Codename:
Nightcrawler
Real name: Kurt Wagner
Relatives: Raven
Darkholme (Mystique, mother), Margali Szardos (foster-mother), Amanda Sefton
(Daytripper, foster-sister), Stefan Szardos (foster-brother, deceased),
Graydon Creed (half-brother, deceased)
Past: Nightcrawler
has blue fur, yellow eyes, fangs and a prehensile tail. He has three fingers
and toes on each appendage and can stick to walls. He is a line-of-sight
teleporter and is also a master swordsman and acrobat (his boyhood - and
adult - idol is Errol Flynn). His teleportation, which smells of brimstone
and sulfur and makes his signature "BAMF!" noise, takes him through another
dimension, although he only actually saw it once. Generally, though, his
teleportation is instantaneous. The opening to the dimension travels with
Kurt at all times, distorting light and leaving him in shadow when it's
light out, and rendering him nearly invisible when he's in shadow. He also
has an infallible spatial awareness, which is necessary for him to teleport,
because if he does not judge distances accurately, he could end up teleporting
into solid matter, which could cripple or kill him. As a result, Kurt generally
only 'ports to places that he can see, or to those that he knows very well,
like his room in the Mansion.
Kurt spent his formative
years in a traveling carnival with his foster-mother and -sister, but then
left to explore the world. Unfortunately, due to his appearance he was
branded a demon, and was almost lynched by a mob when Professor X
saved him and recruited him into the new X-Men. Nightcrawler became a charter
member of the team, and soon learned to expand his abilities to carry first
objects with him and then other people. Unfortunately, people who travel
with him tend to get nauseous. Nightcrawler also learned to teleport multiple
times in few seconds, allowing him to attack foes from unexpected directions
with uncanny accuracy. On rare occasions, he could also teleport more than
one person at a time, but it strained him tremendously. Then, when the
Marauders attacked the Morlocks and the X-Men went to stop them, Kurt was
severely injured by Riptide and went into a coma. When he finally woke
up on Muir Island, it was to hear that the X-Men had died in battle with
the Adversary. Kurt also found that he could not teleport anymore, at least
not without life-threatening strain. However, Kurt still banded together
with Shadowcat, Phoenix II, Meggan and Captain Britain to form Excalibur,
based off the coast of England. Though the team was in theory led by Captain
Britain, Nightcrawler ended up being the defacto leader on many occasions.
Finally, after months with the team, Kurt regained his ability to teleport
during a battle in Limbo. Later, when Excalibur split up for "vacations"
and Kurt was home with a broken leg, he took in the members of the Technet
and trained them as the "N-Men." Then Excalibur returned and though Roma
revealed that Cap hadn't led the team because of a "blunder factor" she
had given him, Kurt remained the leader.
Eventually, though, Kurt
and the others discovered that the X-Men were indeed alive, and after Brian
and Meggan's wedding he and Colossus and Shadowcat returned to the States
to rejoin their friends. In the last six months, though, Kurt, who had
always been a devout Catholic, left the team to study to become a priest.
Unfortunately, he was ambushed and shot by the Neo, which led him to Dr.
Cecilia Reyes, who saved his life, and back to the X-Men team. Kurt flip-flopped
between his life as a priest-in-training and an X-Man for a while, even
going to Limbo to help his old flame Amanda Sefton (now Magik II) to fend
off a malignant evil that was threatening all of the realms of the underworld.
Still, he remained committed to both his faith and his friends. However,
when his best friend Colossus sacrificed his life to hose the cure for
the Legacy Virus, Kurt was shaken to the core. Unable to think rationally,
he went out (sans image inducer) and accosted some humans in Salem Center
before he realized what he was doing. Just as he fled into the shadows,
he was confronted by Sinister, who offered to make a clone of Peter for
Kurt, for a "small price" to be discussed later. Kurt refused, and smashed
the test tube with Peter's DNA in it. He then returned to the X-Mansion
and left a letter for Storm saying that he had to leave the team in order
to deal with his doubts about his life, his faith and God.
Not long after, however,
Kurt rejoined the team, though it appears he has completed his studies
and actually joined the preisthood as well.