The Age of Apocalypse didn't change any of the characters' origins: they weren't new people who happened to have the same names, it was them in different circumstances, which in one case ends up kind of weird.
After being captured by Sabretooth, Katherine Pryde becomes the youngest member of the X-Men and trains to become the team's ghost assassin.
Kitty Pryde was introduced in Uncanny X-Men #129, in 1979; at that time, she was 13½. A backup story in 1982's Special Edition X-Men #1 established that her birthday is sometime in the early summer (though the comic was published during winter), and she was turning 14 - three years to age six months. "Age of Apocalypse" happened in 1995. If we take that same "Marvel time" to "real-world time" ratio, then Kitty would have gained a little more than three years since her introduction, making her 16 going on 17 at the time of AoA - maybe 18 if you want to be extremely generous. Yet the entire team is apparently fine with her and five-years-older Colossus being married? That's right, this isn't Kitty Pryde now, it's Kitty Rasputin.
Nothing about this figure looks like a teenager. Even if you look past her Markie Post hairdo, she's got the face of an angry adult woman. She's about to demand to speak to Apocalypse's manager! The expression absolutely fits her personality in the comics - AoA Kitty Pryde was a bitter, chain-smoking meanie, so the look of disgust this toy's been sculpted with is right on target.
The body is entirely new, to create the style of costume she wore.
At a glance is seems like typical superhero spandex, leaving just her shoulders and upper chest uncovered; but the entire thing has a segmented texture sculpted in that suggests something more armored. She's got a red gem hanging from a choker, and wears fingerless gloves. The molds would be good for a future Marvel Legends Lady Mastermind, who wears pretty much the same thing, except in black instead of blue. Her right hand is fully open, while the left is shaped to hold something. Something fairly large and round. She doesn't include anything, and there really isn't anything she would use, so what's that for?
The add-on pieces include a utility belt and a pair of bracelets,
both in silver. The stuff in the bio about being captured by Sabretooth seemed to have been cribbed (badly) from Marvel's website, because if that ever appeared in the comics, I certainly don't remember it. They don't give us any origin for her at all. But hey, if you want to put some fanfiction on the packaging, you do you. The bracelets are her main weapons: presumably Weapon X was the one who trained her, because she's got three metal claws that telescope out of the wrist-wear for slashing attacks. The figure also includes a pair of fists to swap in if you want.
Despite being entirely new molds, Shadowcat comes with
the largest piece of the Build-A-Figure: Colossus' entire torso.
After Xavier's death in the past, the first major divergence from the 616 timeline was around the time 1963's X-Men #1 would have been set (aka "10 years ago"): instead of Magneto attacking Cape Citadel and the original X-Men defeating him, Apocalypse's Horsemen attack, and Magneto leads his X-Men in its defense. Just before the battle, Mystique delivers Rogue to the team, and Bobby Drake (the youngest member of the 616 First Class, stated to be 16 in X-Men #1, though that's gotten cheated down over the years) is excited to have someone around who's "his own age," meaning Holocaust-survivor-Magneto met Rogue when she was still a very young teenager, and they ended up having a kid together. Meanwhile, the very-adult Logan was also being introduced to the team at the same time, and he immediately began sexually harrassing Jean Grey, who would only been a year or two older than Iceman and Rogue. So maybe the reason everybody's okay with allowing Kitty Pryde to combine her Sweet 16 party and her wedding reception into one event is just bad leadership from the top? It's no wonder this toy presents her like she's an adult, to help avoid the unfortuunate implications.
-- 12/07/21
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