Marvel's First Nightcrawler Was a Hulk Villain | Screen Rant
Marvel’s first version of Nightcrawler was not the fun-loving mutant we all know and love but instead was actually a Hulk villain. In The Incredible Hulk #126 by the legendary team of Roy Thomas (Avengers) and Herb Trimpe (Spider-Man), the Hulk must fight the fearsome Nightcrawler after being abducted by cultists and banished to another dimension. It was also one of the first meetings between The Hulk and Doctor Strange, which would later lay the foundation for The Defenders!
When comic book fans think about Nightcrawler, they often will conjure up images of the blue, fuzzy, happy-go-lucky mutant that has been a staple of the X-Men comics since his introduction in 1975. But just five years earlier, Marvel tried the name out for the first time, and this version could not be any more different. A large, hulking brute who patrols the borders between dimensions, this Nightcrawler resembles a heavily-armored version of the Spider-Man enemy The Rhino.
In the previous issue, the Hulk had reverted back to Bruce Banner after a fight with The Absorbing Man. The Cult of the Undying Ones find the unconscious Banner and bring him back to their mansion. The cult’s leader, Van Nyborg, wants to use The Hulk to destroy their enemies. Banner warns him that his presence alone is “playing with fire” but Van Nyborg will not hear it and banishes Banner to another dimension. He quickly runs afoul of The Nightcrawler. When a member of the cult who had feelings for Banner is also banished to the same dimension, it is enough to trigger his transformation into The Hulk. Nightcrawler proves a formidable match for The Hulk, using a wide array of weapons against him, but at the end of it, he is no match for the Hulk’s sheer brute strength.
Meanwhile, Doctor Strange has been imprisoned within the same dimension, and the Hulk runs across him. Strange cannot leave his prison unless someone takes his place. The cultist banished to the dimension takes Strange’s place and he and The Hulk depart, and Hulk transforms back to Banner. Strange gives Banner a fresh change of clothes and sends him on the way. Soon after, the two would be the first members of The Defenders.
The name “Nightcrawler” invokes stealth and agility - two qualities the Nightcrawler the Hulk faced sorely lacked, and the fuzzy elf of The X-Men has in spades. He was nothing more than a generic bruiser but that has not stopped him from making a few more appearances, although he now goes by the name Deathcrawler. And while Deathcrawler has faded into obscurity, this is still a key issue, as it lays the foundation for one of Marvel’s most beloved teams.