This might go by the way of unintended consequences, but the main reason I dug Kurt Wagner to begin with was because of my very first issue of the X-Men waaay back in the stone age (X-Men #114:  The Day The X-Men Died/DESOLATION).   It was your artwork, not Mr. Cockrum's, that baited the hook.

Anyhoo.   Thanks again.

And whatever happened to his ability to "merge with the shadows"? Visually at least I used to really dig that, no matter how little sense any of it makes (a rabbit hole of a conversation to get into with superhero adventures anyway -- just go with it).

Nightcrawler got knocked out and was  shown to be "literally" invisible in the shadows -- ( it's comics, y'all) --  and that whole thing proved to be a big reveal, even to him.   Guess he'd been surrounded by light for his entire life up to that point.

There were actual elves involved too, if I recall.

Again: comics.

The only time I recall JB pulling that invisibility stunt was when Nightcrawler was sneaking around in Arcade's Murder World, right before he teleported out in front of Ms. Locke.  There *might* have been a hint of that when he was spying on Manta in 137, and maybe against Havok on Muir Island?   I can't remember.  Not about to bust 'em out of the plastics to check.

But the Murder World maintenance tunnel scene looked pretty cool.

The effect worked well --  nonsensical or not.

People shooting laser beams outta their eyeballs, however...

Boy!  Those are some wacky antics.

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Now that I think of it...  his costume turned invisible too, so it wasn't just his skin-in-the-shadows  >:D

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Well I suppose that in most of his life, Nightcrawler has been dressed and/or surrounded by light, so this ability could have gone unknown to him (only occasionally affecting his face or hands in dark places).

But when he joined the X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men #1, he got a new uniform "constructed from unstable molecules, which adjust themselves where necessary" and so this ability was extended/applied full body and it was when he really noticed it.

That could explain by he didn't use this ability to escape from the mob when Charles recruited him. He didn't know he has the ability or he would have been nude to use it!!!

Alan Davis gave an explanation to Nightcrawler's powers in Excalibur #63 and #65 (Excalibur Visionaries by Alan Davis #3 and coming soon Excalibur Omnibus vol.2).

And... gotta love that "hey!" moment. Payback!

For storms- we saw really dark clouds closing from the west last Tuesday but... we had an appointment to pick up our new kitten. So we went. And things dragged out as the clouds got closer. And closer. And by the time we had the kitten in her carrier, paperwork done, etc.--SHABOOM!!! Terrifying amounts of lightning, followed by a deluge of biblical proportions. We were stuck there for the better part of an hour, by which point the shelter was closing and the storm had abated enough to let us reach the car undrenched.

Got home and the power was out, so we had to lug the carrier up six flights in total darkness, using our cellphones for light. (For some reason the emergency generator in our building didn't come on so we didn't have emergency lighting.)

Made for an interesting afternoon.

Thank you for that.  That's a nice bit of insight; those unstable molecules were a stroke of genius on Stan's part back in the day.  Or was it Jack?

Can't remember who initially pitched the idea, but it struck comic gold.

I remember reading somewhere that Alan Davis came up with a nifty theory about Kurt's shadow casting.  Bad form on my part to not have paid closer attention.