X-Men Blue: Origins #1

X-Men Blue: Origins #1 is a triumph. It adds further development to Marvel's most iconic queer couple as well as harmoniously reframing decades of messy continuity disputes. Spurrier's previous work in the X-Men's Krakoan era has drawn fair criticism of late, in particular his treatment of women of color. This issue contrasts as a stark high note, one that Uncanny Spider-Man #5 hopefully sticks the landing on. Read Full Review

Mystique, Destiny and Nightcrawler all get beautifully illustrated, long-overdue overhauls. Pity about all the misogyny. Read Full Review

Watching creators weave a widely panned mistake into a compelling comic book is the sort of magic that can only happen in the exceedingly strange history of Marvel Comics. Read Full Review

X-Men Blue: Origins #1 really is for those that care about the small details and need to know definitive origins. So far, its impact feels like what's teased about Mystique's power will have greater ramifications than the connection between her and Nightcrawler. Not a bad issue and some interesting history of the characters but overall what comes out of it, if anyhting, feels like it'll matter more. Read Full Review

X-Men Origins: Blue #1 provides a new backstory for Nightcrawler that seems like a bold decision for little reason at this point in the game. Read Full Review

An interesting story bringing back to the original intentions of several characters is aided further by amazing artwork and colors. Read Full Review

Spurriers script is top notch and delivers these events with the right amount of poignancy, but the art team of Wilton Santos, Oren Junior, Marcus To, and Ceci de la Cruz are a huge part of why the material works as well as it does. X-Men Blue: Origins #1 is an emotional story, and the visuals need to reflect that. They sell the grandiose nature of the events depicted while also making it engaging to follow page by page. Read Full Review

X-Men Blue: Origins #1 delivers a story that builds a stronger connection to Mystique, Destiny, and Nightcrawler's family bond. Si Spurrier, Wilton Santos and Marcus To add new layers to all three characters, with Mystique once again showing why she should be a lead of her own comic book. Hopefully we see Mystique, Nightcrawler, and Destiny's story continue to be followed up on post-Fall of X. Read Full Review

If you're in favor of the new retcon that Mystique and Destiny are Nightcrawler's father and mother, then this issue does a perfectly fine job of spelling it out for you. Read Full Review

cincyfan

Dec 02, 2023

Wow! What a absolute triumph of a book. I have been reading comic books since the early '90's and love it now more than ever. Stories like this steeped in emotion with beautiful character moments and heart really reinforce my love for these stories. What a amazing read this was I wish I could score it higher than 10

Ryan

Dec 25, 2023

Damn.

CrazyforRAMU

Nov 14, 2025

Is the narrative structure flawed? Yes, a little. Is the continuity work messy? Undoubtedly. Is it a little too much of an Uncanny Spider-Man bonus issue and not enough of a standalone one-shot? I say yes. And the flaws don't matter, because this is a momentous and moving story. The creators bring it to life with passion, making it much more than a set of continuity footnotes, making it easy to sympathize and empathize with the characters. The art, in particular, is remarkable--all the more so for being a collaborative effort.

KittyNone

Nov 29, 2023

Once upon a time X-Men was written by a legend who worked under a regime who asserted that homosexuality did not exist in the Marvel universe but who were, as bigots often are, too dense to see queercoding happening right under their noses (like constantly). Later, the gap left by unfulfilled ambitions was by a writer who is also legendary, but in a bad way. And now that history has come to a point where we can say the quiet part loud, the task of reconciling Claremont's original intent with Austen's infamous replacement (and Lobdell's kind of incoherent Unlimited issue) falls to Si Spurrier, Wilton Santos & Marcus To. Unfortunately, that leaves little room for anything but doing the tedious accounting necessary to square these disparate versions of Kurt's origin so that people won't get grumpy that the writers are ignoring a Chuck Austen story that everyone hates. But these exercises are a part of superhero comics that we'll never truly be rid of, and Spurrier, Santos & To spice it up as best they can. Much of this comes down to the mysterious Bamf from Uncanny Spider-Man providing what the character himself describes as a Greek chorus, and your opinion of this story will definitely be driven by how much you do or do not like the character. Personally, I think he's the kind of idea that would be cute and clever in an issue of Generation X from 1994 (or even Morrison's Batman in 2009) but who's a bit tiresome and cliche in 2023, and a whole issue of him constantly talking is a recipe for irritation for me personally. Still, I'd rather have him livening up the bookkeeping than stick to pure infodumps. How does the new origin work? Well, it's Frankensteined together from disparate parts, some long-awaited and some better forgotten, but they do a fairly solid job of hammering these things together to make something that will get up off the table and move as well as it needs to, giving us sapphic fans the origin we've been waiting for and giving us all permission to never ever mention Azazel again. I'm satisfied! Tl;dr: As a comic, it's only a little more entertaining than just reading a plot summary online, but the team dives into a unenviably difficult assignment with style and vigor and style and come up with a workable Nightcrawler origin whose cumbersome-but-obligatory intricacies can be quietly excised by future writers. It's as good as it's going to be and maybe a little better, and that's the best you can ask for an exercise like this. Probably a 7 on its merits but I'll add a point out of respect for the difficulty, because this really was an impossible assignment. more

derbycomics

Dec 01, 2023

I can’t deny there are some pretty powerful panels in the issue, especially Mystique’s thoughts on what the true lines of binary division, but there are still some problematic elements. What was the team thinking using an annoying Bamf character as the narrator? Did Spurrier really feel like the issue needed a layer of humor to balance the poignant tone of the rest of the story? If so, he failed miserably because it was a terrible attempt at humor and completely took me out of the moment every time the character appeared. The toxic portion of the comic book fandom will claim Spurrier went too far retconning canonical stories, but the reveal of Nightcrawler’s true parentage was always part of Claremont’s initial thoughts for all o f the characters involved. So in reality, this was making the characters whole and I thought it was done really well. Overall, Spurrier masterfully weaves together the threads of Nightcrawler, Mystique, and Destiny’s histories, exploring the intricate dynamics between Nightcrawler and Mystique and Mystique and Destiny. He captures the emotional resonance of these two different relationships, highlighting the love, betrayal, and lingering scars that define each character individually. more

Klaushenna

Dec 09, 2023

A well written emotional and impactful comic (apart from the beginning - I didn't care for the narrator, it was just a poor attempt at comedy). The worst part of the comic is that the retcon raises a hell of a lot of questions - why even bother with this retcon if its just going to mess up the timeline?

Screaming Enigma

Dec 15, 2023

There are positives and negatives for me when it comes to this book. I really feel as though we didn't need a whole one-shot for this, as I think it could have been part of an issue for Uncanny Spider-Man or even just an issue of that series as a whole instead. Most people knew what the point of this was anyways, myself included. With that out of the way, I think Spurrier does a solid job of handling what I'm sure was a tough task when it comes to retconning Mystique and Destiny to be Nightcrawler's biological parents, as was the initial idea from Chris Claremont (AKA the co-creator of the former two) during his acclaimed run on X-Men. Also, I feel like most of the people complaining about this retcon happening don't even really know what t hey're mad at and if you're upset because you think an X-Men comic is "woke," then you probably shouldn't be reading an X-Men comic in the first place. Anyways, to sum up, this was far from being the best comic in the world, but I think it's good for what it is and I'm glad that this is Nightcrawler's origin. Also check out KittyNone's review on this, as it's much more well-written than mine. more

Toonstrack

Nov 30, 2023

Its actually a pretty decent issue. Overpriced but a well told issue.nut I have some complaints. Nightcrawler remains the absolute best and mystique is still kinda the worst. Destiny doesn't play any part in this reveal and it seems she actually doesn't even know the truth as she willingly had Xavier wipe it from their minds. She's obviously present in the flashbacks. However, the retcon is still messy. Destiny should definitely gave been an old lady by the events depicted, the scene with kid rogue is wonky, and its unclear why Xavier acquiescences to the request of destiny and mystique, when it happens, etc... thats entirely glossed over. They basically go to him and say "hey man take this off of our minds" and hes like "lol ok" T he moment mystique finds she's talking to Kurt and immediately goes back to her cold emotionless mask is brilliant tho, as is their final embrace. She literally cannot view current nighrcrawler in a motherly way, she talks about her son like he isn't still there becayse its too much for her and she doesn't really know how to love. Even her scenes with destiny, she's viscous. She points a gun at her head, strangles her.... good old raven lol. Its a decent issue, I just question why this was needed. It doesn't fundamentally do anything but retcon out an old story arc, and add to mystique some powers that push the limits of her inconsistency. It makes destiny darn near incorrigible, and changes little about Kurt except that fundamentally he has 2 moms and 4 parents total... or something. The little speech raven gives about the only binary between sexes and sexuality rings hollow coming from someone who's done more evil than most, and feels like the writer is getting a little too preachy. But that's si Spurrier so you should've expected that. The biggest crime tho is that its too obvious. Pretty much everyone foresaw this coming when this was announced, and it was exactly what we were thinking. Its a good read, but not my preferred sort of retcon. Thankfully the nightcrawler bits make it great becayse njghtcrawler is great. more

Kenjamin

Mar 08, 2024

Art: 4/5 Story: 3.5/5 Total: 7.5/10

Avanvolk

Oct 23, 2025

I'm finding it difficult to know what to think of this. I like the way this added depth to the relationship between Kurt and Mystique. I liked how Spurrier weaved the narrative together using flashbacks and gap-filling; I thought that was pretty skillfully done. I liked the art throughout. However...I'm not sure how necessary the retcon was. Yes, it adds depth to Kurt and Mystique's relationship, but I feel like there were other ways to accomplish that without messing with Marvel history. What does Mystique being Kurt's...dad (I guess?) and Irene being his mom add to anything? Also...if Azazel is no longer (or never was?) Kurt's father...then where the F does Kurt get his pointy ears, demon tail, and teleportation powers from?? Are we just going to say that Mystique made him look that way? That she...altered her sperm (ugh)...when she knocked up Destiny in order to make him look like Azazel? Was she essentially copying Azazel's genetic code (as Doc Nemesis says she's able to do in his journal entry)? And if so, then doesn't that technically still make Azazel the father, biologically speaking? Was it basically just using a sperm donor but weirder? I have lots of questions, and I doubt I'm going to get any canonical answers, which makes it hard to find satisfaction in a retcon like this. Also, my last quibble is that I'm really tired of Xavier always being made the bad guy. more

Veela

Oct 22, 2024

Mixed bag but some bright spots.

Out of Gluck

Nov 29, 2023

Has some good retcons, has some unnecessary retcons. The X-Office continues to vilify Xavier and soften villains. Can Spurrier be done with Nightcrawler now?

maljoss

Nov 29, 2023

This comic was pointless. Which, for 6 bucks, is inexcusable. There were multiple pencilers/inkers on this which created some inconsistencies, but overall, the art was pretty good. There was the one page that was completely black, except for a white bampf-thing, which I hope will be explained at some point. Some of the splash pages were excellent and really evoked the emotion they were going for. For people who were pulling for the Mystiqe / Destiny origin, congratulations, it's a boy. I say this was pointless because the entire story relayed in this oversize comic could have been competently told in 12 panels, in the pages of Uncanny Spiderman. Most of it was filler (see the above mentioned bampf-thing). We didn't learn anything particulaly surprising -the reveal was telegraphed a long time ago - and the story doesn't go anywhere, or set up any new story seeds. I've enjoyed Spurrier's extended ( and serial) run with Nightcrawler. I was hoping for better. more

Jack C.

Dec 02, 2023

Once upon a time, some dude proposed the ridiculous idea that Wolverine's origin should be of him being an overgrown-over-evolved wolverine, the actual animal. I will not spoil the plot of this comic but I'm giving you an idea of how ridiculous the retcon is. Next week mystique will grow bat wings or something but for copyright issues Marvel will call her Woman-Bat. You see, this is a major problem with Marvel since the year 2012 when Carol Danvers was inexplicably changed into Captain Marvel: they have point A, they have point B, and the bridge between them is nonsense. And they will not justify their points on the page, oh no. Our authors will argue their points on Twitter using off-the scenes issues. It reminds me of professional wre stlers and them constantly bringing up real-life issues in what should be a fictional representation of fighting. If you're a Nightcrawler fan, you should ignore this trash just like you should also ignore Chuck Austen's similarly stupid origin. Some origins are better not told. Like Wolverine. I'm just giving a 5 because the artists deserve some merit for making this mess of a story that makes no sense pretty to look at. more

+ Like • Comments (1)

Softboy - Dec 3, 2023

Cope homophobe

ResearchReader

Dec 04, 2023

It's so stupid, it just might work! No... its just stupid. This is side Spurrier's trademark. He thinks he is smart but in reality writes like how a dumb person thinks a smart person writes. More recons from Marvel that don't surprise me in the least. For those who defend this by saying 'But Chris Claremont wanted this from the get go!' I would like to remind you that other writers in the earlier ages also wanted to make Sue Storm sleep around and Mr. Fantastic to 'like to watch' but editors stepped in to because that is batcrap crazy. I love Claremont but no writer is without their crazy nonsensical ideas. We use to have great editors like Shooter to keep things in line. Marvel and DC (but especially Marvel) editors are asleep at the wheel allowing anything to occur, good lore or not. Tl dr, I wish people understood how important high quality editors are. Without them you get Marvel in its current state. more

Nikita14

Dec 06, 2023

I really love the idea behind nightcrawlers lineage. There are just certain elements of the story that annoy me too much to really enjoy, especially with the price of the comic. 1: It is heavily reliant on the narration it left me feeling spoon-fed (Could there have been a way to make it less exposition dumpy?). 2: Certain dialogue felt flowery such as "...nihilism and the illusion of meaning." 3: There was a moment mystique points flaws of society and the essentialist perspective. To which, I didn't feel there was enough punch to it with the line she gives. 4: Very expressive art nothing felt static and that to me is a massive bonus! because the part which caught my eye is where she says "see me" revealing her identity while ho lding baby nightcrawler, capturing her in the moment at peace visually. more