Summary

• Kate Pryde, now known as Shadowkat, has reached a new level of mastery and finesse with her phasing abilities in X-Men #28.
• Kate's mission with Ms. Marvel in X-Men #28 sees her jump from a plane without a parachute, an unnecessary but very cool use of her power.
• As Shadowkat, Kate has pushed the boundaries of her powers in creative, dangerous, and violent ways, showing immense growth and control over her phasing abilities.

Warning: contains spoilers for X-Men #28The X-Men member Kate Pryde, now going by the codename Shadowkat, has been a Marvel hero for decades, and while her incredible phasing abilities have developed a lot over the years, X-Men #28 shows a new level of mastery and finesse for the iconic mutant. Kate has been greatly impacted by Krakoa's Fall of X and is determined to destroy Orchis and save mutantkind no matter how cunning, ruthless, or violent she must be.

Kate Pryde's frustrating inability to travel through Krakoan Gates has become a surprising boon during the Fall of X, with Kate now the only mutant who can through the Gates, giving her unprecedented access to Orchis prisons and strongholds.

X-Men #28, from writer Gerry Duggan and artists Joshua Cassara and Marte Gracia, sees Shadowkat and Ms. Marvel traveling to Latveria to confront Doctor Doom's X-Men, where Kate shows an incredible amount of control over her powers, jumping from a plane without the need for a parachute.

Kate Pryde's Phasing Ability Has Risen To New Levels Of Mastery

Kate was truly devastated by the murders of many of her close mutant friends during Orchis' assault on the X-Men's annual Hellfire Gala. Pryde has taken this anger, grief, and frustration and remolded herself into the mutant assassin Shadowkat, inspired by her time training as a killer under the demon Ogun and Wolverine. While Kate has shown immense growth and control over her phasing powers over the years, her new role as Shadowkat has allowed her moral and ethical boundaries to lapse, pushing her to master her powers in creative, dangerous, and violent ways.

While many think that Pryde's ability simply allows her to become intangible, this is not entirely true. Kate is able to control the tangibility of every molecule in her body, meaning that she is capable of walking through the air or water by making her molecules and the environment's molecules merge, and become briefly tangible. X-Men #28 explains that as a spy and assassin for the X-Men during the Fall of X, Kate has become adept at jumping out of planes without a parachute, safely landing within the Earth, and then "swimming" back to the surface. The fact that Shadowkat can manipulate her powers and environment so easily shows just how much subtle control she has over her complex ability.

After Years In The Field Shadowkat Is A Veteran Hero

It is not shocking that Kate Pryde has continued to gain more and more control over her impressive phasing ability over the years, seeing as she has not only consistently been an X-Men field leader, but also has served as school heistress and teacher for young new mutants for a long time. Shadowkat has saved the X-Men countless times through her creative uses of her phasing ability, defeating characters like the Hulk and many Sentinel robots. Plus, she literally phased a giant bullet through the planet Earth, surviving inside the bullet in space as intangible for several months.

Still, it is exciting to see Kate so confidently pushing the boundaries and limits of her powers as she attempts to save her friends and family from their many threats. Kamala Khan calls Kate a "show-off," a funny on-page acknowledgment that Shadowkat is utilizing her power in a way that is technically not necessary - since she could just use a parachute - but shows the pride she has in her mutant identity. The X-Men hero Kate Pryde has grown tremendously over the past two decades, and her new role as Shadowkat has given her even greater mastery over her incredible phasing.

X-Men #28 from Marvel Comics is available now in stores.