Perhaps the most notable Catholic comic book character besides Matt Murdock (Daredevil) is Kurt Wagner. Like Wagner, Murdock’s powers are not intrinsically related to his devilish appearance. However, unlike Murdock, Wagner was born with both his powers and his appearance. Murdock is a human with enhanced senses from an accident, while Wagner is a mutant.
Whereas some mutants can pass for regular humans, others are cursed not only with powers but with a different appearance. Kurt’s mother Raven (Mystique) is naturally blue in color but can take the form of anyone and thus is able to mask her mutant status. Kurt inherited his mother’s blue coloring but not her powers, thus he is unable to hide as she is.
Rather, Kurt inherited his father’s powers. In the X-Men universe, while mutants do not proliferate until the modern age, some mutants are immortal or at least have unnaturally long lifespans, so they lived in ancient times. One such mutant was a red skinned teleporter named Azazel. He is the father of Nightcrawler.
Many of these ancient mutants were revered as or at least viewed as gods or other mythical and/or supernatural beings. Apparently, such was the case with Azazel. In the Jewish apocryphal Book of Enoch, Azazel is the name of the leader of the fallen angels who father the Nephilim (briefly mentioned in the book of Genesis) and Azazel’s origin story in the comics is quite similar to this, with his followers coming into conflict with a group of mutants who are angelic in appearance and being banished to a different dimension. Thus, Nightcrawler is technically the son of a demon.
Nonetheless, Nightcrawler takes his Catholic faith very seriously. He was even a priest for a short time though this was retconned to have been an illusion. In the movie X-2, Nightcrawler takes refuge in a church after he is brainwashed into attempting to assassinate the President. He is later seen praying the Rosary and explains that he has a tattoo on his body “one for every sin” he has committed. He also appears in X-Men: Apocalypse, where he prays before going into battle against the eponymous villain of the movie, in the course of which ends up fighting a mutant who looks like an Angel. Mystique is a character in all these movies and Azazel makes an appearance in X-Men: First Class, but there is no mention of any familial relationship to Kurt.
Thomas J. McIntyre
Thomas J. McIntyre is a teacher and amateur historian. He holds an MA in History from Georgia Southern University. In addition to the Voyage blog, he writes for Catholic 365 and on his personal blog "Pope Damasus and the Saints." He resides in Louisiana with his wife Nancy-Leigh and daughters Kateri and Alice.