20 Of The Weirdest X-Men Stories Ever

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10. Let’s Make Nightcrawler the Pope

And not only was he set to be the Holy Father, but poor Nightcrawler was kind of going to be the Anti-Christ Pope, too. It’s a tough turn for a character that’s been more recently written as a devout Catholic.

Nightcrawler’s religious nature can be a pretty interesting thing, when written well. After all, he looks downright devilish, what with his blue fur, yellow eyes, and tail. Subverting expectations by making him a person of faith can be pretty compelling. When written poorly, however, he almost becomes the Pope and ends the world.

It more or less starts with an anti-mutant religious group known as the Church of Humanity. They’re associated with the Friends of Humanity, another anti-mutant group that looks practically cuddly next to the rabidly angry Church of Humanity.

As much as anger fuels the Church of Humanity, its plans are often straight-up bonkers. This particular one involved fan favorite mutant, Nightcrawler. As you already know, Nightcrawler is unique in that he’s a religious mutant, a trait that is often played up by recent writers. In this particular storyline, he becomes a priest and starts to make his way up through the ranks in the Catholic church.

Unbeknownst to him, the Church of Humanity is planning to make him the Pope. They then plan to make his image inducer fail, dramatically revealing the Pope to be a furry blue demonic-looking fellow. Then the plan gets a little murky. Somehow, the Church of Humanity plans to make poor Kurt the agent of an apocalypse, something something antichrist, something something anti-mutant riots. Thankfully, this exceedingly strange plot is thwarted in time.