Monday, August 27, 2012

I'm sure Nightcrawler is upside-down in his passport photo...

Both Bleeding Cool and Robot 6 pointed out Neil Rivas's Illegal Superheroes posters; where characters such as Superman, Optimus Prime, the ThunderCats, and Thor are all accused of being illegal immigrants with no legal right to be in the country.

Our pal Nightcrawler joins their company, since he's a German citizen, although a commenter points out the dead don't have an immigration status, which is a bit of a downer. (If he returns to life in the United States' borders, would he then be an American citizen?) I can't recall if it's implied or outright said in the old Claremont days, if Professor X took the time to set up ID's and Visas and whatnot for the new X-Men. And even then, would Nightcrawler get any? It was usually more likely he would be chased with torches and pitchforks than asked for his driver's license.

Oddly, this actually was a plot point once, but not where you might expect: Kurt is caught by immigration...in England, in the pages of Excalibur #62, "Of Birth, Death And The Confused, Painful Bit In Between" Written and pencilled by Alan Davis, inks and pencils by Mark Farmer.
The covert British agency called the R.C.X. has absorbed both F.I.6 and the Weird Happenings Organization, kidnapped Alistaire Stuart, and has several hundred super-powered operatives. Usually, they wouldn't have much use for the Excalibur team, but some of the operatives' powers have been deteriorating, sometimes fatally. With Stuart as bait, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Cerise are lured into a trap and captured...except Nightcrawler was playing possum. While freeing his friends, the creatures called the Serpents are accidentally released; vicious, deformed monsters that might just be carnivorous.
His powers blocked, Nightcrawler is forced to fight to save Kitty and Cerise; and an already-agitated Kurt stomps the Serpents, beating enough of them to stare down the rest. But, then confronted by "Peter," the head of the R.C.X., Excalibur is accused of trespassing, and all three present members of being illegal aliens.

Kurt looks pretty dumbfounded there, so I kinda think no one ever asked him for his papers before. I don't think Britain was as hostile towards mutants as America at the time, but it is a bit of a double-standard to hound them as monsters, then hound them for documents. Harsh, but a great issue.

1 comment:

Omega Agent1 said...

I really like the artwork. The stlye is bang up.

Captain Brittain and MI6 was a good series, it would be cool to see em come back as MI6. Maybe drop a member or two and add a new member or two would be great.

Either or, nice post.