parent nodes: Excalibur | Hero List | Kitty Pryde | Kurt Wagner | Nightcrawler | Where Every Hero is At
Kurt Wagner is a demonic-looking mutant with teleporting abilities, being known as the soft-hearted X-Man Nightcrawler. Found and raised by the Romani witch Margali Szardos, he lived a happy childhood despite his devilish appearance, performing as a trapeze artist in the carnival alongside his adoptive siblings Jimaine and Stefan. After Stefan became a vile mass-murderer in Winzeldorf, Kurt unintentionally executed his own brother. Their conflict caught the attention of a mob, who believed Kurt to be a murderous demon and decided to hunt and lynch him. Kurt was ultimately saved by Logan, who invited him to join him at the Xavier Institute.
Powers
Teleportation
Ability to teleport himself, the clothes he is wearing, and within limits a certain amount of additional mass which is in contact with him. He teleports by displacing himself into the Brimstone Dimension, traveling through it, and then returning to his own dimension at a certain distance from his point of departure. He consciously determines his point of return. The entire process occurs so quickly that Nightcrawler is unaware of being in the Brimstone Dimension at all. Nightcrawler guides himself through the Brimstone Dimension by a subconscious, natural direction-finding sense. Although Nightcrawler controls his teleportation ability with his conscious mind, his power to teleport is not psionic. Rather it is the result of an unknown biochemical/biophysical reaction which he triggers mentally.
When he disappears in teleporting, Nightcrawler leaves behind smoke with a stench reminiscent of burning brimstone. This is a small portion of the atmosphere of the Brimstone Dimension that escapes while the aperture is open. His teleportation is invariably accompanied by the muffled sound of imploding air rushing to fill the vacuum left where Nightcrawler's body was, creating his signature BAMF sound.
Nightcrawler's powers automatically displace liquids and gases when he arrives in the course of a teleportation. His powers will not displace solids, however, putting him at risk for materializing inside solid matter, causing serious injury or death. As a consequence, Nightcrawler typically teleports only to places he has been to before or knows the layout of, or line-of-sight teleportation (even though his actual range is much further). Kurt's intuitive spatial awareness allows him to track his movements instinctively and with greater precision than the average person, helping him to pinpoint locations for a "blind" teleport.
The longer the distance over which Nightcrawler teleports himself, the harder and more exhausting it is for him to make the teleportation "jump". It is easier for him to teleport between north and south (along Earth's magnetic field lines) than it is for him to teleport between east and west (against the magnetic lines). Under optimal conditions, teleporting only himself and his costume, Nightcrawler can displace himself a distance of about 2 miles east-to-west, and up to 3 miles north-to-south. Making a vertical teleportation upwards is difficult and dangerous, fighting against both the electromagnetic and gravitational fields. Nightcrawler has made a vertical teleportation "jump" of one mile by pushing himself to his physical limits.
Nightcrawler's momentum is retained throughout the process of teleportation: he arrives with whatever amount of inertia he left with. For example, if he were falling from a great height, he could not teleport himself towards the ground in order to save himself; he would land with the same velocity that he teleported with. He can subtract this inertia by teleporting short distances upwards (as though taking two steps back for everyone forward).
Micro-Suction Discs
Nightcrawler can stick to objects with the surface of his hands and feet. This enables him to scale surfaces.
Flexible Bone Structure
Nightcrawler's bone structure allows him great flexibility. He can remain in a crouched position for a long time and perform contortionist type feats without causing any damage to his spine.
Camouflage
He has limited abilities to blend into shadows, both as a result of his indigo fur and his connection to the light-bending attributes of the dimension through which he teleports. This is also the explanation for why he constantly appears in shadow, even in direct light.[95]
Prehensile Tail
Nightcrawler has a tail allows him to grab onto objects with relative ease. His tail is strong enough to not only support his body weight but also lift an adult man completely off the ground. It is deft enough to fight with like a sword or blunt object.[citation needed]
Night Vision
Nightcrawler's always glowing eyes grant him a marked degree of heightened night vision as well.[citation needed]
Superhuman Agility
Nightcrawler's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels beyond the human body's natural limits.[citation needed]
Superhuman Reflexes
Nightcrawler's natural reaction time is enhanced to a level beyond the human body's natural limits.