The Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler Appreciation 2021

[From The Shadows]

Ah sorry, to clarify I meant you demonstrated his assertiveness. And I completely agree that he can be very assertive and take charge when he has to. I was talking more about backing off from the leadership role, rather than specific situations.

You make a fair point about Chuck and I really don’t like Chucks run either. But it’s not just in Chucks run that Nightcrawler questions his leadership decisions, he did it in the earlier runs especially when getting used to being put in a position of leadership. Beating himself up when other team members got hurt, questioning if he was fit to lead. Even in Excalibur when he was clearly the leader, he sometimes brushed aside the title when it was suggested to him (I think Rachel tries calling him boss a couple of times which he weakly protests). I’m not suggesting he outright hates doing it or complains about it but whenever Kurt is in a leadership role, he seems to abdicate pretty quick when someone else is there to take over. Just going on my memory here; he never seems to fight to hold onto the role and I can’t remember a time he’s volunteered himself to be leader of a team with the new exception of the Legionaries.

My memory is foggy on that though, happy to be proved wrong.

I missed this somehow. Yes, he did question himself in the beginning, but he was still chosen by Xavier and was the next best thing after Cyke and Storm and that was coming from a Logan thought bubble and that says something. If I remember correctly Logan and Ororo questioned themselves as well and suffered from doubts especially when Cyclops as a leader would come into play. When he would try to take charge. Logan didn't even want to lead and Ororo had to force him during the outback era. Kurt wanted to give it to Logan back in the early X-Men days, you were referring to, but he said no way. I see as Wolverine and Storm having a similar evolution. I am just saying that despite a rough start. I was simply focusing on the end result of Kurts evolution and his character arc. That came from CC/Davis, and followed with Davis and then Ellis. Also, I know Chuck wanted Kurt to become the glass half empty guy again. Whatever that means. But focusing on "again" I can only come to one conclusion, he did not prefer the fully realized Kurt but more how he started out. I didn't want to prove you wrong. This is just my humble opinion.