Kurt Wagner and the little people

[iamrman]

4 pages from Uncanny X-Men #103, so it is.

The X-Men are on vacation in Ireland, so of course that means leprechauns.

Comments

[zachbeacon]

It's funny to think this was once a weird situation for the X-Men.

So I know Kurt was a bouncing blue baby boy but I assume the actual powers didn't manifest until puberty? This seems like this would have come up the first time he played hide and seek with Amanda otherwise. It's still weird that he didn't notice this until well into adulthood.

[icon_uk]

I'm surprised he never uses it as an actual power

I think the Alan Davis Excalibur run further explained that he is, without realising it, partly phasing into the dimenion he teleports through.

[beyondthefringe]

I really liked that bit in the Excalibur run. Near-invisible in darkness, absolutely perfect spatial sense--why don't writers ever work those aspects of his powers into stories?

Nightcrawler could be absolutely terrifying if he and the writers chose to go in that approach. Hell, I'd be down for a horror series told from the viewpoint of the people he's after. Looks like a demon, near invisible, acrobatic, teleports, brimstone, religious streak -- he doesn't even have to -do- anything to scare people shitless.

Actually no. Better idea. Kurt Wagner, agent of an ancient god. MOON NIGHTCRAWLER.

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, I don't think enough writers draw attention to how many superheroes are basically horror monsters picking off henchmen from the shadows.

Apparently that's become part of some of the recent Batman video games but I assume that's not from the villain's perspective.

Suddenly realizing your gang has vanished and then seeing your terrified face reflected in Spider-Man's giant eyes is scary enough. The only thing worse than only seeing Nightcrawler's eyes and teeth before he jumps you is getting a clear look at him.

[blues32]

Oh, that's not the best part. The best part is when they find their gang friends dangling from a lamp post by their leg or just out cold on the ground and they never heard a thing. One after the other, the lone gang member finds their pals...indisposed. Eventually they realize they're the last one.

Of course, it's worse if it's the Punisher. Then they're just finding corpses. THAT'S horror movie stuff.

[jkcarrier]

They've gone back and forth about the invisibility stuff over the years. I remember Byrne saying in an interview that he thought it was stupid, so he avoided using it during his run. And at least one of Kurt's Marvel Handbook write-ups tried to pass it off as just "his dark fur makes good camouflage" rather than being an actual power. I like the idea of tying it into his teleportation, which makes it seem a little less random.

[scorntx]

Sure, you hear people who will go on and on about how Claremont is, like, the greatest writer the X-Men ever had and every story he wrote was just so perfect...
But he also wrote the X-Men meeting actual leprechauns.

There is room, methinks, to suggest he actually wrote some total nonsense as well.


Did Cassidy Keep have a lab before Black Tom took it over, or what?
(From what the rest of the issue shows, it's in a good place for storms. Handy if you were some sort of mad scientist wanting to, just to make a random example, revivify some sort of creature with massive amounts of lightning.
...
y' almost expect someone to turn around and find Marty Feldman standing there...)

[iamrman]

I'm just surprised that none of the villains have thirsted after Storm yet. That being said, the series never hesitates to get her in the altogether.

[scorntx]

Yeah, the whole "Storm likes to be naked" thing.
Which...
... yeah...

[blues32]

Why not? They've met every other creature under the sun. Elves, dwarves, gnomes, demons, fairies...why not leprechauns? What's wrong with leprechauns?

[cainofdreaming]

Hmm... did the little people of the Cassidy Keep ever meet the Troll Associates? If not there's a story that needs to be told.

[blues32]

Ahh, a classic issue! Either this one or the one prior introduced us to the fact that Storm has severe claustrophobia. And Nightcrawler using his image inducer to become Groucho Marx.

[scorntx]

That was indeed the previous issue.
(Though Claremont had been hinting at Ororo's claustrophobia since around issue 77.)