Even FRANK CHO doesn't give Kitty Pryde Super-Boobs. FRANK CHO.
SHADOWCAT (Katherine "Kitty" Pryde, aka Sprite, Ariel)
Created By: Chris Claremont & John Byrne
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #129 (Jan. 1980)
Role: The Fan-Insert Character, The Team Brat, The Rebel, Teen Ninja, The Deadpan Snarker
Group Affiliations: The X-Men, Excalibur, S.H.I.E.L.D.
PL 9 (187), PL 11 (187) to Machines
STRENGTH 1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 12 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 4 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 2
Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+11)
Athletics 7 (+8)
Deception 3 (+5, +7 Attractive)
Expertise (Computers) 9 (+13)
Expertise (Pop Culture) 2 (+6)
Insight 4 (+7)
Investigation 3 (+6)
Perception 5 (+8)
Persuasion 4 (+6, +8 Attractive)
Stealth 8 (+13)
Technology 4 (+8)
Vehicles 1 (+4)
Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Attractive, Beginner's Luck, Close Attack, Equipment (X-Uniform, Hacker Gear), Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Disarm, Minion 6 (Lockheed), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 2, Set-Up, Teamwork
Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Phasing"
Insubstantial 4 (Feats: Precise, Subtle 2, Increased Mass 3 on Affects Others) (Extras: Reaction, Affects Others, Attack) [38]
"Phasing Tricks"
"Air Walking" Flight 1 (Flaws: Walking- Has to Take "Steps") [1]
"Mind Shield" Enhanced Will Save 4 (Flaws: Limited to While Phasing, Limited to Mental Attacks) [1]
"Sneak Attack" Strength-Damage +2 (Flaws: Limited to While the Enemy Loses Their Dodge Bonus) [1]
"Haywire Electronics" Affliction 11 (Tech Skill of Creator; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Affects Corporeal, Cumulative) (Flaws: Limited to Machines) (Inaccurate -1) (21) -- [22]
- AE: "Leave Object Inside Something" Damage 10 (Extras: Affects Corporeal, Penetrating) (Flaws: Limited to Size of the Object) (Inaccurate -2) (19)
Offense:
Unarmed +13 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Sneak Attack +13 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Haywire Stunt +11 (+11 Affliction, DC 21)
Leaving Objects +9 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +5
Defenses:
Dodge +12 (DC 22), Parry +12 (DC 22), Toughness +2 (+3 X-Uniform), Fortitude +5, Will +8 (+12 Mental Attacks While Phased)
Complications:
Relationship (Piotr Rasputin)- Kitty is in love with Colossus, and has been for years (though this was initially juvenile "puppy love"). Every time they potentially hook up, something goes wrong- he hooked up with an Alien Healer, and she with a Cynical Chain-Smoking Brit. He died, and though they hooked up once he'd returned, she soon merged with a Space Bullet and left. Then when she came back, she dumped Peter because he was still trying to sacrifice himself for others ("I want someone to live FOR ME for a change").
Relationship (Peter Quill- Star-Lord)- Kitty and Star-Lord got engaged, so that's a thing.
Relationship (Illyana Rasputin)- Kitty & Illyana are the best of friends, and Illyana's death via the Legacy Virus crushed Kitty. Since Illyana's resurrection, they have interacted very little.
---
Power Loss (Phasing)- Kitty's Phasing power is prone to not working against certain substances. Energy attacks will occasionally work (such as Harpoon's Blast), Magic can affect her, and the extreme density of Adamantium will Stun her if she attempts to phase through any sort of it. The materials of the Breakworld similarly gave her trouble. Basically, writers hate having to deal with her power, and so this happens a lot.
Responsibility (Human Life)- Though various X-Men have chosen to take lives in the past, Kitty is really not one of them. As such, her horrifying "Leaving Object" trick will pretty much never be used on a living being. Only machines so far have been afflicted by it, though she HAS threatened other totally evil beings (namely Sabretooth & Emma Frost) with maiming.
Responsibility ("That Kind of Girl")- Now that she's finally grown up, Kitty doesn't spend very much time on super-teams before someone starts taking a romantic interest in her. Colossus, Pete Wisdom, Iceman, Peter Quill... even a handful of backgrounders here and there. She's that unique combination of "Pretty" and "Approachably Down-To-Earth"- qualities that are lacking in a superhero world of glamorous goddesses.
---
Responsibility (Kind of a Brat)- Though she's decent with some people, Kitty has a contrary streak a mile wide, and is very, VERY prone to disregarding orders, lipping off authority figures, and doing her own thing. Emma Frost is Cyclops's #2 and a well-respected mutant figure? Tough shit- Kitty openly mocks her at every opportunity. A black person is lecturing her about Mutants? Time to drop the N-Bomb to make a point! She'll lecture Nick Fury. Tell off any super-villain possible. Disregard commands from Cyclops, the Professor, and others. Best just put her in charge, so the only orders going around are her own.
Relationship (Logan)- It's a bit father/daughter, and a bit brother/sister. He protected her as a young girl, and she lectures him as a caring adult.
Rivalry (Emma Frost)- Kitty was kidnapped by The White Queen when she was thirteen years old, and has a hard time forgiving Emma's evil days as a result. She mistrusts her immensely and dislikes her snide elitist attitude ("Oh my God... YOU teach ETHICS?"), while Emma is annoyed by Kitty's spunky/annoying ways.
Total: Abilities: 64 / Skills: 56--28 / Advantages: 18 / Powers: 62 / Defenses: 15 (187)
Why Kitty Pryde is the Best and You Suck If You Disagree:
-Now Kitty Pryde is just about my favourite X-Man ever, for... well, pretty much because of the same reason that almost EVERY comic book reader my age loves her. ie: she was our first major comic book crush! I mean, Sue Storm, Wonder Woman, etc.- those women are sexy, sure. But those were ADULT WOMEN- terrifying, mystifying and way too old for us. KITTY? Kitty was OUR AGE. She was approachable, "real" and within our grasp! I pretty much fell in love, despite never having read one single comic featuring her, because of the way she looked on an Arthur Adams-drawn Marvel Series I trading card. Funny, since she's one of the only women in comics NOT drawn with what TV Tropes and Calvin & Hobbes calls the "Most Common Super-Power", and is generally less curvy all aroundN (seriously- FRANK FREAKING CHO draws here with a mere C-Cup!). But if you grew up in the '80s, you knew that Kitty was adorable and you totally wanted to date her- I have heard countless writers and fans describe this exact phenomenon. Brian Michael Bendis (who is... way older than me) is basically in love with her too, hooking her up with whichever hero is on a book he's writing (both Ultimate Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy had her date guys named Peter. Which is the same first name as her original Marvel love AND her '90s boyfriend... girl has a LASER-FOCUSED fetish, I'll give her that.
-But GIRLS liked her, too, because she acted "too smart for the room", was sarcastic and sometimes whiny, but altogether seemed to be a realistic teenage girl character. On one of those ANCIENT mid-'90s X-Men fansites, someone described her as "the girl you wanted to be, or wanted to date, depending on your interests", which is pretty well perfect. This has allowed to her live on to be one of the most popular team characters in comics, and she was so successful that X-writers have tried to copy her half a dozen times since her debut. In fact, all female superheroes owe her a debt, especially the teen ones. No less than Joss Whedon himself has basically stated that Buffy Summers WAS Kitty Pryde- "If there's a bigger influence on Buffy than Kitty, I don't know what it was... She was an adolescent girl finding out she has great power and dealing with it", he said in 2009. This gets more obvious if you read his Astonishing X-Men run, as Kitty's usually the one tossing out Jossisms left and right ("You not saying that would be nifty"), while he simply transplants Firefly characters onto the rest of the X-Men.
Early Kitty Pryde:
-Early Kitty Pryde was immediately interesting to fans, because she didn't look like anyone else in the funny pages. Gawky, flat-chested and with a really wide mouth, she wasn't a sexpot like basically every other female in comics was. She looked like an actual 13-year old girl. And despite being friendly, approachable and decent, she had "normal human" reactions to things- she was terrified of the bad guys, nervous around Nightcrawler (she found his inhuman appearance disturbing, but had a very "real" reaction to it- simply choosing to avoid him and avert her eyes instead of cartoonishly freaking out, which still managed to hurt his feelings). John Byrne created much of the character early on, having told a fellow student in Art School that he was going to use her name for a comic book character- presumably, the woman gave him permission assuming this was never going to happen, but it did, and so now she goes by the public name of K.D. Pryde because of some "overwhelming" attention from Kitty's fans (she says she LIKES the character and the comics, but wishes fans would see her as something more than "Kitty's namesake"). The early visual basis for Kitty was "a young Sigourney Weaver", oddly enough.
-Kitty appears in one mini-arc (in which she is kidnapped by the White Queen, who wants to control young mutants herself- a plot thread that later got picked up in The New Mutants), but disappears until after Jean Grey dies. At that point, she actually joins the X-Men proper, as a "trainee". Sometimes going by the codename "Sprite", she was nonetheless usually just called "Kitty". She had some very neat relationships with the other X-people: she looked up to Storm as a "Cool Older Sister", being fascinated by Ororo's beauty and power. She drooled over Colossus. She was timid around Nightcrawler. And, in the first of MANY times this would happen, she cajoled a "softer side" out of the gruff, unfriendly Wolverine.
-There was also a fun "feud" with the New Mutants, whom she referred to as "X-Babies". Kitty by this point had actually developed into a bit of a brat, frequently lashing out verbally at adults, rule-makers (the famous "Professor Xavier is a JERK!" panel, which now has come to be eerily prescient rather than the immature outburst it was originally intended to be) and super-villains alike. She became a bit friendlier with the New Mutants when she found a lifelong Best Pal Forever-After in Colossus's kid sister Magik, whose dark, evil nature calmed itself around her more-normal friend. Kitty, now far outside of John Byrne's influence (he left only a year or so after she debuted), had a contrary streak a mile wide, but was used to make a handful of poignant observations about the nature of bigotry and hate.
Slightly-Older Kitty Pryde:
-This, of course, resulted in a very, VERY weird "Running Theme"- Kitty dropping the N-Bomb on people. Seriously, that's the one word you pretty much NEVER see in comic books, much less MARVEL's mainstream stuff, yet I've counted three separate occasions! 1) A black guy asks her if she's a "Mutie", and she responds with "I dunno, are you a n***er*?" to make a point about bigotry. And she manages to get away with it! 2) Giving a speech about a mutant boy who committed suicide rather than face his bullies, she drops pretty much every hateful slur in the book in a single paragraph as examples of hatred. Like, EVERY ONE!. 3) When admonished by the black Stevie Hunter after attacking a boy who was making comments about "Muties" and called Kitty a "Mutie Lover", Stevie goes "they're only WORDS, child", at which point Kitty blasts her with "What if he called me a N****ER LOVER, Stevie?!? Would you be so damned tolerant THEN!?" Stevie is stunned to hell, Peter tries to cover for her ("She did not mean--!" "She meant every word, Peter. And she was right."). I suppose only the youngest member of the team could ever get away with that, even if she's only doing it to make a point. But still, THREE TIMES? Can you imagine if they tried that now?
-Kitty was at one point kidnapped by Caliban of the Morlocks, and was about to be forced into marrying him (over a deal she'd made prior)... until she was able to convince him of her unhappiness, and he released her of her bond.
Kitty Becomes Shadowcat:
-After a point, Kitty became a MAJOR Pet Character for Chris Claremont, practically getting the whole Mary Sue Bag O'Tropes dumped on her: she found her very own pet DRAGON- a space creature who became bonded to her immediately. She got possessed by the spirit of one of Logan's old enemies, and when Wolverine finally exiled him from her body, she was left with permanent knowledge of years' worth of martial arts instruction, essentially becoming a bad-ass without every having had to do the work to accomplish that skill-level. And she started dominating not only the X-Men's book, but the New Mutants' as well. Only a couple of things really averted the negative rep of most Mary Sues- one, she was never really that competent or world-breaking on her own, and in fact has hardly EVER defeated a major super-villain. And two, KITTY PRYDE F*CKING RULES AND ALL OF THOSE OTHER CHARACTERS SUCK!!!
-Kitty had also developed a thing with Colossus by this point- initially, she'd just crushed on him, embarrassing the poor lad (who had no experience with women). Eventually, however, he returned her feelings, but acknowledged that their age difference (he was 18-19, she was barely 14-15), and let's face it- in real life, that would be HELLA-WRONG. They even had a fairly-adult conversation when they feared an inevitable death thanks to being infected by Brood eggs, where they discussed spending the night together- "I wish I was older" "So do I. However, little one, you are NOT older". Eventually, however, he would break her heart- apparently Jim Shooter issued one of his legendary decrees, and demanded a split-up. Colossus fell in love with the alien girl Zsaji during Secret Wars, and his feelings for Kitty faded. He let her down as well as he could, but shattered her poor heart. It's actually a REALLY emotionally-wrought story, too- Kitty practically begging the heavens that this not be the case, but not wanting Peter to see her acting that way. Wolverine was so pissed off at Peter's actions ("he owed her a blood debt. And he welshed"), he decided to beat the shit out of him (Nightcrawler: "He's only a boy!" Logan: "Then he deserves a spankin'.")- thankfully, Peter gets drunk in a bar next to The Juggernaut, ends up brawling with him, and takes such an enormous beating that Logan's like "Nah, we're good". There's even a cute bit where Juggy asks Logan if they're gonna fight, and is all "Smart man" when Logan's all "nah", then tells them to let Petey know he put up a hell of a fight and should be proud. MANLY STUFF, YO.
Excalibur:
-Eventually, Chris Claremont was having more and more success with the X-Men, and was expanding the cast ever-further. And so he & Marvel decided (well, Marvel decided, and he went along with it because they were like "HEY, MONIES!" and he was proprietary over his characters, understandably-so) to create even more titles. Eventually, Kitty was badly-injured fighting The Marauders, and she, Nightcrawler and a then-disappeared Rachel Summers ended up in England, where they heard of the deaths of their X-Men teammates (fighting The Adversary). Despondent, they hooked up with Captain Britain and Meggan, thus forming Excalibur. Excalibur was a beacon for Claremont & Alan Davis's goofier ideas, as the book came off more like a drug trip than a real, dramatically-structured book, but hey- it had Alan Davis on art. Drawing ladies. And Kitty, who before this point had always been drawn somewhere between plain (she was described as being much less "classically pretty" than Illyana) and "little kid cute", started looking more and more attractive. I mean, it's ALAN DAVIS. So Kitty developed a bit more of a glamorous, if still young-looking, appearance. Big-eyed and with long, curly hair, she was a B-cup in a world of DDs, but that made her stand out. And if you were a young boy getting into comics around this time, Kitty seemed like the one who MIGHT ACTUALLY DATE YOU... even though she of course wouldn't, because all of her crushes are MUCH older men (Colossus, Alistaire Stewart & Pete Wisdom in Excalibur, etc.).
-As I've stated before, because of when I got into comics, I ALWAYS associated Kitty, Nightcrawler & Phoenix II with Excalibur. It was actually really weird to me when they returned to the X-Men books in the late '90s- it was like when Wolverine joined the Avengers in the 2000s! By this point, she'd actually been a character for almost twenty years, and had thus aged from "thirteen" to "somewhere around or just under twenty", meaning she was no longer a minor, and now comic book writers who'd grown up crushing on the character could now write her dating THEIR favorite male characters! And so we had the infamous Pete Wisdom (Warren Ellis writing himself into Excalibur, being a Snarky English Guy in Regular Clothes, and taking Kitty's virginity) and others.
Post-2000 Kitty:
-Despite returning to the X-Men, Kitty was never really a major character. Not a "Team Leader" type, nor a Powerhouse, she was rarely that important to missions- writers just loved using her. When Joss Whedon started his much-beloved run on one book, Kitty was an immediate choice, and he worked a LOT of magic with her, culminating in her greatest Power Feat ever. Plus tons of witty dialogue where she verbally pwns several people, from Emma Frost ("You're late." "I'm sorry- I was busy remembering to put on all of my clothes") to S.H.I.E.L.D. ("This is Piotr Nikolaivich Rasputin. And you owe him the goddamned truth."), to Emma Frost again ("I don't need to watch you, Emma. I can SMELL you"). Plus, that time she kicked Emma's ass by punching her in the face after phasing her fist through a mirror, then grabbing Emma's hair and SMASHING her face into the same mirror, then kneeing her in the stomach and "phasing" her into an underground cavern.
-Jason Aaron, who seemed to really enjoy her in his Wolverine and the X-Men book, is 41, and so was 7-9 when she first showed up and later hit big- the ideal age to REALLY remember her (he'd have hit puberty during her run as well). So I imagine he's in the same boat as a lot of these other guys. Ellis, Whedon, Aaron, Bendis... it seems that she's at the top of EVERY writer's list of favorite characters.
-However, the Kitty/Colossus thing reared up a few more times. His jealousy over her dating Wisdom in Excalibur was treated as them kind of falling further apart, but they later started dating again in one book or another. When he was resurrected by Whedon, they hooked up PROPERLY, but of course then she was MIA at the end of that story. By the time she finally returned... this got weird again, as he gained the Juggernaut's powers in order to stop the Fear Itself guys, and Kitty dumped him again. Then she briefly dated Iceman, having a fun little relationship where she basically bossed him around because she's WAY more mature than he is (Claremont: "Why would a man made of ice date a girl with a PET DRAGON?"). She's since gone off under Bendis's writing to join the Guardians of the Galaxy, hooking up with and getting engaged to PETER QUILL of all people, because Bendis loves Kitty and wants to use her. And she has the same kind of relationship she had with Iceman, actually- funny because Kitty's essentially now the team leader, and Peter's all "I'm the funny movie version!" instead of the intense, cynical guy we saw during the Abnett/Lanning years. Comics are WEIRD.
Kitty as a Whole:
-Kitty was one of the big "Heroes as Regular People" characters- a TRUE Audience Avatar character, and one that inspired a generation more. Her relationship with Wolverine has led to him taking more and more... underage young girls under his wing, which makes him look like a REAL weirdo when you look at them all as a whole. She developed from an "Ordinary Girl" into a kind of know-it-all brat, then changed into a bad-ass ninja heroine of sorts. But Kitty just rules- she's not a classic "good girl", nor is she a "bad girl"- she's actually pretty goddamned mouthy and snarky, much more like the typical "Male Antiheroes" in comics, but she doesn't kill people or do any of that kind of "Angry Bad-Ass" stuff. And the X-Writers avoid overdoing it with her, because she's usually always just "one of the group", and rarely overshadows anyone, largely due to her passive power.
Kitty's Stats:
-I was all ready to panic when I first saw Kitty's final points-cost, so I checked out some of the other builds (3e and otherwise) around the Tank, and found that nearly everyone else had the same thing happen- Kitty isn't powerful, but she costs a lot of points- she's a genius (but not in the "Inventive Omnidisciplinary Scientist" kind of way), very Skilled, a great fighter (she often doesn't dodge because of her powers, but she can if she NEEDS to), and she's got some neat powers. She can use her Insubstantial powers as an Attack, or just let it Affect Others (with some Increased Mass for the large objects- gigantic bullets are a Hero Point-playing, Story Climax thing). She doesn't use her "Phasing Stunts" that often, but they get enough play to earn a mention- she can Incapacitate machines or "Phase" people into things (or things into people). Anything else is basically a one-off Power Stunt (like a "Stun"- which I don't ever personally recall seeing her do).
-Re: Attractive. That most controversial of "Why doesn't ____ have/why does ____ have" Advantages. While I shan't pretend to be unbiased in this regard, I think there's a rather large history of Kitty appealing to men by various means, whether or not they find her hot (ie. Wolverine finding her endearing and taking her under his wing), while also being kind of snotty to other women (in particular the female New Mutants aside from Magik, as well as Emma Frost). Basically, boys do what she asks, and women don't.
KITTY PRYDE (Katherine Pryde, aka Sprite I, Ariel I)
Created By: Chris Claremont & John Byrne
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #129 (Jan. 1980)
Role: The Fan-Insert Character, The Team Brat, The Rebel, Teen Ninja, The Deadpan Snarker
Group Affiliations: The X-Men
PL 4 (139), PL 8 (139) to Machines
STRENGTH 1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 0
Skills:
Acrobatics 4 (+7)
Athletics 5 (+6)
Deception 3 (+3)
Expertise (Computers) 3 (+6)
Expertise (Pop Culture) 2 (+5)
Investigation 1 (+4)
Perception 5 (+8)
Persuasion 3 (+3)
Stealth 4 (+7)
Technology 2 (+5)
Advantages:
Beginner's Luck, Equipment (X-Uniform), Minion 6 (Lockheed), Set-Up, Teamwork
Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Phasing"
Insubstantial 4 (Feats: Precise, Subtle 2, Increased Mass 3 on Affects Others) (Extras: Reaction, Affects Others, Attack) [38]
"Phasing Tricks"
"Air Walking" Flight 1 (Flaws: Walking- Has to Take "Steps") [1]
"Mind Shield" Enhanced Will Save 4 (Flaws: Limited to While Phasing, Limited to Mental Attacks) [1]
"Sneak Attack" Strength-Damage +2 (Flaws: Limited to While the Enemy Loses Their Dodge Bonus) [1]
"Haywire Electronics" Affliction 11 (Tech Skill of Creator; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Extras: Affects Corporeal, Cumulative) (Flaws: Limited to Machines) (Inaccurate -1) (21) -- [22]
- AE: "Leave Object Inside Something" Damage 10 (Extras: Affects Corporeal, Penetrating) (Flaws: Limited to Size of the Object) (Inaccurate -2) (19)
Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Sneak Attack +7 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Haywire Stunt +5 (+11 Affliction, DC 21)
Leaving Objects +3 (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +5
Defenses:
Dodge +7 (DC 17), Parry +7 (DC 17), Toughness +2 (+3 X-Uniform), Fortitude +4, Will +5 (+9 Mental Attacks While Phased)
Complications:
Relationship (Piotr Rasputin)- Kitty has a huge crush on the handsome, much older Russian.
Relationship (Illyana Rasputin)- Kitty & Illyana are the best of friends.
Power Loss (Phasing)- Kitty's Phasing power is prone to not working against certain substances. Energy attacks will occasionally work (such as Harpoon's Blast), Magic can affect her, and the extreme density of Adamantium will Stun her if she attempts to phase through any sort of it. The materials of the Breakworld similarly gave her trouble. Basically, writers hate having to deal with her power, and so this happens a lot.
Relationship (Logan)- It's a bit father/daughter, and a bit brother/sister.
Relationship (Storm)- Kitty looks up to Storm like a "Cool Older Sister".
Total: Abilities: 42 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 10 / Powers: 62 / Defenses: 9 (139)
-Here's Kitty at a young age- inexperienced, but still trained to fight.
