eh, don't say i like it, but it makes sense if it's along the lines of the explaintion of how Warlock or Longshot are mutants - something in their genetic code made them Different from the rest of their species - they aren't human, but they are a mutation from

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From my rereading of the story just now and I curse myself for putting myself through that again. Once was far more than enough, I think his people the Neyaphem were basically the Morlocks of biblical times. Mutant's who look so different from other humans they were thought of as demons.

Warlock is a mutant amongst his people but he still looks like and shares the same power as them. Azazel's people all look different and have unique powers from each other. *edited to add* Well some share the same power, and one of the female Neyaphem looks very similiar to Nightcrawler.

Here is a scan of something Azazel says, it's one of a few times he calls himself a mutant.

You know, when Claremont gets long winded, and even when he uses the same phrases over and over, at least I can understand what he's saying.

Nightcrawler may be a lot different from the other X-Men, but he's just soooo cool!  I don't understand why he didn't become the standout of the X-Men.  They should have just written Wolverine out*.

* I kid!  Only because I know it was in the works to get rid of Wolverine before some Canuck joined the creative team.  But I really do like Nightcrawler better!

Stan defined mutants as people with AN "extra" power. That's what the X stands for (not "Xavier".)

My understanding was they had an eXtra "mutant gene" in their DNA make up. One that generally didn't activate until around roughly puberty.