Random Happenstance

"Date Night, part two"






Image inducers bug me. In the old Claremont Uncanny X-Men issues, Nightcrawler used one a lot, in situations where he needed to disguise himself. Granted, an Errol Flynn disguise isn't the most inconspicuous one Kurt could have used; but even so, eventually he decided he wasn't going to use the inducer at all, since it felt like a cheat. Like he was ashamed of himself, or hiding.

I also suspect the holographic image inducer was, like the satellite-era Justice League of America transporters or Iron Man's jet-powered roller-skates, an addition that seemed completely reasonable at the time; but either didn't age well (thirty-plus years later, and we still have none of those) or it closed more story opportunities than it opened. (Nightcrawler using the inducer to get out of jams or the JLA beaming wherever they need to be immediately; is less interesting than Nightcrawler surrounded by mutant-hating bigots or the JLA having to scramble to their jet or whatever.)

Deadpool using the inducer made more sense: as a mercenary, he wouldn't have any qualms about disguising himself as whoever he needed to be to get the job done. Without it, a lunatic in a knockoff Spider-Man outfit with a pile of guns is going to get noticed; and Pool's mouth is noticeable enough. That, and Pool had a lot of fun dicking around with the inducer. (Issue #4, where he sneaks into an asylum, is probably the best example, so find it yourself!)

But despite the fact that he seemed to hide behind it a lot (and the artists could use it as an excuse to draw whatever the hell they felt like) Pool seemed to realize he was still himself under there. That is, ugly as homemade sin: a lot of guys might have tried to pick up the ladies with a holographic disguise, but I don't recall Pool ever doing that. That I recall, anyway...

EDIT: Oh, hell, since I brought it up, here's a link to Comic Book Resources Top 50 X-Men poll. I didn't vote, but Nightcrawler beat Wolverine, coming in behind Beast, Jean Grey, Iceman, Cyclops, and Rouge. Really? I freely admit, I'm more of a Nightcrawler fan than an X-Men fan, and I prefer Avengers Beast to just about any incarnation of X-Men Beast; but I don't usually care for Jean, Iceman, or Cyclops. Cyclops is a tool. There, I said it. All of his street cred is from sleeping with Emma Frost, otherwise, he'd be like the mutant Hank Hill: reliable, dependable, steadfast...and the stick up his ass would have a mutant stick up its ass.

Ahem. Sadly, Deadpool didn't beat Xorn either. Maybe next year.

The Nightcrawler and Deadpool strips are going to continue for a while, with an extra-long one starting Monday!