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Characters & first appearances

What is the first appearance of Kitty Pryde?

Published Sep 14, 2026 · Updated Sep 14, 2026 · 1 min read

Short answerKitty Pryde first appeared in The X-Men #129, cover-dated January 1980, by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, as a thirteen-year-old from Deerfield, Illinois recruited by Professor X. The same issue introduced Emma Frost (the White Queen) and Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club and began the Dark Phoenix Saga, which makes it one of the most important issues of the Claremont–Byrne run.

X-Men #129

Byrne based Kitty partly on a real teenager he knew; her phasing power and her ordinariness made her the reader's viewpoint on the team for years. The issue's second half introduces the Hellfire Club's inner circle, and the story runs without a break through #137 and the death of Phoenix.

Why #129 is a key three times over

  1. First Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat).
  2. First Emma Frost, one of the most prominent X-Men characters since the 2000s.
  3. First Sebastian Shaw and the start of the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Collecting

As a 1980 book with a large print run, #129 survives in quantity and the market is concentrated at 9.6 and 9.8; a CGC 9.8 is in the store. Newsstand copies carry a small premium. See First appearance of Phoenix, the Kitty Pryde character page and the X-Men character page.

Written by the Rare Comics Collectors grading team. Spotted an error or have a question this guide does not answer? Tell us.

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Marvel Comics · Silver Age

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First appearance of the X-Men and Magneto

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$225,000
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