Nocturne (comics)
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Nocturne (Talia Josephine "TJ" Wagner) is a fictional character, formerly associated with the reality-hopping Exiles. She is from an alternate reality, where she is the daughter of Nightcrawler and the Scarlet Witch.
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[edit] Character history
In the reality from which Nocturne hails, Charles Xavier was attacked several years ago by a Shadow King-controlled Wolverine. Although the Shadow King was expelled from Wolverine's mind, Xavier was fatally wounded in the attack and Logan was left crippled. Shortly after, Jean Grey died and Cyclops, blaming Wolverine for both deaths, abandoned the team, leaving Wolverine and Nightcrawler as the leaders of the X-Men and the Xavier Institute.
TJ grew up around the X-Men and under her father's care, although her mother remained a member of the Avengers. In her reality, Nocturne was an active member of the X-Men since at least the time she was seventeen years old, having faced several of the teams most dangerous foes, including Apocalypse and a vengeance-seeking Scott Summers. Against the latter foe, TJ saved Logan's life by possessing her weakened teammate Armageddon and using his telekinetic powers to move Wolverine's paralyzed arms to impale Cyclops.
Nocturne developed strong relationships with many of her fellow X-Men, including her "Aunt" Kitty Pryde and her boyfriend James Proudstar, her reality's Thunderbird. She was also very close to her father, despite feeling pressured to follow in his footsteps.
When she was twenty years old, Talia was taken by the entity calling itself the Timebroker and told she had become "unhinged in time." The Timebroker told Nocturne that if she did not begin working to right the wrongs that had occurred in various alternate universes, her own timeline would remain altered and she would be returned to a universe in which Nightcrawler had been murdered some time ago by his mother, Mystique. And so Nocturne became a member of the reality-hopping Exiles.
Over the course of the Exiles' first adventures, TJ developed a romantic relationship with teammate John Proudstar, an Apocalypse-altered version of Thunderbird. By the time the team was trapped for a month on a Skrull-dominated alternate Earth, Talia was pregnant with Thunderbird's child. However, John was horribly wounded during his efforts to repel Galactus during the same mission, and was left behind when the team leapt to the next reality. Due to the strain of hopping from dimension to dimension, coupled with having spent most of her pregnancy as a gladiator in a Skrull arena, TJ miscarried the baby. It is unclear whether the miscarriage was natural, or whether she terminated the pregnancy herself. Although devastated by the loss of Thunderbird, TJ remained a competent member of the Exiles and eventually regained much of her sunny demeanor.
When the Exiles came back to the Marvel Universe, they were given a new teammate, Namora, and a new mission: "Leave your possessions and earn your wings". Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four eventually deciphered the mission's meaning: Beak of the New X-Men had to go with the Exiles and Nocturne had to stay behind in the main Marvel Universe (Earth-616). Nocturne's recent appearances in X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and New Excalibur, plus the fact that Beak is back home (although depowered), and finally from discussions in Exiles indicate that she will remain a character in the Marvel Universe for the time being, and will probably not returning to the Exiles, or to her own home, any time soon.
Nocturne then infiltrated Black Tom Cassidy's new Brotherhood, but was sucked in to Xorn's head along with several other characters while attempting to possess Black Tom. She ended up in Mojoworld with the Juggernaut (another Brotherhood mole) and was enslaved by Mojo. To escape, Nocturne took control of Mojo's henchman, Spiral, and opened a portal to the X-Men's Danger Room, where they were reunited with the team. This, however, was a trap set by Spiral who was in more control of her body than thought, leaving a portal open to allow Mojo to cross over as well. Mojo turned the X-Men into X-Babies, but they managed to overpower his forces anyway. The group was re-aged, and Nocturne remained with the X-Men for the time being. Nocturne currently appears in New Excalibur, alongside Juggernaut, Sage, Dazzler, Captain Britain, and Peter Wisdom. During her time with New Excalibur, Nocturne has developed the ability to possess people without knocking them unconscious.
More recently, still living on Earth-616, Nocturne suffered a stroke. She's currently suffering nasty aftereffects, like partial tetraplegia, memory issues and aphasia. It's still uncertain when, and if, she can fully heal.
[edit] Alternate Versions
[edit] X-Men: The End
In X-Men: The End, Nocturne never went home. Instead, she was captured by Tullamore Voge and was turned into one of his slavers. Aliyah Bishop saved her, and Nightcrawler and Phoenix deprogrammed her. She aided the X-Men in the final battle with Cassandra Nova. She was one of the lucky ones to survive, and lived with Nightcrawler and his family. She was seen among the survivors twenty years later at President Kitty Pryde's speech to the mutants.
[edit] House of M
During the House of M reality, Nocturne was sought after by Callisto's Marauders for having royal Magnus blood (being an alternate daughter of the Scarlet Witch), but was protected by Psylocke and Marvel Girl. Marvel Girl allowed TJ to possess her in order to keep her out of the Marauders' reach, but Nocturne ended up taking control, and in a confused daze, flew up and out. Psylocke pursued, eventually culminating in a telekinetic blade battle, which Psylocke won. This allowed Marvel Girl's own consciousness to resurface. The three of them fought off the Marauders together and later helped Captain Britain prevent reality from being destroyed.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Like her father, TJ has a radically unique physiology; she has blue fur covering her body, three fingers per hand and two toes per foot, and has a retractable prehensile tail. This physiology grants her super-human agility and near invisibility when in the shadows, as well as a minor vision enhancement in dark conditions. Nocturne's powers include the ability to enter and possess another person's body for up to 12 hours; the experience usually leaves the other person comatose for up to 24 hours. Nocturne can also fire "hex bolts," destructive projectiles made up of extradimensional energy from the dimension Nightcrawler teleports through. Nocturne also has a degree of latent telepathy, but it was only usable to any degree when enhanced by a Cerebro machine.
She does not appear to possess her mother's reality alteration abilites.
