What is it about Darick Robertson's art? It's at once cartoony and macabre, and off-putting combination, though perfect for the tone of this Nightcrawler series. Robertson manages the stylization of someone like Kelley Jones merged with the superheroness of John Romita circa The Avengers, a style that just slightly caricaturizes (almost) everyone in the book. I say almost because Nightcrawler himself is portrayed with almost an angelic, innocent beauty about him, a very interesting choice to make considering his demonic appearance. Nightcrawler himself makes an interesting case for us in refuting the Socratic (?) idea that one's outward appearance reflects one's inward. Of all of the X-Men, Kurt has long been the focus of this kind of metaphoric use - Othering through visual differentiation. A huge part of his narrative arc, which we also see in this series with his use of an image inducer to hide his true appearance. Is there some way we could theorize this through ideas surrounding drag. But rather than release a flamboyant person within, Kurt's drag disguises that very person. In his Nightcrawler "form," he's swashbuckling, gallant, acrobatic. In his normative disguise, he's very plain. There's actually a story in the first issue of Girl Comics that has Nightcrawler portrayed in a very feminine manner. I'll have to think on this a bit more as I read through the series - is Nightcrawler a feminized character? What exactly does that mean, and why?
To be continued.
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