What do you think?
Rate this book
X-Men: One-Shots
X-Men: Manifest Destiny – Nightcrawler #1
Since the move to San Francisco and after the events of X-Infernus, Nightcrawler realizes a hard truth-he has to quit the X-Men. Kurt has realized that the X-Men just don't need him anymore. He hasn't been operating at his highest levels and even the biggest strength he has-teleportation-has been made redundant by Pixie who can do it better and more efficiently. Don't miss the departure of one of the most important characters in X-Men history.
38 pages, Unknown Binding
First published May 1, 2009
1 person is currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
James Asmus
315 books67 followersJames began writing for live theater; creating sketch comedy, stand-up, plays and musicals. After a few years writing and performing in New Orleans and Chicago, a run of one his shows in New York garnered an offer to write for Marvel Comics' X-Men. A lifelong comics fan, James pounced on the opportunity and would go on to write Marvel titles like Uncanny X-Men, Captain America & Bucky, Gambit, Runaways, Generation Hope, Deadpool Team-Up and more.
His work for other comics publishers includes Thief of Thieves with Robert Kirkman (creator of the Walking Dead) and The End Times of Bram & Ben (which he co-created with Jim Festante) for Image Comics. In 2014 James signed a year-long exclusive deal with Valiant Entertainment where he wrote The Delinquents and Quantum & Woody - the latter of which received 6 nominations at the 2014 Harvey Awards; including Best Writer, Best New Talent, and Special Award for Humor noms for James.
He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife Mara and son Devlin. There, James has written for film, television, and video games. But he plans to create comics as long as you'll have him.
His work for other comics publishers includes Thief of Thieves with Robert Kirkman (creator of the Walking Dead) and The End Times of Bram & Ben (which he co-created with Jim Festante) for Image Comics. In 2014 James signed a year-long exclusive deal with Valiant Entertainment where he wrote The Delinquents and Quantum & Woody - the latter of which received 6 nominations at the 2014 Harvey Awards; including Best Writer, Best New Talent, and Special Award for Humor noms for James.
He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife Mara and son Devlin. There, James has written for film, television, and video games. But he plans to create comics as long as you'll have him.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 13, 2025
this felt racist
November 22, 2016
As if Marvel hasn't vilified Germany enough in their X-Men comics, but now they came with something downright insulting. I will get to that when it is the right time, so far lets go at it one step at a time.
The title is already problematic as it borrows from the doctrine that basically caused even more war and stealing of land from the Native Americans, all the while claiming that white Americans have a god given right to the land.
You see I wanted to see whether they get the German phrases and the "Roma" background right this time. I doubted it to be honest and I was right.
Not only did they show torches in the flashback, but this 2000s Winzeldorf looks so old that it could be the early 1900s. In fact that woman trying to sell Nightcrawler ears has "clothes" I have never seen anyone here wear, ever. It some sort of old lady beggar clothes, that is the only way I can describe this.
And where and how did they get all those exhibits for the Nightcrawler museum? And how did a small "Bavarian town" manage to finance that? And the entire museum was done by this one woman named Mara Keller because she is a fan and he saved her once? How obsessive and rich is this woman?
And speaking of women, could we please stop the "Nightcrawler is scary and fuzzy" routine? Not only is he never drawn fuzzy, but I already lost count on how many women I have seen in the comics who get wet between the legs for him.
And the villagers call the monster "Vielfras"? Apart from the wrong spelling, this might be the first time these idiots at Marvel got German naming conventions right. However, considered that I saw how it looks and what it did, the name really makes no sense. You see "Vielfraß" (the correct spelling) can either mean someone who east a lot or is the name for the Wolverine and considered that the monster here is basically some giant, red devil who only eats once some small dear or so, this name makes no sense whatsoever, because why would the townspeople name it like that?
Not to mention that this came out in 2009 and they still have not figure out the use of the word "Ach"...
Also Winzeldorf is portrayed as a town of torch wielding xenophobes. I know that Bavaria is usually pretty damn conservative and xenophobic, but they haven't acted like that since the witch crazes centuries ago. This is Bavaria and not the lynch crazy Jim Crow and generally 19th century USA!
And speaking of portrayal, considered that the artist gave Nightcrawler fitting shoes and made the skeleton look somewhat human, I don't think the idiotic depiction of Winzeldorf and its surroundings (there are no mountains anywhere) is not due to incompetence but a willing depiction that suggests an unwillingness to get it right.
And if this story wasn't dumb enough, the monster is a 16 year old boy who attacked Kurt because he thought Kurt was some superhero coming to kill him. And it didn't not occur to him to ask Kurt? I mean the museum was pretty explicit regarding his hero status.
Also, it is said that what he was eating was a deer, however what was shown on the page looks even less like a deer skeleton than a human one.
Now, if all of this wasn't enough, the boy is called Henrik, and he fell in love with some stereotypically dressed gypsy girl who would not open her legs to him and when he wanted it from some other girl she was hurt and her grandmother cursed him when he wanted to talk to her at the stereotypical gypsy place in the woods with the old caravan made out of wood and the gypsies sit around the campfire. Stereotypes like this are the reason why I will never refer to this as "Roma" and surely not "Sinti."
Not to mention that this entire conflict could have easily been avoided if the writers had any idea about Germany in any way. You see this is the 21st century and his hands are still dexterous. He should steal some phone or go into an internet cafe and call/text some townspeople he knows and explain first what is going on! This is not rocket science... but I guess otherwise we would have no story.
Furthermore, these Bavarians dress like no Bavarians I have ever seen. Also why have they chevrons around their text and Kurt and Henrik not? Plus how is this 16 year old boy from deepest Bavaria able to speak English so well?"
And why did Henrik kill himself? This came out of nowhere.
And even Mephisto says how quickly things can erupt in Winzeldorf... is he suggesting that it was his doing? And the comic has Mephisto say that Nightcrawler is a demon and that he feels an ever present downward pull? And that he will end up alone... maybe I would believe that if the guy ever showed any signs towards that. Did I miss something because the other parts of this Manifest Destiny (great name choice) series never mentioned something like that. And comparing Nightcrawler's story with that of Henrik's seems pretty farfetched, Nightcrawler lived with his looks all of his life while Henrik was only recently transformed. The only thing they have in common is their demonic appearance and even there Nightcrawler looks way more harmless. And Nightcrawler is proud of the choices he made? Like dating his sister?
The story in general is pretty damn forced, the artists and writers did not care to get the Bavarian village right, the conflict is completely unnecessary and forced and the only good thing is the artwork.
And apart from the stereotypical gypsy images, the dumb story and anachronistic places, there is one thing that makes this really insulting:
Apart from Mephisto, everyone who is supposed to be good and tolerant speaks English (even the 16 year old German boy speaks it perfectly), but the xenophobes and backstabbers speak German only.
The title is already problematic as it borrows from the doctrine that basically caused even more war and stealing of land from the Native Americans, all the while claiming that white Americans have a god given right to the land.
You see I wanted to see whether they get the German phrases and the "Roma" background right this time. I doubted it to be honest and I was right.
Not only did they show torches in the flashback, but this 2000s Winzeldorf looks so old that it could be the early 1900s. In fact that woman trying to sell Nightcrawler ears has "clothes" I have never seen anyone here wear, ever. It some sort of old lady beggar clothes, that is the only way I can describe this.
And where and how did they get all those exhibits for the Nightcrawler museum? And how did a small "Bavarian town" manage to finance that? And the entire museum was done by this one woman named Mara Keller because she is a fan and he saved her once? How obsessive and rich is this woman?
And speaking of women, could we please stop the "Nightcrawler is scary and fuzzy" routine? Not only is he never drawn fuzzy, but I already lost count on how many women I have seen in the comics who get wet between the legs for him.
And the villagers call the monster "Vielfras"? Apart from the wrong spelling, this might be the first time these idiots at Marvel got German naming conventions right. However, considered that I saw how it looks and what it did, the name really makes no sense. You see "Vielfraß" (the correct spelling) can either mean someone who east a lot or is the name for the Wolverine and considered that the monster here is basically some giant, red devil who only eats once some small dear or so, this name makes no sense whatsoever, because why would the townspeople name it like that?
Not to mention that this came out in 2009 and they still have not figure out the use of the word "Ach"...
Also Winzeldorf is portrayed as a town of torch wielding xenophobes. I know that Bavaria is usually pretty damn conservative and xenophobic, but they haven't acted like that since the witch crazes centuries ago. This is Bavaria and not the lynch crazy Jim Crow and generally 19th century USA!
And speaking of portrayal, considered that the artist gave Nightcrawler fitting shoes and made the skeleton look somewhat human, I don't think the idiotic depiction of Winzeldorf and its surroundings (there are no mountains anywhere) is not due to incompetence but a willing depiction that suggests an unwillingness to get it right.
And if this story wasn't dumb enough, the monster is a 16 year old boy who attacked Kurt because he thought Kurt was some superhero coming to kill him. And it didn't not occur to him to ask Kurt? I mean the museum was pretty explicit regarding his hero status.
Also, it is said that what he was eating was a deer, however what was shown on the page looks even less like a deer skeleton than a human one.
Now, if all of this wasn't enough, the boy is called Henrik, and he fell in love with some stereotypically dressed gypsy girl who would not open her legs to him and when he wanted it from some other girl she was hurt and her grandmother cursed him when he wanted to talk to her at the stereotypical gypsy place in the woods with the old caravan made out of wood and the gypsies sit around the campfire. Stereotypes like this are the reason why I will never refer to this as "Roma" and surely not "Sinti."
Not to mention that this entire conflict could have easily been avoided if the writers had any idea about Germany in any way. You see this is the 21st century and his hands are still dexterous. He should steal some phone or go into an internet cafe and call/text some townspeople he knows and explain first what is going on! This is not rocket science... but I guess otherwise we would have no story.
Furthermore, these Bavarians dress like no Bavarians I have ever seen. Also why have they chevrons around their text and Kurt and Henrik not? Plus how is this 16 year old boy from deepest Bavaria able to speak English so well?"
And why did Henrik kill himself? This came out of nowhere.
And even Mephisto says how quickly things can erupt in Winzeldorf... is he suggesting that it was his doing? And the comic has Mephisto say that Nightcrawler is a demon and that he feels an ever present downward pull? And that he will end up alone... maybe I would believe that if the guy ever showed any signs towards that. Did I miss something because the other parts of this Manifest Destiny (great name choice) series never mentioned something like that. And comparing Nightcrawler's story with that of Henrik's seems pretty farfetched, Nightcrawler lived with his looks all of his life while Henrik was only recently transformed. The only thing they have in common is their demonic appearance and even there Nightcrawler looks way more harmless. And Nightcrawler is proud of the choices he made? Like dating his sister?
The story in general is pretty damn forced, the artists and writers did not care to get the Bavarian village right, the conflict is completely unnecessary and forced and the only good thing is the artwork.
And apart from the stereotypical gypsy images, the dumb story and anachronistic places, there is one thing that makes this really insulting:
Apart from Mephisto, everyone who is supposed to be good and tolerant speaks English (even the 16 year old German boy speaks it perfectly), but the xenophobes and backstabbers speak German only.
July 29, 2018
A playful little tale that reintroduces the reader to an old favorite. It serves as little more than a spotlight of his abilities, but Nightcrawler is nonetheless an artfully crafted character, and a delight in the right author's hands. The tale takes us nowhere new, and charts no new paths, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do.
February 22, 2025
Let him have one good thing without it getting ruined, I beg and plead
February 1, 2016
With new teleporter Pixie now in the X-Men, Nightcrawler feels redundant and quits. He travels back to Germany and discovers a fan has set up a nightcrawler museum. A monster is terrorizing the local area, Nightcrawler investigates and finds another cursed creature. The ending is tragic for our monster especially when Mephisto arrives back on the scene and tries once again to tempt Nightcrawler to the dark-side (See The Winding Way). Nightcrawler discovers his inner-strength and returns to the X-Men.
Very much a stand alone, although it does reference back to other stories this is very much a Nightcrawler alone tale. Not much of the other X-Men, though does feature the great line:
"You must be confused. "Beast" is a friend of mine. He is blue though. I'm surprised we don't get confused more often!"
Very much a stand alone, although it does reference back to other stories this is very much a Nightcrawler alone tale. Not much of the other X-Men, though does feature the great line:
"You must be confused. "Beast" is a friend of mine. He is blue though. I'm surprised we don't get confused more often!"
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews