x-men re-examined: nightcrawler

Season 4, Episode 8. Air date: May 13, 1995.

Marvel would very much prefer that you forget they canceled X-Men in 1970. X-Men as we know it really (re-)started in 1975 with Giant Size X-Men #1, kicking off a run that would make it the biggest comic in the world. Many of the franchise’s most beloved characters debuted right there in Giant-Size #1: Storm, Wolverine,1 Colossus, and a weird looking guy (even by X-Men standards) named Nightcrawler.

Nightcrawler rapidly became one of the franchise’s most popular characters, so much so that it’s hard to believe the show waited until now to introduce him. Like all popular characters, he’s accumulated a long list of strange adventures,2 complicated relationships, and personality quirks. His main things are line-of-sight teleportation, god-level acrobatic skill, looking like a demon, and being very charming. On top of that, he’s a drama teacher, a romantic, an Errol Flynn stan, an expert duelist, and—of particular relevance for this episode—a devout Catholic. Nightcrawler contains multitudes.

No single half hour could ever do a character like this justice, though this episode does a pretty good job. The opening sequence that shows off Nightcrawler’s powers is very cool, because it is impossible to show off Nightcrawler’s powers in a way that does not make him look cool (in this sense, he’s the opposite of Cable). Adrian Hough’s vocal performance adds some softness to that cool factor. Even the way he later explains his teleportation powers has a touch of romanticism: “I think of a place I’d rather be, look to it, and I am there.”

It’s an episode packed with character beats. On the lighter side, you have Gambit and Rogue suffering through the worst vacation ever, because Wolverine is such a joyless third wheel. Gambit, holding Rogue’s mittened hand, promises to make it up to her with a trip to somewhere else, maybe Paris (hold that thought). Gambit is so bad at skiing that he blows up a tree and triggers an avalanche that lands everyone at Nightcrawler’s monastery.3 On the more serious side, there’s Nightcrawler’s backstory, which reveals that he was born looking the way he does, and was immediately shunned for it. He’s alive only because his mother4 ran away and dropped him off with a traveling circus. Were it not for his acrobatic abilities, he might’ve ended up in permanent hiding like the Morlocks. As it stands, he doesn’t get out much. It’s either the thrill of the stage (where his appearance can be written off as makeup), or the solitude of the monastery.

On the very serious side, you have Wolverine’s attitude toward these monks and their God. Nightcrawler tries to explain that his devotion to God (his words) has brought him peace, to which Wolverine responds, “What are you talkin’ about? We’re mutants! God gave up on us a long time ago.” He follows this up with, “Don’t give me that easy answer garbage! I’ve tried! Don’t you think I want that?” It is shocking, in 2025, to hear cartoon characters talk about religious faith and skepticism so directly. Nightcrawler is a believer, Wolverine rejects the premise, Gambit expresses his doubts with some emphatic head shakes, and Rogue is on the fence. Wolverine and Nightcrawler even get a second scene to briefly debate why bad things happen to good people. You know, standard Saturday morning cartoon stuff. Nightcrawler concludes, “Life will always be hard. I understand this better than most. Yet despite it all, people of every faith believe there is a God who loves them. Can so many be wrong?”

Nightcrawler’s definition of “every faith” apparently does not include the 400 million Buddhists or 1.2 billion Hindus who do not, in fact, believe that there is a singular God who loves them (for a start). But this episode is short on time and has already wildly exceeded the Theological Debate Quotient of its time slot. The monastery’s shiftiest monk, Brother Reinhard, failed to poison Gambit earlier and has now riled up a pitchfork-wielding mob straight out of Frankenstein to storm the place and kill the “demons” inside. Nightcrawler initially wants to leave the monastery to protect his Brothers from the mob, but ultimately decides to stay and confront them. He says that this may be his higher purpose, to teach these village hicks that mutants are people, but I prefer to think it’s the X-Men rubbing off on him.

Brother Reinhard shouting “God is with us!” as the mob breaks down the abbey doors is, again, the kind of thing I don’t think would be acceptable in a cartoon today. The ensuing fight is alright, and the episode does what it can to gin up the stakes. The villagers grab Rogue by her bare arms (her ski jacket was ripped up during the avalanche), which causes her to absorb their intense hatred, confusing her and conveniently taking her out of the fight. Naturally, it comes down to Nightcrawler and Reinhard. Nightcrawler ducks, dodges, and teleports while Reinhard shoots, shoots, and shoots, setting the building ablaze in the process. Reinhard ends up dangling from a balcony and Nightcrawler gets to do the heroic thing, saving Reinhard’s life rather than letting him fall. In the aftermath of this catastrophe, Nightcrawler sees nothing but positives. No one died, Reinhard has seen the error of his ways, the townsfolk no longer fear mutants (though they still don’t seem exactly friendly towards them), and the abbey, though damaged, is “only stone and mortar”.

“Man, I don’t get you,” grunts Wolverine. Nightcrawler, magnanimous as ever, hands Wolverine a Bible, having “marked some passages” for him. Some time later, we see Gambit and Rogue in Paris, as promised. The two are reflecting on what happened in Germany, to which Gambit says that there’s no higher power and life is random, just like a game of cards. Rogue doesn’t particularly like that thought, and takes a walk down a windswept street. She ducks into a church, and finds Wolverine kneeling in prayer. This episode’s final line has Cal Dodd reading from Isaiah 12:1-2 (or most of it), as Rogue wipes a tear from her eye.

This episode has two hard jobs: introduce one of the franchise’s most beloved characters and tackle some very big questions about faith. The show nails Nightcrawler’s introductory story. He gets plenty of opportunities to show off his powers (there’s a great duel between him and Wolverine I haven’t even mentioned), relates his tragic backstory, and saves the day with a smile on his face. Hough’s vocals are some of the best for a guest role in the whole series. As for the religious content, it’s a big swing, and a risky one, but I think it mostly succeeds.5 Lines like, “God gave up on us a long time ago,” aren’t beating around the bush. Religion is treated with a seriousness that was (and continues to be) practically unheard of in children’s programming.6 Still, the episode’s final scene, with Wolverine bent in prayer and quoting an actual Bible verse, feels a little like the show is proselytizing. I had the pleasure of watching this episode with a friend (and fellow X-Men scholar), who pointed out that it might’ve been more effective if Rogue had been the one trying out prayer, with Wolverine wiping away an ambiguous tear. One way or the other, it’s a standout episode.

Stray observations:

  • Shout out to the tussle between Wolverine and Nightcrawler before he reveals himself. It’s not exactly Avatar: The Last Airbender levels of fight choreography, but it’s very fun. At the risk of repeating myself, Nightcrawler is one of the all-time coolest characters in the entire Marvel canon, whether in the comics, this show, or the movies.

  • There’s a weird mishmash of eras in this episode. The villagers of Neuherzl are straight out of the 1800s, other than their abundance of laser guns, while Gambit, Rogue, and Wolverine are wearing the puffiest color-blocked ski gear that 1995 has to offer.

  • The episode frequently forgets that Rogue has superpowers. She should have shrugged off the avalanche, and there shouldn’t have been any need for Nightcrawler to rescue her from her balcony fall because she can fly. It’s debatable whether Nightcrawler accidentally pushed her off the balcony in the confusion of the moment, but again, Rogue is much, much stronger than him, so it shouldn’t have been a problem either way.

  • On the toilet: not applicable. The conflict is local (internal, even), and there’s no reason why any of the other X-Men would need to appear. As far as the rest of the team is concerned, Gambit, Rogue, and Wolverine are just on vacation.

  1. Wolverine had debuted a year prior in Incredible Hulk #181, but doesn’t become a Marvel regular until Giant Size X-Men

  2. Nightcrawler’s teleportation powers often land him in alternate dimensions, including Hell. This is how he encountered a species of mini-mes known as the Bamfs

  3. The abbot explains to Rogue, “This is home to twenty members of our order. We minister to many ski accident victims.” This begs the question of how often this kind of thing happens, and whether the monastery’s budget has a line item for avalanche victims. 

  4. Nightcrawler’s flashback reveals to the audience that his mother is Mystique, though Nightcrawler himself doesn’t know that yet (to be revisited in “Bloodlines” later in season 4). This was, at the time, a very recent change to the X-Men canon. Mystique was revealed as the mother of Nightcrawler and Graydon Creed in X-Men Unlimited #4, in January 1994. 

  5. Eric Lewald’s Previously On X-Men devotes an entire chapter to this episode, whereas most get a paragraph or two. The episode’s first draft was much closer to typical cartoon antics (a bigger cast, spies on snowmobiles, Nazi gold, etc.), but the writers, wanting to make a different kind of story, kept returning to the religious angle. I’ve said a couple of times that it would be unheard of for a cartoon to tackle this topic today, and that was also true 30 years ago. According to Lewald, this story was given a lot of very careful thought and attention, and it shows. Although the episode’s Christianity is overt, the writers studiously avoided imagery that would point to any specific denomination. Also, S&P was very clear that the monastery could not contain a winery. 

  6. Unheard of for cartoons, maybe, but not for X-Men writ large. 1982’s God Loves, Man Kills deals with religion extensively. In that story, a televangelist by the name of William Stryker hatches a plan to kill every mutant, whom he views as demonic. Said plan involves abducting Professor Xavier, brainwashing him, and hooking him up to a replica of Cerebro. If this all sounds familiar, that’s because this story was adapted into X2, the best X-Men movie, which also features Nightcrawler in one of the best fight scenes of any cape flick.