Over the years Nightcrawler has been given different angles on his exact origin. The general idea was that Nightcrawler, born blue and demonic-looking, was chased out of his hometown in Germany and later joined a Bavarian circus.

Originally, Marvel established that Nightcrawler was the son of Mystique and a German nobleman named Baron Christian Wagner. As the story goes, Mystique was forced to flee Wagner's home when the local villagers discovered her baby had blue skin, and Nightcrawler was found and adopted by the sorceress Margali Szardos.

Nightcrawler was first introduced in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975) and there was no mention of who his parents were. His demonic appearance, tail, and blue fur were simply a product of his mutant biology. The character was created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, with Chris Claremont taking over scripting duties after Wein’s departure.

Nightcrawler debuted in GIANT-SIZE X-MEN (1975) #1 by Lein Wein and Dave Cockrum. On the run from an angry mob in Winzeldorf, Germany, Nightcrawler was rescued by Professor X and recruited for an all-new, all-different X-Men.

Dave Cockrum originally created Nightcrawler while he was in the United States Navy, stationed at Guam. He recounted: "I sat up one night in the middle of a typhoon because it was too noisy to sleep, so I stayed up and thought up this character.