Katherine Anne "Kitty" Pryde, more commonly known as Shadowcat, made her debut in the Uncanny X-Men #129 in January 1980. She was created by artist John Bryne and writer Chris Claremont.

She was introduced as a result of an editorial dictate that the book was supposed to depict a school for mutants.

Bryne actually named Kitty Pryde after a classmate he met in art school, with permission of course.

Pryde's personality as a highly intelligent 13-year-old, according to Claremont, was based loosely around the X-men editor Louise Simonson's daughter, Julie.

She is a mutant in the Marvel universe with powers that allow her and people/objects she touches to become intangible, allowing her to walk through walls. Her power also allows for the disruption of electrical fields and lets her levitate.

Pryde is a genius in applied technology and computer science. She has been depicted as a skilled pilot of jets and a competent pilot when faced with advanced interstellar vehicles. She is skilled in hand-to-hand combat because she knows aikido, karate, ninjutsu and krav maga.

Pryde is a professional-level dancer in ballet and modern dance. She is fluent in English, Japanese, Russian, and the royal and standard languages of the alien Shi'ar and Skrull. She is moderately experienced with Gaelic, Hebrew and German.

Pryde is the youngest person to be invited to join the X-men. She has gone through several code names throughout her time in X-men, starting with Sprite, given to her by Storm, next Ariel as suggested by Professor X and then later adopting the codename Shadowcat.

Her character was originally viewed as a "kid sister" when interacting with other X-men. She was often viewed by Storm as the "daughter she never had" and Wolverine became her mentor despite his gruff personality. However, as she grew older and matured she became a main character.

She has been portrayed in several movies: X-Men (2000), X2 (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-men: Days of Future Past (2014).

She has been ranked #47 in IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes, and #13 in 200 Greatest Comic Book Character of All Time by Wizard. She also falls in at #3 on IGN's list of the Top 25 X-Men from the Past 40 Years, describing her a "the common girl turned superhero."