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Nightcrawler (born Kurt Wagner) is a German mutant, a subspecies of humanity who are born with superhuman abilities, and a member of the X-Men, a team of mutant superheroes. His primary mutant powers are teleportation, invisibility in deep shadows, adhesive hands and feet, and superhuman physical abilities. His physical mutations include indigo-colored skin, three-fingered hands and two-toed feet, yellow eyes, pointed ears and a prehensile tail. A friendly, yet timid young man, Nightcrawler is a devout Catholic and pacifist, but will fight fiercely to protect those he loves. |  |
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He put it best. Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) is a teenage mutant, but unlike many other mutants, his mutation affected him physically: he looks like a blue demon. Obvious as day. Kurt was born with dark blue skin with an almost-velvet sheen to it and rich black hair and eyebrows. His coloring enables him to melt in and out of deep shadows with ease and makes it almost impossible to see him in the dark with unaided eyes. Unlike his comic counterpart, he lacks that very fine blue-black fur covering his body. He has rather striking amber/orange eyes: they fade to an olive color around his pupils and his irises are rimmed with red. Nightcrawler also has pronounced, fang-like canine teeth and pointed, elf-like ears, accenting his ādemonicā features. Combine those with his shadow-blending skin and he can unintentionally give people a start when they first see him (or a jump-scare if he approaches from the shadows). But his mutations donāt stop with just his face.
The contrast between his styled front and wild back gives Kurt a sense of mystery, cool, ruffled, and fun simultaneously.
Clothing-wise, Kurt bounces back and forth between casual clothes and his X-Man outfit. Casually, he prefers to wear long-sleeved, collared clothing, such as jackets, sweaters, button-up shirts, and polos, over t-shirts (and boy did he have an amazing shirt in the movie). Whether he leaves the collar up or down is dependent on how he feels at the time, but he generally veers towards collar up and tends to leave his outer-most clothing open to show the shirt underneath. His wardrobe often plays with blacks, reds, grays, and whites, though he avoids dark blues and yellows due to already having those colors associated with him via his skin and eyes.
His X-Man uniform has gone through two versions. His initial uniform was a military flight suit, consisting of an olive-and-black colored jumpsuit and pants covered with dark a d gray armor. Nightcrawlerās armor was akin to the rest of his team, consisting of guards on is arms, shoulders, chest, back, sides of his thighs, knees, and shins, and held securely in place with cloth-covered metal buckles and straps. Due to the nature of their battles, Nightcrawlerās uniform purposefully gave him as much ease of motion in his joints and limbs as possible, letting him use his acrobatics and fighting skills without being constrained by his armor.
Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) is a very friendly young man. He generally shuns the notion of avoiding people, or at least people he assumes or knows arenāt going to hurt him, and is quite eager to meet new people, make new acquaintances, and interact with others. While growing up in the circus provided him protection, it hedged the young mutant in and prevented him from being able to make any real bonds outside his surrogate family. After all, audiences never stuck around, and everyone who saw him assumed Nightcrawler was just an actor in costume.
Going hand and hand with his friendliness, Nightcrawlerās also a very polite and kind young man. Even though he interjects himself in Hank and Ravenās conversation, he only does so when thereās a long silence, not breaking into either of them talking. And since their talk was veering towards something somber, he amusingly sticks his introduction in to try and lighten the mood back up. At least he halfway succeeds in his attemptā¦ Kurtās not one to suffer a sad mood for too long if he can help it, even smiling when he was getting his picture taken for his passport (which is presumably of the underground smuggling sort). When he and the other younger X-Men were heading to fight Apocalypse and his horsemen, they were obviously scared (Jean Grey even admitted it and the otherās agreed). But when Quicksilver cracked a joke after Ravenās words, Kurt broke into a smile with the rest, relieved and comforted by the comradeship between his new friends.
Kurtās background fuels a mixture of amazement and excitement for getting to experience new things. Good things, in the positive sense, of course. He didnāt grow up in a very well-to-do environment, and his experiences in Germany were not always pleasant. As Jubilee gave him his tour and explained some of the daily functions of the school, he was utterly astounded by what he saw and expressed particular surpriseāāThey feed you here?āāthat the students got meals at the school. Heās used toāand expectingāhaving to wait for hours in line for a loaf of bread (something which was not a pleasant experience for an obvious mutant surrounded by humans). This comparison gave Jubilee a bit of a reality check, but Kurt didnāt dwell on it and just plowed ahead, excitedly mentioning this was his first time in American and how eager he was to learn about American culture.
A big part of Nightcrawlerās character is that heās rather out of touch and inexperienced with what many countries would consider āmodernā luxuries. For example, shortly after his arrival to the X-Mansion, Scott proposed skipping school for a trip to mall, and Kurt, intrigued, asked āWhatās a mall?ā Scott was completely dumbfounded by the new studentās lack of knowledge on modern American culture (no surprise for an American 80s teenager) and proceeded to half-teasingly harp on Nightcrawlerās inexperience until Jean intervened. Kurt wasnāt ruffled, since his curiosity was piqued, and he quickly resolved he wanted to go to try it out.
A slightly poignant episode in the otherwise cheery mall visit occurred when Kurt found himself staring in amazement at a wall of sneakers, stunned at the sheer variety of display of something everyone wore so casually, but he himself never had the luxury of owning, both due to his living circumstances and his physical mutations. When a salesman approached him and saw Kurtās expression and (after a glance down) the reality of the situation, he gave the young mutant a few pats on his shoulder (whether consoling, pitying, or reassuring, take your pick). What Nightcrawler experienced back in Germany was much the opposite, considering his reactions at the mall. Being discriminated against and being unable to live that ānormalā life made his upbringing very different and difficult.
Due to Kurtās aggregable nature, his friendliness, politeness, kindness, and excitement, hardly anyone dislikes or hates him, and he gets along well with most everyone he meets, bar his explicit enemies. His teammates have all shown ease with talking with him and they put trust in his abilities and comradeship. However, his character goes both good and bad for him. Nightcrawler is very protective of and loving to his friends, does his best to be helpful to them, and is a very brave hero in battle when necessary, willing to put himself on the line to save his companions. However, heās also vulnerable and timid in the face of aggressive and threatening situations, as he instinctively fears being trapped and is a pacifist who doesnāt want to see conflict.
As Scott, Jean, and Kurt explored Strykerās base at Alkali Lake, the teleporter tried to help and protect his new friends whenever he could, from teleporting past doors, snooping through various locations in the building, and quickly jumping them to safety once they were discovered and shot at. He had to rely on Scottās quick thinking and Jeanās telepathy to move through the building and block them from guards respectively, proving himself to be a good teammate right from the start. By the time he found and helped free Raven and the others, Kurt had become embroiled in the war between the X-Men and Apocalypse for the future of humanity. Despite the way mutants had been treated by humans, Nightcrawler chose to protect humanity so that no one else had to suffer. And all this on his first day in America.
Despite his bravery during battle and actions for his friends, Kurtās experiences in the past, combined with his gentle nature, leave him rather timid and vulnerable at times. He greatly despises violence and aggression and does his best to avoid it. After being abducted from his circus home, Nightcrawler was chained up inside a small, electrified box and later forced to compete unwillingly in a mutant cage fight against Angel for the enjoyment of human crowds. He was visibly terrified when thrown from his box, both from the jeering crowds and the oppressive atmosphere shining down on him. Shaking as he got up, Kurt quickly teleported away when Angel attacked him, not wanting to fight. However, since the electrified cage blocked his ability to teleport outside its confines, he ended up repeatedly shocking himself while frantically trying to escape, much to the amusement of the crowd.
Generally, Nightcrawlerās first response to almost anything surprising is to vanish, even if he doesnāt really know whatās attacking him in the first place, probably a result of some trauma when he was younger back in Germany. In a more light-hearted example, when Quicksilver played a prank on Kurt and a group of students in one of the common rooms, the result ended up with apples raining down on the blue mutant from out of nowhere. Freaked, he instantly teleported himself onto the ceilingās chandelier, anywhere to get away from whatever was pelting him. (And no, he wasnāt too happy about finding out the reason for it either, though he calmed down quickly enough.) Similarly, though he teleported them into the helicopter at Scottās request, once the doors shut and locked them in, Kurt was distraught at realizing he couldnāt teleport his friends back out through the fields. Because of this, he sometimes comes across as ājumpyā to his friends when sudden things happen, though heās usually quick to forgive them if they prank him for it.
All this might make Kurt out to be a āgoody-goodyā of sorts, and admittedly he is for the most part. A lot of people even describe him as āinnocentā due to his inexperience and friendly kindness. He tries to get along with people, follow the rules, and not make waves. Unlike to his prank-and-adventure-loving comic counterpart, Nightcrawlerās not much of a trickster and prefers to stay where itās calm. However, heās all for trying new things and having fun, seen when he agreed to go on the mall trip and the eager amazement he expressed during his tour of the X-Mansion. Plus, heās not such an angel that he wonāt break some rules.
Sometimes, his naivety and jumpy nature can get the better of him, leading to his confusion or surprise when other students tease him or play pranks. The occasional encouragement can get him to join in, but normally Kurt prefers to keep to the friendly side of things and not really antagonize anyone. While heās quick to forgive his friends for any shenanigans, Nightcrawlerās not above irritation when a joke goes too far. When Quicksilver interfered with the electronics in a roomful of students (to impress a lady friend), he found his image gallery replaced by a mischievous selfie of Peter, among the rest of the benign mayhem settling around the room. This promptly earned a fierce glare and angry snarl from the irked teleporter, before he resignedly accepted the fact with a shake of his head.
Among his more ironic character traits, Nightcrawler is an extremely religious young man. Whether he was protected by a priest or found refuge in a church is unknown, but he became a devout Catholic at some point during his youth in Germany. Kurt isnāt shy about his religion and is vocal about his faith. When he and the other X-Men were trapped in the helicopter with their kidnapped friends, Nightcrawler unashamedly prayed to God, asking Him to watch over and protect them during their trials.
He believes bigoted humans are unfortunate not to understand what they see with their eyes and normally attests that humans are afraid of what they donāt understand, expressing pity rather than anger for those who hate mutants. Similarly, he is horrified by brutality, seen when he came across a room full of bloodied bodies. Disturbed and hurt by the sight, Kurt briefly covered his mouth and froze at the door, but upon recovering from his shock, he took a moment to respect the dead and crossed himself while silently praying for them and their families.
The main power heās known for, Kurt can āpsionicallyā teleport himself, his clothing, and a certain amount of additional mass in contact with him across great distances from one point to another virtually instantaneously. Although he controls his teleportation ability with his conscious mind, his power to teleport is not literally psionic; rather it is the result of an unknown biochemical/biophysical reaction which he triggers mentally. When he teleports, or ājumpsā, Kurt displaces himself briefly through an alternate dimension and then reappears from it in a consciously pre-determined location. As he travels through this dimension, he guides himself via a subconscious, natural direction-finding sense.
Kurt possesses some degree of control over whether he teleports whateverās in contact with him when he jumps. He was shown teleporting his teammates multiple times, but not the ground (or jet) they were standing on. During these jumps, he teleported their clothes and one point, a medical kit Jean was holding, suggesting that he chooses what comes with him when he teleports. Conversely, when he and Raven were fleeing the fight club, a guard grabbed them right before Nightcrawler teleported, and the guard was brought along as well, surprising Kurt. Later, when Angel grabbed his tail, he frantically teleported several times to escape, but always took Angel with him since he was still holding onto his tail. This suggest that so long as someone is in physical contact with Nightcrawler, they will be teleported with him, treating both people as āone mass,ā but items touching him before a teleport may or may not come along for the ride depending on his concentration.
Normally, Kurt only teleports to places that he can currently see clearly, or places he is familiar with or has seen in the past. This is because thereās a very real risk of telefragging, or reappearing within a solid object. For example, if he teleported into a place where a pipe was occupying the same space as his reappearing leg, he would end up with the pipe impaled through his leg, an event that happened to him when he was child just discovering his abilities. Worse cases of telefragging would cause severe injury or even death.
Kurt has a limited ability to blend into dark shadow due to the color of his skin and hair. The dimension he travels through when teleporting also has some addition to this, be it remnants of the portal always lingering around his body absorbing photons or just his general connection to the light-bending attributes of the dimension. For clarity, ādark shadowā would be akin to an unlit room across the hall, not the shade of a tree outside. When heās hidden in the darkness, making him out is almost impossible even if heās moving, as his clothes also adapt this camouflage.
Nightcrawler was born with a long, prehensile tail, approximately 4 ft (1.2 m), which allows him to grab onto objects with ease, akin to a whip or snake. Since he was born with it, Kurt grew up with it as part of his biology and utilizes it as deftly and instinctively as he uses his arms and legs. Even though heās quite conscious about where his tail is in relation to himself and others, sometimes (like anyoneās arms or legs) he can whack someone with it on accident when passing by. His tail is surprisingly strong, able to not only support his body weight, but also lift an adult human completely off the ground at the same time. Nightcrawler can use his tail as a brace and lean against it to support himself, as a tether to catch onto something and either anchor himself with it or hang from it, and can even spin on his tail like a dance move.
While Nightcrawler can be found dangling from his tail or using it to hold onto an anchor point, he can also cling to solid surfaces, such as walls and ceilings, via his hands and feet. Kurt was born with microscopic suction discs covering the surfaces of his hands and feet, enabling him to stick to objects on instinct and release them with the same ease. This ability enables him to scale the sides of buildings, crawl across ceilings, and support himself on otherwise ill-suited structures due to not having to lock his entire body weight onto one point. It also makes it easier for him to grip things in his hands and feet, thus making it harder for an opponent to yank something from his grasp.
Apart from his tail and the adhesive surfaces of his hands and feet, Nightcrawlerās mutations have granted him unique physiology and several superhuman physical abilities. He developed these abilities through his time at the circus and is now honing through training with the X-Men. Nightcrawler's agility, balance, coordination, dexterity, endurance, flexibility, reflexes, resilience, speed, and stamina are all enhanced to levels well beyond the human body's natural limits. Notably, although Kurtās teleportation can be blocked or inhibited via different superhuman/natural or technological methods (sometimes called getting ādepoweredā), his superhuman physical mutations, including his tail and surface adhesion, arenāt so easily suppressed and remain with him even if depowered, bar severe biochemical breakdown or disruptions of his mutant genes.
Growing up in a circus, Nightcrawler was able to use his naturally-gifted body and athleticism to become an extremely-talented acrobat and contortionist. Because of his flexibility, coordination, and other heightened traits, Kurt was trained to entertain the audience with daring feats of gymnastics and agility. Eventually becoming a gifted performer and showman, he did both solo acts and group acts with other circus members. In his solo acts, he contended with challenging obstacle courses, containing apparatuses like hoops to jump through, poles to balance on, ropes to ascend upside down or descend head first, cages to maneuver through, and pillars to jump between. His group acts included trapeze artistry, tightrope walking, ball balancing, leaping through rings of fire, and dodging throwing knives.
Despite his pacifistic and timid side, Nightcrawler is an ironically talented fighter and skilled hand-to-hand combatant who can easily hold his own against most adversaries. Though he was somewhat safe from mutant hatred while he grew up in the circus, Kurt experienced enough persecution from instances outside the circus that he began to instinctively combine his acrobatic expertise and his mutant powers into an effective self-defense martial art practice. Normally, he refuses to fight unless itās absolutely necessary, usually to protect himself or someone else. But when he does, heās a fearsome opponent with both courage and aggression fueling his actions.
Kurt often uses his tail in battleāboth the length and the tipāin conjunction with his teleporting and other limbs, as seen during both his battles with Angel. During their fight, Nightcrawler caught the winged mutant off guard by teleporting behind him, wrapped his tail around his neck, and pulled Angel off his feet into a teleported slam against the electrified cage. During his second battle, when Angel got the drop on him, Kurt again teleported behind him and attempted toāsurprisinglyāstab Angel in the face with his tailās tip (or catch him by the neck again), but the Horseman caught his tail before he could strike him.
Though unexplained as to how, if Kurt is caught in an electric field, it hinders his teleportation by limiting it to the volume of the space heās in and makes it impossible for him to pass through the electrified field. This was most obvious during his cage fight with Angel in Germany. The cage itself was electrified and even though Kurt could teleport freely within the confines of the cage, if he tried to teleport past the electrified metal, he was instantly dragged out of his teleport and reappeared against the walls of the cage, receiving a painful electric shock for his efforts. Considering he couldnāt escape through the ceiling or through the base of the cage, itās assumed these surfaces were electrified as well. Similarly, after he teleported into the open helicopter with Jean and Scott, once the doors shut, it formed a cage that was electrified with the flip of a switch and Kurt panicked, realizing he couldnāt escape with his friends from the confines, likening it to Berlin all over again. Once the electric field is shut off or broken, however, he can teleport through the walls or gap respectively and escape.
Kurtās teleportation, despite its great utility, naturally puts a strain on his body. Teleporting is an action for him just like moving an arm or running around; It takes some of his energy and stamina to trigger each jump and minute amounts continue to leak out throughout the process, akin to someone using air to hold a long note or using stamina to continue running. Eventually heāll run out and automatically reappear regardless of whether he wants to or not, which can be potentially very dangerous for him. While he has a natural resilience to the strain of it, heās not immune; teleportation still places a strain on his body and he has to train himself to be able to use his powers to greater degrees.