Kurt Wagner, the German-born mutant named Nightcrawler, first appeared in Giant-Sized X-Men #1 in 1975. He was created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. Nightcrawler began as a more roguish, swashbuckling and fun-loving character but has turned into a more serious and spiritually devout man.

RELAED: Feeling Blue: 10 Things About Nightcrawler That The X-Men Movies Got Completely Wrong

Cockrum originally had the idea for the character as a demon who messed up on a mission from Hell and rather than face the consequences, decided to stay on Earth. Cockrum presented him as a potential member for the Legion of Super-Heroes but DC rejected him. When Marvel hired Cockrum to create a new team of X-Men, the character found a new home.

10 Hidden Parentage

For years, Nightcrawler thought he was saved from the river and raised by gypsy sorceress Margali Szardos. Later, Wagner found out that his birth mother was long-time X-Men villain Mystique. She had been impersonating a noblewoman and married Baron Christian Wagner. The pain of the difficult delivery caused Mystique to change to her true form. She was chased by frightened villagers and threw the child off a cliff.

Wagner’s biological father was the Neyaphem Azazel. Mystique had an affair with Azazel and he teleported in to catch the baby when Mystique threw him over the cliff. Azazel gave the baby to his other lover Margali to raise and to keep his true origins from him.

9 Circus Life

Margali Szardos was a Romani sorceress that worked as a fortuneteller in the Herr Getmann’s Traveling Menagerie. She raised the baby Kurt with her two biological children, Stephan and Jimaine. Kurt loved growing up among the circus folk, who accepted his looks. His agility and flexibility grew and he became a talented trapeze artist. The crowd assumed he was wearing a costume.

RELATED: 10 X-Men With Powers Nobody Understands, Finally Explained

A Texas businessman bought the circus and wanted to move Kurt to the freak show. Kurt angrily quit. Stephan succumbed to his evil heritage and Kurt was forced to fulfill the childhood promise he had made to his “brother” to kill him. Townspeople believed Nightcrawler was a demon and behind the recent child killings that Stephan had done and chased him. They were about to strike before Professor Charles Xavier saved him.

8 The New X-Men

Xavier recruited Nightcrawler, Banshee, Colossus, Storm, Sunfire, and Thunderbird to rescue the original team from the mutant island Krakoa. After they succeeded, most of the original team retired and the new team began to gel together through sessions in the Danger Room. Personality clashes were frequent, usually with the gruff and violent Wolverine.

The team went to Washington D.C. after their newest member, Kitty Pryde was taken over by her alternate future self. They hoped to stop the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants that would trigger the dystopic timeline that Kate Pryde was from. During the battle, Nightcrawler noticed his similarity to Mystique, who disappeared without explaining.

7 Drinking Buddies

Nightcrawler grew especially close to Wolverine over time. They became drinking buddies, with the “Elf” usually having to buy the beer after losing some bet to the Canadian hero. Nightcrawler learned that Wolverine’s name was “Logan” when the pair went to Canada to smooth out Wolverine’s relationship with Alpha Flight after his abrupt departure to join the X-Men and the pair battled a Wendigo together.

RELATED: 10 Times Wolverine & Nightcrawler Were Totally The Odd Couple

Wolverine also encouraged Nightcrawler to abandon the image inducer that covered him in a hologram to make him “look human.” Wolverine challenged Nightcrawler to walk through Salem Center as himself. To Nightcrawler’s surprise, he only drew mild curiosity.

6 Excalibur

After suffering injuries while battling the Marauders, Nightcrawler and Shadowcat were rehabilitating on Muir Island. There, they heard that their fellow X-Men had died while battling the Adversary in Dallas. Rachel Summers was being pursued by Gatecrasher and the Technet and was telepathically trying to reach them. Together with Captain Britain and Meggan Puceanu, the trio formed the British team, Excalibur.

The team had one strange adventure after another, battling Mojo’s War Wolves, Captain Britain’s ex-girlfriend Courtney Ross and her alternate reality counterpart Saturnyne and the Crazy Gang. They also found themselves tripping through multiple realities and gaining new members along the way, including former X-Man Colossus.

5 The X, Divided

The death of Professor Xavier at the hands of Cyclops tore the X-Men apart but close friends Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Colossus stuck went to Europe. While they were traveling, Kurt and Logan got into a prank war. Wolverine’s best prank was to mess with Kurt’s image inducer to make him look like Angelina Jolie.

RELAED: 5 Reasons The X-Men Are Marvel's Most Important Team (& 5 Reasons It's The Avengers)

After stopping in Russia to visit the graves of Peter’s family, they stopped in a bar and were attacked by robots from the Red Room. They are captured and taken to a room where Wolverine is strapped to a machine. Colossus is restrained and told that Wolverine will be shocked if he does not explain why the X-Men survived M-Day when Russian mutants were mostly depowered. Nightcrawler was brought out and they threatened to kill him if Peter didn’t talk. Peter again refused and Nightcrawler teleported to Wolverine just as they are being shocked, shorting out the machine. Wolverine defeated their captors and Nightcrawler defeated Omega Red by teleporting him high in the air and dropped him.

4 The Death of Nightcrawler

The first mutant born after M-Day, teenaged Hope Summers and Cable had returned from the future. Cyclops sent a team out to bring her safely back to the X-Men’s island Utopia. Finding them in Nevada, they were engaged in battle with the advanced sentinel hybrid Bastion.

Over the course of the battle, Rogue was badly wounded. Bastion was about to attack Hope but Nightcrawler teleported between them. Bastion’s arm went through Nightcrawler’s chest. The devout hero prayed to God for the power to teleport one more time with Hope to Utopia before he died. His death devastated his teammates, especially Wolverine and Colossus.

3 Resurrected with a Catch

As a devout Catholic and a morally good man, Nightcrawler ascended to Heaven. While he was at peace, he sat alone on the “edge” of Heaven. Kurt was overwhelmed with the feeling that there were things left for him to do. His contemplation was broken by the smell of brimstone when his father Azazel appeared before him.

RELATED: Marvel: 10 Biggest Changes To The X-Men This Decade

Azazel used his connection to Kurt to enter Heaven and had planned an attack. Kurt opposed him and was losing until the X-Men arrived. The team beat Azazel, with the help of the spirit of Charles Xavier, and brought Kurt back to the land of the living. However, now that he had left paradise willingly, he could not return and was now effectively immortal.

2 Nightcrawler and the Bamfs

Nightcrawler had an interesting relationship with the Bamfs. The Bamfs were initially part of Kitty Pryde’s fairy tale to Illyana, Colossus’ little sister. When Nightcrawler and Lockheed were drawn into the Well at the Center of Time, he found out that there was a race of Bamfs, both male and female, and that there were both friendly and malevolent Bamfs.

Later, the Bamfs were an infestation at the Jean Grey School, destroying Beast’s equipment and getting into Wolverine’s whiskey and Kung Fu movies. These Bamfs augmented Kurt’s powers, allowing him to teleport further, more often and into places he had never been. It was discovered that they came to the school to provide the X-Men with a portal to the afterlife and they now see Nightcrawler as their leader.

1 Life on Krakoa

Most of the mutant population had been moved to the Island Nation of Krakoa and old rivalries were put aside. A “Quiet Council” was formed featuring several old foes and X-Men, along with Xavier and Magneto, who with the hidden Moira X, are the architects of this new Mutant Nation. Nightcrawler has a seat on the Council.

Nightcrawler was a member of the team that destroyed the Master Mold by sending it into the Sun, All of them were killed on this mission, were resurrected by the Five and were revered as Heroes of Krakoa. Recent events have made Nightcrawler consider creating a “Mutant Religion.”

NEXT: X-Men: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Nightcrawler