Real Name: Kurt Wagner
Affiliation: X-Men
Origin: Somewhere in the mountains of Bavaria
Known Relatives: Ms. Darkholme (Mystique, mother), The Wagners (foster parents), Rogue (adoptive sister)
Powers: Teleportation, sticks to walls, blends into shadows. Also has blue fur, pointed ears, yellow eyes and fangs, 3-foot long prehensile tail, 3-fingered hands and toes
Background: When Kurt Wagner was born, his mutancy was readily apparent, due to his blue fur, pointed ears, his strange extremities and his prehensile tail. His mother abandoned him, and he was eventually found by a gypsy lady who allowed the Wagner family to adopt the young baby. The Wagners loved Kurt, but understood that he could not walk freely in the outside world, as people would be horrified by his appearance. Eventually, the young mutant was discovered by Professor Charles Xavier, and moved to America in an attempt to find people who would accept him as he was, which he did in the X-Men.

Knowing that most people would never accept the young mutant as anything but some type of demon, the Professor created a hologram device called an "image inducer" for Kurt, allowing him to walk in public without the fear of people screaming. The image inducer can also be used to make Kurt look like anything he wants, not just his "school clothes" self. However, the image inducer cannot hide Kurt's tail, nor can it change the shape of Kurt's hands, so even in 5-fingered "human" mode, his hands still move as if he only had two fingers and a thumb. Kurt is the definitive party animal for the X-Men, and quickly befriends all of the new recruits do to his easy-going style.

His fun-loving nature can sometimes get Kurt into trouble. For example, while playing around with a machine he discovered in an abandonded lab, he was caught in the "Middleverse" created by a student named Forge, who was himself trapped in this pocket dimension. Kurt's power came in handy here, as his teleportation allowed him to ghost back into the real world and alert the team, who eventually rescued both boys. Another time, Kurt (and Kitty) piggybacked on the X-Jet when Wolverine took it to Canada and ended up in the middle of a big fight between him and Sabretooth, and against the head of the Weapon X project.

Recently, Kurt began finding out about his past thanks to the X-Man known as Rogue. One night, she began having nightmares, which involved Kurt as a small baby. Professor Xavier recognized these nightmares as the repressed memories of Kurt's mother, Raven Darkholme (Mystique), whom Rogue had touched a few days earlier, and told Rogue to go back to sleep. The next day, Charles approached Raven in her office as principal of Bayville High, and began questioning her. She ordered him out of his office, and decided she must tell Kurt the truth. She assigned Quicksilver to deliver a note to the X-Man, instructing him to meet her alone. When he did, she revealed that she was his real mother. This shocked the young mutant more than he would like to admit, but he has done his best to deal with it.

When the New Mutants were recruited, Kurt had a very brief (somewhat romantic) mutual interest with Tabitha Smith, aka Boom-Boom, which got both of them grounded after some pranks. Though Tab left the X-Men after her father forced her to help him rob the school fair, Kurt was stuck on cleaning duty for a number of weeks, forced to polish the X-Jet, clean the Danger Room, wash all the vehicles, etc. When the New Mutants went for their "Joyrides," Kurt was just finishing his punishment term, which he happily passed on to them.

Not long after this, through the help of Forge, Nightcrawler discovered that when he teleports, he actually goes through a sub-reality, whose atmosphere is full of sulfur. During the delayed trip through this dimension, it was discovered that vicious reptilian creatures exist in this reality. Unfortunately, due to the equipment Nightcrawler was wearing that caused him to delay his re-entry into his own reality, this left his teleportation "doors" open, allowing these creatures to come into reality and attack the annual Sadie Hawkins Dance, as well as the Danger Room. Fortunately, Forge was able to alter his Middleverse device in order to send the creatures back to their own reality and seal the portals.

During this incident, Kurt became very afraid of his teleportation ability, and refused to activate it again until he had to do so in order to save himself and his date, a young girl named Amanda who had seen Kurt in his real, demon-esque appearance. Amanda convinced Kurt that she had absolutely no problems with his true physique, and even told him that her favorite color was blue. It is hard to say for sure, but Amanda's acceptance of mutancy could possibly be the first truly solid seed of Xavier's dreams of peaceful human-mutant coexistence.

Alongside his new-found girlfriend, Kurt continues to party as hard as ever, and between he and Bobby Drake, they keep the X-Men's spirits high.

Later, when Kurt finally met Amanda's parents, the evening was ruined by Toad attacking him and stealing his inducer, revealing to Amanda's parents that Kurt is a mutant. Though her parents have forbidden her from seeing Kurt, Amanda has been driven even closer to her boyfriend due to the incident. Meanwhile, Kurt agreed to help Toad save the Scarlet Witch from being mind-wiped by Magneto. Soon afterwards, when Rogue's absorbed powers took control of her, Mystique informed Rogue that she adopted the young girl when she was four, and it turns out that Nightcrawler now has a sister.
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