Carmen Pryde

Origin

Carmen is the father of Kitty Pryde and the husband of Terri Pryde. When Carmen found out that his daughter was a mutant, two special schools came to visit him and his wife Terri at their homes. They wanted to enlist Kitty in their school so she could learn to cope with her powers. One of these schools was Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, better known for hosting the superhero team the X-men.

Creation

Carmen Pryde was created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne and first appeared in The (Uncanny) X-Men issue 129 (1980).

Major Story Arcs

Daughter Kidnapped

However, before the X-men could ask Carmen to let them take Kitty to their school, Emma Frost of the Hellfire Club had talked to Carmen and Terri and they had agreed to send Kitty to their school.Charles Xavier however managed to persuade Carmen into re-thinking their decision. Eventually, before any real decisions where made, Kitty was kidnapped by the Hellfire Club.

The X-men luckily intervened and brought Kitty back home safe and sounds. Carmen however, thinking the kidnapping was because of the X-men, was furious at the X-men and Charles Xavier for endangering his daughter so much. Angered, he told Xavier that they would never trust their daughter to him. Suddenly however, Carmen became very friendly and spoke full of praise about Xavier’s offer to let Kitty study at his school. It turned out that the X-man Phoenix deleted the whole kidnapping from Carmen and Terri’s minds and replaced it with the good thoughts about their initial meeting before the kidnapping occurred. Kitty was then enrolled with Xavier’s and became the newest and youngest X-men.

In Trouble with the Japanese Mob

While Kitty was with the X-men, Carmen came into trouble with a foreign mob. He traveled to Asia and soon landed even deeper in the mob-scene, witch took Kitty Pryde and Wolverine to save him. But not without consequences; Kitty had been mind-controlled by a Japanse Warlord and former mentor of Wolverine, named Ogun. Kitty changed from an innocent little girl to a stronger young woman.

On Genosha and Death

A few years later, Carmen and Terri divorced. Carmen started working on the mutant island of Genoshia. Unfortunately, he was also there during the Sentinel Attacks on the island. For months, it was unknown what had happened to Carmen. But some months later, Kitty finds some street-camera footage of that day, and spots her father in the crowd just before one of the Sentinels is about to attack. Kitty sees Carmen facing the camera and talking into it. Although there is no sound, she can read from his lips what he was saying. “Kitty I love you”. The camera then went grey. It seemed that Carmen had died on the island, and not a day goes by that Kitty doesn’t think of him.

Other Media

X-Men Evolution

Carmen and Terry appeared in X-Men Evolution having a nice relationship. Unlike in the mainstream continuity, they are not divorced. It was a sleepy night, when Kitty dreamed of falling down from a building not knowing that she is falling through their house’s ground floor. Terry and Carmen rose up to find out what happened. When they found Kitty, she seemed to be alright but frightened. When Carmen looked upstairs, he saw Kitty’s blanket partially hanging in the ceiling after being accidentally phased by her mutant powers.