Random Happenstance

Somehow I bought two more copies of this over Free Comic Book Day weekend--the original and the reprint!--and somehow hadn't blogged this issue before? That seems out of character, so better catch up! From 1986, the Uncanny X-Men #204, "What Happened to Nightcrawler?" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by June Brigman, inks by Whilce Portacio. Reprinted in 1995's X-Men Classic #108 with a Jae Lee cover.

Anna Peppard--one of the few people I'd maybe consider a biggest Nightcrawler fan than me--describes this issue as "(it) helps Kurt 'get his groove back,' but it doesn’t resolve his metaphysical doubts." I agree on the latter, but perhaps not on the former. This was just post-Secret Wars II, and Nightcrawler wasn't there, probably, despite appearing twice! The Beyonder had jacked Kurt's faith up, terrifying him on a metaphysical level: was the Beyonder greater than God? Or God himself? The other X-Men were teleported to face him the previous couple issues, but Kurt wasn't taken, and wasn't sure why...only that he was glad of it, and was ashamed of feeling that way. And ashamed, he starts to act self-destructively: drinking abusively, and lashing out as his long-time girlfriend, Amanda Sefton. The worst part about the latter is that Kurt knows he's being a jerk, but can't make the next step to apologize to her, and she leaves for her stewardess job. (Amanda would actually reappear in Uncanny during the long stretch he wasn't in the book, but it would be almost a decade before she would see Kurt again?)

Left literally howling and sulking in the rain, Kurt hears an omniously familiar sound from Cental Park: "SFLANNG!" Kurt even uses the onomatopoeia to describe it; between that and the 'Kltpzyxm' reference from his solo limited, my head canon has always suspected Kurt read at least a few comics as a kid! Kurt recognizes a garbage truck long of the X-Men's acquaintance, that of Arcade's! The "madcap murderer for hire," as Kurt calls him, used that to abduct his victims to Murderworld, and Kurt knows one has already been captured. Next up: a ton of internal dialogue, as Kurt makes a number of rationalizations. He doesn't think he can go to the cops, as the victim would likely be long dead by the time he could convince anybody; and after following the garbage truck to the north Bronx, he also decides to go it alone rather than call the Avengers or other back-up. Kurt felt he had something to prove, and couldn't pass it off. Finally for this two-page stretch, Kurt hacks Arcade's systems, to make himself undetectable. At least until Arcade sees him...

Meanwhile, Arcade is giving his spiel to his prospective victim; a pretty redhead jogger, who claims to be an ordinary college student. Arcade is not especially sympathetic to her plight, and launches her in the life-sized pinball machine we've seen him use before, his traditional Murderworld opener. Arcade is also not impressed with her pinball score--how exactly would someone get a high score, trapped in the pinball? And why should they want to? After the pinball shatters, the girl finds herself in a darkened forest, wherein she is hunted by hounds and Hussars. (The Hussars seem an odd choice for someone as flashy as Arcade, but there may be a reason...) She manages to make it to a river, then onto a series of floating logs, only to then be attacked by a shark! Somehow she has the presence of mind to note sharks "can't exist in fresh water!" but this was Arcade's game; and she's rescued by Nightcrawler teleporting in to grab her. Arcade finally takes notice, now we've got a game.

The girl is not immediately charmed by Nightcrawler, even though he turns it on here. OAFE's review of 'Explodey Smurf' may hit the nail on the head here: "His whole deal is that he knows he looks incredibly scary to the average person on the street, so he tries to overcompensate by being incredibly warm and personable to everyone he meets." Left with little choice, the girl takes Kurt's hand, as they find a Mad Max-style dune buggy, complete with gift-bow, as "Auntie Arcade" and her marauders come speeding in. (Aside: Arcade has to be miked, or there's no way they would be able to hear him!) Kurt's internal conflict continues unabated during the chase: while this was a bit of a tough fix, it was a winnable fight, unlike most of those the X-Men faced those days. (Also, Kurt drives here, and apparently pretty well! Chuck Austen can suck it...) When biplanes attack, Kurt teleports up and commandeers one...and the art is a trifle unclear here, as he pulls a nice loop, and the second plane apparently conks out? I think Kurt shoots it down, even if it's not pictured, and the second plane crashes into "Auntie Arcade." Kurt also mentions, "the sky, it seems, is still a killer," and is that a reference to Feindliches Ass--in English, Enemy Ace? I swear Kurt read some comics in his circus days.

Seemingly uncharacteristically, Nightcrawler takes off in the plane, waving the girl on through, good-bye and good luck. (How either of them could be heard over the dune buggy and the plane...Murderworld is magic?) She drives on alone, until she runs out of gas in Murderworld's Chinatown, where Arcade's assistant Ms. Locke appears to offer her an out: maybe you'd like to be a sex slave? No? Nightcrawler returns in time to save her, as Arcade appears via hologram over the Locke-looking android: Kurt gives him a rather Bugs Bunny-styled kiss, then drops him on his butt in the gutter. Furious, Arcade promises revenge, when the X-Men storm into his control center and smash it up. They don't look right, though...Arcade realizes, with a laugh, they were his own robot duplicates, turned against him by Nightcrawler. Unlike a lot of bad guys, Arcade could sometimes be a good loser, if someone gave him a good game.

Kurt manages to get the girl, Judith, home: she's slightly perturbed that Kurt seemed to enjoy the hell out of that whole ordeal. Is Kurt addicted to excitement? Without someone like Arcade, would Kurt have to invent a villain, to give his life purpose? That seems a little much; but since we're on the last page no time for that: back at Judith's apartment, we find a representative from the State Department, and a colonel in the Ruritanian National Guard, who hails Judith as the rightful Queen of Ruritania! Judith would make maybe two more appearances that I know of, including her royal wedding in Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem; and I didn't know until just looking it up that Ruritania was from the Prisoner of Zenda, which maybe accounts for Arcade's Hussars, trying to get that eastern European flavor.  I figured Ruritania was near Latveria and Symkaria; Doctor Doom probably tried to annex it a couple times a year. 

Does Kurt have his groove back, then? I'd say no, not in the slightest; but he's putting up a brave face and trying to push through. And he was not going to make a lot of headway on resolving those issues, either. This was Nightcrawler's first solo spotlight issue in Uncanny, and he would be written out within the year, after the Mutant Massacre crossover, and benched until the debut of Excalibur in 1988. He would still be struggling with a need to prove himself there; but seemed less overtly religious in that series, which was fine with me. We've said before, fun Nightcrawler is best Nightcrawler, even in a world that was less and less fun for him all the time.