This just got retconned, better blog it now!

X-Men Blue: Origins just came out the other day, but I got another cheap copy of the old version recently: from 1994, X-Men Unlimited #4, "Theories of Relativity" Written by Scott Lobdell, pencils by Richard Bennett, inks by Steve Moncuse. Cover by Joe Madureira.

A while ago, we checked out the last issue of Generation X, which predated the White Queen's secondary mutation, relationship with Cyclops, etc; things that seem like they've been around forever but really weren't. Same with this issue! Mystique murders a U.S. general, as a message to the mutant-hating demagogue Graydon Creed, who had sent Sabretooth after her. Graydon is in France, at the mansion of a particularly vapid young woman, when a greasy-looking researcher visits with his findings: Mystique really was his mother, and even worse, he had a brother...Enraged. Graydon kills the messenger, then we get a rather lavishly rendered panel of his girl, for, um, reasons. (Well, I scanned her instead of Graydon; he sucks!) 

Flying into Dulles International, Nightcrawler laments having to travel commercial and incognito, using his image inducer; then almost immediately breaks cover to rough up a bad dad for hitting his kid. He gets a mild scolding from his ride, Rogue, but pretty easily smooth-talks his way out of it. Government mutant liaison Forge had requested the two check out the general's funeral; which Graydon is also attending, and Rogue wonders why they drew that assignment. They don't have time to question it, though; as the priest giving the service calls the general out as a racist and traitor, before kicking over the coffin! It's Mystique, and she's rigged the corpse into a bomb; claiming he had sold a bomb to the Friends of Humanity hate group three months ago, killing 17. Rogue swoops down to toss the corpse-bomb out of harm's way, but that's all part of Mystique's plan...

Nightcrawler teleports Mystique out of a firefight, but she seems a little disappointed that despite appearances, he had no idea what was going on: she straight-up told him back in Uncanny #142 to ask his adoptive mother Margali why they looked so much alike, but apparently he never did. (Yet!) She tells Kurt, they can discuss it at "home," Rogue would know where; then ditches him, changing into a bystander. Rogue and Kurt manage to escape, while Graydon is brought in for questioning by Forge, who acts like he's trying to be Nick Fury here. Forge had let Rogue and Kurt listen in, to show them how potentially dangerous Graydon was, and to own up to his mistake: Forge had thought he had been treating Mystique for "emotional problems," but in reality she played him as a chump to get intel. 

In a helicopter gunship, Graydon tails Rogue and Kurt as they fly to Caldecott County, Mississippi; Rogue's home when Mystique took her in, shortly after her mutant power had developed. Rogue explains to Kurt how her life with Mystique and Destiny was a happy one, right up to the point where Mystique starting using her as a weapon, against Ms. Marvel, Dazzler, and others. (It's not mentioned here, but Mystique had to have trained Rogue before throwing her in the deep end; and we've seen other stories in which an eager-to-please young Rogue was chomping at the bit to go into action for her 'mom.') Rogue drops Kurt off, then flies off to check something else out real quick; leaving Kurt to ponder a swing set. Was that simply window-dressing, to make Rogue feel like she had a home; or something Mystique did because she genuinely cared for her? Kurt has a brief flashback to his days in the circus, with his adopted sister (and later girlfriend!) Amanda, where he laments never having a family. A sentiment shared by Graydon, who confronts Kurt there: this should have been their house, they were brothers, and Mystique was their mother!

Now, I'm not sure how much credence I'd put in anything Graydon told me; even if he claims he spent three million to get that information. Years ago, Mystique was living the high life, having married a German count who then died under mysterious circumstances. But, she then gave birth to a blue, tailed baby; and the locals gathered up the torches and pitchforks pretty quick. Mystique revealed herself in the escape, but lost the baby, who was then thrown over a waterfall. Kurt doesn't really buy it: how would baby him have survived that? But Graydon doesn't go into that, because it's time to kill his brother! (To the tune of "Kill the wabbit," presumably.)

I forget how much of this next sequence was new to readers, since it's been a foundational part of Rogue's continuity for ever: she visits the old rope swing, with a hardy flashback to her childhood, and that time when her powers drained her crush Cody nearly to death, sucking all his memories into her head. She is then confronted by Cody in the flesh, an adult now, who forgives her; but Rogue is nowhere near gullible enough to buy that, she knows it's Mystique, and wonders why she won't stop. Mystique admits she would never hurt Rogue...on purpose; since she felt Rogue was just like her. Graydon then shows up, dragging the unconscious Kurt. Mystique admits she left Graydon for dead, after he turned 12 and it seemed obvious he wasn't a mutant. (An odd phrasing; Mystique certainly abandoned him, but she says it like she left him on the Oregon trail or something. Graydon does have a line that he had to "claw his way out of the gutters of Europe," but he still feels like such a trust fund baby.) Graydon asks if she did the same to Kurt, and Mystique reveals who threw Kurt over the waterfall: she had, while disguised as a villager, to save herself.

Mystique then tries to murder Graydon, but he teleports away: Kurt used his image inducer there, leaving the knocked-out Graydon in his costume. Which looks really weird on him, not just because the gloves seemingly fit, even though they would have the wrong number of fingers: unstable molecules do wonders, I guess?  Graydon wakes up, furious that no one has murdered anyone yet, and his helicopter attacks. Mystique and Kurt go over a cliff for cover, and while Rogue knocks a missile off course, she can't stop it completely. With Kurt stunned and unable to teleport, Rogue only has the chance to save one of them...sure. Mystique lets go, falling into a waterfall, seemingly sacrificing herself for her son and daughter.

So, the next time we see Nightcrawler's origin would be...ugh...the Draco, in which Mystique, in her usual form, throws Baby Kurt off the cliff because she's mad Azrael er, Azazel abandoned her and she was now on the run. That's even worse, but both those--and Azazel--have been retconned out, for the most part. (In the updated version, Mystique might have had a brief affair with Azazel; but it meant nothing to her and she might have left him crying.) I'm not sure we ever see Kurt interact with Graydon Creed again, since he's busy getting repeatedly killed while trying to murder his parents; but I don't think we saw Kurt with his Azazel half-siblings, or even Rogue, that often. (Kurt's also lost two adopted siblings, Margali's kids Stephan and Amanda!) Oh, and the last caption box mentions Nightcrawler's story continuing in Excalibur #76-77, in which Margali is a really, really good mom. For like the last time...