Top Twelve X-men-Number 7





Nightcrawler



The first appearance of Nightcrawler when the X-men rebooted.

I feel a little bad about this one. I mean Kurt Wagner is one of the best characters ever. However, I have to try to stick to my original criterion (Appeal and importance play equal parts.) and put him right here on the list. Nightcrawler doesn't have the most impressive powers and he hasn't been the driving force of any major story lines. He's certainly been around for most of the big stories, but let's give credit where credit is due.



Let's take a moment to talk about Kurt's background and introduction to the X-men. Even though the original team of X-men was pretty good, the book had a lot of problems like lame villains which included Unus the Untouchable and the Vanisher. The book was put on hiatus for several years and also had a segment of time where Marvel just reprinted old issues to keep the book alive. That all ended with the introduction of the New X-men. This was an attempt by the writers and the company to not only create more interest in the team, but also to address the lack of racial diversity on the team. (The book likes to focus on prejudice and fear of differences, but aside from mutant powers the original team of X-men had no diversity.)

This is when Nightcrawler was introduced. He is a German mutant who is also one of the first truly non-human mutants to play the role of hero. Think about the past choices. First you have Hank McCoy who hadn't even become furry at that point. He just had big hands and feet that could hold stuff really well. You could also consider several 'evil' mutants that were frightening like Blob or Toad, but even they weren't as inhuman as Nightcrawler.

Kurt may not look like your average human, but he is probably the most human character in the X-men universe. He has a passion for life and he has a bit of a split personality. On the one hand, he is a swashbuckling hero who wins the girl, and relishes every moment of the adventure. On the other hand, he is a devout Catholic who strives to serve God even though he looks like a demon. It is a strange dichotomy, but one that works well with the character.

While Nightcrawler is a wonderful character, his role hasn't been as significant. He is certainly always the voice of hope and adventure for the X-men. He was the leader of Excalibur and he used his strategic skills to lead the team, almost always with success.

The injury that took Nightcrawler from the X-men and let him become the leader of Excallubur.

So what about Kurt's biggest moments? Well, he is a major long-term contributor to the X-men, but the writers don't really like to give him a big role in the comic book as a whole. We do get to see Kurt being used in a plot overthrow the Catholic church by setting him up to become the new Pope, and he is always a big part of what's going on in most story lines, but that's about all I can offer you besides what I mentioned before. Hopefully You won't hold that against him.