Nightscrawlers

It's a problem I have : I love making lists.

Here are my top five writers (and/or) artists for Nightcrawler.

1. Alan Davis (just the best...)
2. Darick Robertson (because we all know the implication of Darick in the solo series, both as a writer and an artist !)
3. Dave Cockrum (his creator HAS TO be on the list)
4. Leinil Yu (he draws an UNCANNY Nightcrawler)
5. Chris Claremont (from time to time ! I love his Excalibur series, but not his priest Nighty)

I could ad Chuck Austen as #6 (during his run, the elf was featrured A LOT !)but if I did, everyone would throw me virtual tomatoes, so...


What do you think ??
What would your list be ?

Of course, I didn't put Yost and Fraction on that list (Nightcrawler's killers ! Arrrrrgh !)



[Edited on 4-5-2010 by Diablo]

[Edited on 4-5-2010 by Diablo]

1) Alan Davis .... 'nuff said.

2) Dave Cockrum - OBVS.

3) Claremont -- specifically X-Men: Forever

4) Adam Kubert as Artist; Mark Millar as writer: Ultimate Kurt was not a big hit among Nightcrawler fans, though I actually enjoyed him thoroughly. I thought Millar brought a lot of new, entertaining, and complex dimensions to the character and Kubert did a great job designing a Kurt that was unmistakably our favorite elf while still being different enough to belong in an Alternate Concurrent series.

5) Chuck Austen. Believe it or not, I really really liked his version of Kurt for the X-2 comic, it was much better than what they did with the actual Kurt for the movie.

I liked the Mark Millar/Adam Kubert version.
Kurt as a weapon X agent was a great idea.
Sadly, nothing came out of it. Millar did'nt use him at all...

He was severely under used and then he came back for the Morlock thing... and then misused.

But you know what, it's an alternate version, not everything was supposed to be the same. I'm just pissed they killed him before he could really develop as a useful character. Sort of a stupid decision on their part.

Ken Lashley's version of Nightcrawler was what got me collecting comics. It's a wonder I didn't destroy those issues by drooling all over them. AoA Kurt was hot!

I liked the AoA arc too.
I loved X-Calibre and liked the fact that Nightcrawler was sort of a combination of Kurt and Logan. (But it was disappointing that he didn't show up in Omega much.)

Sorry, I'm too indecisive to do artists AND/OR writers. Must have some Artists (A) and some Writers(W)

1) (A&W -- makes Dave sound like a root beer! ) Cockrum's 4-part 1985 solo series. More fun than a barrel o' blue monkeys. If I ever got rich and bought a comic panel, it'd be the one where the fuzzy one is duelling Shagreen, with swords in both hands and his tail. CLASSIC!

2) (W) X-men Unlimited #49 showed the best insight into the Elf, ever. Hated the style of the art, but I've read the words a bazillion times and forced Hubby to listen to me read it aloud. No, really.

3) (W) Claremont, Raab among others); (A) Davis. Early Excalibur

4)(A) Hughes X-men/WILDCATS Modern Age(see neling's avatar, hee hee)

5) (W) Asmus' swashbucklin', nerd-kissing, praying-for-the-departed gung-ho hero. *sigh*

6) (both were W & A) Pruett/Deodato for "The Gift". S-weet, in many senses of the word!

6) Darrick's art, of course. Yum. And so lifelike, or realistic, or whatever the term would be.

I forgot about Asmus probably 'cause it was so recent. But there's also Kipiniak and Smith who did an interesting "Marvel Icons" run. Normally a Religious-based Kurt plot turns me off, but like any good Batman comic, this tested the man and the morales not the superhero and his powers, which is a much more interesting read to me.

1) Alan Davis
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2-10) all the rest.

Elwing wrote:1) Alan Davis
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2-10) all the rest.

I agree with Alan Davis being the best one.
But it's hard to ignore Darick's work and Dave Cockrum's original work and design.

I must add to this- I see John Byrne gets no love here. I think he defenitely deserves credit for developing the X-men into their current form, and some of the best classic stories. He may not always be so popular as a person, but there is no denying his elegant style that is always so easy on the eye...
So he gets to be number two, after Alan Davis. And Dave Cockrum is number one, but because Alan is already in that spot he gets to be number two too
Oh, and Adam Hughes only drew Nighty once(WildC.A.T.s/X-Men crossover) but so well. So he's number two also.

[Edited on 5-5-2010 by Elwing]

Alan Davis has to be one of my top favs, his runs with the elf top mark some of the best art and actual Kurt stories.

His second run on excalibur has got to be the best handling of who kurt is i have seen.

This is not to say others have not done a great job, it's just my top pick.

There have been several artist who i enjoyed their renderings of kurt, i dont have my comics anymore so kinda hard to go thru and find a fav

BAMFCentralII wrote: There have been several artist who i enjoyed their renderings of kurt, i dont have my comics anymore so kinda hard to go thru and find a fav

What happened to them?

Elwing wrote:I must add to this- I see John Byrne gets no love here. I think he defenitely deserves credit for developing the X-men into their current form, and some of the best classic stories. He may not always be so popular as a person, but there is no denying his elegant style that is always so easy on the eye...
So he gets to be number two, after Alan Davis. And Dave Cockrum is number one, but because Alan is already in that spot he gets to be number two too
Oh, and Adam Hughes only drew Nighty once(WildC.A.T.s/X-Men crossover) but so well. So he's number two also.

[Edited on 5-5-2010 by Elwing]

I didn't like John Byrne's rendition of Nightcrawler. With him coming aboard, Kurt became a secondary character. Strangely, when Dave Cockrum was drawing the X-Men, Kurt had more scenes from Chris Claremont where he could shine

To Bamfcentral II :
you're right : Alan Davis is perhap's the best artist AND writer for NC.

[Edited on 13-5-2010 by Diablo]

The Drastic Spastic wrote: What happened to them?

they were donated to my locale comic shop... one my purges after broke up with the ex. Only thing i kept were my NC non-sport cards.

i just recently bought some comics again, just in time to see the elf get one thru the chest.

Elwing wrote:1) Alan Davis
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2-10) all the rest.

LOL! This.

Although Dave always has to get top billing as his creator, I really liked Davis' (and, yes, Claremont's) development of the character in Excalibur. Somebody who doesn't get a lot of credit on later Excalibur, but whose Kurt I really enjoyed, was Warren Ellis.

In more current runs, Darick Robertson had a great handle on the character in that solo series. And before Austen, Joe Casey wasn't bad. He at least tried to give Kurt screen time, and made him a leader again.

lol pirate kurt was ellis contribution. I didn't orig like the change, visually that is, but the rendering did grow on me.

some people didn't like his run, but i will bow down and say he did give kurt a rounded characterization and didn't treat him simply as a backup throw away character. Def liked seeing a more authoritative crawler

And it seems a lot of people like austen's work, i am not a fan. At first with all the talk of what he was gonna do i was excited, but the end result left me flat. Now wether it is his fault or the editors doesn't' really matter, that run i just didn't enjoy. Other than fact kurt got some face time...

4got about the casey run that was short lived as well, x-creators don't seem to last very long for some reason...

The claremont book x-men first class had a quick 2 part story with kurt going to the moon to visit the inhumans, that was a good read, think i picked that up along with the death of the fuzzy...

I'll admit, Austen left me a bit jaded, but I seriously enjoyed his X-2 book, and you know, I can't blame the guy for TRYING to put him in the foreground. He did try. He failed, terribly, but he tried.

Joe Casey... what was it he did? I feel like I missed something important >_>

Ult_Sm86 wrote:I'll admit, Austen left me a bit jaded, but I seriously enjoyed his X-2 book, and you know, I can't blame the guy for TRYING to put him in the foreground. He did try. He failed, terribly, but he tried.

Joe Casey... what was it he did? I feel like I missed something important >_>

He'd be the one who turned "studying to be a priest" into "already a priest".

I know a lot of people didn't care for Austen's approach but he never gets credit for trying to deal with a lot of poo that was left be the previous writers. Every other writer during that time (which might still be going on, as far as I know, this is why I stopped reading) would just ignore past directions and say "Forget that, I'm starting over".

Joe Casey has officially made it to my
"Do not like" list.

I am a huge Cockrum fan... Even though many other artists make him look less 'funny', I enjoy the fact he sets Nightcrawler aside, from the beginning, as the misfit. The oddity among oddities. And yet he is the most fun-loving of all the Uncanny X-Men. Don't hate on the original...

However, adding the religious aspect adds dimension to the character. I love how many have incorporated faith...

Artists
1) Alan Davis
2) Dave Cockrum
3) Carlos Pacheco
4) Adam Hughes
5) Travis Charest
6) Salvadore Larroca (during his Xtreme run)
7) Jim Cheung/Olivier Copiel
8) Dave Finch/Adam Kubert
9) Humberto Ramos/Chris Bachalo
10) Jim Lee/Mark Silvestri
numbers 3-10 fluctuate. some have only drawn Kurt a few times but they were memorable.

Writers...
well I'm going to have to go primarily with Alan Davis again. Chris Claremont has done some good stuff, as have some others.

Dave Cockrum for how inhuman Nightcrawler was drawn and portrayed early on. Len Wein and Chris Claremont in the early days for portrayal as well. Alan Davis for the most fluid Nightcrawler art, giving him a symmetrical third toe and also for portraying his tail like a fifth limb instead of merely a 'flourish' to Kurt's visual aspect.