Nightcrawler has been a member of the X-Men ever since the initial reshuffle of the team back in Giant Size X-Men #1. This new team heralded the start of the X-Men’s climb from a forgotten and near canceled comic to one of Marvel’s biggest powerhouses, where they remain to this very day. Nearly each and every member of this All-New team climbed to meteoric heights in the grander Marvel world. Cyclops is one of Marvel’s best leaders, Wolverine has starred in more comics and movies than anyone can keep track of, and Storm has claimed her rightful position as Marvel’s Wonder Woman. That’s barely even scratching the surface, not mentioning the other x-monoliths like Jean Grey and Kitty Pride.
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Every member of the second X-Men team has an integral and irreplaceable role in the grander Marvel Universe. Among all the ranks of heroes and mutants, however, one stands above the rest as the most important of all. That hero is none other than Nightcrawler
What Makes Nightcrawler So Important?
More so than anyone else, Nightcrawler exemplifies what the role of mutants is in Marvel Comics. Mutants are made to be underdogs. They are often called an allegory to human hatred and bigotry, being physical representations of a group the majority can hate for being different. Mutants are the fear of the other pushed to an extreme, because now those people being put down can shoot fire from their hands to lift cars with a thought. Mutants are made to be feared in the Marvel Universe, and yet despite their superficial differences they are just as human as anyone else in their hearts.
However, although they have mutations that set them apart from others, one important thing about the original X-Men team is that they were able to hide their mutant heritage. They were able to pass as average people, and admittedly were a group of young, conventionally attractive, white Americans. The Giant Size team shook off that constraint, opening up the X-Men to include adult characters from all kinds of backgrounds and parts of the world. Except for the attractive part, but that’s just comic books, where every person on the street is basically a supermodel. Importantly, however, Nightcrawler doesn’t fit that label.
Nightcrawler looks very much like a demon given flesh. In fact, his introduction to the audience is him hiding from an angry mob in his small German hometown. They were hunting him because they thought he was a demon and for the perceived crime of killing several people from the village. However, Kurt Wagner was actually taking the blame for the true culprit, his foster brother Stefan. Kurt had found out what his brother had done and fought him, his brother dying in their tussle, with Nightcrawler deciding to take the blame onto himself to spare his family’s memories of his brother.
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This, at his core, is who Nightcrawler is. He is a man who looks monstrous, but has more compassion than anyone else. He has the face of a demon while being a devout Catholic. His every movement is acrobatic, carrying a zest for life most people don’t have. He is kind to a fault and always willing to give others a chance. Nightcrawler is the first X-Men whose mutation visibly sets him apart from the average human, and yet he does not let this discourage him. Over the course of Chris Claremont’s original X-Men run, Nightcrawler learns to embrace how he looks and publicly shows himself to the world. He faces the world’s hardships with a smile and a joke.
What Has Nightcrawler Done as an X-Men?
Nightcrawler has been a pivotal figure in the X-Men’s adventures time and time again over the years. He once served as the focal point of the most important X-Men story of all time; “God Loves, Man Kills.” In it, televangelist William Stryker calls mutants an affront to God and gathers a following against them. At the conclusion, Stryker specifically calls out Nightcrawler as being inhuman due to his appearance. And yet, Nightcrawler is more devout than Stryker could ever be, with the man using religious fanaticism as an excuse to hunt mutants. By being a hero, Nightcrawler disproves all of Stryker’s claims and then some.
Beyond that, Nightcrawler has been the ultimate supporting character to every member of the X-Men teams he is a part of. He is always the one people come to when they need reassurance, the one who reminds them what being a hero is about. Nightcrawler is perhaps the most trusted of the X-Men, with him being added to the Quiet Council of Krakoa specifically because he is the moral backbone of the X-Men. He’s supported leaders and kept people on the right track, and has even served as Spider-Man once upon a time. If anything shows how strong of a heart Kurt Wagner has, it’s that. He hasn’t been the focal point as often as he should be, but he is without a doubt the cornerstone of the X-Men.
Nightcrawler is the ultimate representation of who the X-Men are. He is hated for reasons he cannot control, but will always choose to be a good person. After getting past his strange exterior, people find him to be the most reliable person they will ever meet, and one of the kindest. Nightcrawler is a web of contradictions. He’s demon-faced Catholic, a hero born from the love of two villains, and a walking sun that can hide in the darkness. He is the ultimate underdog, and shows us why the X-Men will always be important.
