fight, and helps Kate leave her egg by mentally making her phase through it during the eighteenth attempt to revive her.
• Ret-Canon: Her relationship with Iceman was done first on the X-Men films and later was incorporated on the adaptation Wolverine and the X-Men. In 2011 when the comic that was named the same debuted (not an adaptation of the series but part of the main Marvel Universe), she started dating Iceman.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: In X-Men (2021), Kate murders a group of Orchis soldiers in grief for the mutants Orchis killed. And that’s just the beginning.
• Rummage Sale Reject: In her early days on the team Kitty attempted to design her own costume a number of times. As these were always based on what a girl her age would supposedly consider cool - in the '80s - they were always hideous. Most notable is the Dazzler-inspired one◊ that included a whole array of eye-searing colors, metallic gold tights, leg warmers, and roller skates. Probably the only time Professor X has sent an X-Man back to her room to change before the mission.
• Running Gag:
  • Her three major male love interests have all been named Peter or Pete (Piotr Rasputin, Pete Wisdom, and Peter Quill). Her Ultimate Marvel incarnation also had history with Peter Parker.
  • Callbacks to her failed attempts to design her own costume (see Once Done, Never Forgotten, Old Shame, and Rummage Sale Reject) persist even in Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Seen It All: In her more recent appearances. When she's in a leadership role it can come off as Comically Serious, since most of the things she once thought of as 'impossible' have happened already.
• She Is the King: She takes on Peter Quill's moniker as Star-Lord, even though she should technically be called "Star-Lady".
• Shoulder-Sized Dragon: Lockheed, her pet dragon.
• The Smart Girl: Her role in Excalibur.
• Student–Master Team: She and Wolverine. At first, Wolverine started to train her after she left the X-Men and escaped to Japan. But "Wolverine: First Class" retconned this and made Wolverine her personal teacher since she joined the X-Men.
• Swapped Roles: Kitty Pryde, who was 13 and a half when she joined the X-Men, studied under Jean and learned techniques for handling telepathic issues. Now in All-New X-Men, she's an adult, teaching 16-year-old Jean from the past those same techniques.
• Tagalong Kid: The Trope Codifier for the X-Men franchise. She was the first teenager to join the team after the original cast had grown up. Originally, Kitty was supposed to remain a teenager, but this was eventually changed. Her dynamic with the team, particularly Wolverine, would be duplicated in other media with characters like Jubilee and Rogue.
• Take Up My Sword: When Professor X died, Kitty was the one who wound up taking charge of the School and trying to carry on his crusade.
• Team Mom: To the time displaced O5, Teen Jean in particular.
• Team Pet: She has Lockheed the dragon: however, she always insists people to refer him as her friend instead of a 'pet'.
• Throw It In!: According to John Byrne, some of Kitty's original design ended up based on his neighbor, who wasn't Jewish herself but typically wore her Jewish fiance's Star of David necklace. While his initial visual inspiration for Kitty was a young Sigourney Weaver, the final version also looked enough like his neighbor that he also added the necklace. That ended up being the basis for Kitty's Jewish heritage.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She and Illyana Rasputin are a subversion. Both are kick butt girly girls.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: One of her most famous look, popularized by Josh Whedon and John Cassaday in their Astonishing X-Men run. She usually uses this hairstyle while in uniform nowadays.
• Took a Level in Badass: She started out as a naive newcomer but after a few years of character development she became a ninja hacker ballet-dancing genius.
  • An old enemy of Logan's got hold of Kitty in the infamous "Kitty Pryde & Wolverine" limited series and taught her ninjitsu, the better to find and assassinate Logan himself. Kitty retained some of that skill set, and augmented it later with Krav Maga lessons from Wolverine. Kitty is a surprisingly adept unarmed combatant, and is very good at mixing it with her phasing ability.
  • Gained yet another level during the events of The Black Vortex where she became cosmically empowered allowing her to phase an entire planet.
• Took a Level in Cynic: The outcome of the 2023 Hellfire Gala leads to Kate (understandably) becoming more ruthless than ever. It starts with her killling Orchis troops who refuse to back off and it gets darker from there. A couple of weeks go by and she intends to kill Firestar, who seemingly worked for Orchis(while in reality being a mole for Jean Grey).
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After Teen Scott leaves in All-New X-Men, she acts like a jerk to Modern Scott and says she doesn't want Scott and Teen Jean alone, since Teen Jean showed some attraction to Scott... even though she admits that Scott handled the situation well. Then, she berates Teen Angel for letting X-23 leave, even though there's nothing he could've done outside knocking her out, which he probably couldn't even have done.
  • As she berates Teen Angel, she half admits that the reason for her shift in attitude, temporary as it is, is that she's trying to keep her students safe and feels like she's losing control.
• Tragic Intangibility: She spends a decent part of Matt Fraction's run on Uncanny X-Men unable to speak to or touch any of her friends after spending months alone. This whole thing is introduced with her boyfriend rushing to hug her after months of separation, only for the two to pass through each other and start to panic. Kitty then spends a decent part of the run learning to control her powers again while also learning how to reincorporate into society after being alone for so long.
• Tuckerization: Byrne took her surname from a classmate at art school, promising to use it for his first original character.
• Twofer Token Minority: Kitty is Jewish and female. As of Marauders #12, she is also bisexual making her a threefer minority character.
• Valley Girl: She's book smart, but has been portrayed as ditzy and slightly shallow at times. This was Flanderized almost beyond recognition in the first episodes of X-Men: Evolution, where the Illinois born and raised Kitty spoke like a 1980s California stereotype.
• Walking Techbane: If she phases through anything electrical, it shorts out. This makes throwing her at a Sentinel's head a viable attack, and was used by Chris Claremont to let her beat Rogue and Phoenix by phasing through their brains.
  • This backfired in "I, Magneto" when she tried to phase through the Master of Magnetism, whose nervous system is supercharged. The feedback nearly killed her (and Magneto thought it had, eventually prompting his first Character Development inspired Heel–Face Turn).
• What Does She See in Him?: Everyone's reaction when she was dating Pete Wisdom.
• Will They or Won't They?: Piotr and Kitty in particular have had a strife-ridden relationship and the latest chapter in the story of their relationship happens in X-Men Gold. After Piotr proposed to her and Kitty asked for time to think about it, Kitty proposed back in Gold #20. Unfortunately, in Gold #30, Kitty decided to back out at the last minute because of their history, to the point where her powers trigger when he tries to put the ring on in front of all their friends. AND THEN, in #31, she's surprised and upset when he tries to leave without saying good-bye.
• Working with the Ex: She had to work with Colossus in Excalibur while dating Pete Wisdom. Later, the roles were reversed and Kitty had to work on a short mission with Wisdom while she was thinking about dating Colossus again. A funnier version of this happened on All New X-Men, where Kitty became the teacher of a younger version of Iceman, the guy she broke up with not long before.
  • Subverted during her stint with the Guardians of the Galaxy as Peter Quill left the team exactly during the time they broke up. They got back together almost as soon as Peter went back to the team.
  • More recently she took the leadership position in X-Men: Gold and is working with Colossus again. Despite her initially telling Peter that she has moved on and didn't want to get romantically entangled with anyone named "Peter" again, she later admitted that the attraction is still there, and as of Issue 11, the two of them appear to be getting back together.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Kitty attempted to use a cross on Dracula, but Drac in the Marvel Universe is only vulnerable to holy symbols related to a person's beliefs. Fortunately for Kitty, she wears a Star of David around her neck.

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