Comic Info
Comic Name: Nightcrawler (Volume 2)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Chris Claremont/Marguerite Bennett
Artist: Todd Nauck
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2015
Nightcrawler (2) #10
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.
Nightcrawler (2) #11
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.
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