Nightcrawler (character)

Kurt Wagner Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler, as depicted in X-Men: Red #2 (March 2018). Art by Travis Charest.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975)
Created by	Len Wein (writer) Dave Cockrum (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Kurt Wagner
Species	Human mutant
Place of origin	Bavaria, Germany
Team affiliations	X-Men Excalibur Quiet Council of Krakoa
Notable aliases	As Uncanny Spider-Man: Spinnenmann Creepy Crawler
Abilities	Teleportation Enhanced agility, flexibility, and night vision Prehensile tail Ability to cling to surfaces Camouflage in shadows Superb acrobat, fencer, and hand-to-hand combatant

Nightcrawler is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, he debuted in the comic book Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975).^[1] By the time of his creation, there was already another Marvel character with the same name, but with a hyphen (Night-Crawler), which was later changed to Dark-Crawler to avoid confusion.^[2]

Nightcrawler, the superhero identity of Kurt Wagner, is a member of a fictional subspecies of humanity known as mutants, who possess an X-gene that can cause possible physical mutations and in many cases grants some form of superhuman ability. Nightcrawler possesses superhuman agility, the ability to teleport, and adhesive hands and feet. His physical mutations include indigo-colored velvety fur which allows him to become nearly invisible in shadows, two-toed feet and three-fingered hands, yellow eyes, pointed ears, and a prehensile tail. In Nightcrawler's earlier comic book appearances, he is depicted as being a happy-go-lucky practical joker and teaser, and a fan of swashbuckling fiction. Nightcrawler is a Catholic, and while this is not emphasized as much in his earlier comic book appearances, in later depictions he is more vocal about his faith. He was originally stated to be from a small village called Witzeldorf in the German state of Bavaria.^[3]

In 1994, it was revealed that Nightcrawler was the son of mutant supervillain Mystique / Raven Darkhölme, and for many years after a 2003 storyline, it was believed that he was born out of her short affair with Azazel. However, 2023's X-Men Blue: Origins revealed that his parents were actually Mystique and her wife Destiny / Irene Adler; Mystique having shapeshifted into a male form to conceive him, with Destiny being the one who experienced the pregnancy and gave birth to him.

Since his inception, Nightcrawler has had a regular presence in Marvel comic books. He has been featured in many video games, and a small number of the 1990s X-Men animated series episodes and was a regular on its successors, X-Men: Evolution and Wolverine and the X-Men. He was portrayed by Alan Cumming in the feature film X2 (2003), while Kodi Smit-McPhee played a younger version of Nightcrawler in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Deadpool 2 (2018) and Dark Phoenix (2019).