#ComicBytes: The origin story of Kurt Wagner, X-Men's Nightcrawler
A complicated family, extraordinary powers, dramatic past, and religious faith are the making of a great story. And Kurt Wagner has it all. Despite this, people don't give him much importance. Instead of seeing him as a badass superhero, Kurt is seen as a second-tier member of the X-Men. To set this record straight, here is the origin story of the Nightcrawler.
The child of a shape-shifting mutant and a demon
Kurt is the illegitimate child of mutant Mystique and an ancient demon called Azazel because Mystique was married to Baron Wagner. Born with blue skin, pointed ears, fangs, and a long pointed tail, he and his mother are immediately chased off. To escape, Mystique throws the infant over the edge. Kurt is then saved by Azazel, who gives him to Margali Szardos, a sorceress.
He grows up to become a circus acrobat
Margali raises him along with her children Stefan and Jimaine at the Bavarian circus, where she was a fortune teller. As his powers start to manifest, he becomes an acrobat for the circus. Thankfully, his appearance is not questioned as it looked like a costume. When a millionaire circus owner demands that Kurt features in his freak show, Kurt quits and leaves for Germany.
Professor Charles Xavier saves him from a near-death experience
When he arrives there, he finds that Stefan has succumbed to his evil heritage and is murdering children. Kurt tries to stop him but accidentally kills him, which makes everyone believe that Kurt is the actual killer. As he almost gets killed by the angry townspeople, Professor Charles Xavier reaches the scene, and manipulates the mind of the people to save him.
This teleporting half-demon has a close-knitted friendship with Wolverine
Soon, he joins the X-Men and uses his excellent power of teleportation to carry on his superhero life. His flexible bone structure and camouflage abilities are great for stealth operations. Kurt has a 'full of pranks' friendship with Wolverine and Colossus. In fact, Wolverine and Nightcrawler are sometimes each other's emotional support system Additionally, his demonic heritage often creates occult problems for him.
His Catholic faith is his solace during tragedies
As shown in the films, Nightcrawler is a religious mutant. Although he was the prankster of the team, deep down the constant shunning by the society affected him. So, whenever something tragic happened, he turned to his Catholic faith. As his tragedies increased, he became a quiet introspective character. He almost joined the priesthood, but was forced back into the heroic life.
