Fuzzy, blue Hollywood mega-star Kurt Wagner finds himself facing a mystery woman who has somehow managed to make it into the very secure facility that is his movie studio. Her interest in him leads to a somewhat challenging investigation in the third issue of The Amazing Nightcrawler. Seanan McGuire brings a bit of an enigma into the life of Kurt. Juan Frigeri handles the art with colors by Dono Sánchez-Almara. With bits of the backstory firmly established in the first couple of issues of the mini-series, McGuire is able to build a story that allows some tenuous heroism to creep into its title character.

Kurt Wagner is face-to-face with Mystique in the opening pages of the issue. It’s the Age of X-Man and evidently, in THIS world, they have never met. She knows who HE is though. Her sudden appearance in his movie studio prompts a swift physical altercation that leaves Kurt with a great many questions. He pulls a few strings to investigate the file of a young girl that Mystique was interested in. She looks a lot like him and even though he doesn’t remember her, he knows she’s his daughter. Things are about to get very confusing for Kurt.

McGuire finds an appealing rhythm to the mystery that faces Kurt. The opening meeting with Mystique mixes mystery with action in equal parts. The issue then shifts quite compellingly to the mystery of a file for a four-year-old girl that was evidently of interest to Mystique. The interpersonal drama between Kurt and Meghan amplifies a bit as it is cast into the mystery that they are both beginning to explore before business calls and he needs to make a public appearance. There’s a very natural flow to the events that keep the story of this particular Nightcrawler interesting for another issue.

Frigeri is juggling a lot of different elements in the issue, but he never loses track of the central character. Kurt’s inner struggles are vividly brought to the page in the art that frames emotion graphically without exaggerating intensity. Frigeri has a very good relationship with the shadows he’s casting in nearly every panel. The shadowy world of Nightcrawler serves the story quite well. Those shadows are given depth by Sánchez-Almara’s colors, which feel particularly rich and varied this issue. More than simply rendering light and shadow, Sánchez-Almara gives Nightcrawler’s world a rush sense of texture as well.

With only a couple of issues left to go in the mini-series, McGuire and company appear to be right on track to really get this series going right before it has to end. With the sheer number of titles that comprise the Age of X-Man mega-event, it was bound to happen that one of them might end up frustratingly reaching its most satisfying moments uncomfortably close to the end of the event. For now, it’s okay, though. The Amazing Nightcrawler’s third issue is one of the few genuinely good issues in the Age of X-Man thus far.

Grade: A