Welcome to the 958th installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, a column where we examine three comic book myths, rumors and legends and confirm or debunk them. In this third legend of this all-Kitty Pryde installment of legends, find out why Kitty Pryde couldn’t enter the gates of Krakoa.
One of the most iconic periods in the history of the X-Men was the roughly five-year period when the X-Men were based on the mutant island nation of Krakoa. This was a major change in X-Men’s status quo, as while they had previously tried the “all the X-Men living on an island” route before (and, well, that is kind of fascinating in and of itself, right? Like the famous bit about “I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice”), this was the first time that they were an actual WORLD POWER, as they sold special medicine that the world soon came to rely upon, so they actually had economic power (and, of course, they had military power due to being a nation filled with superpowered beings).
A signature aspect of the Krakoa era were the gateways, teleportation gates that only mutants could use to access Krakoa (humans COULD travel through the gateways, but they had to be accompanying a mutant, and get permission from Krakoa first. Krakoa being a living mutant island, of course) from any place on Earth that had a corresponding gate (or, later, when the X-Men colonized Mars, Mars, as well). The problem, though, was that there was a very famous member of the X-Men who ALSO couldn’t use the gates! That mutant was Kitty Pryde, and as the legend goes, it was because Kitty Pryde was meant to be revealed to NOT be a mutant! So, what was the deal?
How did we learn that Kitty Pryde couldn’t enter the Krakoan gateways?
Image via Marvel
The first time that we discovered that Kitty Pryde could not enter the Krakoan gateways was in Marauders #1 (by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Lolli, and Federico Blee), and she was so stunned that she darn near broke her darn nose!
So Kitty had to access Krakoa by other means, mostly by sea (this started a whole “pirate Kitty” era). That led Kitty to dedicate herself to helping mutants get to Krakoa who lived in countries that blocked access to the gates (similarly, later on, Kitty sought out mutants from countries who just wouldn’t let their mutants go to Krakoa period).
Interestingly, when Orchis then took control of the Krakoan gateways during the Fall of X, they blocked access to mutants, and now Kitty Pryde was the ONLY mutant who could use them! As shown in X-Men #25 (by Gerry Duggan, Stefano Casseli, and Marte Gracia)…
Image via Marvel
So that has led fans to naturally assume that perhaps Kitty Pryde was meant to be NOT a mutant, something that I addressed in an old Comic Book Legends Revealed.
X-Men editor Jordan White, though, noted that while it WAS something he considered, it was never SERIOUSLY a plan:
But I was pitching it should be Kitty Pryde. Kitty should find out she’s not a mutant. And the reason I thought that was an interesting idea was because so much of her story has been about learning that she’s a mutant and what that means. I thought it would be an interesting twist on her story to say, what if she learned she wasn’t a mutant, and then she can learn that it doesn’t matter. She is still who she is, she believes what she believes, she’s still an X-Man, and she still stands for everything she’s always stood for — whether she was born mutant or not.
I mentioned that to Gerry and Jonathan later, but I wasn’t going, “Hey, what if we did this?” I was going, “Oh, this is a thing I had been thinking for a minute that we might do. Does anybody want to do anything with this?” And nobody picked it up.
However, White also had an answer to the whole “gateway” thing.
What was the deal behind Kitty Pryde being unable to use the gateways?
In the same excellent “farewell” interview with Chris Hassan at AIPT that the above quote came from, White explained the whole gateway deal:
No. Gerry wanted to write about Kate from the start of Marauders. And like I said, to many people’s dissatisfaction a couple weeks ago, in our minds, it wasn’t that mysterious. We were really just like, it’s weird Krakoan technology and she messes up technology. So we were more surprised by people’s reactions. It seems fairly natural that her powers would interact with the gates poorly.
And sure enough, Kitty’s powers HAVE messed with machines ever since her third appearance in X-Men #131 (by John Byrne, Chris Claremont, and Terry Austin)…
Image via Marvel
Although I don’t believe it was ever stated EXPLICITLY until Uncanny X-Men #149 (by Claremont, Dave Cockrum, and Joe Rubinstein)…
Image via Marvel
In any event, whether you actually LIKE the explanation or not, it’s clear that that was the intent. So no, Kirtty’s deal with the gateways of Krakoa never had anything to do with her not being a mutant.
Image created by CBR
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That’s it for Comic Book Legends Revealed #958! Check back soon for the next installment! Be sure to check out my Entertainment Legends Revealed for more urban legends about the world of film and TV. Plus, Pop Culture References also has some brand-new Entertainment and Sports Legends Revealeds!
Feel free to send suggestions for future comic legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com.