X2 Prequel:Nightcrawler Comic

[Elfdame]

I haven't had a chance to read the prequel comic, but my suggestion is ... they need to novelize Emily "Saint Kurt"'s _Even Angels Have Scars_. Then everybody would be happy.

[Violet]

Originally posted by Elfdame
I haven't had a chance to read the prequel comic, but my suggestion is ... they need to novelize Emily "Saint Kurt"'s _Even Angels Have Scars_. Then everybody would be happy.

I Agree.

[Saint Kurt]

Er. Wow. Thanks.

Even Angels have Scars was my attempt to explain 3 things:

1) The mismatched novel - movie - prequel plot line
2) Why Nightcrawler in the comics and Nightcrawler in the movie were so totally different
3) Why a really over the top devout Catholic would also engage in ritualistic body modification with supernatural symbols with an apparently religious motive.

I liked Nightcrawler and I thought he was cool in the movie too (best movie superhero costume ever) but his already convoluted back story became just ... completely insane.

So I decided to just start from scratch.

I don't think Marvel is interested, though I did give the story to Darick and Roberto to steal from at will while they were working on the Nightcrawler solo book. I do not see anything that is exclusively mine in the comic, but there are some ideas kicked around about angels and demons being counterparts that sound, well, familiar. They might have been going in this direction though anyway. We never discussed whether they even read my outline (because I gave them the full 3 novel outline) or just threw it in the trash.

And I read back and saw all the attempts at figuring out how it all fits or doesn't fit. To the best of my ability, here is what I put together for myself to work with:

Austen's comic:
The circus is in Canada, not the US.
Nightcrawler looks like a completely different and younger person.
Amanda Sefton and Margali Szardos are also totally different from how they've ever been portrayed.
Stryker captures Nightcrawler in Canada

Claremont's novel:
Nightcrawler came to the US to audition for Ringling brothers (there hasn't been a Barnum and Bailey circus for like 30 years.)
I guess the audition was in Boston.
And the novel seemed to imply that he didn't get the job and then stuck around to see the US.

The movie:
Nightcrawler was in a circus called the Munich Circus.
But all the poster say Circus Gehlhar on them.
Nightcrawler was captured from the church in Boston.

None of them can possibly work together and there is no point in trying to make them.

That's why you have to get an obsessive idiot who likes back story and epic sagas to re-tool the entire thing so that it makes sense. (in other words, me.)

If I ever get there, the outline does include a sensible method of getting Nightcrawler out of the church and up to Canada and back to Washington DC in a way that he only remembers "being here".

-e

[Elfdame]

Sounds like a Scrawler Challenge to me.

*** Just kidding! ***

[Saint Kurt]

Rowena was looking for one.

I'm happy to share.

-e

[Elfdame]

You know, @n@l-retentive wretch that I am, it bothers me every time I see the movie, that he says he's with the Munich Circus, but the posters say Circus Gehlhar.

I figured one of at least two things could account for it:
1) He grew up in Circus Gehlhar and then as an adult left to join the Munich Circus, or
2) Maybe the Munchen Circus consists of several troupes, one of which is his beloved Gehlhar, or (bonus idea)
3) He's a total twit and a liar to boot, or very very confused after Stryker's brain nudge.


And as I sit there churning these ideas around in the cranium, I wonder why I don't have a real life, duh.

[The Drastic Spastic]

Damn, how many times have you watched that movie?? I can't imagine watching it again.

[Ult_Sm86]

Don't forget the video game. :thumbup completely different.

[Elfdame]

Originally posted by The Drastic Spastic
Damn, how many times have you watched that movie?? I can't imagine watching it again.

I think I've watched it 3 times ... not counting some youtube music videos (my 5-yr-old grandgirl and I like watching this one in particular, hollering along with the line about "people think I'm strange" etc.) which use scenes from it.

And we aren't counting Cat's sweded version, are we? That's my favourite X-Person movie.

But I do like the way the stunt folks show him loping down the hallway on all fours, bamfing around the guards, all that. Plus him saying the rosary ... that's always a turn-on for me! Not as cute as John Paul II, but nice in a blue-skinned way.

[Angelique]

Originally posted by Elfdame

Originally posted by The Drastic Spastic
Damn, how many times have you watched that movie?? I can't imagine watching it again.

I think I've watched it 3 times ... not counting some youtube music videos (my 5-yr-old grandgirl and I like watching this one in particular, hollering along with the line about "people think I'm strange" etc.) which use scenes from it.

And we aren't counting Cat's sweded version, are we? That's my favourite X-Person movie.

My kids' favorite, too! They've seen that about a googleplex times, and it still has them in stitches.

[Elfdame]

slightly OT
Has anyone seen The_Lone_Bamf around lately? Maybe she's, like, having a real life somewhere. Or, with luck, working on some more STORIES!

[wizardelfgirl]

Originally posted by Tracker

Claremont's background story for the novelization made a lot more sense... but I guess wasn't nearly as melodrama interesting enough for a comic adaptation.

What did the the novelization say?

That Kurt was taken over to America for an offering by the Ringling Bros. to join their circus. He's turned down but remains in Boston for the sights. Then he's kidnapped by Stryker and so forth.

It does give explanation for why Kurt's posters were there.

I'm sooo glad I found this, even if is like 5 years old, because it helps me fill a gap in the backstory for one of my future fics.

I'd heard of the novel, but I've never seen/read it, and like most people who haven't read it I wandered what the heck Nightcrawler was doing in Boston when he should have been in Europe (yes, I believe there's a poster that says something about the Munich Circus being for the first time in USA, but then why is not the circus there anymore? And why was Kurt left there?). Moreover, those of us who haven't read the novel but have read the prequel comic are further confused by the fact that it would seem Kurt was captured in Canada. So how did Kurt and some of his belongings end up in that church in Boston?

So of course, I invented my own version of what happened, trying to put together the events in the comic and the movie. Yet I was missing something that would make the story more coherent and this thread has given it to me.

I'm still doubtful about what to do with Kurt's symbols though. I have never liked them for 2 main reasons: 1) Doing that to himself sounds too much like self-mutilating, which is something I don't see Kurt doing, not even in movieverse, no matter how many sins he's committed; and 2) Those tattoos were simply a lame way for the producers or whomever makes those decisions to try to make him more "interesting" without having to develop his character too much. You know, because having blue skin and a tail didn't make him cool enough, so they gave him scars so that people would go "OMG he did that to himself! There must be something more to him!"

I do have an explanation for them in the backstory I planned, but I'm debating whether to keep it or just ommit the scars completely (seeing as I'm trying to blend some comicverse into this, he's gonna be furry in my stories anyway, and the scars might be too much). I've read Saint Kurt's fantastic story "Even Angels have Scars" where a good explanation for them is given, but it steps into the realm of the supernatural and I have no intention of delving into that, little documented that I am on the subject (and it having nothing to do with what I'm writing anyway).

What do you think?

[Edited on 10/8/09 by wizardelfgirl]

[Dedicatedfollower467]

Having read neither the prequel comic NOR the novel, I am just going to go on my base instincts for my advice to you Twitch.

Put in whatever the heck you wanna put in, gal.

I don't like the symbols either... Comicverse Kurt would be HORRIFIED at what Movieverse Kurt had done to himself... I firmly maintain that Kurt is a lover of life: that's why he's so full of freedom, warmth, funny, Errol-Flinn-ness: it's because he loves and celebrates life and refuses to worry about the bad things.

So it's totally out of character for Kurt to mutilate himself, no matter HOW sinful he's been.

However, I do like St. Kurt's explaination in "Even Angels Have Scars." Read that thing in two days, fell deeply in love with the character and the writing.

[steyn]

I don't like the symbols either... Comicverse Kurt would be HORRIFIED at what Movieverse Kurt had done to himself...

plus it's hard to make detailed scars when your body is covered in fur

[Elfdame]

Tatooing is an ancient form of spirituality and self-expression; that said, I agree that the fun-loving Nightcrawler whom most readers love would not have done it, especially not "one for each sin," and believe me, if he's a modern Catholic, it would be totally off-base. Hair shirt, maybe, but not purposely showing a lack of respect for the boy by scarring it. Too much like Albigensianism or that kinda "the body is evil" stuff.

[Dedicatedfollower467]

There are express references in either Leviticus or Deuteronomy FORBIDDING God's people from giving themselves tatoos, precisely because it has spiritual and religious implications, expecially in pagan religions. However, my youth group leader likes to point out that it really doesn't fit in our modern world today, because it's in the same section that forbids men from cutting their beards or making clothing out of two kinds of material. (got any cotton/polyester out there?)

Still... that doesn't look like tatoos Kurt's got. They have a definite ridge and rise above the level of his skin. They don't look like tatoos. They look like scars. Tatoos, while still not in Kurt's character if only because he has FUR, are less disturbing than the idea that Kurt took a knife and carved those symbols into his flesh. That borders freakishly on the techniques of the Opus Dei in The Da Vinci Code.

[wizardelfgirl]

Tatooing is an ancient form of spirituality and self-expression; that said, I agree that the fun-loving Nightcrawler whom most readers love would not have done it, especially not "one for each sin," and believe me, if he's a modern Catholic, it would be totally off-base. Hair shirt, maybe, but not purposely showing a lack of respect for the boy by scarring it. Too much like Albigensianism or that kinda "the body is evil" stuff.

Even if he weren't too modern a Catholic, Tattooing is, like you say, a very ancient form of ritual and not one used extensively by Catholics, since it's more linked with magic rituals and stuff, which Catholics don't practice. I don't think even movieverse Nightcrawler would have done it, but since he did I suppose the hairshirt wouldn't be too far-fetched either. Personally I've never liked those forms of penance.

Yet, would ommitting the tattoos be too much of a change? The explanation for them that I have in my backstory has him doing them against his will (which I'm sure is wholly unoriginal and all but I refuse to having him willingly doing that), but since he's not responsible for them then they don't add to his personality in any way, so maybe they can go.

Except, they would be a reminder of what he went through, and that would affect him personality-wise, and is the only reason I'm thinking about leaving them.

[wizardelfgirl]

Still... that doesn't look like tatoos Kurt's got. They have a definite ridge and rise above the level of his skin. They don't look like tatoos. They look like scars. Tatoos, while still not in Kurt's character if only because he has FUR, are less disturbing than the idea that Kurt took a knife and carved those symbols into his flesh. That borders freakishly on the techniques of the Opus Dei in The Da Vinci Code.

Well, yeah, they are scars, and the, um, process of doing them is called scarification or cicatrization. But in the end they could be considered a type of tattoo, right? (plus the word is shorter )

[Dedicatedfollower467]

I will always, always, ALWAYS find those scars disturbing, no matter why he has them. I love X2, they are great with the religious side of his personality and they use his powers rather well (the best part is DEFINITELY in the White House) but the fact that he carved symbols on his own person will never sit well with me.

When you write your story, feel free to take those offensive things out.

[Karl]

I'm glad to see someone point out that they are scars, not tattoos. I doubt that a tattoo would even show up against Kurt's dark blue skin. For someone to do that sort of thing to himself, he'd have to be a compulsive cutter or have a very important reason for doing it. I don't think the movie writers had that very well thought out. They pretty much tossed it in, but failed to provide any sort of adequate explanation. "One for every sin" only leaves one wondering. One for every sin he ever committed? One for every sin that it's possible to commit? And either way, why?? It would have to be one damn good reason, or he comes across as just plain sick.
Saint Kurt's reason makes good sense in the context of her most excellent story, but for me it's just too easy. I would see Kurt as doing it deliberately one sin at a time anytime he has realized that he has just committed that sin, for some very tortured and terrible reason.