Warning: contains spoilers for X-Men Blue: Origins #1The origin of one of the most iconic X-Men heroes of all time, the swashbuckling Nightcrawler, is set to undergo a major retcon in the upcoming X-Men Blue: Origins #1. A preview of the highly anticipated one-shot reveals a tragic revelation about the day Kurt Wagner was born to the shape-shifting Raven Darkhölme, another sign that the comic will undoubtedly redefine the characters of Nightcrawler and Mystique for years to come.
X-Men Blue: Origins #1 – from writer Si Spurrier and artists Marcus To and Wilton Santos – spins directly out of Spurrier’s Uncanny Spider-Man which has seen Kurt operating as a Spider-Man-affiliated hero in New York City while fighting against the forces of Orchis and dealing with a mentally injured Mystique.
The preview for the one-shot highlights a necessary confrontation between Kurt and his mother Mystique, retelling the tale of Kurt’s birth in Bavaria first told in 2003’s Uncanny X-Men #428, except retconning that Mystique accidentally revealing her true-blue self was because of the love she felt for Nightcrawler upon holding him.
Nightcrawler’s Birth Is Getting A Major Marvel Retcon
As far as Marvel fans know, Nightcrawler is the biological son of Raven and the teleporting mutant named Azazel. The origin story told in UXM #428 revealed that Raven was seduced by Azazel while she was pretending to be human and married to Baron Wagner and that the stress of childbirth caused her control to slip, revealing her mutant form. Mystique was run out of the town by a pitchfork-holding mob, where she either threw Kurt off a cliff – causing him to teleport away – or placed him on a plank of wood to safely travel down a river, depending on the origin story.
While it has been established for decades that Nightcrawler is the biological son of Mystique, the two have never been close, fighting as enemies to each other for most of their published history even after Kurt discovered the secret of his parentage. X-Men Blue: Origins #1 is set to retcon major parts of this tale, and the preview above humanizes Raven more than any other origin, showing that she did feel genuine love for her newborn child. Mystique has often been shown as a cruel, heartless villain who has betrayed her various children on multiple occasions, so the heartbreaking detail revealed in this preview is a subtle but important recharacterization of Raven.
There Is A Strong Chance Azazel Is Not Nightcrawler’s True Father
The preview reveals that much of the already established origin story will stay the same, but Mystique comments that after the birth of Kurt, everything gets “hazy” as if the story was warped in her mind, hinting that there is perhaps some external influence that impacted her memories. Uncanny Spider-Man has seen Mystique haunted by the memory of her lost baby after her mind was short-circuited by Xavier’s psychic commands during the Hellfire Gala. There is a chance the haziness caused by Xavier will jump-start Raven’s true memories from Kurt’s birth, hopefully revealing a major secret about Nightcrawler’s contentious parentage.
Many fans have expressed hope that X-Men Blue: Origins will reveal that Raven and Irene are actually Kurt’s biological parents. The latest issue of Uncanny Spider-Man hints that Raven’s shape-shifting, which she has used to present as various genders, allows her to pass a Y-Chromosome DNA test administered by Orchis. If this is true, Mystique’s mutant gift is so powerful that she is able to alter her DNA on a cellular level, potentially manipulating the chromosomes behind secondary sex organs, putting her on the intersex spectrum. Regardless, fans are incredibly excited to see how the histories of X-Men’s beloved Nightcrawler, Mystique, and Destiny are changed forever, as the iconic character’s origins experience a major retcon.
X-Men Blue: Origins #1 from Marvel Comics debuts November 29th, 2023.
