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Nightcrawler was killed in the recent Second Coming storyline. However, given the odd facial tattoo, this isn’t the Nightcrawler that we know.
X-Force’s adventures recently brought them to the Age of Apocalyse, the alternate reality in which Charles Xavier never created the X-Men. In this world, we discover different versions of many of our favorite heroes. Nightcrawler, while a member of Magneto’s X-Men, is completely different from the Nightcrawler of Xavier’s X-Men; AoA Nightcrawler is a hardcore, sadistic 
fighter. So, needless to say, he will fit right in among the ranks of X-Force, whose past missions have been less than savory.
Is this Marvel’s way of bringing a fan-favorite character back into their storylines without raising them from the dead? Well, yeah. Clearly it is. Does that mean it’s a bad idea? In no way.
It’s also not the first time Marvel has shuffled characters from other universes before. Nate Grey and the Dark Beast both made their way from the Age of Apocalypse timeline into regular continuity. Nocturne switched places with Beak, a fledgling member of the X-Men, while he took off with the universe-hopping super team, the Exiles.
I love the fact that Marvel made this return to the Age of Apocalypse and that they are salvaging some of the characters. Exiles quickly became one of my favorite titles because it brought back and put the spotlight on Blink, who was quite awesome in Astonishing X-Men.
Check out Uncanny X-Force #19, hitting stores in December, for the full story of Nightcrawler’s return.
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See now I really want Nate Grey on X-force now to be part of the AoA thing and to be more Cable-ish
I like the way you think.
AWESOME!!! The return of Nightcrawler…well, um…sorta…eh.
I dunno. It kind of misses the point of X-Calibre, which was Warren Ellis' way of showing that the lovable Kurt of 616 always had the potential to go off the deep-end and that it wouldn't be pretty. His use of the character in Excalibur proper didn't get bogged down in his religious faith (ugh….Chuck Austen…) and instead revealed that yes, all those years of swashbuckling had made Kurt a badass.
In AoA though he was also a violent, callous killer. He teleported Wade's head into a rock. Ellis made us miss the compassionate, fun-loving Kurt of the proper Marvel U. Bearing that in mind his shuffling off and replacement with this doppelganger seems counter-productive.
He was really religious because of who took him in after mystique dropped him. That never happened in AoA so he would be more dark
Well yes, but that was the point. Ellis emphasised the compassion of Nightcrawler as a character, including his embracing of a faith that would have been quite difficult for him to maintain considering his appearance (an idea of Claremont's that I quite like really, and something which the likes of Austen and Kirkman in the Ultimate title went out of their way to undermine).
This sourcing of a popular crossover series for a new method of resurrecting characters – Nightcrawler, Nate Gray, Madelyne Pryor – feels cheap,and to be honest I would have preferred if the hardened yet still compassionate Kurt of Ellis' Excalibur could have been developed further.
Sounds interesting, always liked Nightcrawler, so I may have to pick up X-Force now.