Spinning out of the events surrounding his resurrection in “Amazing X-Men,” it looks like Nightcrawler is going to be deemed worthy enough to get his own book — and he’s bringing Chris Claremont back into the Marvel Universe with him.
Set for release this April, Chris Claremont will be writing a brand new “Nightcrawler” ongoing illustrated by Todd Nauck, as revealed in an announcement on Marvel.com. The book will find Nightcrawler taking a tour of the changed landscape of the Marvel X-Verse alongside Wolverine, as Kurt learns about all that he missed and tries to find his place in the new world while also fixing some of the wrongs along the way. Additionally, the book apparently was initially being planned as the relaunch of “X-Men Legacy,” but the book was retitled based on fan response to the character’s return recently, and as such editor Daniel Ketchum promises a book that reminds everyone why we love Nightcrawler at all.
As interesting as this is, I can’t help but reiterate David’s point in today’s Rundown, in that this seems much less innovative than we’d seen at Marvel lately. Given the amount of creators they were bringing in to revitalize and reinvent, putting a classic writer like Claremont on an ongoing X-Title seems a bit more backwards than they’ve been.
That, and it’s actually a bit sad — disappointing, even — that this isn’t a storyline for “Amazing X-Men,” considering that’s the book fans bought to see the return of Nightcrawler in the first place. The switch-around is certainly odd, and after “Wolverine: Weapon X” #16 by Jason Aaron, I see no real reason why “Logan and Kurt traveling the changed landscape of X-Men” would be a story Aaron couldn’t knock out of the park on his own.
But alas, we can’t have Jason Aaron write all the comics.
Look for this in April.
