Summary

• X-Men Blue: Origins #1 reveals that Nightcrawler is the biological son of Mystique and her wife Destiny, adding tragedy and redemption to his birth story.
• The retcon changes Nightcrawler's parentage, removing Azazel as his father and introducing Destiny into his birth story, creating a tale of love, sacrifice, and manipulation.
• The comic offers a chance for Mystique to repair her strained relationship with her son Kurt, while the relationship between Nightcrawler and Destiny remains uncertain, but the revelation opens up the opportunity for healing and a sense of family among these iconic X-Men characters.

Warning: contains spoilers for X-Men Blue: Origins #1Finally, after decades of speculation, Marvel has canonically confirmed that the X-Men hero Nightcrawler is the biological son of Mystique and her wife Destiny, twisting Kurt's birth story into a tale of tragedy and possible redemption. The major retcon, revealed in X-Men Blue: Origins #1, establishes the tragic truth that Destiny manipulated Mystique into having Nightcrawler, so he could be used as a "tool of fate" to stop the demonic Azazel from ruling the universe.

Nightcrawler's infamous birth story, told two decades ago in 2003's Uncanny X-Men #428, established that Kurt Wagner was fathered by Azazel via Mystique, leading Raven to attempt to murder her newborn son after he was born blue and devilish.

X-Men Blue: Origins #1 - from writer Si Spurrier and artists Marcus To and Wilton Santos - is a beautiful one-shot, masterfully retconning away Azazel's parentage, while introducing Destiny into Kurt's birth story, weaving together a heartbreaking story of true love, sacrifice, and toxic manipulation.

Nightcrawler's Birth Story Is Filled With Joy And Tragedy

Above all else, the most important thing that X-Men Blue: Origins retcons is that Mystique and Destiny are Kurt's true biological parents, fulfilling a plan for the hero that the legendary Chris Claremont set in motion decades ago. However, the one-shot also establishes a series of other important, lore-changing truths, like the fact that Mystique always loved her blue baby boy, and never attempted to murder him. It is revealed that after Kurt's birth, Destiny - knowing that Nightcrawler's heroic heart was the only thing standing in the way of an Age of Azazel - sent the baby away and told the sorceress Margali Szardos where to locate him.

Unsurprisingly, Raven was livid at Irene for manipulating her... convincing her to have an affair with Azazel, so he would believe Kurt was his and persuading her into having Kurt, so he could be sharpened into a "tool of fate" to defeat Azazel. Destiny's visions, and her decisions, are always based on two things; the "greater good" of mutantkind and the continued survival of her and Mystique. The reveal of these deeply hidden secrets rightfully shocks and horrifies Kurt, with him realizing that he has indeed been used as a tool by Destiny, fighting Azazel several times and stopping his various plans for world domination from coming to fruition.

Mystique And Nightcrawler Have A Chance To Repair Their Fraught Relationship

Raven and Irene went to Xavier to have him wipe their memories of why they birthed Kurt, but Mystique demanded she he was her child, and even though Xavier warned this could cause devastating warps in her memory, she forced him to go ahead. Now, Raven's memories have returned in full, and she knows she never attempted to kill her precious baby. Mystique has been a woman filled with rage and contempt since her debut, and there is a chance that part of that deep-seated rage came from knowing somewhere in her heart that things were not right, telling Kurt that "Half my heart was lost" after losing him as a baby.

Finally, Mystique has the chance to repair her tense, regret-filled relationship with her son Kurt, a hero with a seemingly endless supply of forgiveness and understanding within his heart. The same may not be true of Nightcrawler and Destiny's relationship, since it was her who made the active decision to sacrifice him and abandon him to be a pawn. Regardless, even though there is a lot of work to be done, the reveal of the tragic secret of Nightcrawler's birth gives him and his mothers an opportunity for healing, perhaps inspiring the iconic X-Men characters to be the family they always secretly pined for.

X-Men Blue: Origins #1 from Marvel Comics is available now in stores.