X-Men: Nightcrawler
For the sixth entry into the X-Men hub of mine, we take a look into the teleporting demonic looking X-Men named Kurt Wager, or better yet, Nightcrawler. Nightcrawlers abilities consist of teleportation, superhuman agility and the ability to stick his hands or feet to any object due to a natural adhesive he possesses. The Nightcrawler character was created by Dave Cockrum and was originally designed to be apart of the Legion of Super Heroes for DC Comics. When he was turned down by them, they simply changed his character slightly to fit in the Marvel Universe. As a part of the X-Men, he also embodies the faith that the group has that some day human and mutant kind alike will one be able to co exist happily.
Nightcrawler was born in Bavaria to a beautiful blue skinned shapeshifter known as Mystique. Nightcrawler's name at birth was Kurt Wagner. Mystique disguised herself as a Baroness, but when she gave birth to a blue child the pair were cast out of their small village. The village gave chase, and drove them out only to have Mystique throw him into a nearby water fall where he was saved by his enigmatic teleporting father Azazel. Mystique fled from the scene, without even checking to see if her son was okay following the fall and Azazel put his son under the care of a gypsy sorceress under the name of Margail Szardos. Margail took baby Kurt to a small circus in Bavaria where she worked as a fortune teller to mask her sorcery abilities. Kurt had a sense of unity in this circus as no one adopted him, but all were labeled "freaks" just like Kurt would be for his appearance. Kurt grew up happily in this surrounding and created two strong friendships with Margail's children Stefan and Jimaine. Kurt quickly became a star of the circus with his tremendous agility he wowed audiences with his showing of acrobatic and trapeze tricks. Audiences were not afraid of him due to the fact that they simply assumed he was a human dressed in some sort of demonic costume. Stefan and Kurt made a promise to each other due to Stefan's fear of his power corrupting him, that if either of them killed someone without reason that the other should stop them. While Kurt worked closely with Jimaine, the two begin to court one another.
Eventually the circus was bought out by a bigger circus by Texas millionaire Amos Jardine who ran a bigger circus that resided in Florida. Jardine wanted to place Kurt in his freak show to American audiences even against Kurt's wishes. In the freak show, Kurt was imprisoned against his will and drugged to stay complacent. Kurt was eventually freed by a young boy who then threatened Jardine into becoming a better owner and a better person to his employees. Kurt took this opportunity to run away and head for Germany. Upon arriving in Germany, he quickly discovered that his old friend Stefan had gone mad and brutally slain several members of a lost race of half human creatures. Living up on his promise, Kurt sought out Stefan and confronted him in hopes of stopping his vicious rampage. When he finally caught up to Stefan the two engaged in battle, and in the course of their struggle Kurt unintentionally broke Stefan's neck. The neighbors of a nearby town discovered Kurt for what he was and sought out to do him harm, eventually the townspeople had Kurt cornered ready to kill him until they were psionically paralyzed by Professor Charles Xavier. Xavier took the trip out to find Kurt because he had the intention to recruit him into his group of X-Men.
After many adventures with the X-Men where he once again felt wanted, in his continous battles with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants he met his mother Mystique. At first he didn't know it was his mother, but eventually over time he would. With the X-Men he also discovered his ability to blend into shadows to the point that he would seemingly becoming invisible and with Kitty Pryde's pet dragon Lockheed, he managed to travel between dimensions. Kurt was also severely wounded in a battle with one of the Marauders named Riptide, after suffering this injury he was forced to recuperate on Muir Island where he was told that the continuous use of his ability has put a strain on his body. Despite all of the good he had done with the X-Men, Kurt carried with him a lot of guilt from taking Stefan's life. Even more so he was never able to reconcile with Margail about it. Eventually the pair did, and Kurt was also happy to know that Jimaine had relocated to the United States under the name of Amanda Sefton.
- X-Men: Magneto
Magneto, the Villain - X-Men: Wolverine
Wolverine, the Weapon X - X-Men: Gambit
Gambit, the Ragin' Cajun - X-Men: Colossus
Colossus, the Steel Mutant - X-Men: Jean Grey
Jean Grey, the Phoenix - X-Men: Cyclops
Cyclops, the Leader