Okay, I've been mulling this over 'cause I feel this debate is completely derailing the entire purpose of both the thread and the forum. We're using Kurt's death to argue religion, and that's pointless, we have a debate room for that.
Firstly:
Frankly, I will be mad if they choose to "do away with" his religion. If he had never had a religion, I would be okay with that. If he had never changed away from Dave's original vision, I would probably have been okay with the character.
If he had never been Catholic, I would never have read a single comic book.
Everything you just said is wrong, but not because you're wrong, but because your information is. Kurt was faithful and grateful to the church, and a believer in God, but Dave never confirmed any sect of religion, and he has, since the character moved out of the Late-Great-Dave's hands, changed DRASTICALLY in how he emphasizes/practices his faith. And I mean
drastically. Read Dave's thread in "Cockrum's Corner" (or perhaps in this very subforum, I forget) about how Nightcrawler was CONCEIVED, and his original purpose. It's from the creator himself. so you can't second guess it or factcheck it with some nerd's opinion from Wikipedia.
Look, to summarize my perspective on all of this, I look to what Paty said earlier:
Dave and Chris "killed" Thunderbird for a reason... not a marketing ploy. Having established a Native American hero, and a specific tribe, at that, they both found they didn't have any reference... GOOD reference...for the tribal customs, religion and such of the character. Remember, this was back in the dark ages before computers... or, at least, when computers were just being built and were taking up whole floors in large buildings! They didn't want to do him wrong...or portray bogus white man's versions of NA culture...so they took him out as a hero...
Like I was saying earlier, computers and wikipedia even included in this argument, Kurt comes with baggage. As did Thunderbird. There is a fanbase, and a culture, that is not worth offending. They can either keep botching up Catholic rites and rituals (such as the way they botched up the funeral, or his prayers,...etc...) or they can take him out for awhile, let everyone miss him, want him, need his familiarity and characteristics back, miss and pine for him, read his "good 'ole days" comics and demand he return and then,...
AND THEN!!!
HUZZAH!
:arr He's BACK! And this time he's not less of a Christian, or less of a faithful man, or any less of an X-Man, but there's less baggage and less chance of offending anyone, which is something Marvel probably feels they can't afford right now.
It
does make sense. It is UNFAIR that it makes sense, it's unfair that they let Kurt get to this point, and it sucks how they used his funeral and the excuse they killed him for (don't get me wrong he died valiantly, but in vain, or so I feel, being the story is a bust.)
But he WILL return, and he'll be better and bluer and fuzzier and happier than ever! Cross my poorly formed heart!!
[Edited on 11/5/10 by Ult_Sm86]