Kurt Wagner's real mother is the shape-changer Mystique, known as Raven Darkholme, and his father no one really knows, but even he would not find this out for years to come. His more obvious mutant traits were apparent at birth (blue fur, a tail, etc.) and the result was his mother's desperate attempt to save herself by leaving Kurt to be found by Margali Szardos when she was pursued by an antimutant crowd obsessed that Kurt was a demon.
Margali Szardos discovered Kurt on an abandoned road. Szardos was a highly powerful and skilled practicer of witchcraft, and worked at a circus. She had two other children, Stefon and Jimaine Szardos (Amanda Sefton). It was at the circus that Kurt grew, developing his acrobatic skills and agility that he later learned were partially of his mutagenic abilities, and learned how to use swords correctly. Kurt was literally basking in the limelight when things started to go downhill.
Kurt's adopted brother, Stefon, turned twisted and bad, Challenged Kurt. During the fight, Kurt accidently broke his brother's back and killed him. The circus came under new management just as suddenly and the acrobatic elf found himself stuck in the Freak Show by a bigoted, antimutant manager. Kurt left the circus and suffered by being attacked by a mob with intentions of murdering him because of his demonic appearance.
Kurt was confronted and recruited by Professor Charles Xavier for the fight against Krakoa, the living island, donning the name 'Nightcrawler'. In the fight against Krakoa, Nightcrawler decided to stay with the new X-Men permanently. It was now that he took the acrobatic skills that he had learned from his time as a circus performer to the test, using that and his mutant abilities for good.
During his time with the X-Men, Kurt experienced many trials. After the battle of Krakoa, the next series of missions included the death of his teammate and friend, Thunderbird, something that stuck Kurt rather deeply after another close friend died in front of him. He would later come to blows with the Sentinels, Magneto, the Imperial Guard, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and those of Savage Land.
During one such adventure, Kurt was sent hurtling across dimensional barriers to a strange world with Vanisher. Neither were able to teleport and they experienced some rather odd misadventures until they were able to get back home using the 'well at the center of the time'. Later, while describing the event to Illyana Rasputin and Kitty Pryde, the Well was recreated in the Danger Room. Lockheed and Kurt were both sucked in and plopped in the middle of another strange world, with sky-flying pirates, boggies, and getting sold to talking sharks! Kurt fell head over heels for an exotic princess named 'Jinjav Sabree'. But when Kitty and Illyana managed to reopen the well, the two were separated once more. Eventually, Kurt managed to get back home and, though perhaps a day had passed for them since he had left, it had been months for him, and it took a while to readjust. (This was during the Nightcrawler LS, and am unsure of where it fits in, but I am including it in the bio)
During a birthday party, Kurt was apparently killed when a birthday present explodes while he opens it. It turned out that Margali Szardos, Kurt's adoptive mother, was working out a plot to capture Kurt whom she still blamed for her beloved son, Stefon's death. Eventually, with the assistance of Dr. Strange, Kurt was freed and then reunited with sister and old flame, Amanda Sefton (Jimaine Szardos).
Kurt later accompanied his friend and teammate, Logan (Wolverine) to Canada, where they ran into Wendigo and Alpha Flight. Wendigo and Kurt got into a confrontation, which Kurt handled on his own and barely walked away alive, but the relationship between Logan and Kurt grew stronger.
Later, Nightcrawler was seriously injured in a battle against the Marauders. For a time, he also lost his ability to teleport. Kurt passed on to Muir Island, only to witness the supposed death of the X-Men in Dallas on television. Eventually, Kurt recovered his abilities and teamed up with Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat), Captain Britain, and Meggan to save Phoenix from the war wolves of Mojo, as well as Gatecrasher's Technet, who were sent by Saturnyne to collect Phoenix. Together, they formed Excalibur, a Britain-based super team.
Excalibur faced off against Lightening Force, the Nazi counterparts of Excalibur of Earth 597. Kurt, still recovering from his injuries during the Morlock battle, was subdued by Nightcrawler of 597 easily when his counterpart forced him into multiple teleports which eventually caused him to pass out. The Cross Time Caper began and, as it dragged out, Excalibur caused a major disruption over the continuum, getting them in trouble with Opal-Luna Saturnyne, the Omniversal Mastrix. Saturnyne, who had previously sent the Technet after the same goal, deemed Phoenix a 'threat to reality' and decided she was too dangerous to be allowed to run loose, but an idea struck Kurt and by pure luck and disguising Rachel as Shadowcat, they managed to get back home.
Life goes on. Excalibur encountered the likes of Galactus, Mesmero, D'Spayre, Silver Sable, Dr. Doom, and the Avengers. Technet reappeared. Captain Britain and Kurt got into a confrontation and Kurt came out of it with a broken leg and other, more minor injuries. After a bungle with Micromax, Kurt started training the Technet to act and function as a team. On a spur of inspiration, he designs them uniforms and the name 'the N-Men'. (Nightcrawler's Technet) Now having a sense of 'team', the N-Men were able to work together and capture the thief.
Kylun appeared in Excalibur's lighthouse. He was discovered by Kurt, and explained that Necrom has been on Earth for the past month. Later, they respond to a disturbance and discover Cerise who accidently got into the Lighthouse while trying to teleport home. She alerted them to a 'time-space disturbance' outside and finds a group of aliens, with which the Technet/N-Men leave. Feron appears. Necrom appeared and threatened to collapse the multiverse unless they hand over the Phoenix Force to him. Eventually, Phoenix overwhelmed and destroyed him, falling into a comatose state. The team relocated at Braddock Manor.
Kurt fell in love with the alien Cerese, and the two eventually agreed that they were soulmates. But Kurt lost her when she was left with he Shi'ar, serving the Shi'ar empire despite the 'trumped up charges of War Crimes' filed against her.
Kurt officially became team leader when Captain Britain was lost in the timestream. Even after Rachel Summers sacrificed herself to bring him back, Kurt remained leader after Captain Britain's - now calling himself Britainic - return. During the Fatal Attractions saga, Kurt was forced to confront his former teammate and friend, Peter Rasputin, when Xavier got Kitty to lure Rasputin to Muir Island so that he could be healed of a severe head trauma. During that time, Kurt faced off against Voght, Unuscione, and Katu, and held his own until reinforcements arrived. The Acolytes left with Rasputin and Excalibur set up base at Muir Island.
During this time, Rachel's hold continued to slip until finally she was confronted by Meggan. With the held of Nightcrawler's adopted sister and long-time friend, Amanda Sefton (Daytripper), Rachel and Meggan opened the timestream. Unfortunately, Rachel realized that she could not just pull Brian out, but that she had to switch with him. Despite Kurt's attempt to talk her out of it, Rachel switched with Brian, pulling Britainic back into the Present.
With Rachel's disappearance and Illyana's death, the sudden appearance of 'Douglock' was disorienting to say the least. Many of Excalibur were openly resentful but with Douglock's assistance in the Phalanx Covenant, most doubts were assuaged. Kurt played a role in helping Forge resist Shinar's manipulation and keep him from helping the Phalanx.
In a confrontation between Mystique, and himself and Rogue, Kurt's suspicions about his mother were confirmed. Unfortunately, both were helpless as they later watched her plummet to her presumed death. Kurt was injured, barely conscious at the time, and later he and Rogue were forced to relive her death repeatedly through Forge's virtual reality viewmaster. Forge was convinced that Mystique was alive, which upset both who were convinced of the opposite, but it later turned out that Forge was right.
For the first time in months, those of Excalibur finally take a night out and relax, spending the evening in a pub. Wary at first, Kurt was reluctant to enter with the rest, realizing he had not brought an image inducer. To his surprise, however, the bartender and those there gave him little notice and he allowed himself to unwind. Later that evening, he and Brian confronted Pete Wisdom, Kitty's new interest.
When Excalibur returned from the Pub, they found a bittersweet surprise. Colossus, the X-Man who had defected to the Acolytes, had returned to Muir Island in hopes of finding his one-time love, Kitty Pryde. He discovered that Kitty had found a new relationship with Wisdom and attacked him, nearly killing him and earning himself an inhibitor collar and being placed in a holding cell temporarily. Kurt confronted his friend, accusing his actions to be childish, but he also helped Peter to realize his actions were the projection of a long exhausted grief over Illyana's death as well as the rest of his family's, as well as Magneto's falling into a coma.
At the advice of his lover, Amanda Sefton, Kurt took on a new look. He updated his costume, shaved his head, and grew a goatee. In a way, even though it was Daytripper who advised it, Kurt was adjusting to the new person he had become. No longer the mascot laughing and joking as he went up against super-villains, he was now a leader of Excalibur.
When his teammate, Douglock, was kidnapped by Black Air, Nightcrawler organized a rescue mission. At first, they went to an acquisition station in North Yorkshire, but Douglock was not there. Angry, feeling that Black Air was assuming that Excalibur could, and would, do nothing to take Douglock back, Nightcrawler gave the order for Meggan to destroy the acquisition station. Literally opening a hole in the earth that swallowed the station whole, Meggan did so quite nicely.
They went on to the Black Air Headquarters in central London while Britainic dealt with the London Hellfire Club, in which a villain named Mountjoy was thought to be masquerading as a member of the Inner Circle. Meanwhile, Kurt's mother, Margali Szardos, had released a demon that resided beneath. The demon, feeding off hatred, reached into the citizens of London and tore free their dark sides, pitching it into chaos. As Excalibur invaded the Black Air HQ, they started breaking apart. Wisdom went after Scratch, Meggan after a attack group of techno-organic Brood, Kurt after the Red King of the LondonHFC. But they defeated their foes, gathering back at where Douglock was found. Amanda was able to lock the demon up again and Margali Szardos vanished.
Excalibur returned to Muir only to find that Charles Xavier had gone insane and pretty much didn't exist anymore. Though they found out later that he had indeed survived, most of the team was devastated.
Later, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Colossus experienced a sort of 'cross-time collison' as they woke up to find multiple versions of themselves on Muir Island, which had been twisted out of proportion, and the rest of Excalibur missing. But Kitty found a key to the puzzle and they were 'ported back to the 'real' Muir Island after realizing that it had all been a test of Belasco. It was upon their return that Wisdom confessed his love to Shadowcat while the rest of Excalibur watched with fond amusement.
Return to Viara's Roleplay Nexus
Nightcrawler, Excalibur, and all related characters are property and (c) of Marvel Comics.