Kitty Pryde (person)

In the midst of Chris Claremont's time as the writer of the popular X-Men comic, the character of Kitty Pryde was introduced. Pryde was the thirteen year old daughter of a successful business man in Chicago. Interested in dance and computers, Kitty was an excellent student, who had recently been plagued with intense headaches. She was approached by both Emma Frost of the Hellfire Club and Charles Xavier, the leader of the X-Men, offering her positions in their school. Both Xavier and Frost were aware that Pryde's headaches were the first signs that of her emerging mutant ability, to make herself intangible and move through solid objects. This is done by Pryde unconsiously synching the molecules in her body with those of the object she is trying to pass through allowing her molecules to slip between the molecules of the object in question. Over the years, Pryde has been able to extend this ability to other objects that she is touching.

Pryde used her new ability to help rescue three of Xavier's students (Wolverine,Storm, and Colossus)who had been captured by Frost. She was then enrolled in Xaviers School for Gifted Youngsters and arrived at the school soon after the believed death of Jean Grey.

Pryde was originally given the code name Sprite and was trained in controlling her mutant power and combat. She adventured with the X-Men on a number of occasions, with Xavier keeping a close eye on her progress. Xavier was concerned about her young age, but she time and again showed her self to be brave and competent eventually earning herself a spot as an X-Man despite her age.

Kitty Pryde also began a budding romance with fellow X-Man Peter Rasputin or Colossus. When Colossus was injured during a battle with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Pryde made a deal with the leader of the Morlocks Callisto to have the Morlock healer use his power to save Colossus in exchange for her marrying the Morlock Caliban. Only when Storm defeated Callisto in combat was the deal negated. Soon after Kitty changed her code name to Ariel.

Where Kitty Pryde had a romance with Colossus, her relationships with the other X-Men blossomed as well. Xavier became her surrogate father and Storm her surrogate mother after the break up of her real parents marriage. She became close friends with Colossus's younger sister Illyana who was a member of Xavier's younger team the New Mutants and was befriended by a small dragon-like creature from another planet that followed her home. The alien creature was nicknamed Lockheed after a character in a fairy tale she told to Illyana. She became the kid sister to Nightcrawler and the X-Man Wolverine became her mentor.

The mentoring relationship with Wolverine came to a head, when Kitty followed her father to Japan after leaving the X-Men after she and Colossus ended their romance. Kitty was captured and brainwashed by the ninja master Ogun and sent to kill Wolverine who had followed her to Japan. Wolverine battled Kitty who was now as deadly as Ogun and was nearly killed during the fight. Wolverine helped Kitty to break Ogun's conditioning and the two were able to defeat the villain. From this point forward, Kitty adopted the name Shadowcat.

Returning to the X-Men, Kitty became a more intergral part of the team, until an attack by the Marauders, agents of the villain Mister Sinister, attacked the Morlock community. The battle between the X-Men and the Marauders cost the X-Men heavily, with both Nightcrawler and Colossus nearly killed, and Kitty injured so that she was unable to phase back to solidity. Only with the help of the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards was she able to begin to recover.

During her recovery, Kitty and Nightcrawler stayed with Moira MacTaggert at her research station on Muir Island. The two along with Rachael Summers became involved with Captain Britain and Meggan and formed the team Excalibur. The team lasted many years.

During this time, Shadowcat became romantically involved with a former member of British Intelligence Peter Wisdom. The two were quite serious for a time, but eventually this romance ended as well, and Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and their former teammate Colossus, returned to the X-Men.

As of recently, Shadowcat as ceased to work with the X-Men and returned to school to pursue her degree. Her newest adventures are being told in the new comic by Chris Claremont, MechaniX.