Warning: contains spoilers for X-Men #35!As the X-Men‘s 2019-2024 Krakoan Age officially ends, Earth’s mutants fight for survival one last time – with the good-natured hero Nightcrawler striking a particularly gory blow against their latest enemy. X-Men #35 acts as the finale to the Krakoan Era, during which all mutants banded together as a single nation, regardless of past alliances and antagonism. As mutantkind says goodbye to its dream of living in peace and unity – at least for the time being – the former villain Apocalypse lashes out, once again believing that only through war and chaos can mutants become strong enough to ensure the species’ long-term survival.

Enraged that the next generation of mutants have embraced a peaceful, egalitarian philosophy, Apocalypse attacks, with the X-Men scrambling to keep him under control. Colossus, Sunfire, Emma Frost, Jean Grey and more tangle with Apocalypse, with Wolverine and Deadpool managing to do some superficial damage. However, when Apocalypse begins stabbing Wolverine with his own claws, Nightcrawler steps in, first retrieving his friend and then – in a surprisingly brutal move – teleporting Apocalypse’s eyeballs out of his head.

Nightcrawler and Wolverine regroup while the rest of the X-Men continue to face off with Apocalypse, who eventually accepts that his methods are no longer enough to guide mutantkind into the future, ominously retreating to begin the selection process for a new heir who will continue his efforts to force ongoing mutant evolution.

Nightcrawler Teleports Apocalypse’s Eyes Out of His Head

X-Men’s Biggested ‘Redeemed’ Villain Is Back to His Old Ways

While Nightcrawler is one of the most peaceful members of the X-Men, fans shouldn’t be surprised by this power. Nightcrawler has always been able to deal serious damage by taking parts of his enemies with him when he teleports, Nightcrawler’s most common offensive tactics are to teleport around his enemy while lashing out with kicks and punches, or to grab hold and teleport them multiple times – something which most beings find draining. However, in more emergency situations, Kurt Wagner has been willing to tear off limbs as shown here or even teleport objects into an enemy, impaling them.

Recently, Nightcrawler revealed the maximum potential of his powers. Way of X #5 (Simon Spurrier and Bob Quinn) saw him teleport one of Mars’ moons after having his powers increased by Fabian Cortez, showing just how extreme his powers can be when he pushes their limits. If anything, Apocalypse should be grateful that Nightcrawler left his head on his shoulders, though of course the being once known as En Sabah Nur is no slouch when it comes to raw power. Not only does Apocalypse keep fighting blind, but once there’s a lull in combat, he’s able to use his total control of his own atomic structure to replace his eyes.

While even Nightcrawler’s attack isn’t enough to slow Apocalypse, the X-Men do eventually get through to him, and the upcoming X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse (coming June 12 from Steve Foxe and Netho Diaz) will see the villain audition various heroes and villains to replace him with a new philosophy and approach. With contestants including Cable, Emma Frost, Laura Kinney’s Wolverine, Exodus and more, Marvel has promised that the series will end with one familiar face being remade as Apocalypse’s replacement, dedicated to pushing mutantkind to advance in new ways (while commanding the same godlike power.)

Nightcrawler’s Kids Have Even Deadlier Versions of His Powers

Nightcrawler’s Son Salamander Wields Burning Plasma

While Nightcrawler plucking Apocalypse’s eyes out of his head is a gnarly way to use teleportation powers, Kurt’s kids take the offensive potential of his mutant X gene even further. The darkest use of Kurt’s teleportation comes from his alternate-universe son Salamander, who was introduced by Alan Evans and Buddy Scalera in X-Men: Millennial Visions. Salamander is one of the X-Men of 2035, who protect New York from the powerful Morlocks who live below its streets. Like Nightcrawler, Salamander can open portals to another dimension. However, while Kurt uses the Brimstone Dimension as a corridor between points on the Earthly plane, Salamander can access a dimension of “burning plasma,” which he weaponizes against his enemies.

Talia Wagner is another, more famous child of Nightcrawler, known to fans of the Exiles series. Talia comes from a reality where Nightcrawler got together with Scarlet Witch. Their combined powers allow Talia, aka Nocturne, to unleash energy bolts from the Brimstone Dimension, and she can also possess the bodies of others – something she used to kill her timeline’s villainous Cyclops, taking over Wolverine’s body to stab him through the heart.

As well as biological children, Nightcrawler has many variants and clones, since his DNA is particularly compatible with that of other mutants. Both John Sublime and Mister Sinister created vicious Nightcrawler clones in potential future timelines, with perhaps the deadliest being Auntie Fortune. Auntie Fortune is a hybrid of Nightcrawler and Domino, whose combined teleportation and luck powers allow her to fire bullets through tiny teleportation gates, with causality bending such that she always hits her target.

Nightcrawler Ends Marvel’s 2019-2024 Krakoan Era With a LOT of Rage

Kurt Has Been Betrayed by More Parental Figures Than Fans Even Knew He Had

While Nightcrawler is the last X-Men hero who fans might expect to utilize such a gory tactic, Kurt Wagner has been through hell over the last five years. First, Nightcrawler experienced a crisis of faith after the X-Men ‘cured’ death via mutant resurrection, leaving him grasping for meaning in a world of unending life. Just when Nightcrawler developed a new philosophy to address this crisis, he began transforming into a monster and was forced to commit a series of violent assassinations. It turned out this was a plan by his adopted mother Margali Szardos – a sorcerer who wanted to break down Nightcrawler’s sense of hope enough that she could steal it and forge it into the mystical Hopesword.

Nightcrawler then believed his biological mother Mystique had died, only to meet up with her and discover that he had been lied to his entire life about his parentage. 2023’s X-Men Blue: Origins (by Si Spurrier, Wilton Santos and Marcus to) revealed Kurt was actually the son of Mystique and Destiny, who had lied about his parentage as part of a scheme to defeat the demonic Azazel. Nightcrawler confronted Destiny, only for her to declare she had no maternal love for him at all – a side effect of Charles Xavier having removed Kurt’s true origin from both Mystique and Destiny’s minds at their own request.

In X-Men #35, Kurt confronts Mystique about the ways he was treated as a chess piece in larger conflicts from the moment he was born, and yet she has little to offer him in the way of closure, once again abandoning Nightcrawler and his sister Rogue for reasons connected to Destiny’s visions. Betrayed by his biological parents, adopted mother, and surrogate father figure in Xavier, it’s no wonder that Nightcrawler might have some rage to work off in the fight against Apocalypse.

The Krakoan Era ends with many of the X-Men changed for good, and yet few have gone through transformations as extreme as Nightcrawler. Having founded a mutant religion, learned the truth of his birth and even spent some time as the new Uncanny Spider-Man, Nightcrawler has been redefined by his experiences over the past five years, showcasing the many different ways in which this longtime X-Men hero can still surprise readers 49 years after his first appearance.

X-Men #35 is out now from Marvel Comics.