4. Is she really Jewish?

Yes, Kitty has been Jewish since day one. She is proud of her faith and while not a devout, orthodox Jew she is knowledgeable of her faith’s history and observes the common strictures. Recently Marvel, most likely in an attempt to attract attention, has decided to make established characters Jewish, not so with Kitty. As far as I know, Kitty is the original Jewish super hero.

5. Is she supposed to wear glasses?

In 1986 Kitty began to have difficulty seeing long distances, and she began wearing glasses for near-sightedness. By the end of the eighties Kitty started wearing glasses for close up work, most likely the artists and writers felt it was too difficult to craft stories around Kitty wearing glasses full time, so they had her wear them part time. In the 1990’s they rarely showed her in glasses at all, and they still do not today, which some fans have taken as an indication that she wears contacts. With contacts becoming so easy to wear and holding up so well these days it is not hard to imagine her doing so. As to whether she is near or far sighted, that’s still up in the air.

6. Who’s the dragon?

7. Where did she appear?

Kitty appeared first in X-men 129 cover dated January 1980, but the book actually hit the newsstands in late 1979. Kitty appeared regularly in X-men from then on until late 1986. Kitty was given her own limited series in 1984 and appeared in several X-men limited series. In 1987 Kitty was in a new monthly book Excalibur. Excalibur ran until early fall 1998. Over the years Kitty has had a few limited series such as Pryde and Wisdom and the less well received Kitty Pryde, Agent of SHIELD. Kitty returned to the X-men for a couple of years and faded into obscurity, recently she starred in Mechanix, a limited series that was not well received by long time Kitty fans. She has recently returned to X-men in the mini-series “God Loves, Man Kills 2” and while it has been determined at the end of the series that Kitty will not be returning to the X-men, it is rumored she is thinking of running for some type of political office.

8. What happened to Excalibur?

Excalibur started with a graphic novel in the summer of 1987 and ended with issue 125 in the early fall of 1998. Excalibur had a loyal fan following, and did not seem to fit in with the rest of Marvel due to its light-hearted, swashbuckling tone. In fact for most of it’s run Excalibur was under the radar of the Marvel suits. Its following stagnated after 1993, the stories got a little flat and there seemed to be no steady creative team, until 1995 when Warren Ellis took over writing and a young artist named Casey Jones became the book’s most frequent penciller.

Warren Ellis shook the book up. He introduced new, more competent villains, he gave the characters new motivations, and generally brought back the lighter tone that Excalibur was known for. He introduced the most controversial character ever involved with Kitty Pryde; Pete Wisdom. That’s when the trouble started. Ellis’ writing and the Pryde and Wisdom relationship attracted new fans; the little side book began to climb in sales at a point when most other books were in a slump.

According to the rumor mill the Marvel suits started looking at Excalibur as a drain on the other X-books. They felt that the fans of the book were leaving mainstream titles for the characters in Excalibur. That may have been true to a point, but a lot of Excalibur fans didn’t read any other comics. And Pryde and Wisdom attracted a lot of new female readers, ones that read for the fun relationship the two characters shared. At the same time Chris Claremont was returning to Marvel. Claremont who made the X-men super hot in the 1980’s, was supposed to take over writing the X-men at some point near the millennium. Marvel’s editors were hyping a return to the good old days and wanted the classic early eighties X-men, which would include Kitty and others from Excalibur. With Marvel in bankruptcy and wanting to axe titles and desperate (but untalented) editors looking to recapture lightening, Excalibur’s days were numbered.

9. What does everyone have against this Pete Wisdom character anyway?

10. Why did they break up?

Controversial or not Pryde and Wisdom was a hot item, the Limited Series sold really well and Excalibur was red-hot largely because of them. It seems most Kitty fans liked Pete Wisdom (it’s hard to get any real numbers though, this could be wrong) the two really complimented each other, it made for fun reading, romance for the girls and action for the boys. The two were becoming the new hot Marvel couple; I am told they bumped Gambit in Rouge in a pole. So why on earth would you break up such a hot selling couple? Financial reasons alone should have kept it going.

According to sources the story goes a little something like this:

In the last days of Excalibur the book was getting a lot of attention, then Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras learned of the age difference between the two and threw in a personal objection. Apparently Harras, as a rule of thumb, believed that no Marvel characters with more than five years between them should be romantically involved. This may not have been enough by itself to break up the duo but Excalibur was going to be cut and Chris Claremont was slated to write the characters in X-men. Allegedly Claremont wanted Kitty single when she returned to the X-men and was also said to not like Pete Wisdom in the slightest.

The last writer on Excalibur, Ben Raab, was given the job of breaking Pryde and Wisdom up. Raab was not happy with the task; he enjoyed writing Excalibur and liked Pete. Raab was not the greatest of writers, but he was certainly not a bad one. From the outset he had troubles capturing the British feel of the comic (Alan Davis and Warren Ellis were both from the UK and that helped with the atmosphere) and then when he had to preside over the book's demise and the break up of its super couple he was loathed by the fans. By the end of it Raab was thoroughly disheartened, and when he finally broke up the pair it was in a convoluted and unconvincing manner. Many saw hope though, Raab had acknowledged that the break up was purposely vague in a hope that a reunion would be possible. After Kitty returned to the X-men the fans began to lose heart.

Claremont went to great lengths to undo the last ten years of her development, suddenly she was sixteen, she rarely referred to Pete and when he was mentioned the relationship was downplayed. Kitty was given three new love ‘interests’ each one more forgettable than the last in an attempt to replace Pete in the hearts of the fans. Kitty was so poorly received after Excalibur that she was eventually placed in Limbo for nearly two years.

For the most part Pryde and Wisdom were broken up to return to the ‘good old’ days of the early eighties. The fact that Pete Wisdom was offensive to the editors and the mainstream X-fans, and despised by Chris Claremont merely drove the wedge deeper.

11. Why is the character so different lately?

Kitty certainly has been acting out of character since leaving Excalibur; her behavior has been almost schizophrenic. When she first returned to the X-men she began acting helpless and naïve. Kitty’s martial art acumen and experience went right out the window. She ended up playing ‘damsel in distress’, which was a total insult to the character. When Chris Claremont took over the X-men, in an attempt to toughen the character up, she began behaving like a total witch. The character got a buzz cut and began yelling at people for little or no reason. Normally conservative Kitty began dressing like a porn queen and then old Chris threw us the big one; Kitty was really an alien. The idea went over like a lead balloon and was quickly forgotten and then she was in hiatus for nearly two years.

She returned recently in the Mechanix mini-series without Lockheed and still sporting her porn movie wardrobe, plus tattoos and body piercings. Apparent necessities for modern female comic characters. As for why she acts this way, as near as can be figured this re-vamp is to cater to the core comic fans that have little or no idea about how real people act and base all their knowledge on Hollywood and video games. It’s no coincidence that Kitty is starting to resemble Angelina Jolie from Tomb Raider.

12. Um, I’ve read some fanfics that claim Kitty had some lesbian tendencies, is this true?

The oddest part of this question is how often in comes up. Quite a number of fanfics do portray Kitty in some bizarre sexual situations, most of these fanfics are archived more ‘adult’ websites, but some more ‘mainstream’ fic writers have toyed with the idea as well. Most of it is based on the some out of context scenes in the comics and perhaps some wishful thinking on the part of the authors. In the comics Kitty did enjoy close, but platonic, friendships with several female characters. The first such relationship was with Storm of the X-men

Storm took a maternal interest in Kitty from the start. With Kitty’s parents on the verge of divorce and Kitty being only 13, Storm did fill a void in Kitty’s life. In the early eighties Storm was Kitty’s closest friend in the X-men. Eventually Kitty grew older and the two drifted apart. Kitty no longer needed a surrogate mother and was headed in her own direction.

The next friend that pops up in these fanfics is Illyana Rasputin the younger sister of the X-man Colossus. Illyana was a sorceress and most of the X-men, including her brother, were scared and uncomfortable in her presence. Kitty accepted Illyana without reservation, and the two became inseparable. If something happened to Illyana, her magic items and power was transferred to Kitty. The two girls were very close, but their relationship was closer to that of twin sisters than that of lovers.

The last friend enjoyed a close relationship with Kitty and plays a part in erotic fan fiction is Rachael Summers, a time traveler from the future. Rachel was from an alternate future in which the world was controlled by giant robots known as ‘Sentinels’ who hunted and killed mutants. Kitty was a leader in the anti-Sentinel resistance and apparently raised Rachael. Kitty uses names for Rachael such as luv, dear, and child. These small terms of affection that were most likely maternal in nature have been construed as romantic pet names by some, but this is a stretch.

There are two villainous women, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club and the extra-dimensional conqueror Sat-yr-nin9 who have displayed an unhealthy obsession with our heroine Kitty. While psychologists will insist that all comic and pulp antagonists who seek to imprison women are metaphors for sexual bondage, this probably was not the case.

The White Queen certainly went out of her way to get Kitty into her control, attempting to kidnap young Kitty on no less than three separate occasions. While the motive was never clearly stated, the White Queen was most likely after Kitty for her intellect, formidable will, and her father’s banking connections. The Hellfire Club was interested in power and considered people as commodities to be bought and sold and viewed Kitty as a valuable recruit. Some writers have dwelled on the hedonistic lifestyle of the Hellfire Club and believe that the White Queen saw Kitty as sex object at least on some level. It should be noted that the White Queen always referred to Kitty as a ‘formidable recruit’ or a ‘valuable addition to our ranks.’

Sat-yr-nin9 was also very interested in Kitty, going as far as to impersonate Courtney Ross, a wealthy banker friend of Excalibur’s, for nearly a year in an attempt to gain control of Kitty. As Courtney, she took Kitty under her wing and into her home. Sat-yr-nin9’s motives were very murky indeed. In Excalibur it was hinted that Kitty was a rather important person to the cosmos, and Sat-yr-nin9 was interested in total power. Whether Kitty was an object of lust of flesh or power, Sat-yr-nin9 killed several of Kitty’s friends in a plot to seize control of most of the world’s crime and financial organizations and earned Kitty’s eternal wrath.

Most of the erotic fan fiction is the product of the author’s fantasies. While some vague references to the comics might shore up the idea, when examined it is quite clear that Kitty is a heterosexual character, and a rather inexperienced one at that.

Recently there was a development that Chris Claremont did to Kitty's character in which she and Karma had a "moment" that implied Kitty might be bi-sexual. This took place in a series called "Mekanix" and is about Kitty going to college and all of her "adventures" that she has while she is there. In the course of events in the six part series, Kitty and Karma (who we find out is a lesbian) have a moment in a panel of Mekanix #5 in which basically "something could have moved in a different direction" for Kitty and her, but didn't. Some people are considering this to be the answer to the "is Kitty a lesbian" question, but one panel with a suggestive look and no build up or any written suggestion at all is open to debate.

Furthermore Mechanix was very poorly recieved, especially among Kitty fans; the book's target audience. The book is filled with numerous continuity errors, such as Kitty being naturally solid in one issue than naturally intangible the next, and very bad characterization. Because of its poor editing and bad writing the book will most likely be forgoten and not considered cannon.

Chris Claremont (the writer of Mechanix) also implied very heavily in some X-men issues after Mechanix that Kitty and Rachel/Phoenix II were becoming an "intimate item". Also, in the series "X-men: The End" (Claremont was also heavily involved in this) where we view ten years into the X-men's future, it is implied heavily (much cuddling and hand holding) that Kitty and Rachel have been a couple for quite some time. So, it seems that Kitty is in fact becoming a lesbian, at least in Claremont's writing. Although, fans seem to be giving as much credence to the post-Mechanix writings as to Mechanix itself (i.e. the bad characterization and the flaunting of long standing character continuity have led the fans to not accept the writings as any permanent change to Kitty's character), so these storylines too will most likely be forgotten and not considered cannon.

13. So what is the deal with her love life?

Kitty’s love life generally revolves around two or three characters. Kitty’s first love was the X-man Colossus. Kitty became infatuated with him at first sight. Colossus’ beefcake physique and his good boy looks were the main points of attraction. For the most part it was a schoolgirl crush. Colossus wasn’t sure of his feelings and had little in common with the science-minded Kitty. At one point, convinced she was about to die she asked Colossus to go to bed with her. However the big (and noble) Russian, to his credit, refused on the basis that Kitty was too young. Eventually Colossus fell in love with another girl and realized that he did not love Kitty in the way she wanted and told her so.

Even before her relationship with Colossus ended she began to develop feelings for Doug Ramsey, another young genius. Kitty and Doug became good friends and the two of them began writing computer programs, and waging an electronic war against the Hellfire Club. Kitty and Doug both realized that they preferred being friends and decided not to pursue a romantic relationship.

Kitty’s love life was pretty dismal for a long while after Colossus, she enjoyed some brief fun with a young mutant who later committed suicide, which greatly upset Kitty. When she joined Excalibur she became infatuated with Professor Alistaire Stuart, one of the great geniuses of the world. Unfortunately Professor Stuart could also be exceedingly stupid; he never noticed Kitty’s advances and was himself hopelessly in love with Rachel Summers. Excepting a French sax player and a Russian refuge Kitty had no real romance in her life (excepting her hilariously tragic triangle with Alistaire Stuart.) Until Pete Wisdom.

Pete and Kitty enjoyed a lot of fun and happiness during their all-to-brief time together. They did have a sexual relationship but more importantly they loved each other very much. Kitty had never been happier.

Before Kitty and Pete split Marvel tried hooking her up with Rigby Fallon, who can best be described as Doug Ramsey on speed. The character was flat and any personality he had was swiped from Doug. The relationship was a disaster, Rigby Fallon, thankfully, has not been seen since.

In an obvious attempt to ‘undo’ Pete Wisdom, Chris Claremont wrote a flashback story in which Kitty goes back in time to 1939 and becomes involved in a really stupid story that was obviously inspired by Hollywood propaganda movies, circa 1942. The British characters were all ‘stiff-upper lip’ types and the Germans were treacherous and cowardly bounders bent on universal domination. Any appeal that the young Scots nobleman that Kitty fell for had was drowned out by the childish plot. The young nobleman and Kitty, in the manner of the Bobsey Twins, foil the Nazi plot and fall in love.

Right after Claremont took over the X-men Kitty was fixed up with some screwball wannabe who turned out to be an alien of the same race Kitty was supposed to be. Thankfully that’s been forgotten.

Kitty’s love life, like most peoples, has been filled with her share of good times and bad. She’s had some loves that were fun and worthwhile, others that were hard lessons in life.

14. I'm confused. What is Kitty's middle name?

Kitty's middle name has been a matter of debate for quite some time. Originally, Kitty's middle name wasn't stated, and so the first middle names given for Kitty were over the internet by fan fiction writers. One such writer gave Kitty the middle name of "Leeann" and it stuck. Many fans and writers alike assume that this is Kitty's "stated" middle name and used it in fan fiction and on their websites, stating it as fact. Many people still think that this is Kitty's middle name and swear by the name. I just like the sound of the middle name and thus that is why I use it on my website as Kitty's middle name because I have not found a "viable" source stating her middle name definitively as something else.

Kitty was also given the middle name of "Anna" by many fan fiction writers after her grandmother, Anna Pryde, who Kitty adored until she died from cancer when Kitty was a young child. This made sense, I must admit. Another middle name people have given Kitty over the years is Ann, a variation off of the Anna theme.

I went looking for the answer to the question of Kitty's middle name and ran across an answer in Excalibur 71 (maybe). Kitty is reflecting back on her life as she sits on Muir Island's shore and how, when she was younger, she hoped she'd one day be "Katya Annalovitch Rasputin". "Annalovitch" would be the Russian form of Ann, although if you translate "Annalovitch" it would be "Kitty daughter of Ann" in Russian, so I'm not sure if Lobdell meant that Kitty's middle name should be Ann or that he didn't know Kitty's mom's name at all (her mom's name is Terry or Teresa by the way). Either way he got the Russian translation of the name wrong. Draw your own conclusions.

15. I've heard Kitty is a genius, but what is her IQ?

Kitty's IQ has never actually been stated, but it is known that she has a genius IQ. Curious as to what "genius IQ" meant, I went looking into sites such as MENSA (the worldwide organization of geniuses) and other sources. I found out a couple of things.

For one, Kitty would be considered a genius even if she only excelled in physics and was average in everything else. But, I also found the following information...

16. What codenames has Kitty gone by in the past?

Kitty has gone by several codenames throughout the years. The firstcode name Kitty had was given to her when she joined the X-men by Professor Xavier. He thought that she should have a codename before going out on official team business and so asked her if she was happy with "Ariel" but Kitty didn't like it, and then he asked if "Sprite" would be okay with her. She agreed and went by that codename for a while.

Later on in the X-men Kitty took on the codename of "Ariel" (I guess it grew on her) and went by that codename for a while as well. Then, during the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine Limited Series, Kitty went through a forced maturity when her soul was reshaped by Ogun. Kitty then decided she was going to go and take on Ogun instead of running away, and realizing that she was no longer a Kitten, having been forced to grow up the rest of the way very quickly, Kitty took on thecode name of "Shadowcat" because she was now a full grown cat and she belonged more in the shadows then she used to. So, the name of "Shadowcat" was born and Kitty has gone by that codename ever since.

16. What IS Kitty's natural state?

This question is actually a bit hard to answer because of differing opinions and differing sources of information.

The question of Kitty's natural state starts back during a period called "The Mutant Massacre". Before this period, Kitty was in a naturally solid state and would have to concentrate to phase her body through solid objects. But, during the mutant massacre, one of the Mauraders (a nasty bunch of villians that were slaughtering the Morlocks, an underground band of mutant outcasts) named Harpoon was shooting an energy harpoon at the X-men's Rogue when Kitty saw her team mate in danger and threw herself in front of Rogue. The spear had a highly adverse effect on Kitty. Something in the makeup of the weapon reacted with Kitty's mutant powers. Kitty could no longer become solid and her state started to deteriorate quickly to the point that she was going to discorporate forever. Kitty ended up in a tube in a mist-like state and the X-men put out a call for help from the geniuses of the time.

Kitty was on the verge of dying when Dr. Doom and Reed Richards, in a unique experience of cooperation (see "The X-men vs. The Fantastic Four" for the full story of Kitty's struggle for life) made a machine that would bring Kitty's molecules back together again. While they helped to pull Kitty's body back together, Betsy Braddock/Psylocke held Kitty's mind together. While they were able to pull Kitty back together, to the point where her body could heal itself, the recovery, Kitty was told, was going to be slow, although it was implied she would over time recover completely.

In the early days of Excalibur Kitty couldn't control her powers very well at all. She couldn't stay solid easily, would fall asleep and float on air as soon as her concentration to stay solid was broken and other events. Over time, it seemed, she got better and she hasn't been seen to have problems with her phasing powers for quite a long while. So, a lot of fans take this to mean that Kitty's state is once again solid and she has been healed from her injuries.

There are differing opinions on the issue. Some fans and writers believe that while Kitty has recovered from her injuries, she never fully recovered back to the point where she was before she was injured due to an almost "scarring" effect from the injuries she sustained, and therefore while she has a solid state she still phases easier than she used to. Others believe that Kitty never "recovered" from her injuries to the point she had a naturally solid state again, but that she just adapted over time to having a naturally intangible state, and therefore while she has a naturally intangible state she is so used to controlling it sub-consciously you'd never be able to tell.

It has never been stated whether Kitty is healed from her injuries completely or not and if there is any adverse effects from the experience. Writers can't decide if Kitty is naturally solid or intangible it seems and they say that Kitty is either in one state or the other when it suits their story. So in a nutshell, written documentation doesn't help much.

It is most logical to assume, however, no matter what the writers might say from time to time, that Kitty has recovered from her injuries and is probably back in a naturally solid state because that seems to be the theory that has the most "evidence" behind it as we have not seen Kitty have problems with her phasing powers on panel since the early days of Excalibur.

On a personal note (for those of you who may read the fan fiction on this page), being a writer and comic book fan, I tend to state Kitty's natural state as intangible, mainly because no writer has ever stated that Kitty has been healed (bias on my part I'm sorry to say) and also because I think it's cooler for the character to have that handicap. But that's me.