Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: bob quinn, jonathan hickman, krakoa, marvel, mutant religion, nightcrawler, sio spurrier, way of x, x-men

Nightcrawler Has Been Starting A New Mutant Religion For Some Time

Published Mon, 11 Jan 2021 07:50:17 -0600

by Rich Johnston

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Promoting the upcoming X-Men series Way Of X by Si Spurrier and Bob Quinn, Marvel stated "The soul of Krakoa is at stake. Only Nightcrawler and his team can help mutants defeat their inner-darkness and find a new way to live. This is the "Way of X"!"

Spurrier is keen to state "I should probably just tell a lie for the sake of a neat elevator pitch and say that WAY OF X is a story about the creation of a new mutant religion. But it's not—not really. That's kinda where it starts, for sure. Nightcrawler realises something's wrong with the hearts and minds of mutantkind and sets out to fix it. But as he quickly discovers, this isn't a job for priests and prayers… The question is, what do they have to become in order to fight it? Preachers? Cops? Executioners? Or something entirely new?"

Nightcrawler, Starting A New Mutant Religion In Way Of X — Nightcrawler in Leinil Yu's X-Men #7

It was a line dropped by Nightcrawler in X-Men #7 but then, as with many X-Men plots, deliberately dropped to be picked up at a later date.

There was that tease in the Reign Of X image that suggested such. And it might it might make sense of certain teases in recent issues of Hellions, titles courtesy of Nightcrawler:

We must heal ourselves! The peace promised in death is no more.
I do wonder which binds us more… Xavier's ideals or the trauma of being mutant. The dream or the pain.
May I be heard in this: the challenges of the soul outweigh those of the body.
Either we befriend the sorrows of the past, or they destroy us.
The soul of a man does not hate. The hate is a separate thing.
Cumbersome armor forged in neglect and fear.
Those whose violence you do not understand have often seen horrors you cannot imagine.
It is folly to create an Eden if one has no use for snakes.
Remember always that our mutations were born from pain. When we train our gifts on our enemies, we train our sorrow, our past, our battered souls. Let us be wary of using these sacred things for war.

There was also a scene in X-Force #12, with the Xeno Russians, experimenting with the body of Quentin Quire, in X-Force #12. Quentin was killed by a Russian infiltrator, who stabbed Quentin with the Cerebro Sword and pushed him into a gateway to land at the feet of Mikhail Rasputin, who intended to use Quentin's body for genetic experimentations.