Is it Too Hard to Write for Nightcrawler?

[CRaymond]

A character needs an essential conflict to have growth and be written at all, much less written well. What is Nightcrawler’s next big challenge in the context of the world he occupies? I see this is Storm and Colossus’s challenge as well.

[Havok83]

A character needs an essential conflict to have growth and be written at all, much less written well. What is Nightcrawler’s next big challenge in the context of the world he occupies? I see this is Storm and Colossus’s challenge as well.

Id dont think its necessary. Kurt makes for an amazing supporting character as he can fit in with anyone and gives them someone to bounce off of without coming across boring

[ermac]

I simply LOVE Kurt but the few arcs that centered on him were pretty lame, to be honest.

Sorceress step-mother and step-lover-sister... Being a priest... Not to mention DRACO. I'm not sure the character really need those bizarre additions.

Apart from Excalibur, I can only remember Amazing X-Men with Kurt being centerfold and killing it.

[Fokken]

Kurt is charm. He's got snark and charisma. These are not challenging tools with which to work for any halfway decent writer.
My god, remember when the X-Men went to Muir Island during the Necrosha event, and Kurt put Magneto in charge of stating the obvious?
Sigh. Good ol' Carey knows whats what, I tell ya.

Also bring the beard back.
Beards! Beards! Beards! Beards!

[Filthy Mutie]

Nightcrawler gets yanked around, because so many X-writers saw themselves in them--or at least the selves the wanted to be. Fancy-free, swashbuckling, the various "cool outcast/fantasy" physical attributes, and, uh, up on some ladies, shall we say.

So, when they got to step-up to the plate, they had to revert him to the Nightcrawler they remember from 198X in one way or another, and take him into some cipher/projection direction--neither of which take into account his growth as a character in a long period of time leading up to when said writer takes over.

[Michael Watkins]

he shouldn't be any harder to write than Spider-man. his teleportation is really just a form of enhanced speed in-action. otherwise, he's just a really agile swashbuckling type. he was great in Excalibur.

[xhx23x]

I don't think he's hard to write or that the writers view his powers as a hinderence... and rarely featured? He has been on main character on team books since he came back from the dead. And had his very own mini for AoX.

[Master of Sound]

I don't think he's hard to write or that the writers view his powers as a hinderence... and rarely featured? He has been on main character on team books since he came back from the dead. And had his very own mini for AoX.

He basically had his team when coming back from death with Iceman and Firestar among others.

And recently had his solo mini. It's more than for example Colossus got.

[Sutekh]

A character needs an essential conflict to have growth and be written at all, much less written well. What is Nightcrawler’s next big challenge in the context of the world he occupies? I see this is Storm and Colossus’s challenge as well.

Resolving the whole soulless/body made of demon maggotts thing? Seems like it would be best either A) resolved, or B) pretended to have never happened and never mentioned again...

[Brimstone Elf]

He's definitely not hard to write. Great character, personality, powers, talents, charisma, beliefs, wit, etc. Some of his history or origin haven't been popular; but, like all things, changes could be made to make things better. He definitely could be more than a sideline character. A writer just needs to take a chance, and Marvel just needs to give Kurt his chance. In my opinion.

[Grimsmack]

Who are these alleged writers who claim Kurt is hard to write? Or is this just message board community speculation?

It hasn't been any writers or editors that I've seen that have stated it. I have read many comments here on the CBR forums and YouTube, among other forums, that have claimed his lack of story lines is due to his tricky powers.

The thing is, there are many superheroes with incredible powers that would nullify whole plot threads. Telepaths should be able to detect/anticipate lies and subterfuge; Kitty's phasing can often times render and bound or imprisoned victim's situation moot, just a well as Nightcralwer's teleportation; Storm could be the ultimate goodwill ambassador for the X-Men by quenching droughts, dissipating hurricanes, cooling heat waves and much more - the X-Men should be more popular than Christ!

I do think one thing that limits Kurt's appeal (to writers) is his messy background. Over the years past twenty years, we get one writer to focus on Kurt, and that man is Chuck Austen. Thank you Chuck Austen for giving Nightcrawler two trashy story lines to flesh out his spare backstory.

Not only did this dumpster fire backstory happen, but it stuck! The film series decided to embrace Azazel and he was included in Nightcrawler's return from the After Life in Amazing X-Men.

I'm not fond of the Mystique/Destiny parentage that some people clamor for, but it'd be so much more interesting than something so obvious as a demon parent.

What I'd like to see is Kurt perhaps depart from the X-Men for awhile. Years ago there was a discussion at Marvel to try him with the Avengers, but The Powers That Be decided he was an X-Men only type-of-character. I'm sure a whole new team to play on, with other popular characters to interact with, would have provided some heat to Kurt's history. I imagine Kurt would get along swimmingly with Thor. His ideals align with Captain America. Maybe a love triangle with The Scarlet Witch and Vision? As great as Excalibur was, it was sort of island, and they didn't interact with other superheroes (not even the X-Men) very often, so Nightcrawler still has not built those relationships outside the X-Men like some of teammates have (Beast, Iceman, Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, Havok, Sunspot, and Sunspot, to name a few).

Maybe after all this discussion, it's just the top brass at Marvel that is limiting Kurt?

[Havok83]

Nothing about Kurt's powers make him difficult to write. His teleportation isnt even a plot breaking one like Magik's whom can port through space and time with little limitation.

[Master of Sound]

Moderators, I think this actually can be merged with the Nightcrawler Appreciation thread.