Seventeen years later, and the series still isn't everything I wanted it to be.

But, I picked up some cheap spares at the last show, and put some on my brand new spinner rack, so now's as good a time as any! From 2005, Nightcrawler #6, "Ghosts on the Tracks, Part 2 of 2: Voices of the Dead" Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, pencils by Darick Robertson, inks by Wayne Faucher.

This two-parter continues what would be the major themes of this short series: Kurt has to deal with spooky magic crap, and has multiple romantic entanglements that go nowhere. Ghosts of subway tunnel diggers want their sacrifice recognized, and that's wrapped up relatively straightforwardly. Kurt gets a bit of help from Beast, in his cat-form days, who spends most of his appearance complaining that he can't get a date and Kurt's got Night Nurse-type Christine Palmer just pining for him. Kurt also visits his ex, current Magik Amanda Sefton, who also seems like she would take him back in a heartbeat; but Kurt seems weirdly tentative with both of them. I don't know if Aguirre-Sacasa nailed Kurt's exuberance, as it were: he would go on to write Riverdale, among a bunch of other stuff. I kinda wonder if he wasn't afraid that female readers would hate anyone Kurt hooked up with?

It's almost weird the ghosts, dead 70 years or so, weren't more terrified of Kurt; but Robertson draws him with the harmless appeal of a teen idol: pretty, but he'd bring his date home before midnight. I think the next issue they would put him through the wringer a bit more, but here he looks like he's using a good conditioner and taking care of himself. It's the weird little things I remember most from this series, though, like the idea of Jean Grey making the All-New class "play seance."