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Threetoe
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Post by Threetoe »

Nightcrawler's been a happy-go-lucky swashbuckler and a devout priest. I haven't kept up with comics but I hear he had been misused for years, that there is no room in comics today for a mutant like Kurt.

What if writers went back to the early beginnings of Kurt, the one that didn't trust humans, the one who was so mutant, so hideous that even his laughter was a hideous howl, his very human pleas little more than "the hideous howling like that of a baying beast"? And able to slip through shadows? Maybe if Kurt comes back, he comes back like this, and character evolution moves from there? Why would he be demonlike in behavior? I don't know, but I just know it was in his earliest start, and might even be another dimension for him. A kind heart who can't even laugh without seeming like a monster?

[Edited on 22/6/10 by Threetoe]
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Post by steyn »

I didn't even know his laughter sounded like "the hideous howling like that of a baying beast". I thought he started out as a suave swashbuckler with a panache for playing pranks and then got turned to the devout not!priest guy who looked like he had a constant sad frown face.
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Post by Threetoe »

steyn wrote:I didn't even know his laughter sounded like "the hideous howling like that of a baying beast". I thought he started out as a suave swashbuckler with a panache for playing pranks and then got turned to the devout not!priest guy who looked like he had a constant sad frown face.
In Giant-Size X-Men #1 and the early issues of the "All New All DIfferent" X-Men Kurt was a little more beastial. I wouldn't call him a feral (maybe?), but he was trying to get away from the mob that was hunting him down and shouted for them to stop, but all it really sounded like was howling. I think the panels went like this:

The astonishing leap lends doubt to Kurt Wagner's humanity (he leaped up and wall-crawled), and his hideous howling, like that of a baying beast denies it completely! (Here he was shouting at them).

He didn't trust humans at all and even seemed wary of Xavier, which given those circumstances I don't blame him.

He really was a misfit among misfits. Sunfire didn't want to be paired up with him because he was so strange (I am assuming), he protested Not HIM!" And a bit later when Kurt evaded some flying creatures by teleporting he was laughing and his laugh was "little more than a hideous howl". Sunfire remarked "Your manner is much like the beasts you so resemble, misfit!"

He didn't seem misanthropic or dark to the point of Wolverine though. And there was another issue where Kurt actually slipped into pools of shadow! I haven't read that one but it sounds cool.
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Post by Elfdame »

The shadow stuff came when he was at the Cassidy's I think. Neling or Nandireya could probably quote chapter and verse, er, issue and page, in a flash. Even as late as (I think) the one where Dracula courted Storm, or perhaps right before his coma, he was howling like a beast. Myself, I prefer him as the noble comic relief, but that's why we have fanfic, eh? I see him as trying to live out Flynn's Robin Hood: dashing, clever, sneaky, good-hearted. *sigh* :love

I think First Class did a nice job of showing his good side as well as his, um, misfittedness.
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Post by Trigger »

I miss First Class... He was portrayed just perfectly in it...

I too prefer the happy, lovable version of Kurt over his broody and suspicious counterpart. He was so much fun back then! I want Kurt to go back to being the man that makes everyone smile. :D
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Post by neling4 »

Elfdame wrote:The shadow stuff came when he was at the Cassidy's I think. Neling or Nandireya could probably quote chapter and verse, er, issue and page, in a flash.
Uncanny X-Men #102, page 23, last panel.

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Post by Mistress_D »

I think he also howled at the moon too right? Can't remember which issue, but after he learns of the death of the X-Men and breaks up with Amanda; apparently because he thought the only she loved him was to put him under a spell, he howls at the moon in grief.

And personally, I wouldn't mind a more demon-like Kurt, as long as they keep the swashbuckling and humor (looks like I gotta pick up back issues of "First Class"!)
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Post by Nikky G »

Yeah, I think it was writer Len Wein who wanted to make Nightcrawler dark, demonic, and brooding. Of course, that would have been the obvious thing to do given his appearance. So whenever Wein was writing, he acted all emo and evil such as in Giant Size X-Men #1 and the two Amazing Spiderman issues he appeared in (I can't remember which exactly). I'm glad Claremont and Cockrum decided to change that and made him the happy-go-lucky character we know and love.
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Post by Threetoe »

I wouldn't say Kurt acted evil, so much as just "beast-natured" right along with his physical mutations. I like Kurt all his portrayals. Just curious about this one.
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Post by Elfdame »

Slightly :offtopic (as usual for me, the Queen o' Thread Hijackers)
Okay, if I were gonna retcon and smooth over the discrepancies like icing on an imperfect cake, I'd kinda write it as if he had been alone a lot as a kid due to his unusual/frightening appearance, and that this made him a little more feral-acting. Similar to, say, a visually impaired person with "blindisms." You know, your teachers and parents always telling you not to rock, to turn your head the wrong way so you look right to sighted people when you are listening to them, etc etc etc. So maybe Kurt gave freer reign to his emotions because he spent so much time alone; then, when integrated into the society of the X-men, his true gregarious nature emerged.
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Post by The Drastic Spastic »

Threetoe wrote: Why would he be demonlike in behavior?
Because he's going to be brought back from the dead due to evil demonic influences. Only explanation needed really.

Can't wait!
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Post by Angelique »

The Drastic Spastic wrote:
Threetoe wrote: Why would he be demonlike in behavior?
Because he's going to be brought back from the dead due to evil demonic influences. Only explanation needed really.

Can't wait!
I hope you're being sarcastic. Bringing him back evil would be the ultimate in defecating on the character.
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Post by Ult_Sm86 »

I would agree it would be bad to make him evil, but to pit him against the X-Men for obvious reasons (X-Force) upon his return might be nice.
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Post by Angelique »

Ult_Sm86 wrote:I would agree it would be bad to make him evil, but to pit him against the X-Men for obvious reasons (X-Force) upon his return might be nice.
Agreed, and it would be logical. Of course, what would be logical is for Storm to do more than just laugh at Cyclops for his decisions, Wolverine to not go and do exactly what he knew Kurt wouldn't like, and for Cyclops to go ahead and smile on his way to jail.

But I digress.

Nightcrawler originally originally wasn't a pleasant character at all. He was still nonetheless a good guy, and to change that would be to alter one of the most fundamental aspects of his character.

When the character joined the X-Men and was further refined under Claremont's writing, that's when he became an example of the error in judging by appearances, Dave Cockrum's comic-book alter ego, and much more fun.
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