Katherine Leeann Pryde, aka Kitty Pryde, grew up a very normal kid in a small town in Illinois called Deerfield. At the tender age of thirteen and half Kitty started experiencing severe headaches and she thought she might be dying of a brain tumor or something, but in fact her "phasing ability" was showing up *See Kitty's Stats for details on phasing*. Kitty first realized something was up when she would pass out up in her bed and end up waking up downstairs on her living room floor, her headache that she had been suffering hugely from mysteriously gone afterward. This had been going on for a short period of time and was really, to be quite frank and plain, freaking the poor kid out.

After, well more like during, one such episode with her powers, was the day that a man by the name of Charles Xavier, otherwise known as Professor Charles Xavier or the Prof., found her. Her parents were thinking divorce at this point in time and wanted Kitty away from the whole experience so they were going to send her to a boarding school. Charles saw this as the perfect opportunity to recruit Katherine and also he wanted to get to her before Emma Frost, aka the White Queen of the Hellfire Club did. Emma wanted Kitty for the side of evil (and later developed an unhealthy obsession for the girl, but that's neither here nor there), Charles wanted her for the side of good. Charles won because he brought his students with him to see Kitty. Kitty immediately started to fall for Collosus, Piotr Rasputin, because he was really cute, and her and Storm (Ororo Monroe) hit it off immediately. Kitty was drawn to Storm's natural warmth for others and Storm to Kitty's love of life and innocence. The two of them grew later to be very close friends and in a mother and daughter type of relationship at times.

Kitty and the others went to the Malt Shop while Charles talked her parents into letting Kitty go to the school (period of the Dark Phoenix Saga by the way), and Kitty ended up saving the X-men's butts when the Hellfire Club, not to be denied, crashed the party and captured everyone. Everyone but Kitty that is because she ended up panicing and phasing through a wall. She then follows the Hellfire Club goons onto their hovercraft and ends up at the base where the X-men are being held. She managed to sneak up to Ororo who in the lining of her bra had a number for Kitty to call in case of an emergency and Kitty grabbed it. She then dove through the floor at the back of the warehouse and started running for her life as the Hellfire Club tried to kill her to stop her from helping the X-men.

She called a number and got Kurt on the phone (Nightcrawler), and panicing tried to explain the situation right when Kurt was being attacked. Kurt got the gist though and called in the other X-men as backup. They got to the Hellfire Club right as Kitty was about to be run down by a car (after running for her life all night...in platform heels...now there is a mutant with spunk!) and Jean/Phoenix trashed the car and the goons inside (cue rest of the Dark Phoenix stuff basically).

On the day of Jean's funeral Kitty ends up on the steps of the mansion and walks head on into her fate as an X-man. Her first Danger Room sequence is still legendary amongst the X-men because she was so terrified of getting hurt that she stood in the center of it with her eyes tightly shut and waited to die. Instead she ended up phasing through the whole thing and passed the test by default. The X-men still get a huge laugh out of that day. Kitty also, during her first years as an X-men, developed a relationship with Piotr Rasputin and they saw one another pretty regularly. Many X-fans still believe they belong together (I disagree because I like Pete Wisdom and her together like ten million times more, but that's me). Kitty's parents marriage continues to disintegrate slowly but surely behind the scenes and Emma Frost tries several times to capture Kitty as her own.

After a few rumbles on the X-men's side Kitty ends up in Limbo with them to save Illayna, Piotr's little sister, and ends up getting her spine mystically ripped out of her. Illanya, as the X-men are trying to rescue her, ends up spending 7 years in the dimension (see Magik LS for a really cool story and more details, or see Illayna's Bio by Kitty for more details on the LS). When Illayna popped back with the X-men she was much older. Her and Kitty grew to be "soul sisters" and best friends that were inseparable. Even after Illayna got de-aged during Inferno to an adolescent and being the ruler of Limbo for years (also sticking Kitty with the Soul Sword later by default) they were still the best of friends. Illayna later died of the Legacy Virus and it hit Kitty pretty hard (but Cyke death drives her over the edge? Claremont ceased to be believeable at that point in time!).

Kitty is Jewish. In one really cool X-men issue (Uncanny X-men 143) Kitty is alone on Christmas Eve and Scott calls in the beginning to ask how she's doing and to wish her a happy Chaunakah. Kitty then spends the rest of the issue taking on the Nagari' Demons and wins by using her brain (what a concept now a days huh?) and toasting the ugly thing with the Blackbird's engine...and trashing half the mansion, but that's neither here nor there *grin*.

Later, during the Brood Saga, Kitty and the other X-men are captured by Deathbird and offered up as Brood chow in exchange for helping Deathbird overthrow Lilandra, her sister. Kitty turned 14 during this period in time (and she's still 16 ya know...she will be forever...right Claremont?). Kitty and the others coped with it admirably, Kitty and Piotr growing much closer during the whole thing, and showed off what the X-men had to offer in a big way. Kitty also met up with her little dragon pal Lockheed, who has been her constant companion pretty much since then. I would suggest the series to anyone (if you'd like more specific details see Lockheed's Bio for more detailed information). The X-men ended up destroying Sleezeworld and Kitty and Lockheed touch bases again in ANOTHER cool Kitty issue where she takes on some alien thingies. Lockheed comes to her rescue and they've been inseparable ever since.

While Kitty and the others are away the Prof., thinking they were all dead, pulled together a group called "The New Mutants" (cue in Sam, Rahne, Dani Moonstar, Illayna, Karma...later Doug Ramsey *close friend to Kitty, now deceased*, Birdbrain, Warlock *now deceased*, Skids, Rusty...etc.). Kitty dubbed the New Mutants "The X-Babies" and they quite simply hated one another. Kitty got demoted into the New Mutants for a short period of time, by Prof. Xavier, but the other X-men stuck up for Kitty's right to stay in the X-men and changed the verdict. Kitty finally proved herself when she took on the aliens down in the basement and found Lockheed again because Xavier realized just how much experience and maturity she could have. The New Mutants later changed into X-force when they got taken over by Cable, and that's about where we are now on that title. Kitty and Sam later became friends, Doug died by a sniper (bird watching accident if asked by normal folk) and Warlock died in Genoshia. Kitty's lost a lot of friends through the years, but she's continued on. One of the things I love about the character.

Kitty and Doug, as I said, become close friends, and while they get along (and hack into computers together), Kitty has a hard time getting along with other kids her age. Doug is later accepted into the Massachusetts academy, which is Emma Frost's academy, but he didn't know it. He asked Kitty to go with him and she did, which got them both captured (like I said...unhealthy obsession Emma had for that girl sometimes). The X-men go off to do battle during the Secret Wars during this time so the New Mutants end up going to save Kitty's and Doug's collective butts.

While Kitty is going through all of this, Peter manages to fall in love with someone else and when he comes back he tells her so (her name was like Zsaji and she was an alien healer) and breaks it off between them. Kitty takes a break from the X-men and goes to visit her father (her parents in the meantime have gotten divorced right when Dracula takes on the X-men, which led to Kitty getting rescued by Kurt and Ororo getting rescued by Kitty). Kitty visits her dad and tries to heal a bit, but she overhears a conversation between her dad and some goons. Kitty assumes her dad is innocent and so she hops a plane (stows away) to Japan to help him, since she finds out he's involved with something illegal and is assumed he was a victim.

While in Japan, Kitty gets taken by the evil sorcerer Ogun, who used to be Logan's teacher. He corrupts Kitty's soul into his image, and hacks off all of Kitty's hair. She, as his child, goes off and runs Logan through with a sword right through the heart, but Logan survives with some help from Yukio (Kitty Pryde and Wolverine Limited Series...AWESOME SERIES GET IT NOW...it's 6 parts long but worth every penny!). Logan then, after Kitty wakes up, starts to train her to be strong in body so that she can be strong in spirit and defeat Ogun. Kitty now has the training of a ninja and quickly grows strong under his tutilage, and later the two of them defeat Ogun (barely), and return to America, Kitty irrevocably changed by the experience, and gaining a lot of maturity very quickly.

A while later, Rachel Summers ends up in this timestream after Kitty gets shot into her future self, Kate Rasputin's, body and Kate into hers to stop the assasination of Senator Kelly. She manages to do it, Kitty gets shot back into her own body with memories of what has gone on with Kate and a strong bond with Rachel. Kitty still feels like Rae's sister and also somewhat like a mother to her since Kate helped to raise the girl. Kate struck a deal with the Pheonix and Rachel ends up with a part of the pheonix force and back into the past with Kitty and the X-men. Kitty and her become friends and remain so to this day.

The Mutant Massacre happens later and Kitty gets badly injured by throwing herself in front of Rogue and taking an energy harpoon for the woman. Kitty gets hurt bad and her mutant powers go out of control, resulting in her becoming naturally intangible (it's STILL supposed to be her natural state, but writers continually forget that). Kitty, along with Kurt who has gotten cut up really bad, end up on Muir to recover from their injuries and the X-men in the meantime disappear and forget the two of them exist until they rejoin the X-men basically. Let's hear it for that family feel! Kitty's powers continue to go out of control until later in Excalibur when Reed Richards and Dr. Doom (talk about an odd team up) created a machine that put her molecular cohesiveness back together so she wouldn't continue to discorporate. She's just fine now.

Not much later Rachel and Meghan form Excalibur in Britian when the X-men "die" in Dallas (in reality saved by Roma and didn't show up on any electrical equipment after that so they got to live incognito). Kitty and Excalibur don't mesh well at first but slowly but surely develop their team into a family. In the meantime Brian has a fight with the bottle, Kitty ends up getting the Soul Sword when Illayna reverts to a child during Inferno, and they take on varied enemies in many a humorous way (I loved Excalibur...Allan Davis might not have done the best job on X-men but DAMN he did a great run on Excalibur!). Kitty later becomes friends with Cortney Ross, at least who she thought was her, when her friends were still getting shot around the dimensional stream in "The Crosstime Caper". Kitty later found out it was actually Sat-yr-9, an alternate version of Courtney who was a psycopath and had killed Brian (in her reality her true love) and thus she became obsessed with this reality's Brian. Kitty found that Sat-yr-9 had actually killed Courtney before Kitty had actually gotten to know her. Kitty, needless to say, didn't take the betrayal well and ended up shooting Sat-yr-9 (with tranquilizer bullets it turns out, but it was still a pretty cool moment). Sat-yr-9 ended up getting away after Jamie Braddock killed Alasande, Alistaire Stuart's (still a friend of Kitty's) twin sister and leaving Brian an emotional wreck. He swore revenge, which never did come to pass because the writer's forgot about the whole storyline.

Kitty also, for a short period of time, joined a private school and then met back up with Excalibur. She's got the consistancy of two degrees by the way, no matter what writers say now. She got a degree from Xaviers in computer science and also the consistancy of a degree from MIT (she took advantage of Xavier working there and worked her butt off to get it). Excalibur then acquired a couple new members, such as Kylun, Cerise, Feron and others. Brian then got lost in the timestream and Rachel eventually must trade places with him to bring him back into this reality. He acts a bit nuts, has a bit longer hair, and goes by the name of Britanic, but slowly starts to get his old personality back. Meghan, who while he was lost in the timestream goes whacked into this furry type of creature, goes super haired and goddess like for a few issues and then back to the Meghan we know, but with a few perks added to her mutant powers. Her background, by the way, was never solved in all of Excalibur's run, and Kitty's dad is still missing last time I checked.

Piotr had in the meantime joined the Acolytes after Illayna died, and Kitty and Excalibur had helped him to recover from his injuries even though Kitty had to betray him to do it and that irked her to no end. I bring this up because for the first time in like ten years Kitty got a costume change (I liked the stuff they put into it, but I still like her blue uniform better...much better than the crap they came up with later though...mini-skirts and exposed abdomens and such).

After Brian is Britanic for a while they meet up with a man by the name of Pete Wisdom and a group known as Black Air. This is a huge development for Kitty's love life because for the first time since like 1986 she got a boyfriend! And I loved him. Pete was an assasin and spy for Black Air, British Intelligence, for years and decided to get out of the business when he just couldn't take it anymore after killing an entire villiage. He was an evil sense of humored SOB, his family was pretty much nuts in themselves (well...odd...we'll go with odd), he drinks, he smokes, he killed without remorse or angst and he loved Kitty to death. He turned from the side of evil, when he was in fact supposed to make sure that Excalibur didn't come out of Genoshia alive to get out of Black Air, and ended up staying on with Excalibur out of love for Kitty and those two characters playing off one another were classic. Read the "Pryde and Wisdom" LS all of Warren Ellis's run with Kitty and Pete in it for some just wonderful reading. The dialogue itself will keep you addicted through the whole issues.

Kitty, Piotr and Kurt are abducted right after finding out about Onslaught by Belesco and tested. Kitty passes them through the test (not a bad issue by any means) using her brain and big words (ooohhhh aahhhhh I miss those days!). They return to this reality and in the meantime Brian has managed to sucker Pete into admitting to Kitty that he loved her. Kitty returned the sentiment and voila Pryde and Wisdom was truly a couple. Many adventures and hyhinks ensued! It was, in my opinion, one of the best periods in Kitty's history ever, and that was a lot of stuff that was running against it.

Anyhow, later during Raab's run on Excalibur (fans spit on his run with good reason, although I just write it all off as not counting), things went to crap. Kitty's brain took a hike (she used the words "like" and "rad" during ONE conversation!!!!), Piotr suddenly could drown and choke on gas in steel form, Lockheed got assaulted by Bamf! dolls and Kitty ended up in the "Agent of Shield" limited series where she further lost her mind. She supposedely started to question hers and Pete's relationship when she met Rigby Fallon (Doug Ramsey on speed is a good way to describe him), realized that Pete made her feel old (come on!) and dropped him with the stupidest excuse I could ever imagine...no wait...I never even saw that piece of crap storyline coming let alone that cheap and moronic of an excuse. Pete then left the team and ended up on X-force later where he got shot in the back of the head and died, supposedly, but we saw later that Pete was actually alive (we think). I don't acknowledge any of this as happening because by this time I had stopped picking up the books and was only reading them in the store and was gleefully entombed in my world of fan fiction, where things made sense and Kitty and Pete were and will stay together and not break up over something moronic.

Anyhow, after the "Rigby" crap story and the Meggan and Brian getting married issue (last issue of Excalibur #125), Excalibur ends and Kitty and Kurt end up over in America where Kitty's character further gets whacked into stupidity. My opinion anyway.

See Claremont came onto the books and we got something that I'll just call simply "The Six Month Gap Stupidity" where after Scott died for one of the most stupid characters on the face of the planet (scuse me...he got turned into ApocaScott, the "Search for Cyclops" ensued and then later we're still dealing with the whole stupid idea...Lord help us all) there was a six month gap and everything went to hot unholy coals.

During said six month gap Kitty goes off the deep end in grief over losing SCOTT. Let alone she'd lost Illayna pretty much with her dying in Kitty's arms with the Legacy Virus, her father was still missing, she lost Doug to a bullet, lost Rachel to the timestream, lost Lockheed (although I guess she thought he was dead but he was actually in Europe), lost ALL of her friends in Dallas (at least she thought so!), and she goes nuts over SCOTT'S DEATH??? I'm still shaking my head in just plain bafflement at that whole storyline. Stupid stupid stupid reason for her losing her mind.

See during this six month gap (Betsy and Jean exchanging powers without powers...makes sense, Hank becomes a big blue bannana *it was a horrid yellow costume*, Gambit and Rogue become leader...etc...all kinds of whacky stuff), at this point in time Kitty goes in my words "completely and utterly psycho". She cut her hair into a buzz cut, pierced her ears, was walking around in an exposed abdomen and otherwise just not acting like the Kitty we all knew and loved from Allan Davis's days on Excalibur or doing Warren Ellis's run on the Excalibur book any credit where it was due. And therefore at this point in time I absolutely refuse to acknowledge a Kitty that acts like this idiot.

Anyhow, onto the history. Piotr died after injecting himself with the Legacy Virus and Kitty left the X-men after his death, not dealing with him committing suicide (basically) very well (as she could not cope with anything anymore very well this wasn't a surprise to me). She decided she was going to go and lead a normal life without any of the X-men knowing where she was. So, of course, in a logical fashion she goes back to her hometown and enroles in Chicago University (yeah villians and X-men unlike would NEVER think to look for her there). She then ended up going to college at Chicago University taking courses working toward her college degree (even though she already has one). She was having nightmares, couldn't get over Piotr's death, pierced her ears like fifteen times, got a tattoo (so being Jewish she can't be buried in a Jewish cemetary because she desecrated her body...great going there Claremont...not to mention the fact that Kitty was always as conservative as you could get and I can't see her EVER getting a tattoo...wild streaks aside), worked in a bar as a bartender, and was obssessed with finding her father who she somehow knew was in Genoshia when it got blown up. She then found out that her father was actually killed in Genoshia. We also found out that her father had been a hero in Vietnam, and since she found out about his death she's been whining about how she wants her daddy ever since. The world still fears and hates all mutants, you must angst a proper amount of time over anything (except Illyana's and Pete's death...those don't get as long as a paragraph as Magneto...no as a matter of fact Illyana, who was as close to Kitty as a twin sister was given an entire sentence of "my best friend"...whoopy do) and you must be tough by exposing your abdomen, having sudden and violent mood swings which results in you solving your problems with your fists instead of your brain at all times, and your mutant powers must change how they work at least twenty times in one issue. Example? Kitty at the end of one issue had a naturally solid state. At the beginning of the VERY next issue she had a naturally intangible state. Great writing huh?

Lockheed had been MIA for a while (like four years), but we suddenly found out that Lockheed had popped up in Europe (somehow) and he believed Kitty was dead and Kitty believed he was dead so he started flying to Chicago to be reunited with Kitty. Talk about a CRAPPY way to handle a friendship. Both of those characters would have ripped the world APART looking for each other or at least what was left of them (if they believed the other dead).

Meanwhile after God Loves Man Kills II had concluded, Kitty was offered a place among the X-men again, but she declined saying that she didn't like the whole "hiding in secret with masks and living the life of criminals" route. She instead talked of running for political office and helping mutants from a grass routes perspective. The whole "running for office" thing seems to have fallen through at this point, but has yet to be proven false, so we'll see what happens there.

Kitty currently appeared in X-men X-treme and we find out that the newest member of the Hellfire Club, the guy who typical of Claremont somehow has been in the background for YEARS with no one the wiser, has possessed Kitty. But, then we find that Kitty isn't actually possessed, she's Tessa's ace in the hole and has been for years because Kitty isn't easily taken over by mind control (ahhh count the convoluted ways the writing gets worse).

Kitty made an appearance in the one-shot "X-men: The End" which is supposedly a look into the X-men's future by ten years. It is implied MOST heavily (no kissing, but lots of cuddling and hand holding) that Rachel and Kitty have been a couple for quite some time in the issue (Claremont helped heavily in the making of "X-men: The End" by the way).

Meanwhile, Marvel relaunched Excalibur and NO Kitty is not an active member, so don't bother to pick it up if you want to see Kitty. Although Kitty DOES appear in the first three issues or so and she does have some pretty good dialogue with Pete. Although, in the next issue after Kitty is gone Claremont already seems to be determined to hook Pete up with Sage and Pete's not drinking whiskey in that issue, he drinks wine, which he never touched. Overall I'd say that the first three issues were pretty good with Pryde and Wisdom in them, but I wouldn't hold out much hope for the rest of the series. Although, I give Claremont SOME minute credit in that he wrote Pete pretty well through the beginning issues considering he has been noted time and again that he hates Pete's guts. Which worries me considering Pete is part of the team HE's writing now. But, we'll see what happens there.

For those of you who want to see Kitty acting like Kitty in a VERY good new series, the first in years where Kitty is acting truly like herself (and thank God Rachel is no where to be found, thus no "lesbian" moments), I'd suggest picking up the LS "Shadow and Flame". Not written by any of the big writers at Marvel, I thought it was great and for the first time in years I have hope that maybe JUST maybe Kitty will be fixed sometime soon. If nothing else it was a great port in the storm to read.

Currently, Kitty is appearing in the Uncanny X-men, written by Claremont (on and off), and she has Lockheed with her. She's still not acting like Kitty, though, and it has been pretty much shoved down our throats since Mechanix that Claremont is turning Kitty into a lesbian. First there was the "non-moment" as I like to call it with Karma and now we have Kitty and Rachel walking along holding hands like a couple.

But, we have more and more fans writing into Marvel demanding the old Kitty and fans are already asking "Are Kitty and Pete getting back together, oh please let it be so?" types of questions on the letters page of the first issue of the New Excalibur, so those of us who were completely disgusted? Have some hope! You are not alone in the world anymore.

Kitty is also appearing in Astonishing X-men right now, written by Josh Whedon (the guy who did "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and I've heard varied reports on it. Most say that Kitty acts...well too much like Buffy really and is a major teeny bopper type, but others have said that Kitty acts more like her old self (wouldn't take much I have to say) and they say that the series isn't that bad. My best suggestion would be to pick up an issue in the store and see if it's worth picking up or not.

So, in surmation for the first time in years I have hope that Kitty might actually stick her head out and start yelling to be fixed for the first time in almost ten years, so I am just happy for the first time in a long time. There are appearing some ports in the storm of bad characterization and ironically enough Claremont wrote some of them (New Excalibur, issues 1-3...4 not as good). So, stiff upper lip all. Maybe all of our waiting and hoping was not in vain! Let us have faith =).

MY SKRULL THEORY

NOTE: Most people who have ever been to this site realize that I have called Kitty a Skrull over and over again for the past ten years or so, so here's some of my explanations as to why that is. Some of this theory has already been proven as true (Pete not dead, Pete looking up Kitty and taking her to England to try and get her back and to recruit her for the new Excalibur team, etc.), so enjoy the little ranting that follows.

This is all my opinion only and yes, it is very biased, and not kind to Claremont. Sorry to those of you who like his current writing. If you really like him, then don't read this. Thanks.

So, taking all of the above into consideration and some other evidence, I have come to the conclusion that Kitty has been replaced by a Skrull. Want proof? Lockheed was missing. Kitty was never without Lockheed, but she never ONCE went looking for him. She acted in ways that are unlike Kitty and her powers and natural state are such that even she didn't know what state she's in. Kitty is not wearing her star of David which she never takes off. She has a tatoo and so many holes in her body (including a belly button ring) that she in no way resembles the conservative young woman we once knew and loved. Kitty is walking around with an attitude problem a mile wide and all she can do is angst about Piotr while she doesn't even think about Illyana in more than she was her "best friend". Lockheed wasn't even mentioned in her list of dead friends, so if she believed he was dead she wasn't too torn up about it.

Kitty never gave the impression that she was the least bit interested in Rachel or Karma in the least bit, in fact she was a raging bunch of hormones and was chasing guys all through her comic years (she was picky though I have to say). So, where Claremont got the idea that Kitty was the least bit of a lesbian? Why because she's not Kitty that's how.

In more past tense, Kitty was walking around in a buzz cut with an attitude problem and was being nasty before she left the X-men...well seriously she was witchy (why deny it), but she was acting ENOUGH like Kitty (where I have no idea) that the X-men were fooled.

Kitty didn't even KNOW Amanda from Illyana and those two were so close that her and Kitty were like soul sisters. Kitty beat the Nagari demons by herself when she was only 13 (trashing the mansion in the process and is one of THE Kitty issues to own), but she got her butt kicked by them THREE consecutive times in past X-men. Kitty was stupid enough to eject herself INTO SPACE in a space suit when she'd realize that re-entry to Earth would be a problem and she'd run out of oxygen had she actually BEEN Kitty.

Pete is dead, but he was a good enough assasin that I couldn't see him being that careless and therefore he faked his death when he found out Kitty was missing so he could go and look for her. And my theory was proven here, because it turns out that Pete IS alive so HA!

So, if Logan was a Skrull I think Kitty is one too and Pete has to go and rescue her. It would explain why she forgot that she has a college degree, her father was not a war hero (I mean if ever there was a man that had never fired a gun it was Carmen Pryde) and she had a pet dragon somewhere that she forgot she had. I can't wait for the real Kitty to surface. After Pete rescues her, she'll come back and kick this other Kitty's butt (who's walking around in the most hideous outfit I've ever seen Kitty in...and that's saying a lot if you take into account her past outfits). So, we just need to kill the Skrull and we're all set *har*.

We came close when Kitty left the X-men after Piotr finally mercifully killed himself (thus taking away one more character the writers can't do something to), but after she left the books Claremont couldn't leave her alone and so we ended up with Mechanix and then she got pulled into "God Loves: Man Kills II" and so forth. So, I think she's stuck back in the books and is getting what is left of her character destroyed into itty bitty pieces. Someone please make it end and nuke the X-men into particles. Thank you.