10 Dumbest Changes Made To Iconic Comic Characters

Nightcrawler is a quintessential member of the X-Men and a perfect representative of the book's message, he may look like a demon from Hell, but he's really a kind and devout Christian man. Or at least he was until Marvel made him actually the son of a demon.

Kurt Wagner's mother is the X-Men's enemy Mystique, but for a long while it was a mystery who his father was (interestingly, the original idea was for the shapeshifting Mystique to be his father and fellow X-villain Destiny to be his mother). That question was finally answered in 'The Draco' by legendary X-Men ruiner Chuck Austen.

Nightcrawler's father was revealed to be Azazel, the demonic ruler of a dimension similar to Hell who claimed to be the inspiration for the Devil.

The problem is, this completely undercuts the point of Nightcrawler's character. The people who originally persecuted Kurt did so because they were afraid he was a demon and were portrayed as ignorant for doing so because he was actually just a person.

Only now those people were right, Nightcrawler is a demon. Sure they may have been wrong about him being evil, but now their mistake is justified by his demonic heritage rather than being the product of intolerance.

It's not exactly great for a comic that's supposed to be a metaphor for racism.