Nightcrawler Vol. 2: Reborn (Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler (2014) (Collected Editions)

by Chris Claremont, Marguerite Bennett, Todd Nauck (Illustrator)

Not long ago, Nightcrawler was dead. Now, Kurt Wagner struggles to find his place in the land of the living once again. But ever since his best friend Wolverine died, that struggle is much more difficult! Nightcrawler tries to honor Wolverine’s legacy by carrying on as a teacher and an X-Man. But Bloody Bess has other plans for him, and Nightcrawler finds himself in over his head when the Shadow King attacks! Haunted by lost loved ones, Nightcrawler must try to overcome the darkness in his soul to protect those nearest and dearest to him — and prevent the Shadow King’s influence from spreading across the multiverse! But will he take his one-man war too far? Nightcrawler has believed that Heaven cast him out because his work on Earth wasn’t finished. Now, he may just finish it! Collecting Nightcrawler 2014) #7-12.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, X Men, Superheroes, Comic Book, Science Fiction

126 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 9, 2015

About the author

Chris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.

Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.

Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.

Reviews

[Paul]

This book was OK. I quite enjoyed it. Having Chris Claremont write Nightcrawler again tickled my nostalgia bone... in a good way.

The trouble is, and the reason this book has been cancelled after twelve issues (I imagine), is that those of us who had been pining for Nightcrawler's return all the while he was dead (only in comicbooks, folks) wanted his return to be spectacular! We wanted a series that lived up to the heights of our joy that Kurt was back... and, instead, we got 'quite good'.

Oh, well, whatever, never mind...

[Sesana]

Not as good as I wanted it to be. I love Nightcrawler so, so much, but Claremont... It's just that he writes exactly the same way he has for more than two decades. And while he's always been decent with characters and emotions, his dialog are... not so much. The dialog tends to be wooden and artificial, and the major plot was just kind of meh. I think we're all over the Shadow King, and bringing back super minor villains from his 2000s go at Uncanny X-Men was an odd choice, to say the least. That said, I really did like the first issue, the Wolverine memorial. It was a nice retrospective of the friendship between Kurt and Logan, and I think Claremont is one of the X-writers who's never really forgotten Excalibur.

[Christina]

5 stars for the Wolverine memorial; it was beautiful. I have always loved Logan's friendship with Kurt and so that issue tugged at my heart. But the Bloody Bess storyline? It was ok at best. I don't think I get along well with Claremont's writing. It's tedious.

[Fizzgig76]

Reprints Nightcrawler (2) #7-12 (December 2014-May 2015). Nightcrawler is in mourning. His friend Logan has been killed, and with Wolverine dead, a part of the X-Men has died for Kurt. When Kurt finds himself pulled from the mansion by Bloody Bess, he discovers one of the X-Men’s oldest enemies has returned…and just as the Crimson Pirates has come to claim their prize for their employer Voge.

Written by Chris Claremont and Marguerite Bennett (plotting Nightcrawler #7), Nightcrawler Volume 2: Reborn is a Marvel Comics X-Men spin-off series. Following Nightcrawler Volume 1: Homecoming, the collection features art by Todd Nauck. Nightcrawler (2) #7 (December 2014) was also included in the Death of Wolverine Companion collection.

From the X-Men episode of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Nightcrawler was one of my favorite characters. It was Nightcrawler (and Kitty) which made me pick up Excalibur after they spun out of X-Men and kind of reignited my comic book reading. Excalibur was another fun Chris Claremont creation and this volume has a number of throwbacks to that series.

Claremont wrote the X-Men for years and has a deep knowledge of the characters that many other writers currently don’t have. He not only keeps dipping into the well, but he also actually ties it into the story. You get the Shadow King, Kurt’s relationship with Rachel, and even the return of the Warwolves…it feels very appropriate that it ends with Claremont’s classic X-Men baseball game.

The two stories that essentially exist in the comic are a Shadow King story (not my favorite villain) and a space adventure. It flows like an old Uncanny X-Men story and isn’t heavily built on six or four issue storylines like most modern comics. The series also tries to raise Bloody Bess’s profile (Claremont introduced the Crimson Pirates in Uncanny X-Men (1) #384 (September 2000)), and it feels a little forced especially due to Nightcrawler’s recent loss of Amanda…which he casually blows off as a different type of relationship when asked.

I won’t deny that Nightcrawler is not a great comic. It is episodic and unbalanced, but it feels genuine. I think the X-Men have become too muddled and lacking in fun…here it is restored. Due to the changes in X-Men (and comic books in general), the series feels off. I like it, but in the competitive world of comic sales, apparently the audience didn’t. The character is classic and after years of twists and turns, it feels like Claremont has restored him a bit to that classic character that he wrote. Unfortunately, we’ll never know what else he had planned for the character (as a solo star)…of course, readers of comics nowadays knew that the series was destined to fail like most solo Marvel titles. RIP Nightcrawler’s solo run…we barely knew you.

[Krzysztof Grabowski]

Nie uważam, żeby drugi tom solowych przygód Nightcrawlera był dużo gorszy niż pierwszy, ale trzeba przyznać, że mnie wymęczył. Jest tu sporo akcji, znajdzie się nawet miejsce na zadumę, ale koniec końców po lekturze nie pozostało ze mną nic, co jest warte zapamiętania.

Kurt żyje ponownie, ale tego samego nie da się powiedzieć o Loganie, który zginął w dosyć interesujący sposób. Teraz jego futrzasty przyjaciel wspomina najlepsze lata, jakie spędzali razem. Jest sentymentalnie i smutno. Potem mamy nieco większe zagęszczenie akcji, bo ktoś jakby przejął kontrolę nad X-menami. Na scenę wjeżdża główny przeciwnik serialowego Legiona i robi się nudno. Naprawdę, starcie z przeciwnikiem z którym problem mieli nawet telepaci wydaje się być tu nie na miejscu, no ale...

Potem mamy podbudowywanie uczniów, bo Kurt przejął rolę nauczyciela, w tym przypadku jednego ucznia, który ma więcej z kraba niż z chłopca, a i tak daje radę tu lepiej niż sam Nightcrawler. Serio. Bohater serii jest mdły i niejaki. Już czuję jak mi przyklaskuje mówiąc "Jawohl".

I żeby nie było. Czuć tutaj sentyment Claremonta do czasów (nie)dawno minionych, ale te dekady dla komiksu, to jak ery dla ludzkości. Można grać na sentymencie, co zresztą zagrało przy pierwszym tomie. Tutaj już nie dam się na to nabrać.

[Stephanie Anne]

For someone who is just reading the "Nightcrawler" series (and not any of the other Xmen related publications from around that time), the first chapter was a little jarring and required some Googling to get me back up to speed. But once that was out of the way, I was good to go! Since Volume 1 laid the groundwork of establishing the characters and major plot points, I found the story much more interesting in Volume 2 because it got straight to the action. And again, I found the artwork absolutely gorgeous.

[Fatima]

Loved how Nightcrawler deals with Wolverine's death. This was a great perspective to have given the history of the two characters and their friendship. The relationship with Bloody Bess was kind of weird and could have been developed more. Also strange was Nightcrawler trying to shield very capable women. It happened in volume 1 with Amanda and then this volume with Bess. As always, I love Nauck's art.

[Tim B]

On the Captain Britain shelf for a few cameos (kind of, really just memories with no action) and a mention of Excalibur. This book was great. Claremont writes with emotions and intrigue and great storytelling. Nightcrawler is back and living his Errol Flynn fantasies in a big way. This volume has so much heart, for Amanda, Bloody Bess, and Wolverine, all told from Nightcrawler’s second life (first without his soul). The Warwolves made this jump to five stars.

[Villain E]

The death of Wolverine makes Nightcrawler think about the good old days, when Chris Claremont was writing the X-Men. After a nonsensical confrontation with the Shadow King, Nightcrawler resume fighting the alien slave traders from the previous volume. The writing and art weren't as solid in this one. Why was this volume called "Reborn"?

[Alex]

I truly love this series. Despite Claremont still very much writing comics like it's the early 70's and the 80's, he still really knows how to write Kurt's character and his fellow X-Men. There were so many parts that made me cry and pulled at my heartstrings while also having a lot of parts that made me cry laughing.

[Dawn]

Nightcrawler's gone metaphysical! And for the most part, I rather liked it.

[Nicole Westen]

I want Rico back in the X-men comics, he's so precious!

[Jessi]

There is a reason he's my all time favorite.

[Roman Colombo]

Another favorite X-Man of mine--and written by the Godfather of X-Men comics himself, Chris Claremont. It's a good Pirate and Shadow King story, but it's a shame the series ended here. It would have been nice to see where Claremont could have taken Kurt.

Art was really good too, and the double page spread of Kurt vs the possessed X-Men was stunning.

[David]

I really want a solo Nightcrawler title to be brilliant and successful. This one is half way there. It LOOKS GREAT. But it's a very tired story. Nauck's turns in terrific art, page after page, so it's a pity the plot brings back one tried and tired Claremont element after another: warwolves, check. Shadow King, check. Bloody Bess, check. Swashbuckling-pirate-Kurt, check. You, know, there was a Kurt before the whole stupid swashbuckling thing over-took the character to death. Ah, well... another solo series and another failure. That's 3 for 3, all dogs.

[Hikaoru]

Lighthearted read despite the deaths.
The story is non-linear so I don't know when exactly Logan died. He dieeeeeeeeeed!! Ah, here's me hoping he was immortal but that's what you'd get when you less you super amazing healing ability.

Action packed enough for a superhero comic and a happy ending. What's not to love? I like the fact that Nightcrawler didn't get any girl. One is gone to kingdom come and the other is on a quest. Single life suits him.

[Jerome]

Nightcrawler is one of my favorite X-Men. So when they announced his death, I was kinda pissed. But as he even says at some point in the books about his death, "I'm an X-Man, I should have known better."


The story good. It shows why he is one of my favorites... He is a man of faith, no matter what.

[Joey]

Quite the drop off from the first volume, in my opinion. Attempts to be introspective and deep, but just doesn't have the literary chops for it, comes off juvenile. I still like where the story is going as a whole, but this volume failed to make me long for the next installment. The art got a bit 1980s at times and it was just too primary for me. I like this character though, I really hope his handlers do better with him next time around...

[Sean Goh]

Felt like a semi-Wolverine feature, then again it was his best friend who had died. Nice tribute, all in all.

____
In our grief, we always seem to build. We build pyres. We build graves. We build tombs. We build monuments. We build mausoleums. We build palaces. We build houses for the dead, known and unknown, loved and unloved.

When you build a house for the dead, you must remember not to bury the living there as well. The living have houses and worlds and lives of their own.

[Jason]

Read this awhile ago in single issues. Wish I remembered more about the series than being underwhelmed after really looking forward to it. Head over to Amazing X-Men vol. 1 by Aaron for a bit more of an exciting Nightcrawler story.

[Willow]

As with the first volume, this series is very ingrained in 80's-era X-Men continuity. Which is great for a reader like me, but might make it a bit tough to follow for more casual X-readers.

[Daniel Butcher]

Feels like a sequel to the original Excalibur.

[Brad Harmer-Barnes]

Significantly better than the first arc, but still no great shakes, either. While it's far from bad, there's no real spark, either.

[Lukas Holmes]

Nice to read something so clearly Claremont.

[Lionel]

Ugh... Got bored, feels like a really old story

[Doug]

Definitely not the best Nighcrawler adventure ever. Chris Claremont seemed to kind of be phoning things in with this one.

[Paul bailey]

a love letter to xmen of old