When you’re billed as a superhero team that protects a world that “fears and hates” you, having a tragic past seems like a prerequisite for becoming one of the X-Men. Certainly, many mutants view being born with the X-Gene as a curse – like Rogue, unable to touch another person for most of her life without potentially killing them, or Cyclops, unable to remove his ruby quartz glasses without destroying what he sees.
That being said, not all mutants have such a terrible time with their powers – even those who look like they were created just to be feared. While the X-Men’s mutant teleporter Nightcrawler may seem like someone with a rough life, the truth is his early days were actually very happy… thanks to the fact that he fell in with the right people.
Kurt Wagner’s birth was admittedly a rough one. His mother, the mutant shapeshifter Mystique, was so disgusted with the boy’s blue form that she threw him down a well. However, Kurt’s father, the demon Azazel, saved Kurt and gave him to the witch Margali Szardos to raise. Margali was working as a fortune teller at a circus and decided to raise Kurt there, where the entire circus unofficially adopted him, with Margali becoming Kurt’s foster mother.
Amazingly, this choice actually granted Kurt an incredibly happy childhood. At the circus, being different or even bizarre was considered normal and none of the circus folk held any prejudices against mutants. In fact, the circus employed a number of mutants as performers who became friends of Kurt’s. Kurt even fell in love with Jimaine (aka Amanda Sefton), Margali’s other foster daughter. And where Jimaine would have rejected Kurt in a typical tragic mutant story, thanks to Kurt's charm, she actually responded enthusiastically to his advances.
Kurt was also unbelievably lucky when his mutant powers emerged. Usually in Marvel mutant stories, the manifestation of mutant abilities inevitably causes the mutant to accidentally harm his or her loved ones. Not so with Kurt. From the beginning, his superhuman agility and coordination made him a natural as a trapeze artist (and allowed him to share more time with Jimaine, who also performed on the trapeze).
On the day of Jimaine’s first public performance as an aerialist, one of her wires broke, sending her falling. Panicking, Kurt teleported to her side purely out of instinct, grabbed her, and teleported her to safety. The audience was stunned – and then began applauding since they thought it was all part of the show. Kurt even earned a kiss from Jimaine and later incorporated his teleporting power into his act, earning him even greater fame.
While this happy childhood didn't last much longer - and Nightcrawler has endured several heartbreaks and hardships - his happy childhood and genuinely optimistic view of life have allowed him to approach the worst of circumstances with a positive mindset. He might appear to be the poster child for the unwanted, ostracized mutant – but his actual history reveals otherwise.