Lets just start this by explaining why I have an entire blog devoted to Nightcrawler from X-Men. I have related several aspects of this particularly awesome character to several of my stories: the superhuman abilities, being raised by “gypsies”, the list goes on… However many reasons I have to justify the cause of this particular entry, the most prominent has to be the fact that I am a fan girl. I can admit it, its all good; I even have a friend that is sort of an expert on the X-Men (specifically Nightcrawler) helping me out with all this. All in all, I will be taking inspiration from this brilliant Marvel character, as well as raving about his spectacular-ness.
First of all, Nightcrawler is a mutant, his real name being Kurt Wagner. Unlike the typical mutant trend of powers kicking in at puberty, he was born different. Yellow eyes, three digits on each hand and extended feet, he generally doesn’t blend in with a crowd. Also having a tail and being dark blue in color doesn’t help the conspicuous scale. His mother is Mystique, who dumped him in a river at birth to save herself from a group of townspeople that believed she bore a demon. (The setting is Germany by the way.) Being rescued due to a bit of influence by his father (a really powerful mutant by the name of Azazel) making sure he ended up with someone to raise him. This someone was a gypsy woman Margali Szardos. This woman is a sorceress with a day job as a fortune teller with a traveling circus type dealy. Growing up as a performer (trapeze artist) he was always blatantly different, but surviving until accidentally killing his foster brother… Then getting blamed for something done by said foster brother, thus being persecuted as a village-terrorizing demon. Right before getting staked, Charles Xavier saves him. He then joins the X-Men…many adventures follow. 
Now for his fantastic abilities! Since I cannot sum it up better than it is on uncannyxmen.net, I will simply have an excerpt for convenience...and a link of course.
“Mutant-neomorphic physiology gives him a flexible spine for heightened agility, reflexes and coordination, iridescent eyes, blue velvet fur, three fingers on each hand, two toes on each foot, fangs, pointed ears, a prehensile tail, control the inter-atomic bondings between his molecules and those of other objects to cling to solid surfaces, extra-dimensional wormhole surrounding his body absorbs light constantly to cast his body into shadow and make him transparent in darkness, and he can enter the wormhole to teleport from place to place within our dimension seemingly instantaneously, accompanied by a rush of air, a stench of brimstone, and a burst of flame”
http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/spotlight/showquestion.asp?faq=10&fldAuto=70
That’s some seriously amazing stuff. Fan girl moment happening. Ok…focusing now. Nightcrawler does not have super healing like Wolverine, or the ability to take other mutants’ power such as Rogue, but along with being extra bendy and the skills for a standing jump eight feet in the air…his teleportation is fascinating. In some comics and cartoons, he is limited to line of sight, meaning he can only teleport to somewhere he can see… How this really works however, is as long as he knows where he is going/can visualize it, it will work. The reason for this is…if he did not know where he was going to reappear specifically, he could end up with a pole through him, or in a wall…thus equaling death. He has on one occasion made it back to a certain point by focusing on its smell, but that was one of those single occurrence things.
The range for said teleportation operates along the magnetic fields on the planet. If going east or west, the maximum range is two miles, if going north or south, the limit is three miles. The most difficult direction for him to teleport is straight up. His limit for this is two miles as well, but at this distance and difficulty, it isn’t something he can do without wearing out quickly.
One of the most widely known versions of Kurt Wagner is from the movie X-2 X-Men United. Instead of the velvety exterior, they opted for a more skin and tattooed look, with more emphasis on his circus career in his past. Either way, he was still portrayed closely to the original character and his debut in the movie only added to the following.
Wow, so I’ve been rambling about Nightcrawler enough for now, though this still excludes his many adventures, several costume modifications, social interactions among the other X-Men, and so on…but I believe I will save that for another time. Mostly as an example of an American comic book figure (though he is in fact German), he is a good example of not a main character, but a supporting role, less muscled, shorter, and obviously not average looking…he provides an interesting addition to the more typical appearing heroes.
Fan girl moment, to be continued at a later date.
Credit as always goes to the artists on deviantart.com.
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