••

Of all the strange things that happened after I left the book, that might be the strangest.

When I was still working on UNCANNY, Chris one day decided he wanted Nightcrawler to be Jewish, and very devout. Roger Stern, as editor, and I pointed out that at that time (the late Seventies) there were not a whole lot of German Jews of Kurt's age, so many of their potential parents having been victims of the Holocaust. So that idea went away.

But a few years later, Chris revealed that Kurt was Catholic--and very devout.

Oy.

••

I was tempted to include a Prolog with a couple of pages from 140, to set up this scene, but I decided to limit the reference to a single comment I assumed most of my readers would catch.

When I was still working on UNCANNY, Chris one day decided he wanted Nightcrawler to be Jewish, and very devout. Roger Stern, as editor, and I pointed out that at that time (the late Seventies) there were not a whole lot of German Jews of Kurt's age, so many of their potential parents having been victims of the Holocaust. So that idea went away.

But a few years later, Chris revealed that Kurt was Catholic--and very devout.

Yeah... And Magneto happened to be jewish...

I don't remember in what issue but someone says that Nightcrawler has faith... And of course he was so faithful he became a priest!

••

I asked a Jewish friend and comic reader how he felt about that little "revelation" and he said "It's great! About time we had our own mass murderer!"

••

I've mentioned before that a defining scene-I-could-never-do for Logan would be to have the rest of the team come down for breakfast to find him munching on cereal with Kitty lying disemboweled on the floor. Seems she's said "Good morning" in just the wrong tone of voice....

A young woman shows up at the Mansion, looking for Xavier. Turns out she is the granddaughter of an old professor of his, someone who was very important to Charles in his youth. She tells him that her granddfather is dying, and has asked to see Charles.

Xavier goes with her to the hospital, but the old man is already too far gone to even know Charles is there. The granddaughter cries as she remembers the life the old man lead, including being a survivor of the Holocaust. "All those memories will be lost forever when he dies," she says. Xavier thinks "Perhaps not..." and when he has a moment alone with his old friend reaches into the man's mind and creates a "recording" of all that he has experienced.

The implication (which I would probably not have been allowed to state in so many words) is that when Magneto was turned into a baby Xavier planted all those memories in his mind, kind of as a "time release capsule" that would shape his personality as he grew up, and turn him away from his murderous ways. ("If only this power could be harnessed for Good...") Unfortunately, Erik the Red accelerated Magneto's growth process and Xavier's plan got messed up. The memories came to him all jumbled.

I imagined Magneto one day discovering what Xavier had done--ie, that all this memories belonged to someone else--and becoming once again the nasty piece of work we'd always known and loved.