In Amazing Spider-Man #161–162 from 1976, Marvel gives us one of those gloriously odd Bronze Age situations that feels less like a plotted crossover and more like writer Len Wein picked two random names out of a jar and said, “Perfect. Let’s start drawing!”
Here’s the setup: Spider-Man, everyone’s favorite guilt-soaked superhero, runs into Nightcrawler, everyone’s favorite blue teleporting demon-acrobat, while the Punisher, everyone’s favorite heavily armed moral quandary, shows up for his fourth-ever appearance. It’s truly astonishing if you ask COTB. Frank Castle was just out of shrink wrap, yet not the unstoppable skull-sticker-selling institution he would become. Literally the Vietnam War, which features prominently in his back story, had only ended the year before. This was truly a fresh out of the box Frank Castle. He was probably still figuring out which pockets were best for ammo clips and whether or not to bring a knife to a gun fight (the answer is yes — as long as you also have a gun). Ten years after later, the Punisher would take over Marvel following the launch of his 1986 limited series. After that, Ole Frankie Boy was everyone’s favorite guest star, and his body count started climbing.
And with that nightmare gearing up, poor, sweet, morally pure Nightcrawler stumbles into the action as part of his first-ever guest-starring opportunity. And, yes, 1975 was big for him, too — he was introduced in that year’s Giant-Size X-Men No. 1! Imagine being our favorite German-born mutant — You’re a kind, sensitive soul who looks like a demon, teleports with a “bamf!” and smells faintly of unmentionable body functions. You want people to understand that appearances can be deceiving. You want them to accept mutants as people, too. Then you meet Frank Castle, a man whose entire life philosophy is: “Appearances are irrelevant; I brought 300 rounds of ammunition and a baker’s dozen of grenades.”
It’s such a strange pairing of guest star and villain. Remember, this is Nightcrawler who later becomes a priest, and this is the Punisher, who has a body count as long as the White Pages.
MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE STOPPED THE PUNISHER BACK THEN
Years later, as that body count climbs from “alarming” to “spreadsheet requires multiple tabs,” how does Nightcrawler feel about letting the Punisher walk away? Does he look back to that early encounter and wince? Not because he created the Punisher. Frank Castle was already the Punisher by that point. But Kurt could have stopped him then and there. Kurt is exactly the sort of person that sees every contact with a person as an opportunity to change them for the better. A moral test, not just for him, but for the person he encountered. Could Kurt have made a difference if he had taken a few minutes to talk with Frank? To try to help him get through his trauma? Or at the very least teleported him into a jail cell?
You can almost imagine Spider-Man and Nightcrawler revisiting the subject every time they meet.
Spidey: “Remember when we both met the Punisher?”
Nightcrawler: “Ja. I have prayed about it.”
Spidey: “”I mostly complained about it.”
Nightcrawler: “It is my greatest failure. I let that man escape. He has since killed so many.”
Spidey: “He says that they were all guilty. That they all needed to be punished.”
Nightcrawler: “That is not his role to judge. It is the lord’s. And because I let him get away, it is now my burden, too.”
Nightcrawler: “My burdens are a lot less esoteric — Rent. Health insurance. Did I leave the oven on?”
AN UNCANNY SPIDER-MAN
By the time of the Uncanny Spider-Man storyline in 2023, Nightcrawler became Spider-Man for a short time. This, of course, was following decades of the Punisher being presented as an anti-hero. By that time, he had crossed over with dozens of do-gooders, notably including Wolverine. It’s at this point the conversation that the Punisher-Nightcrawler-Spidey paradox grows especially awkward. As a mutant and a person who looks like a demon, Kurt knows what it means to be feared on sight. Peter knows what it means to be blamed for everything and to carry a heavy burden that he can never repay. Frank knows what it means to deliver final judgement. Put those three philosophies in a room and you don’t get a fun-filled comic book team-up — you get a very tense Thanksgiving dinner with the relatives.
INSPIRED BY NIGHTCRAWLER
Now consider Frank’s point of view on the events that unfolded in 1976. Did fighting Nightcrawler early on affect him? Maybe Kurt became one of those rare opponents Frank remembered not as a target, but as a source of confusion. Was that Satan? How c0uld a demon be kinder than most humans? Why did he let me go? Does he know what I’ve done? This superhuman could have ended me in moments or simply humiliated me — but didn’t. Why did he ignore me? — These are the sort of things that might actually keep Frank Castle up at night. He sleeps like a baby after battling ninjas, the terrorists and the drug-runners. But that blue-faced demon with a pointy tail? That’s freaky.
Eventually, the Punisher would put two-and-two together and realize that Nightcrawler was one of the X-Men, and Good Ole Frankie Boy loves running into them — especially Wolverine. They’ve probably met more than a dozen times. Most likely way more. And whenever they cross paths, you can’t help but wonder if the topic of the Blue Guy comes up:
Frank: “How’s Nightcrawler?”
Wolvie: “He’s doing great. He told me that if I ever run into you again to tell you that he’d like to talk.”
Frank: “Talk? About what?”
Wolvie: “He’s a priest now. He has worried about you since Day One.”
Frank: “He makes me uncomfortable. Don’t like him.”
Wolvie: “I think that’s you worrying about your own fate.”
Frank: “I’ve never worried before. I’m on a mission.”
Wolvie: “So is he.”
Now that the new Tom Holland Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, includes Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday is including a cameo of Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, this old two-issue oddity suddenly feels less like trivia and more like prophecy wearing bell-bottoms.
You’ve made me want to read this right now!