Widget (Marvel Comics)
| Widget | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance |
(as Kate Pryde) Uncanny X-Men #141 (as Widget) Excalibur #1 (Dec 1988) |
| Created by |
Chris Claremont Alan Davis (Widget only) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Katherine "Kate" Anne Pryde-Rasputin |
| Team affiliations |
Excalibur X-Men (Earth-815) |
| Notable aliases | Ariel |
| Abilities | (currently) Time travel (formerly) Inter-universal travel, Intangibility |
Widget, alias Katherine "Kate" Anne Pryde-Rasputin is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe. The character was later revealed to be an older, alternate version of Shadowcat (Katherine "Kitty" Anne Pryde), from the Days of Future Past timeline. Before the revelation of Widget's true identity, she was consistently referred to with masculine pronouns (i.e. "he," "him," etc.).
Fictional character biography
Katherine Pryde was sent back into the body of her younger self by Rachel Summers to try to avert their dystopian future.[1] She failed; instead of changing her own past, she created an alternate timeline that diverged from her own when Senator Kelly was saved from an assassination attempt. When she arrived back in her own body, she found all of her friends, except Rachel, dead. Running for their lives, they were cornered when the Phoenix Force appeared, having followed her out of curiosity, and Kate persuaded it to physically transport Rachel to the timeline Kitty had just visited and to keep her from remembering the horrors she had experienced. After Rachel was gone, Kate was captured and scanned using Sentinel technology in an attempt to reopen the time warp and retrieve Rachel. The time warp reopened the same second that Kate phased out of her inhibitor collar. As a result, both Kate and the Sentinel scanning her fell into the time warp and merged.
Kitty reappeared in the timeline Rachel resided in and was rebuilt in a small, metal, off-spherical body built by Tweedledope of the Crazy Gang. Her mind scrambled by the "interference" from other timelines she felt, she was amnesiac and went about everything with a childlike glee. Her desire to eat metallic objects over-rode any sense of politeness. She was responsible for shunting Kylun into an alternate dimension, where he would grow, mature and have adventures of his own. Another incident led to the switching of Moira MacTaggert and the train she was on with a Nazi version of Moira and train. Widget's interactions with the Phoenix power led her to inadvertently take the superhero team Excalibur (including Rachel) through a number of alternate timelines in a so-called "Cross-Time Caper". They soon learned a jolt of Phoenix power into Widget would send them into another dimension at random. After this was brought under control, Roma had her locked to the main Marvel Universe, Earth-616, preventing her from moving far from it. This began to clear her mind, and she reconstructed her body, using materials from the train the group had adventured so far in. After this, Rachel (who had recovered her memories), Widget and Excalibur returned to Rachel's original timeline and successfully reprogrammed the ruling Sentinels to protect all life, ending their tyranny.[2]
At the very end of the four-part limited series Excalibur: Sword of Power, Widget was seen with Kang the Conqueror, observing events from space. Apparently, Kang had orchestrated the events shown in the limited series, but it is not revealed exactly why Widget was with him.
Catchphrase
During early appearances, Widget was known for the catchphrase, learned from an excited, young Kylun: "Oh gosh, oh golly, oh wow!".