- Name: Kate Pryde
- Code Names: Widget
- First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #141 (Jan ‘81)
- Powers: Dimension-Hopping
- Teams Affiliation: Excalibur
About
What gets weird about comics, well one of the things that gets weird about comics, is how years of alternate timelines and realities end up shaping the “real” comics. The ideas in The Dark Knight Returns end up shaping the course of Batman for decades after, both thematically and with characters. Old Man Logan became the de facto Wolverine for a hot second. Darn near half of the Marvel What If? stories have actually happened. Speculation becomes reality because there are no limits and no reason to waste a good idea. Then again, sometimes things get so convoluted that after reading thousands of X-Men comics you are still left scratching your head.
So that brings us to Widget, well actually, hold on, we should go behind the scenes of one of the most famous X-Stories of all time, Days of Future Past. If you don’t know what DoFP was (and I mean this with no disrespect) how the hell are you on this website? It’s two issues, go read it. For the rest of you the story ends with Kate Pryde stopping the assassination of Senator Kelly and getting her consciousness pulled back into her own timeline. Co-plotter and penciler John Byrne wanted this to be a happy ending, Kate fixed her timeline and earned her happy ending. Chris Claremont, who had final scripting control, left it ambiguous if Kate was returning to her dystopian hellscape or not. Byrne had already resigned from the book at this point, but saw the change as an insult.
So how does all this relate to Excalibur’s floating bowling ball? Well you see, Widget remained a mystery for years after first appearing. Widget just appeared in the 616 being filled with garbage by a character from an Alice in Wonderland themed gang. It seemed to act with no agenda, teleporting small children into Hyborian dimensions and replacing key members of the X-Universe with Nazis. Widget soon found a home with the newly formed Excalibur who were just whimsical enough to not worry about much in terms of details.
Widget’s habit of opening portals to new dimensions sent Excalibur on their greatest adventure yet, the Cross-Time Caper. This was not a trip across time, but one across cross-time which is a different thing. Excalibur realized that they could kinda control the dimension-hopping by jolting Widget with the energy of the Phoenix. Something deeply connected Rachel’s energy to Widget, but no one knew.
As Excalibur returned to the 616, it became clear. Widget began to build a new body and a surprising history revealed itself. In the world of Kate Pryde, off in some far-flung future, the X-Men were still battling their Sentinel overlords. Kate’s very special gal pal Rachel had been physically sent to the past using the Phoenix Force as Kate was captured by Nimrod. The Sentinel’s wanted to reenact the Terminator franchise and tried to recreate the time warp Rachel used, but something went wrong. Kate and a Sentinel were merged in the timestream and the result was spat into the 616. It was Widget. Content, Widget decided to stay in the mystic, Excalibur adjacent Otherworld, where she helps out where need and tries to forget that she was once a freedom fighter in a dystopian battleground.
Must Read
Early Excalibur is a whimsical delight. It combines all the best from Claremont and Alan Davis into a package that is a pure treat for readers. Widget, essentially being a cartoon character, plays heavily into that tone. Any X-Fan who has avoided this for one reason or another owes it to themselves to check it out.
Ranking
It has been so long I almost forgot how to do these! Part of the reason is that Widget broke me. I like Widget but I don’t have much to say about it. Widget is fine but not substantial at all. It is a flying bowling ball that is also Kate Pryde from Days of Future Past, but that second part isn’t important. I don’t actively dislike Widget but it isn’t as good as someone like Ariel from Fallen Angels. Widget is oddly comparable to Penance who is another weird mascot more than a character, but Penny is better. I feel comfortable putting Widget above The Children of the Vault so that is where it will land, the new number 109 in the Xavier Files.
Widget was requested by Patreon supporter Christian Smith. Thank you for your support! If you have a request for how about you send it below? If you want to cut to the front of the two-year long line, we have a Patreon you can support Xavier Files for just $1 to get a line cutting reward.
Make sure you check out my podcast BATTLE OF THE ATOM. It’s where Bish & Jubez creator Adam Reck and I talk about every single X-Men story that ever existed and rank them from best to worst. Episode 48 is up and we talk with X-Men Editor Jordan D White. Make sure you subscribe to any of the following platforms (or others, I’m not picky) Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS.
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Next time, we talk about that lizard boi Anole!
Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
