Kurt Wagner

* **Real Name:** Kurt Wagner (legally changed from Kurt Szardos)
* **Current Alias:** Nightcrawler
* **Aliases:** Gainsborough, Bamf, Great Boggie, Elf, Fuzzy Elf, Herr Indigo, The Flying Fiend, The Magnificent Monster, The Daredevil Demon, Fuzzy-blue, Captain
* **Relatives:**
	+ ​Azazel (father)
	+ Raven Darkholme (mother)
	+ Baron Christian Wagner (step-father, deceased)
	+ Margali Szardos (foster mother)
	+ Jimaine Szardos (foster sister)
	+ Stephan Szardos (foster brother, deceased)
	+ Gloria Brickman (foster sister)
	+ Rogue (unofficial foster sister)
	+ Graydon Creed (maternal half-brother, deceased)
	+ Nils Styger (paternal half-brother)
	+ Kiwi Black (paternal half-brother)
	+ Talia Wagner (alternate reality daughter)
* **Affiliation:** X-Men (Jean Grey School member); formerly X.S.E., N-Men, Excalibur (leader and founding member)
* **Base of Operations:** Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, X-Haven, Limbo; formerly Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, Salem Cester, Westchester County, New York; Utopia, San Francisco Bay, California; Graymalkin Industries, Marin Highlands, San Francisco, California; Mutant Research Center, Muir Island; Braddock Manor, Maldon, England; Braddock Lighthouse, England; an island in the Bermuda Triangle; Winzeldorf, Germany
* **Identity:** Secret Identity
* **Citizenship:** German
* **Marital Status:** Single
* **Occupation:** Adventurer, teacher; former priest, circus performer
* **Education:** College graduate
* **Gender:** Male
* **Height:** 5'9"
* **Weight:** 161 lbs
* **Eyes:** Yellow
* **Hair:** Blue
* **Unusual Features:** Nightcrawler has only three digits (including an opposable thumb) on each hand. He also has only two toes on each foot, each longer than an ordinary human's. He has a prehensile tail, approximately 3'6" long, which can support his own weight. Nightcrawler has pointed ears and pronounced fang-like canine teeth. His body is almost entirely covered with a fine blue-colored fur.
* **Origin:** Mutant
* **Universe:** Earth-616
* **Place of Birth:** Castle of Baron Christian Wagner, Bavaria, Germany (Bavarian Alps)

## Powers and Abilities

**Teleportation:** Nightcrawler possesses the ability to teleport himself, the clothes he is wearing, and, within limits, a certain amount of additional mass which is in contact with him. He teleports by displacing himself into the Brimstone Dimension, traveling through it, and then returning to his own dimension at a certain distance from his point of departure. He consciously determines his point of return. The entire process occurs so quickly that Nightcrawler is unaware of being in the Brimstone Dimension at all. Nightcrawler guides himself through the Brimstone Dimension by a subconscious, natural direction-finding sense. Although Nightcrawler controls his teleportation ability with his conscious mind, his power to teleport is not psionic. Rather, it is the result of an unknown biochemical/biophysical reaction which he triggers mentally.

When he disappears in teleporting, Nightcrawler leaves behind smoke with a stench reminiscent of burning brimstone. This is a small portion of the atmosphere of the Brimstone Dimension that escapes while the aperture is open. His teleportation is invariably accompanied by the muffled sound of imploding air rushing to fill the vacuum left where Nightcrawler's body was, creating his signature "bamf" sound.

Nightcrawler's powers automatically displace liquids and gases when he arrives in the course of a teleportation. His powers will not displace solids, however, putting him at risk for materializing inside solid matter, causing serious injury or death. As a consequence, Nightcrawler typically teleports only to places he has been to before or knows the layout of, or line-of-sight teleportation (even though his actual range is much further). Kurt's intuitive spatial awareness allows him to track his movements instinctively and with greater precision than the average person, helping him to pinpoint locations for a "blind" teleport.

The longer the distance over which Nightcrawler teleports himself, the harder and more exhausting it is for him to make the teleportation "jump". It is easier for him to teleport between north and south (along Earth's magnetic field lines) than it is for him to teleport between east and west (against the magnetic lines). Under optimal conditions, teleporting only himself and his costume, Nightcrawler can displace himself a distance of about 2 miles east-to-west, and up to 3 miles north-to-south. Making a vertical teleportation upwards is difficult and dangerous, fighting against both the electromagnetic and gravitational fields. Nightcrawler has made a vertical teleportation "jump" of one mile by pushing himself to his physical limits. Before his death Kurt was able to port Hope and himself from Las Vegas to San Fransisco which is 585 miles and he was weakened and near death at the time.

Nightcrawler's momentum is retained throughout the process of teleportation: he arrives with whatever amount of inertia he left with. For example, if he were falling from a great height, he could not teleport himself towards the ground in order to save himself; he would land with the same velocity that he teleported with. He can subtract this inertia by teleporting short distances upwards (as though taking two steps back for every one forward).

The limits to the mass that Nightcrawler can carry with him while teleporting, and the limits to the distance over which he can teleport himself with additional load is unknown. When he transports a passenger over even moderate distances, they both feel weakened and ill, to the point of exhaustion. Teleportation over further distances could be fatal. Through practice, Nightcrawler has increased the mass he can teleport with him. (He once teleported himself and Storm from the center of a small island into the water just off its coast without harming either of them). The upper limits of this capacity are as yet unknown.

Nightcrawler can use his powers offensively by grappling with an enemy and teleporting him or her in a series of rapid jumps. The strain of these "multiple ports" can exhaust foes without superhuman endurance while Nightcrawler remains strong enough to continue fighting.

* ***Beacon Teleportation:*** Before and after his resurrection, Nightcrawler has created for himself a rather unique means of expanding his teleportation range. Through the deal he made with his father's own nightmarish gremlins, Nightcrawler now has the capacity to lock onto their trans-spatial displacement signature as means of warping to their exact location irregardless of whether Nightcrawler can see where he's warping to or not, enabling him to teleport over global or even across dimensional distances so long as he maintains the connection with them.
* ***Subconscious Spatial Awareness:*** Nightcrawler has a very limited subconscious extrasensory ability that prevents him from teleporting himself so that his feet, for example, wouldn't materialize below the surface of the local ground. Because this ability is so limited, however, Nightcrawler will not teleport into any place that he cannot see or has not seen in the past. If Nightcrawler teleported himself into an unfamiliar area, he would run the risk of materializing partially or entirely within a solid object. If too much of his body materialized within a solid object, he would probably be killed.

As part of his power, Nightcrawler has also exhibited a limited ability to sense the teleportation of other beings.
**Micro-Suction Discs:** Nightcrawler can stick to objects with the surface of his hands and feet. This enables him to scale vertical surfaces.

**Flexible Bone Structure:** Nightcrawler's bone structure allows him great flexibility. He can remain in a crouched position for a long time and perform contortionist-type feats without causing any damage to his spine.

**Camouflage:** He has limited abilities to blend into shadows, both as a result of his indigo fur and his connection to the light-bending attributes of the dimension through which he teleports. This is also the explanation for why he constantly appears in shadow, even in direct light.

**Prehensile Tail:** Nightcrawler possesses a tail that allows him to grab onto objects with relative ease. His tail is strong enough to not only support his body weight but also lift an adult man completely off the ground. It is deft enough to fight with like a sword or blunt object.

**Night Vision:** Nightcrawler's always-glowing eyes grant him a marked degree of heightened night vision as well.

**Superhuman Agility:** Nightcrawler's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels beyond the human body's natural limits.

**Superhuman Reflexes:** Nightcrawler's natural reaction time is enhanced to a level beyond the human body's natural limits.