WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Wolverine #1, by Benjamin Percy, Adam Kubert, Frank Martin, Viktor Bogdanovic, Matthew Wilson, VC’s Cory Petit and Tom Muller, on sale now.
Among other things, the X-Men's Kitty Pryde is a mutant, a ninja and a computer genius. And now, she's one of the most innovative drinkers in the Marvel Universe.
In Wolverine #1, Logan goes to visit Kate Pryde, as she is now known, on her Marauders ship before she sets out again, and she offers him a drink of his favorite whiskey. Grimacing at the fact that he will only drink the cheap stuff, she pours a shot for herself as well. But instead of drinking it, she shows Logan a trick she learned bartending, which she did during college in the 2002 miniseries Mekanix.
In a feat that's almost certainly won her a bar bet or two, Kate consumes her drink without lifting it off the table.
After Logan chugs his drink, Pryde places her glass on the table, then slams her hand down through it. After her hand passes through, the alcohol disappears, She says this allows her to enjoy the effects of the alcohol without the bad taste. The effects seem to be fast, as immediately after phasing the whiskey she says she is “buzzy.”
While this is more fun than combat-ready use for her phasing powers, Pryde has had to finesse her abilities over the years as she's grown up with the X-Men. Change has always defined Pryde to some extent, from her evolution from Kitty to Kate and her numerous codenames. She's gone from being the X-Men's youngest member to one of its most steadfast leaders, and her powers have naturally changed with her.
When Pryde joined the X-Men, she could simply turn her whole body intangible and couldn’t even always do it on command. Soon, she started to learn more control and developed the ability to phase individual parts of her body as needed. After Kitty was severely injured by one of Harpoon's energized harpoons in the "Mutant Massacre" crossover, the reaction between the energy and her powers caused her to lose control and become stuck in a phased state that it took the combined brains of Doctor Doom and Mister Fantastic to untangle.
In the wake of that incident, Shadowcat had to actively will herself to remain solid before eventually regaining control of her powers and even learning how to phase specific parts of her body. During X-Treme X-Men, she could even phase herself apart from Earth’s gravity to stay in one spot and let the Earth rotate under her, which helped her cover great distances in no time at all. In the most impressive display of power, she even phased a giant bullet through the Earth and other planets in Astonishing X-Men.
Even though Shadowcat isn't feeling too well in other X-books right now, Pryde's ability to phase drinks into herself is more than a useful party trick. It's also a testament to how far she's developed her mutant powers and hints at an intriguing future for the fan-favorite X-Man.