Character Analysis: Nightcrawler

 

In Case You Were Wondering…

Kurt’s immortality and banishment from heaven, which he gained in Amazing X-Men (2014) Issue #5, was a temporary ordeal that is no longer the case, with him having died and resurrected multiple times in Krakoa without it coming up. The exact reason for him losing it has yet to be explained, and the plot thread may or may not have simply been quietly dropped. Regardless, due to its temporary nature, it will not be included in this sheet.

Background

• Full Name: Kurt Wagner

• Height: 5’9” | 175 cm

• Weight: 161 lbs | 73 kg

• Son of Mystique & Azazel

• AKA: Nightcrawler, Kurt Szardos, Elf

• Member of X-Men, Excalibur, Catholic Church

• Likes: Errol Flynn, Star Wars, Mark of Zorro, baseball

The X-Men are a team known for fighting against oppression and hateful discrimination, but few embody those ideals more than Nightcrawler. Born the son of the teleporting Trigon wannabe Azazel and the shapeshifter Mystique, the infant Kurt Wagner was thrown into a river by his birth mother, abandoned and hated by humans from the start thanks to his blue skin and fur. Luckily for him, he was found and adopted by the Romani, Margali Szardos, a fortune teller from a traveling circus. She raised Kurt as her own, and as he grew he became a widely praised acrobat and circus performer thanks to his talents, eventually discovering his mutant power of teleportation during a performance with his adoptive sister.

Unfortunately, prejudice still followed Kurt wherever he went. Even when he was just six years old, his best friend Christian’s father called him a devil and a freak, beating his son for coming near Kurt and threatening to kill him if he did so again, causing Christian to break off their friendship. As he grew older, Kurt was forced to live with an ever-present truth: that no matter what he did and no matter how little he deserved it, some people would always hate him for no reason other than who he was. To endure these hardships, Kurt relied upon his religion, with devout Christianity serving as a guiding force throughout his life.

Years down the line, Kurt would find himself persecuted once again, either for the murder of his homicidal brother or by an abusive circus owner, depending on the comic. Hunted down by the local villagers, Kurt was saved at the last moment by mutant telepath Charles Xaver, who was seeking new additions to his mutant super team. Taking up his old stage name “Nightcrawler” as his new identity, Kurt vowed he would never again hide in the shadows, and put his talents to good use as a member of the new X-Men team.

However, the life of a superhero was not an easy one. No matter how hard Xavier and the X-Men fought for their dream of a peaceful, equal world, humanity hated the X-Men and mutant-kind as a whole. As time went on, Kurt found it harder and harder to ignore the resentment clawing away at his heart, and his growing desire to leave the team and live his life in peace, on his own. Even religion was an inconsistent comfort, as the X-Men’s encounter with god-like beings such as the Beyonder left Kurt questioning his own faith, unsure what to believe anymore.

But through it all, no matter how much doubt he might have felt, Kurt continued to persevere against adversity, reinforcing his belief in his own ideals. He formed a new superhero team called Excalibur, became a priest (for a while, kind of, it’s complicated), and for a while held a seat on Krakoa’s quiet council as one of the new leaders of mutant-kind. The world can beat him to the ground again and again, but Kurt will never stay there. Few mutants are more devoted to Xavier’s dream than Nightcrawler, and as long as his resolve remains, that dream will never be a fantasy.

Skill

Training & Experience

Nightcrawler was trained for combat as a member of the X-Men under Cyclops, for six hours a day five days a week. This has allowed him to refine his powers and combat aptitude greatly over the decades, and he is one of the X-Men’s longest lasting and most seasoned fighters, with sparring partners ranging from Wolverine to Deadpool and Spider-Man. He has developed specific counter-strategies to various enemies, such as learning how to deal with aerial opponents from Storm, and he has spent time as the X-Men’s field leader, along with teaching younger mutants how to use their powers.

It is also worth mentioning that his training under the X-Men includes some other specific miscellaneous things, such as learning from Charles Xavier how to protect his mind with psionic defenses, or being downloaded with knowledge of other languages.

Hand-to-Hand

Though not exactly one of Marvel’s top tier martial artists, Kurt is still adept at hand-to-hand combat in his own right, having held his own to varying extents with the likes of Wolverine, Sabretooth, Beast, and his mother Mystique. He could also take down a group of ninjas, and battle a weakened Sage hand-to-hand.

Swordsmanship

Inspired to become a “swashbuckler” by the Errol Flynn movies that he enjoys so much, Nightcrawler is trained in swordsmanship, capable of sparring evenly with the Starjammer Raza Longknife, and dueling a Skrull wielding 30 blades at once. He has similarly dueled his father Azazel in sword combat, as well as the Captain Britain Corps member Chevalier Bretagne, though ultimately lost in both instances. Thanks to his tail, Kurt can wield up to three swords at a time.

Agility & Acrobatics

Nightcrawler is a master acrobat, frequently employing massive leaps, flips and maneuvers in combat. His skill is the finest in all of Germany and described to exceed even the most skilled Olympic gymnasts, leading him to be regarded as potentially one of the best acrobats in the world. He is stated to be equally agile to other hyper-flexible heroes like Beast and Spider-Man, allowing him to do things like leap multiple stories high, and outmaneuver missiles without teleporting.

Dexterity & Flexibility

Complementing his acrobatics skills, Nightcrawler is also superhumanly flexible and dexterous. He can essentially fold his whole body into a pretzel with no visible discomfort, and balance himself on one finger effortlessly. In combat, this has allowed him to do things such as juggling Sebastian Shaw with his feet in lieu of hitting him.

Tactics

Given his years of experience, Nightcrawler is a gifted and experienced tactician who has spent time as the X-Men’s field leader. In combat, his typical tactic is to use his teleportation to strike his foe so hard and so quickly that they have no opportunity to respond. However, he has also employed other tactics, such as using his startling visage to his advantage in order to startle world-class mercenaries, or pretending to fight Gamora as part of an elaborate deception. His quick wits have allowed him to outsmart the Shadow King, defeating five X-Men under his control all by himself (pgs 7-19).

Arsenal

X-Men Uniform

Kurt’s uniform is typically the standard form-fitting attire worn by all the X-Men. Obtained by Professor Xavier from Reed Richards, they are composed of unstable molecules which adjust themselves where necessary to fit the wearer. Thanks to its composition, Kurt’s uniform is fireproof, bulletproof, and insulated, and some versions of it feature chain mail for additional defense.

Swords

Being the swashbuckler he is, Kurt frequently makes use of swords in combat, from cutlasses to longswords. He has been known to use three at once like a Zoro kinnie (the other one), and carry them around with him on his back. Guidebooks have also listed swords under his weapons, supporting the idea that they are a standard part of his arsenal.

Escrima Sticks

Though much more rarely than swords, Kurt has on one occasion used escrima sticks for close-ranged combat.

Image Inducer

Thanks to his startling visage, Kurt makes frequent use of a holographic image inducer to hide his appearance, disguising himself as a normal human when operating in public spaces. In some periods, however, he has chosen to forgo this because he does not wish to hide who he is.

Soulsword

NOTE: Non-Standard

For a while, Kurt was the owner of Illyana Rasputin’s Soulsword, a magic weapon that dispels enchantments and destroys magical beings. It generally is ineffective against entities who are not magical, though this is occasionally contradicted. It made Kurt younger while he was in possession of it, but it should be noted that he only actually used it a couple times during this time period, and only Illyana can actually draw out its full power. She eventually reclaims it.

Hopesword

A magic sword created from Kurt’s soul by his adopted mother, Margali Szardos, in an attempt to create “the strongest magic there is”. She created it by pulling it from his chest, rendering Kurt catatonic while it was separated from him, though he eventually was restored to normal upon reclaiming it. Afterward, Kurt is capable of conjuring the Hopesword from his soul at any time, summoning or storing it in his chest. Even being completely incinerated and resurrected through Krakoa’s protocols did not remove the weapon from his possession, as he still simply had it later. It is powerful enough to decapitate high-tier mutants like Legion.

Abilities

Mutant Physiology

Mutants are naturally stronger and smarter than normal humans, on top of an elevated metabolism and superior immune system, allowing them to handle extreme injuries more easily. Kurt is no exception, and his mutation also grants him several additional physiological benefits that aid him in combat.

First, he has three fingers on each hand and two toes on each foot. These can stick to surfaces in a similar manner to Spidey’s wall crawling, allowing Kurt to cling to walls and even walk on ceilings. The strength of this adhesion is great enough to cling to the outside of a plane trying to pitch him off. However, a sufficiently frictionless surface such as an oil-slicked wall can be harder or even impossible to cling to.

Second, he possesses a prehensile tail which in some ways functions like a third limb. As previously mentioned, he can use this to wield a third sword in addition to the two in his hands. It is strong enough to support his weight by wrapping around something, and rip out a chunk of a brick wall. It can also be used for, *cough*, other purposes.

third, he has sharp teef

Teleportation

Overview

Kurt’s trademark mutant ability, in which he disappears in a burst of fire and brimstone and reappears in another location, producing the iconic “BAMF” sound as a result of the air imploding in his previous location. The first few decades of Kurt’s history were basically an ongoing meme of writers being unable to decide whether this teleportation was instant or not, but eventually the ability was fleshed out more, with the current explanation being that when he teleports, Kurt folds space in order to momentarily enter another dimension, known as the Brimstone Dimension or Interspace depending on the comic, spending a moment there before instinctively navigating in order to reappear elsewhere in 3-dimensional space. This dimension connects to “all points on my Earth, and a few others as well”. Teleporters’ thoughts can manipulate the energies that form this unique juncture in space-time, and open small holes. However, if he strains his powers too much, he has the potential to end up trapped in transition.

This teleportation power has many specific rules in terms of what Kurt can and can’t do, and which things are easier than others. For starters, because his teleportation involves some vague interaction with Earth’s magnetic field lines, the direction in which he is teleporting affects the distance and difficulty with which he can do so. Specifically, near is easier than far, and north-south (along Earth’s magnetic lines of force) is easier than east-west (against them). Vertical is the most difficult and dangerous, with a vertical port in Kurt’s early years typically leaving him winded as though he just ran a triple marathon, though he has also done it on at least a couple occasions without visible strain.

Kurt’s teleportation is subject to the law of conservation of velocity. In other words, he maintains his velocity when he teleports, and as such, cannot do things like save himself from falling, because he will still be moving at the same speed after teleporting. Additionally, he can only teleport if he knows exactly where he is going, likely because if he does not, it is possible for him to accidentally teleport himself inside of objects, which would be a fatal error. His teleportation consistently requires concentration and a split second of time for him to initiate, with him having failed to teleport on various occasions due to being unable to concentrate, or attacked faster than he could react. However, it is worth acknowledging that he has managed to do so whilst injured, being electrocuted, or in extreme pain. He cannot teleport while blinded, though somehow can do so in his sleep. Because of the relationship between his teleportation and magnetic field lines, disrupting those magnetic field lines disrupts the ability.

In terms of range, as previously established, teleporting larger distances puts strain on Kurt’s body. Early on, he was able to complete a 7-mile trip within 3 jumps, about 2 and a third miles per jump, which he described as his limit at the time. Over time, his limit increased to 10 kilometers per port, and he gained the capacity to spam these long distance ports far more, allowing him to consecutively teleport non-stop across a large distance and end up barely winded by the end. This includes traversing 800 miles within a minute with consecutive jumps, and with an unknown number of ports, he was able to teleport from Dubai to Antarctica, as well as Prague to Egypt. With 1000 consecutive ports, he was able to transport Captain America to the North Pole quickly. In combat, consecutive ports serve him well, overwhelming multiple targets from multiple angles and frequently popping up at various spots across the battlefield so quickly that he appears in multiple places at once. His stamina is great enough to repeatedly teleport for two hours without getting tired.

Another important mechanic of Kurt’s teleportation to note, both from a combat and general sense, is the fact that teleporting with passengers increases the difficulty of the teleportation, depending on the number of people and how much each of them weigh. This even has the potential to tear Kurt and his passengers apart if he is not careful, and he frequently struggles to even teleport one or two people, but at his best he’s teleported up to 30 people at once. In terms of weight, he has teleported individuals as heavy as the Blob and the Green Scar, though had difficulty going very far. Bringing someone else along for the ride puts even more of a strain on the passenger than Kurt himself, so a common strategy of his in battle is to quickly teleport an opponent many times in quick succession, weaponizing the strain and leaving them feeling as though they have been pummeled by Wolverine’s metal-laced fists. However, a resilient enough opponent can withstand this effect, even if they have never encountered it before.

Kurt’s teleportation has various telegraphs which have led to people predicting his ports in the past. The disruptions that he creates in Earth’s magnetic field lines have been sensed by masters of magnetism like “guess who?”, and people with superhuman senses like Wolverine and Daredevil have shown to be capable of detecting the brimstone stench and atmospheric disruptions that occur a split second before Kurt’s arrival. Even people without special senses, such as Captain Britain’s wife Meggan, have managed to pick up on the scent specifically, as have skilled martial artists like Iron Fist. Nimrod’s advanced tracking systems were able to keep track of him as he teleported, as are telepathic sensory abilities. And sufficiently observant opponents like Wolverine and Sabretooth have managed to predict his movements and patterns through skill alone.

Telefragging

Likely Kurt’s deadliest ability, but a relatively lesser-used one thanks to his pesky “morals”, Kurt has the ability to teleport body parts off of other people, or teleport objects inside of their body, potentially insta-killing them with a devastating enough attack. When matter that Kurt teleports overlaps with other matter, the two masses merge together, which is naturally pretty fatal for a living thing. Kurt’s showings with this particular application include:

• Teleports off a portion of Magus’ body

• Rogue uses Kurt’s powers to teleport off Nimrod’s arm, though notes that the strain would have killed Kurt if he had tried it

• Teleports inside of solid rock, only survives because of Kitty’s phasing being active

• Implication that he would be capable of teleporting people’s heads off

• Threatens to teleport someone’s head off

• Teleports a chunk of debris inside a monster’s chest

• Teleports off an enemy’s helmet, implication that he could have done it to the full head

• Teleports himself onto Bastion’s arm, impaling himself

• Manages to teleport while impaled, taking Bastion’s arm with him, though dies immediately after

• While turned evil, nearly teleports off Sabretooth’s arm, but Creed pulls back in time to prevent it, so he only gets a few fingers

• Seemingly teleports a magic sword into Apocalypse’s chest? Though it’s also possible that he just teleported in and stabbed him at the same time

• Touching part of Nimrod’s head with his fingertips is sufficient to port away part of it, though the extent of what he removes seems to be dependent on the extent of the touch

Miscellaneous Teleportation Showings & Applications

• His teleportation is able to cause a rift in an energy field containing the X-Men, freeing Banshee, though it fails to free Kurt himself

• Teleports a mental projection that Jean Grey is sending toward him into the path of Cyclops’ eye beams (lol wtf)

• Teleports out of binding, says that no bonds can hold a teleporter

• An electro-static field is able to block his teleport

• Senses that an individual has teleported in an area after they do it

• Is forcibly teleported by Mephisto

• While turned evil, teleports a bunch of vehicles to drop them on Sabretooth

• While turned evil, teleporting in with a bunch of weapons and stabbing Sabretooth from all sides

Camouflage

Though only used very rarely, Kurt possesses the ability to become nearly invisible whilst in deep shadow, though he is still tangible and his eyes are still visible. Infra-red vision is still able to detect him while camouflaged. Amusingly enough, this ability is not actually the reason why he’s called Nightcrawler, it’s something he discovered much later by complete coincidence.

Feats

Overall

• Has saved thousands of lives

• Considered one of, if not the best acrobat in the world

• Finest in all of Germany

• Exceeding even the most skilled Olympic gymnasts

• One of the most recurring members of the X-Men

• Founding member of Excalibur

• Founding member of Krakoa & former member of its council

• Sparring partner and totally 100% platonic bestie of Wolverine

• Escaped from Heaven and got himself temp banned

• Defeated several alien opponents in a tournament without killing any of them

• Defeated Rachel Summers, Beast, Iceman, Colossus and Storm 1v6 (Psylocke was also there but he didn’t beat her) while they were under the Shadow King’s mind control, by outsmarting them/him (pgs 7-19)

• Teleported Phobos back into Mars’ orbit while amped by Fabian Cortez

• Defeated Mystique, Azazel, Margali Szardos, Shadow King

Strength

• Takes out Bird-Man, who was physically handling Cyclops

• Smashes a Sentinel’s head with a metal pole

• Given time, would be capable of tearing a steel door from its hinges

• Trades blows with Spider-Man, causing Peter to admit that he packs a punch, but is knocked away by Spidey’s strength and forced to run. Also rips out a chunk of a brick wall with his tail.

• A later encounter with Spidey strongly implies that Peter was holding back in this instance, and is actually significantly above Kurt

• Breaks a metal chain by pulling on it

• Defeats Mystique in hand to hand

• K.O.’s Mystique with a punch

• Contends with a shark man, Shagreen

• Punching a Dreadwing, a large bat-like creature

• Kicks through a wooden beam

• Restrains Marrow

• Staggers and then throws Broadside

• Snaps Wolverine’s neck

• EL BLIGHTSPOKE

• Kicks Karnak in the face, before trading blows with him a bit, though he admits that Karnak is a superior fighter

• Decapitates Trimega and K.O.’s Margali

• Fighting and overwhelming Azazel, who had previously defeated Beast

• Albeit, Kurt himself was stated to be physically weaker than Beast

• Beating up Sabretooth

• Trading blows with Mystique

• [Hopesword] Decapitates Legion

• (Outlier) Punches Mephisto and makes him bleed

• EL OMNIVERSAL COSMOLOGY

Speed

• Teleports from place to place faster than the eye can follow

• Dodges lightning that Dracula conjures down from the sky

• Reacts to Storm’s lightning and teleports away

• Reacts to and outpaces missiles without teleporting

• Dodging gunfire

• Repeatedly dodges a copied version of Cyclops’ Optic Blast

• Lightspeed statements for these optic blasts (1, 2)

• Bullet timing

• Teleports away from a point-blank energy blast

• Teleports away from a point-blank gunshot aimed at his head, after the gun is fired

• Teleports away from some bullets after they’re fired

• Dodging Cyclops’ optic blasts

• Bullet timing

• Ported 800 miles within a minute

• Reacts to an attack from Wolverine that was intended to kill him, and teleports away

• Holds his own against a robot duplicate of human Beast in close quarters combat, though is outpaced by his speed and agility, which he describes as unlike anything he’s ever seen before

• Claims he’s as fast and agile as Spider-Man, but Spidey retorts that this wouldn’t be true even on the best day of Kurt’s life. Spidey then webs him up, causing him to describe Spidey’s strength and speed as “unbelievable” and “awesome”.

• Reacts to attacks from X-23 and teleports away (though it’s stated later in the issue that X-23 is currently not as fast as Wolverine)

• Fighting and overwhelming Azazel

• Azazel had previously kept up with Beast and called him slow, before defeating him

• Moving too fast for Beast to count his strikes

• Beast can react within nanoseconds

• Wolverine says that Kurt is really fast and almost impossible to hit, then fails to hit him repeatedly

• Wolverine can cut Cyclops’ Optic Blasts in midair

Durability

• Has taken hits from various street tiers, though usually relies on evasion

• Some like Wolverine can OHKO him with a good hit

• Takes a hit strong enough to flatten a dozen men

• Survives half of a lab collapsing on top of him

• Takes a punch from Count Dracula, is stunned but conscious

• Survives getting punched into the air by a Skrull

• Survives a blast from Witchfire (might be an outlier, I’m not sure how strong she is)

• Survived being blasted by an endo-staff which phases through the body and disrupts bio-functions, though it knocks him out and he will be in pain when he wakes up. The staff is implied to be non-fatal in general.

• Survives a glancing blow from an enemy named Haus who is strong enough to shatter skyscrapers

• Haus could kill him with a direct hit, however

• Functional after being impaled through the shoulder

• Shrugging off a nut shot pretty well

Scaling

Kurt is on a relative level to characters like Wolverine and Sabretooth, albeit slightly weaker physically, though falls short of higher tier street levelers like Spidey. He is also notably fast by street level standards, consistently outspeeding characters like Wolverine and Beast, though not by such a massive margin that they cannot tag him. As such, in addition to the things already mentioned under feats, he would scale to the following:

Strength/Durability

• Deadpool survives an explosion that could have destroyed the Hoover Dam

• Wolverine takes a punch that sends him from New York to Georgia (the country)

• Deadpool survives an explosion that engulfs part of Krakoa

Speed

• Cyclops redirects his optic blast within a nanosecond

• Captain America moves his shield at the speed of light

• Daredevil can perceive nanosecond intervals

• Deadpool dodges Surge’s lightning blasts and Cyclops’ lightspeed optic blast

• Hawkeye and Black Panther dodge a girder within a microsecond

Weaknesses

Kurt’s teleportation has a lot of specific limitations and specifications that were previously covered in that section. Generally, he is also a specialist in speed rather than strength, tending to be overpowered more often than not when evasive tactics prove unsuccessful. Additionally, as alluded to before, he has a tendency to fall back on specific patterns with his teleportation, which a sufficiently familiar or savvy opponent can pick up on and predict.