SHADOWCAT OF EARTH-597
Real Name: Katherine "Kitty" Pryde
Identity/Class: Extra-dimensional (Earth-597) human
mutant
Occupation: Adventurer
Group Membership: Lightning Squad (Hauptmann Englande/Brian Braddock, Meggan, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde)
Affiliations: Callisto, Adolf Hitler, Reichsminister Moira MacTaggert, Charles Xavier (all of Earth-597)
Enemies: Excalibur (Captain Britain/Brian
Braddock, Lockeed, Meggan, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Phoenix/Rachel
Grey, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde)
Known Relatives: None (presumably Carmen and
Katherine Pryde of Earth-597)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Great Britain of Earth-597
First Appearance: Excalibur I#9 (June, 1989)
Powers/Abilities: The Kitty Pryde of Earth-597 presumably possessed phasing powers comparable to her Earth-616 counterpart. Because she was of Jewish descent, the young girl was designated to be terminated as part of Nazi Germany's Final Solution. However, due to experiments performed on her by Reichsminister of Genetics Moira MacTaggert, Pryde survived her death and became a living ghost who went on to join the Lightning Squad. After her apparent resurrection, Shadowcat retained most of her phasing powers. However, instead of disrupting the energy patterns of machinery, she was now able to disrupt the electricity of life. This caused her victims extreme pain before they passed out. After the horrific ordeal she went through, the emaciated, shell shocked and traumatized Pryde barely spoke. She had an inexplicable connection to her alternate reality counterparts that was akin to telepathy.
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 90 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Bald
History:
(Excalibur I#10 (fb) - BTS) - On Earth-597, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi warmachine won World War II. Conquering all of Europe and the United States as well, the Führer (his longevity guaranteed through advanced life support technology) began a decades long reign of terror on the world. Hitler insisted all Jews would have to be culled. However, upon discovering the advent of mutants in the following decades, he made special allowances for genetically enhanced "mongrels" to be spared immediate death. One of them was the young American Jewish girl Kitty Pryde. When Hitler's Reichsminister of Genetics Moira MacTaggert became aware of her mutagenic potential while the young child was imprisoned in one of the North American Jewish ghettos, MacTaggert used her knowledge and influence to turn the 15-year-old girl into a weapon for the Führer's state. Believing herself to be a living ghost, the demure, demoralized and spiritually beaten Pryde joined the Nazi's premier European superteam the Lightning Squad.
(Excalibur I#6 - BTS) - When Widget ended up on Earth-597, he accidentally used his interdimensional gateway powers to cause a train containing 597's Moira MacTaggert and her bodyguard Callisto to end up on Earth-616. There, the Nazi vehicle was quickly spotted and seized by Alistaire Stuart and his men. The alternate reality Callisto and MacTaggert were imprisoned in the Tower of London for the duration. Unaware of all this, Shadowcat and the other members of the Lightning Squad were dispatched across the dimensional divide to save MacTaggert and company.
(Excalibur I#9) - After arriving in the 616-reality near Excalibur's almost abandoned lighthouse base, Lightning Squad invaded the premises. When Lockheed, who had remained behind to hold the fort while the team was in New York dealing with the Inferno crisis, tried to approach them, he was immediately incapacitated by Shadowcat's phasing attack.
(Excalibur I#9 - BTS) - Through unrevealed ways, the Lightning Squad learned their reality's Moira MacTaggert and Callisto were being held at the Tower dungeon. They travelled to London to free them.
(Excalibur I#9) - After pretending to be the real Captain Britain and Excalibur, the Lightning Squad proceeded to liberate Moira and Callisto. The involvement of Shadowcat proved crucial, with her disabling the security officers guarding the prisoners. However, right around the same time Excalibur returned from the States and were alerted to the altercation at Tower Bridge. The two teams squared off, with the two Kitty's meeting. Shocked to see an alternate reality counterpart looking so brutalized and worn down, Kitty was unable to defend herself from 597's debilitating touch. In the end, Lightning Squad was able to take down all of Excalibur except for Captain Britain (even though Meggan disguised herself as her 597-counterpart) who decided to face the team on his own (wearing his old, by now ill fitting, costume that had been on display elsewhere in the Tower).
(Excalibur I#10) - Shadowcat and the other members of Lightning Squad watched their leader Hauptmann Englande fight his 616 counterpart Captain Britain. However, Shadowcat decided to intervene shortly after Captain Britain had been distracted saving some innocent (albeit extradimensional) bystanders. She phased through him, disrupting his electrical life force and sending the hero crashing. While Lightning Squad felt they had the upperhand, Meggan revealed her true identity and managed to knock out 597's Nightcrawler who happened to pass through Shadowcat, inadvertently immobilizing him even further. Meggan then went on to disarm Reichsminister MacTaggert and even succeeded to knock out her bodyguard Callisto. Just when 597's Shadowcat was about to strike her, Phoenix (Rachel Grey) intervened by holding the alternate reality semi-ghost inside a telekinetic shell. After the fighting had stopped, all combatants gathered in one of the tower's halls where Kitty Pryde and her alternate reality counterpart finally had a moment to meet face to face. Much to her surprise, Kitty learned the Shadowcat of Earth-597 was so much in synch with her the two could read and share each other's thoughts. Furious with the otherdimensional Moira MacTaggert who gladly claimed credit for what happened to the wraith-like Shadowcat, even calling her one of the mongrel race, Pryde got so angry she had to leave.
(Excaliburt I#11) - Shadowcat was present with the other members of Lightning Squad when it became obvious their fellow teammate Nightcrawler had attempted to force his way with the 616-version of Alyssande Stuart. After he had been properly chastized by MacTaggert's bodyguard Callisto, the Nazis boarded the dimensionally displaced train as it made its way back to Earth-597.
(Excalibur: Weird War III) - The interaction between the
Excalibur of Earth-616 and their 597-counterparts created a bridge
between the two alternate realities that proved hard to destroy. At one
point, the members of the 616 reality found themselves inexplicably
transported into the bodies of their 597-counterparts.
(Excalibur I#103) - The Shadowcat of Earth-597 was one of the many alternate reality Kitty Pryde counterparts summoned by Belasco to toy with Excalibur.
(Excalibur I#125) - The Shadowcat of Earth-597, along with
all her fellow members of Lightning Squad attended the wedding of
Captain Britain and Meggan.
Comments: Created by Chris Claremont (writer), Alan Davis (pencils), Paul Neary (inks).
Just how a bald, tortured and presumably brutally murdered Nazi victim ghost version of the Jewish Kitty Pryde (complete with Star of David tattooed on her forehead) ever made it past the Comics Code Authority is a mystery for the ages.
The comics are mildly inconsistent - while her team are usually called Lightning Squad,
Reichminister MacTaggert calls them Lightning Force once in Excalibur I#10. Put it down to Chris Claremont forgetting (not the first time a
writer has misrecalled what they called someone - just ask Peter Palmer,
the Amazing Superman). Or, if you like, Lightning Squad is the more
common translation of the German language name they actually use, while
Lightning Force is a less common variant.
--Loki
Profile by Norvo.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Shadowcat of Earth-957 should not be confused with
images: (without ads)
Excalibur I#9, p2, pan1 (main image)
Excalibur I#9, p16, pan3 (attacks British soldiers)
Excalibur I#10, p20, pan1 (meets Kitty Pryde)
Excalibur I#11, p11, pan3 (disables Captain Britain)
Excalibur I#103, p08, pan1 (and other counterparts)
Appearances:
Excalibur I#9 (June, 1988) - Chris Claremont (writer), Alan Davis
(pencils), Paul Neary (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Excalibur I#10 (July, 1989) - Chris Claremont (writer), Marshall Rogers
(pencils), Terry Austin (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Excalibur I#11 (August, 1989) - Chris Claremont (writer), Marshall
Rogers (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Excalibur: Weird War III (December, 1990) Michael Higgins (writer), Tom
Morgan, Justin Thyme, Chris Wozniak (pencillers), Josef Rubinstein, Tom
Morgan (inkers), Terry Kavanagh, Kelly Corvese (editors)
Excalibur I#103 (November, 1996) - Warren Ellis (writer), Carlos Pacheco
(pencils), Scott Koblish, Bob Wiacek (inkers), Matt Idelson, Paul
Tutrone (editors)
Excalibur I#125 (October, 1998) - Ben Raab (writer), Dale Eaglesham
(pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Frank Pittarese, Jason White (editors)
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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