Let’s face it, the X-Men universe is one giant superpowered soap opera, with countless characters related to each other in various confusing and contradictory ways. Mystique is Charles Xavier’s adoptive sibling in the movies, but in the comics it’s Juggernaut. The list goes on.

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The complicated connection between Azazel and Nightcrawler is another such case that requires an exceptional understanding in X-Men-ology to fully comprehend. Once again, the story was slightly different in the 20th Century Fox films than in the comics, and now things are even more perplexing after a major retcon to Nightcrawler’s origins in a new comic release.

But first, who is this Azazel anyhow?

Azazel, Mystique, and Nightcrawler’s traditional connection, explained

In the comics, Azazel is one of the oldest living mutants around. The leader of the Neyaphem, an ancient order of mutants who have demonic appearances, Azazel is recognizable for his traditional Satanic image, including red skin and arrow-tipped tail. His primary mutant power is his teleportation abilities. Oh, and he’s Nightcrawler’s biological father, with the X-Men member being the product of an affair with Mystique.

The shapeshifting Raven Darkholme once lived as the wife of a wealthy German lord, Baron Christian Wagner, but he could not conceive a child. Mystique proceeded to take lovers in order to produce an heir for the baron, and she embarked on a passionate affair with Azazel, who was posing as Wagner’s business associate. Once her husband discovered her infidelity upon the birth of her blue-skinned baby boy, Raven killed the Baron, fleeing his castle and abandoning Nightcrawler, who goes on to grow up in the circus.

Azazel appeared in Fox’s universe in X-Men: First Class, in which he was portrayed by Jason Flemyng as a Russian mutant and member of the Hellfire Club, the right-hand man to Sebastian Shaw. In Days of Future Past, it’s revealed that he is one of many mutants who was experimented on and murdered by Bolivar Trask as he attempted to develop his Sentinels.

Although Mystique and Azazel were never confirmed to be Kurt’s parents in the films, the fact the two served together in the Hellfire Club left it open to the imagination for a love affair to have taken place prior to his death. Plus, Raven rescues Nightcrawler from a cage match at the beginning of X-Men: Apocalypse.

How Azazel’s relationship to Nightcrawler was just changed forever

X-Men Blue: Origins, from writer Si Spurrier and artist Wilton Santos, rips up the rulebook for Nightcrawler’s backstory and retcons the circumstances of Kurt Wagner’s birth, although he still does have an intrinsic connection to Azazel — just not in any direct way.

It turns out that Azazel isn’t Nightcrawler’s father… Mystique is! If this doesn’t make any sense to you, remember that Raven is a shapeshifter and can take on female and male forms. So when she conceived Kurt, she rewrote her entire biological make-up, using Azazel’s DNA as a template. So, yes, Azazel is still technically Nightcrawler’s father on a genetic level.

OK, so why did Mystique use Azazel’s DNA to produce a child? That’s quite the tale…

When living as Baroness Wagner, Raven got her on/off-again wife Destiny a place in the household so they could continue their relationship. However, things took a dramatic turn when the precognitive Destiny received a vision of Azazel conquering the Earth. The only way to avert this future, Destiny saw, was if he was distracted by the knowledge that he had a son. Thus, the pair conceived Kurt.

In order to hide the truth, Mystique then augmented her natural physical form to appear pregnant, thereby explaining prior flashbacks, and acted as if she was in love with Azazel and carrying his baby. In truth, however, Destiny was carrying Kurt. In order to fulfill the specific parameters of the prophecy, the couple had to abandon their child, as it was fated that he had to suffer in order to derail his “father”‘s reign of terror.

General Hospital has nothing on the X-Men…