X-Men’s Nightcrawler Secretly Has Hundreds Of Kids In Another Dimension

Despite the fact that he was originally designed to be one of the more bizarre-looking X-Men, the teleporting mutant Kurt Wagner (aka Nightcrawler) soon established himself as quite the ladies’ man – with many females fawning over his indigo skin/fur, three fingered hands, and prehensile tail. Maybe it was the confidence Kurt carried himself with, or how genuinely comfortable he seemed in his own skin, but women basically found him irresistible.

Yet even Nightcrawler was shocked when he journeyed to an alternate dimension and came across several pint-sized versions of himself who all insisted on calling him “Daddy.” While this might sound as if Kurt was an irresponsible philanderer who had been secretly fathering hundreds of children, the truth was far more bizarre…

Kitty’s Fairy Tale

Nightcrawler’s extended family had their origins way back in The Uncanny X-Men #153 in a now-classic story by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, and Josef Rubinstein called “Kitty’s Fairy Tale.” Taking place during Kitty Pryde’s early days with the X-Men, the comic had Kitty tell Colossus’ little sister Illyana Rasputin a bedtime story.

Taking inspiration from several classic fairy tales, Kitty wove a story where she reimagined herself as “Pirate Kitty” who committed heroic deeds with her true love Colossus. The two swashbucklers later found the wizard Xavier and his lord Prince Cyclops and learned Cyclops’ beloved Princess Jean had been transformed into the Dark Phoenix.

When it came time to reimagine Nightcrawler and Wolverine, however, Kitty drew inspiration from a different source – Looney Toons. Kurt wound up becoming a “Bamf” – a pint sized blue imp who hit on women like Pepé Le Pew. Logan, meanwhile, got the even shorter end of the stick when he was recast as a grouchy ape-like creature with more than a passing resemblance to the Tasmanian Devil. Thankfully, the motley crew worked well together and managed to reunite the Dark Phoenix with her soul, bringing Princess Jean back. The issue ended with a caption stating that with all the realities in the multiverse, Kitty’s Fairy Tale could very well exist in a parallel world – which turned out to be true later on.

Nightcrawler Meets the Bamfs

While Kitty’s fairy tale (and the Bamf) appeared to be complete products of Kitty’s imagination, later comics showed this was not the case. During the original Nightcrawler comic book miniseries from 1985 by Dave Cockrum (who had helped provide art for “Kitty’s Fairy Tale”), Kitty accidentally created a “Well of Time” in the X-Men’s Danger Room that dragged Nightcrawler (and Kitty’s dragon Lockheed) into several alternate realities. Nightcrawler and Lockheed have several adventures in these parallel worlds – they join the crew of an air pirate ship, save an alien princess, and battle a humanoid shark-wizard named “Shagreen.”

At one point, however, Kurt winds up in a strange yet oddly familiar land populated by the miniature “Bamf” versions of himself from Kitty’s Fairy Tale. Even weirder, every single Bamf seems to recognize him and calls him “Daddy.” Flabbergasted by these mini-Nightcrawlers, Kurt quickly remembers Kitty’s story and realizes he wound up on a world identical to the one she had created for Illyana. When Kurt asks one Bamf why he keeps calling him “Daddy,” the Bamf simply replies, “You look like me and you’re three times the size of any Bamf I ever saw… That makes you the Daddy Bamf, right?”

Before he can get too acquainted with his “children,” the shark-wizard Shagreen returns and kidnaps all the Bamfs (save the first one Nightcrawler met). Instead of being upset, the Bamf is delighted that now that his brothers are all gone, “I get all the girls to myself.” Nightcrawler later meets the “Girl Bamfs” (who he finds all look like his “kid sister”) and learns that the Bamfs’ high population is due to the boys’ “overenthusiasm” and the girls’ flirtatious nature.

Thankfully, Kurt’s Bamf still helps him team up with the Pirate Kitty, Colossus, and the other alternate X-Men of this world to stop Shagreen. Unfortunately, Shagreen still manages to capture all the rest and combines them into a giant “Dark Bamf” to send after Nightcrawler (yes, really). The team escapes thanks to the efforts of Storm’s doppelganger “Wind Rider” and Nightcrawler helps revert his children to normal – only to be tossed through several more dimensions before finally arriving home.

The Return of the Bamfs

While Kurt kept his status as the Bamfs’ “daddy” a secret, plush “Bamf” dolls began showing up in X-Men comics over the next several years, revealing Nightcrawler’s impish but friendly doppelgangers had become quite the merchandising hit in the Marvel Universe. Unfortunately, the Bamfs subsequent appearances were far more sinister.

In Excalibur #118, Ben Raab and Mel Rubi brought back the Bamfs as crueler, more mean-spirited imps. This time claiming they had been created from Kitty’s imagination (and were not independent beings from their own dimension), they teamed up with the supervillain Nightmare to travel to her dimension and kidnap her. Kitty and Nightcrawler thwarted their plans, but this wasn’t the end of the Bamfs. Years later, in the Wolverine and the X-Men series by Jason Latour and Mahmud Asrar, a completely new breed of Bamfs showed up on the school grounds of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.

These new Bamfs did not seem to have any relationship with the previous Bamfs as they could not say anything except “Bamf!” (although Nightcrawler could understand them) and usually ran around naked or in miniature suits. They were also troublemakers and vandals, although they did assist the heroes in some fights. In Amazing X-Men #4, Nightcrawler revealed that these new Bamfs were, in fact, “my flesh and blood… they’re my little brothers.” Turns out these Bamfs were born in the depths of Hell to a giant maggot mother and a changeling father. Abandoned and found by Nightcrawler’s demon father Azazel, the creatures became miniature red versions of him after he fed them his blood.

Nightcrawler eventually came across the Bamfs after he was killed and went to Heaven. To bring them to his side, he bartered his soul, turned a large friendly group of them blue, and used them in his own fight against Azazel. Kurt eventually returned back to life and brought several Bamfs back to Earth with him.  Thus, although the Bamfs started out as basically joke characters, a reimagined version of them really did end up becoming Nightcrawler’s children from another dimension!

About The Author

Michael Jung
(700 Articles Published)

Michael Jung is a mild-mannered freelance writer-for-hire, actor, and professional storyteller with a keen interest in pop culture, education, nonprofit organizations, and unusual side hustles. His work has been featured in Screen Rant, ASU Now, Sell Books Fast, Study.com, and Free Arts among others. A graduate of Arizona State University with a PhD in 20^th Century American Literature, Michael has written novels, short stories, stage plays, screenplays, and how-to manuals.

Michael’s background in storytelling draws him to find the most fascinating aspects of any topic and transform them into a narrative that informs and entertains the reader. Thanks to a life spent immersed in comic books and movies, Michael is always ready to infuse his articles with offbeat bits of trivia for an extra layer of fun. In his spare time, you can find him entertaining kids as Spider-Man or Darth Vader at birthday parties or scaring the heck out of them at haunted houses.

Visit Michael Jung’s website for information on how to hire him, follow him on Twitter Michael50834213, or contact him directly: michael(at)michaeljungwriter(dot)com.

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