"It’s not outwardly apparent that Nightcrawler is that important to the X-Men, but he is. No X-Man..."

“It’s not outwardly apparent that Nightcrawler is that important to the X-Men, but he is. No X-Man represents the comic’s central minority metaphor as accurately as Nightcrawler. He’s a character that can’t hide in a crowd — he’s obviously a mutant. The anti-mutant hysteria tends to hit him first and it hits him hardest. The very first time we see Nightcrawler, he’s being chased by literal villagers with pitchforks — all because of how he looks. While he does wear an image inducer to hide his appearance from time to time, there have been a few stories that point out how wrong it is that he has to wear one. With Nightcrawler, writers have told stories about the dangers of assimilating into the norm instead of celebrating your differences. Bryan Singer even touched upon this in one of the best and must uniquely X-Men scenes in 2003’s “X2: X-Men United.” Nightcrawler asks the shape-shifting and equally blue Mystique why she doesn’t just change her appearance to fit in, to which Mystique replies that mutants shouldn’t have to. Nightcrawler’s mutation allows writers to tell stories they can’t tell with Kitty Pryde, Iceman, or Jean Grey.”



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Brett Booth on the importance of Nightcrawler’s return. . (via invisiblelad)

It’s Brett WHITE, not Booth, but still an excellent article.

Imported from Tumblr: http://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/66963871736