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X-Men Icons
X-Men Icons: Nightcrawler #1
Four volume comic series. Kurt Wagner, alias Nightcrawler, working with his mentor, Father Whitney, has now completed seminary, all but taking his vows, but he must make a determination if the priesthood or heroism is his correct career path.
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First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 4, 2023
Out of a series of mini-series back in the days of early 2000.
The eight series under the moniker of Marvel Icons where about solo-adventures of X-men and Avengers Characters.
Cyclops, Rougue, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Chambers on the X-Side of life, Tigra, The Thing (F4) and Vision on the A-Side.
The concept was quite cool but shortlived and abandoned early in 2003.
I am missing 2 of them, Iceman and Chambers. Hard to find them here (Austria).
The stories were provided by some writers who are now renowned Marvel writers. Vaughn, Avery, Christina Z, Kollins or Johns, just to name a few.
The art is a mixed bag, like a 'what goes?' game. Also storywise...not exactly the classics that are talked about and discussed every day. But a nice excursion on the characters anyway.
The eight series under the moniker of Marvel Icons where about solo-adventures of X-men and Avengers Characters.
Cyclops, Rougue, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Chambers on the X-Side of life, Tigra, The Thing (F4) and Vision on the A-Side.
The concept was quite cool but shortlived and abandoned early in 2003.
I am missing 2 of them, Iceman and Chambers. Hard to find them here (Austria).
The stories were provided by some writers who are now renowned Marvel writers. Vaughn, Avery, Christina Z, Kollins or Johns, just to name a few.
The art is a mixed bag, like a 'what goes?' game. Also storywise...not exactly the classics that are talked about and discussed every day. But a nice excursion on the characters anyway.
September 14, 2023
From the time period when Nightcrawler was a priest, or almost one at least. The leather jacket era, around 2002. The story was a bit "edgy" centering around some human traffickers. But it was a good character study for Nightcrawler. The art was decent, I really liked the use of blacks, some of the faces were a bit... less than good. But that's nitpicky. Also, I kinda hated how Kurt's priest mentor guy was so "life sucks you can't change it"... but I guess he has to start that way to change.
September 29, 2020
Well, that could have been amazing, and pretty much discombobulated itself instead, while super-cynical moralizing throughout. At least the art was decent.
November 12, 2025
Si no fuese por el dibujo a lo cartoon, sería de 4 estrellas por la historia tan cruda y descarnada que narra, y la dualidad tan buena que es la naturaleza de Kurt, de mis favoritos de la Patrulla X.
November 14, 2016
This volume partially deals with the topic of slavery in 21st century USA. I just hoped this comic handled this topic better than what I am used to with the X-Men titles. Sadly this was not the case. In fact the comic has Wagner himself state that he has powers father Whitney has not, so what was it about all the "should we do something" and "Jesus would have done something" talk? Kurt knows several telepaths, telekinetics, magicians and people with all sorts of superpowers, so him trying to break up a slave-ring should be a piece of cake.
Now while I can see what they are trying to do; not only are the "Christian" references dumb but quoting Dante does not help either, it makes the whole slavery thing look pretty melodramatic. Furthermore the story suffers because it is so obvious that plenty of Nightcrawler's friends could have easily helped him with this slave trade business.
Apart from the fact that the artwork in this or last issue is clearly not so dark that you could not see the slaves' faces, quite the opposite in fact, but how could Kurt have seen their eyes if it was so dark that their faces were indistinguishable? Sometimes I wonder where Marvel gets these writers from.
Also it is always "interesting" how quickly Kurt's appearance changes from being a major issue to something that people apparently barely react to. It is almost as if the writers have no idea where fear for Kurt's form comes from."
And here is the thing, I am all for superheroes tackling some real world issues, but this here is so forced (after all Kurt at this point was never a slave of any kind [that was retconned years later]) so why should seeing it make him "snap" now? And of course we still have the problem that he could have solved it all by just calling on some X-Men backup."
Due to all these problems, I just can't get into the conflict and drama here because it is so easily solvable. Nightcrawler wants to find this Oleg guy to stop his slave trade? Get one of his telepathic or magical friends!
And yet there is no explanation for why he doesn't call them at all. Which really would not be difficult to solve as the X-Men & Co. are usually in some disaster anyway.
And the "explanation" was: the prostitute from Russia with a tragic backstory lied to Nightcrawler, so that is why he did not contact any of his friends for help, since some of them would have known her lie for what it is and so we would have no story.... yeah.... reeeeaaaaalllllllyyyyyy great writing, the best stories are made of such BS concepts.
Plus, so far this story is completely pointless, basically just Nightcrawler being kind of emo and "I want to help you" and based on the short recap of his meeting with Prof. X it seems as if the author had read some Wikipedia recap of that particular story.
In fact, I so don't care for this stupid drama. Even Kurt's "everyone apparently has other priorities" makes no sense, as he could have just contacted Daredevil as this slave treading Business would fall under his "jurisdiction."
Sure this story has some saving graces, like Beatta's conflict or the priest's cynic attitude, and it surely is a good idea to address the fact that superheroes cannot fight prostitution the way they fight supervillains, but it is way too obvious that this story only works when you ignore Nightcrawler's complete background.
Nightcrawler's talk about how he will never give up, has faith and knows how unrealistic it is to fight for Xavier's dream of mutant acceptance would be much stronger and not feel so hollow to me, if not every comic I have seen so far with him hadn't made it abundantly clear that the writers wouldn't essentially ignore his "German/gypsy" background. Albeit this here is not the most horrendous example.
PS. The writers still haven't managed to figure out the correct usage of the word "ach".
Now while I can see what they are trying to do; not only are the "Christian" references dumb but quoting Dante does not help either, it makes the whole slavery thing look pretty melodramatic. Furthermore the story suffers because it is so obvious that plenty of Nightcrawler's friends could have easily helped him with this slave trade business.
Apart from the fact that the artwork in this or last issue is clearly not so dark that you could not see the slaves' faces, quite the opposite in fact, but how could Kurt have seen their eyes if it was so dark that their faces were indistinguishable? Sometimes I wonder where Marvel gets these writers from.
Also it is always "interesting" how quickly Kurt's appearance changes from being a major issue to something that people apparently barely react to. It is almost as if the writers have no idea where fear for Kurt's form comes from."
And here is the thing, I am all for superheroes tackling some real world issues, but this here is so forced (after all Kurt at this point was never a slave of any kind [that was retconned years later]) so why should seeing it make him "snap" now? And of course we still have the problem that he could have solved it all by just calling on some X-Men backup."
Due to all these problems, I just can't get into the conflict and drama here because it is so easily solvable. Nightcrawler wants to find this Oleg guy to stop his slave trade? Get one of his telepathic or magical friends!
And yet there is no explanation for why he doesn't call them at all. Which really would not be difficult to solve as the X-Men & Co. are usually in some disaster anyway.
And the "explanation" was: the prostitute from Russia with a tragic backstory lied to Nightcrawler, so that is why he did not contact any of his friends for help, since some of them would have known her lie for what it is and so we would have no story.... yeah.... reeeeaaaaalllllllyyyyyy great writing, the best stories are made of such BS concepts.
Plus, so far this story is completely pointless, basically just Nightcrawler being kind of emo and "I want to help you" and based on the short recap of his meeting with Prof. X it seems as if the author had read some Wikipedia recap of that particular story.
In fact, I so don't care for this stupid drama. Even Kurt's "everyone apparently has other priorities" makes no sense, as he could have just contacted Daredevil as this slave treading Business would fall under his "jurisdiction."
Sure this story has some saving graces, like Beatta's conflict or the priest's cynic attitude, and it surely is a good idea to address the fact that superheroes cannot fight prostitution the way they fight supervillains, but it is way too obvious that this story only works when you ignore Nightcrawler's complete background.
Nightcrawler's talk about how he will never give up, has faith and knows how unrealistic it is to fight for Xavier's dream of mutant acceptance would be much stronger and not feel so hollow to me, if not every comic I have seen so far with him hadn't made it abundantly clear that the writers wouldn't essentially ignore his "German/gypsy" background. Albeit this here is not the most horrendous example.
PS. The writers still haven't managed to figure out the correct usage of the word "ach".
February 1, 2016
4 comic series that follows my favourite X-Men Nightcrawler as a trainee priest trying to put a stop to an illegal immigration racket.
I adore the character of Nightcrawler - the contradiction of his demonic appearance and deeply Christian vales are a wonderful contrast.
This particular story arc is a great vehicle for him. It shows his naivety as he gets manipulated by the very people he's trying to help and mocked by the church, the one institution that should be supporting him wholeheartedly. I also really like the fact that this has no easy answers and beating up the bad-guys doesn't solve a thing and doesn't even help the victims that much - the best they can hope for is to be deported, the very thing they fear the most! Yet still our demonic looking hero tries. It's wonderful to have a super hero comic which isn't all about defeating super villains and their plans for world domination. Don't get me wrong, that sort of story has its place, but Its nice to see some gritty realism in a comic too.
My major criticism is the artwork. The covers are stunning but no reflection on the very angular, blocky stylised art inside which I'm sorry to say does very little for me, still I liked it better than the stretch look of the Angel mini-series. I also felt that this was a bit short. I was left wanting more! Maybe that's a good thing. I don't know.
I adore the character of Nightcrawler - the contradiction of his demonic appearance and deeply Christian vales are a wonderful contrast.
This particular story arc is a great vehicle for him. It shows his naivety as he gets manipulated by the very people he's trying to help and mocked by the church, the one institution that should be supporting him wholeheartedly. I also really like the fact that this has no easy answers and beating up the bad-guys doesn't solve a thing and doesn't even help the victims that much - the best they can hope for is to be deported, the very thing they fear the most! Yet still our demonic looking hero tries. It's wonderful to have a super hero comic which isn't all about defeating super villains and their plans for world domination. Don't get me wrong, that sort of story has its place, but Its nice to see some gritty realism in a comic too.
My major criticism is the artwork. The covers are stunning but no reflection on the very angular, blocky stylised art inside which I'm sorry to say does very little for me, still I liked it better than the stretch look of the Angel mini-series. I also felt that this was a bit short. I was left wanting more! Maybe that's a good thing. I don't know.
August 9, 2016
Nightcrawler is my favourite X-Men - thanks to Alan Davis's Excalibur - but I'll admit it hasn't been easy for him to keep that position, what with the writers' ambition to make him ever more Angstier by playing up the religion angle. We get it guys, he looks like a demon but he's a Christian (somehow in between being raised by Romani??), it's ironic, cue angst. Anyway, this miniseries plays up the religion again - but it's somehow more subdued and bearable. The great art (don't be deceived by the cover) helps.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews