Five Of My Favorite Kitty Pryde Moments

I liked Kitty Pryde aka Sprite aka Shadowcat aka Ariel as soon as I met her in Uncanny X-Men #129. The young girl who could phase and walk through walls and possessed unstoppable spunk grabbed my attention. I adored how she instantly bonded with Storm and soon proved she wasn’t scared to jump into the fire. Yeah, she had some insecurities about not fitting in with the team, but mostly? She had spirit. And for crying out loud, she gets a pet dragon. The more stories I read with her, the more she charmed and impressed me.

Bravery? She’s got it. Selflessness? Check. Loyalty? Yep. Formidable powers? Uh-huh. All this is mixed with a sometimes shy yet sharp personality… Uh, can I be Kitty Pryde when I grow up?

Since I haven’t perfected my ability to phase through a door, I’ll just share my five favorite Kitty Pryde moments so far (this list is going to get longer as time goes on).

When she saves the underwear clad X-Men from Emma Frost and the Hellfire Club:

Despite having just been discovered by Cerebro and the X-Men, Kitty Pryde doesn’t hesitate to jump into action to save her new friends. They were caught when they came to find her, so she seemed to feel partly responsible for their capture. She shows gumption by using her relatively new powers to hide and tag along with the Hellfire Club and their captives. Once there, she steps up to the plate and eventually is able to set Wolverine and Colossus free.

When she’s awkward with Colossus:

Okay, this isn’t so much moment as moments. Kitty Pryde developed a crush on Peter (Piotr) Rasputin pretty early on. He has his share of awkward moments, too. He blushes a lot in the beginning. Their relationship in Days of Future Past and Astonishing X-Men completely charmed me; it was fun to watch them fumble around. I knew they would end up together – just one of those hunches – and I was rooting for them to get together from the first time she flirted with him. I know it’s off and on throughout the comics, but these corners of their story makes me happy.

When she curls up by the fire after conquering a demon:

What’s a girl to do after disposing of a N’garai demon that’s attacked Xavier’s mansion?

After the X-Men leave Kitty alone in the mansion on Christmas Eve (a few of them go to fetch her parents as a surprise), a demon breaks in. Their raging battle wrecks the Danger Room, the hangar, the Blackbird, and some of the house. She barely defeated the creature, but by the time her fellow X-Men return, she’s relaxing by the fireplace.

When she hugs Nightcrawler in Days of Future Past:

Nightcrawler’s appearance made Kitty keep herself at arm’s length. She couldn’t warm up to him despite his kind demeanor. Kurt could tell, too. Imagine his surprise when she woke up with the memories from her much older self and instantly hugged him in her thrill to see him alive once more. This moment just made me smile.

When she saves the day in Astonishing X-Men:

This is an obvious one, right? Kitty takes a bullet for the planet, literally. Once the X-Men understand that Breakworld’s weapon is the bullet, Kitty phases it through Earth. She’s lost to them; Scott says “top men” like Reed Richards and Doctor Strange believed she bonded to the bullet and they had no idea whether she survived. On the way down her and Emma have this strange and touching coming to terms with each other… I cried. Not a lot in comic books makes me cry.

Though I haven’t read anything close to all the Kitty Pryde stories, I’m already in love with the character. I’ve read a handful so far, enough to know that she is pinned to my “must read more stories about one day” list. Hopefully that day is in the near future.