Comic Book Legends Revealed #549

Welcome to the five hundred and forty-ninth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the first five hundred (I actually haven't been able to update it in a while). This week, was Nightcrawler nearly Jewish? Was Nightcrawler nearly an Avenger? Finally, was Nightcrawler nearly Sabretooth's son?

Let's begin!

NOTE: The column is on three pages, a page for each legend. There's a little "next" button on the top of the page and the bottom of the page to take you to the next page (and you can navigate between each page by just clicking on the little 1, 2 and 3 on the top and the bottom, as well).

COMIC LEGEND: Nightcrawler was nearly going to be Jewish.

STATUS: True

Last week, I featured a piece about how the X-Men's ships kept getting destroyed.

One of the sequences was from X-Men #135, by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin...

Notice Nightcrawler's comments on the last page, where he essentially says "Oh vey."

Our pal G. Kendall, who is writing the Guide to the Guide to Comics feature on this very site, commented on the piece to note that that is likely a reference to the fact that, at the time, Claremont had been fighting to have Nightcrawler revealed to be Jewish.

As it turns out, that was exactly the case. John Byrne and then-X-Men editor Roger Stern fought him on the concept, arguing that Jews in Germany around Nightcrawler's age were relatively uncommon at the time, but more importantly, they had already established that he was of Gypsy descent, so wasn't that already interesting enough?

Claremont let it go at the time, but kept wanting to pursue a religious angle on Nightcrawler, and when Byrne left (Stern had left even earlier), it seemed like he had his chance. The only problem was that the next artist on the book was Dave Cockrum, Nightcrawler's creator, and Cockrum was even MORE against the idea of Nightcrawler being religious!

Cockrum explained on the Nightcrawlers forum before he passed away:

I tried to talk Chris oiut of the religious angle before he actually started it. I originally pressed for the swashbuckling persona, because that reflected my personality, and I felt that Kurt represented ME in the book. When it comes to religion, I'm a non-participant. I feel that I have no answers and I don't believe that anybody else does either.

Note that it was during a fill-in issue by Bill Sienkiewicz (Uncanny X-Men #159) that we got our first official proof that Nightcrawler was religious...

But that it was not until Cockrum was off the book that Nightcrawler was given a specific religion.

Cockrum later mentioned on the Nightcrawlers forum in reference to Claremont later making Kurt a priest:

I didn't approve when Chris Claremont turned him toward the religious business, but by that time I was off the book and didn't have any say any more. I hated the whole priest business, both because it offends my personal beliefs, and because storywise, it won't work. A potential priest has to spend years in a theological seminary first. When did Kurt have the opportunity? And is there anyone out there who believes the Catholic Churh would ordain someone who looks like Kurt?

Thanks to G. Kendall for the suggestion and thanks to Dave Cockrum and John Byrne (and the Nightcrawlers forum) for the information!

Check out some entertainment and sports legends from this week at Legends Revealed:

Was Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Re-Tooled Because Belle Wasn’t Enough of a Feminist?

Which U.S. President Was on the Cover of Cosmopolitan as a Male Model?

Did a Nude Stripper Appear on Soupy Sales’ Kids Show?

Is the Peter Gabriel Song “Sledgehammer” About Sex?

COMIC LEGEND: Dan Slott tried to get Nightcrawler to become an Avenger.

STATUS: True

Dan Slott's Mighty Avengers had a very clever lineup that was meant to evoke the early days of the Avengers (Hercules in place of Thor, USAgent in place of Captain America, Hank Pym Wasp in place of Jan Van Dyne Wasp, Stature in place of Ant-Man, etc.)...

However, originally, he actually looked into having Nightcrawler join the Avengers!! At the time, Nightcrawler was a bit of a background character in Uncanny X-Men (nearly all the mutants in the world were all on one island at the time, so the X-Men had a biiiiiiig lineup).

The topic came up with CBR's own Kiel Phegley in an interview with Joe Quesada:

Kiel Phegley: We had a few questions about the status of Nightcrawler pop up on the boards, and I wanted to start things off with Andyb, who had an interesting query about franchises crossing over. "Having had the chance to speak with Dan Slott in Chicago, he advised me that he had tried to get Nightcrawler on his Mighty Avengers team but that Matt Fraction wouldn't give the character up. I know certain characters are put into families such as the X-men or Avengers but what is the policy for letting other writers use them. I remember Kurt Busiek wanting to use the Beast in his Avengers but his being denied since Beast was consider an X-men. Currently in Uncanny, Nightcrawler is a background character who does not get much panel time in an overcrowded book where in Mighty he'd most likely have a more prominent role and perhaps a bring a few X-fans into the book. Shouldn't a writer's plans for a character supersede the idea that a character is a X-character or an Avenger?"

Joe Quesada: Well, at Marvel the way it works is simple. Certain characters belong to certain character families. This of course doesn't mean that they can't cross over into others, but to do that the editor and creators of the title that would like to use the character from a different family group need to check with the editor and creators of that character. The reason for this is that they may have plans for the character and placing him or her in certain titles, stories or situations would conflict with those plans.

For example, back when Brand New Day started, Steve Wacker and the Spider-Man creators, of which Dan was one, asked that there be a moratorium on classic Spidey villains in other Marvel books. The reason for this was because they were appearing in so many titles, that they were losing their impact and the Spider titles were suffering because of that. I agreed with this logic as the plan was to let some time pass and then allow the Spider group to revamp and reintroduce the villain heavy-hitters. So, as you can see, there are numerous reasons that can prevent a character from being borrowed.

But, the honest truth is that, more often than not, the answer to character borrowing is "yes." Take a look across the Marvel U and you'll see that there are characters from different families crossing into different titles all the time.

Slott, for his part, clarified the story later on on the old CBR forums, noting:

I just want to clear some air here on the whole Nightcrawler/Mighty Avengers issue. There's no bad guy here (outside of ME saying something to a fan that could have been interpreted the way it has).

When I was asked to write Mighty Avengers I had to put together a roster for the book. I had a wish list for a LOT of characters-- and I made a LOT of calls to a LOT creators asking if I could snatch up some guys from their rosters.

Matt was just one of MANY guys I called. Nightcrawler was just one of MANY characters I asked about. Matt, was very gracious, he offered up some ideas for characters he could offer up and characters that I should've pursued.

Joe's answer to this was on the nose. When Spider-Man editorial said they wanted to put a moratorium on Spider-Man villains appearing elsewhere-- I guarantee you, I was the first person to chime in with a resounding "Yes!" Like they say, "What's good for the goose is good for the gander."

The give and take of when/how/where characters show up is important to the way these characters are portrayed and managed in the mighty Marvel tapestry. And there's a lot of thought and reason behind it. It's not my right or privilege to use/take/borrow any Marvel character from any other Marvel creator or Marvel office willy-nilly. More importantly, it shouldn't be my place to air any of that in public-- even if it's to say to a fan at a show "I asked if I could use this character from that guy's book, but he had other plans."

So on that count I am VERY sorry for my part in making this a bigger issue than it ever should be.

Awesome information and insight from Dan and Joe!

Thanks to them both, and Kiel, as well, of course!

Check out my latest TV Legends Revealed at Spinoff Online: Why did the Brady Bunch have a doghouse but no dog? The answer is sad and weird, all at the same time.

COMIC LEGEND: Scott Lobdell initially intended to reveal that Sabretooth was Nightcrawler's father in X-Men Unlimited #4.

STATUS: I'm Going With False

In one of the most maligned X-Men issues of all-time, X-Men Unlimited #4, writer Scott Lobdell revealed that Mystique was Nightcrawler's mother...

Reader Justin wrote in to ask if there was ever an intent to have Sabretooth also revealed as Nightcrawler's father at the time.

It does not appear so to me, no. Scott Lobdell talked a lot about X-Men Unlimited #4 at the time on the various usenet groups of the time, and he made it pretty clear that his only real assignment with the reveal was to finally wrap up the whole "Mystique as Nightcrawler's parent" dangler, which had been promised to be resolved in an Excalibur storyline that never happened since Claremont left that book.

Lobdell knew of Claremont's plans for Mystique to Nightcrawler's DAD, but noted:

It was always Chris’ plan that Mystique and Irene Adler (Destiny) were lovers, and that Mystique at one point had transformed into a man and impregnated Destiny and she gave birth to Nightcrawler. So Mystique and Destiny were actually Nightcrawler’s father and mother.

The likelihood of either A, Mystique growing genitals with sperm that had a DNA-code, or B, Mystique being a guy who was perpetually in the body of a woman, I thought was pretty slim.

Now, during Age of Apocalypse, Warren Ellis hinted at a Sabretooth connection to Nightcrawler...

so perhaps later on there was meant to be something (I'll check with Warren), but not with X-Men Unlimited #4.

Thanks for the suggestion, Justin!

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com. And my Twitter feed is http://twitter.com/brian_cronin, so you can ask me legends there, as well!

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