Kind Of A Mismatch, Don'tcha Think?

Nightcrawler 1-12 (2004-2005)
Marvel Comics
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, writer
Darick Robertson, Wayne Faucher, Jimmy Palmiotti and Rodney Ramos, artists

I was excited to learn in 2004 that Nightcrawler was going to be getting his own solo series.

I've always been drawn to the more monstrous of the Marvel heroes for some reason. The Fantastic Four's Benjamin J. Grimm, popularly known as the Thing; the tragic alter-ego of scientist Bruce Banner, the incredible Hulk; and the X-Men's own Beast and Nightcrawler are easily among my favorites. Don't ask me why. It is simply a fact.

So I was excited by the prospect of one of my favorites getting his own series. Not a miniseries, mind you. Nightcrawler got one of those in 1985 and another in 2002. The former was a fun-filled romp through a number of different dimensions playing up the character's swashbuckler nature. It was also written and drawn by the incomparable Dave Cockrum, the character's co-creator. The 2002 mini was somewhat less impressive, at least going by the knowledge that I know I bought and read it at the time but can't remember what it was about now.

But this was to be an ongoing series. Yay!

I should have been wary about the announced writer of this ongoing series, however. That is not to imply that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is a bad writer. I've rather liked some of his other comics work. But if memory serves, he has something of a reputation for being a horror writer. That certainly fits what he did with the short-lived Nightcrawler series. And I'm afraid that is at least partly what led to the poor sales that most likely killed the series so soon.

These stories aren't bad. In fact, I like the first story arc a great deal. Storm, then the current leader of the X-Men asks Nightcrawler to investigate a locked-room mystery with a very dark twist: the locked room is a youth ward in a mental institution and only one child is left alive when 13 others are torn apart mysteriously. If the lone survivor is not responsible for what happened, an unlikely possibility, then he must have at least seen what happened. But he is so scared, he is not speaking to anyone.

Even Nightcrawler himself points out that this isn't really a mystery that seems to suit either his personality or power set, but he still tries to get to the bottom of the mystery and help the young boy who survived the first incident despite the misgivings of the institution's head physician, a man who has no fondness for costumed heroes. Once that arc is concluded, the next poses another mystery for Nightcrawler to crack, this one involving some souls not yet at rest. Next the X-Men's fuzzy elf must confront some demons from his own past and gets a visit from Mephisto. Along the way, several other X-Men make appearances.

But again, the horror genre doesn't quite seem to fit the mutants' most benevolent soul. I think that might just be what killed off this series before its time. Having said that, these aren't bad stories, just a little mismatched.