History
Several years ago, one of the Bamfs came upon a group of adventurers led by a spunky teenage pirate named Kitty Pryde. Kitty and her allies sought to save the life of an enchanted princess named, Jean Grey, who had succumbed to the corruptive influence of her darker passions. This malevolent personality caused her to evolve into an evil entity known as Dark Phoenix. Thrilled at the promise of high adventure, the Bamf agreed to aid Captain Kitty on her quest. Calling upon several more Bamfs, they proved to be a valuable asset insofar as their ability to distract Dark Phoenix's aggressive attacks, allowing a wizard named Xavier the chance to stop Dark Phoenix's rampage once and for all.
Some time later, an alien sorcerer from another dimension named Shagreen arrived on the Bamfs' home world and sought to subjugate the Bamf population. He captured dozens of female Bamfs and imprisoned them inside of a dungeon at the Fangs of Doom. He further apprehended many male Bamfs and used his dark magic to fuse them into an evil composite being known as Dark Bamf.
A mutant super-hero from Earth-616 known as Nightcrawler arrived in this fairy tale world and met with the surviving Bamf community. Recognizing that Nightcrawler appeared as an extremely tall Bamf, they instantly regarded him as a father figure and even took to calling him "daddy". Nightcrawler had faced the wizard, Shagreen once before and volunteered to aid the Bamfs in rescuing their captured brethren. He met up with Captain Kitty and her allies and laid siege to Shagreen's sanctuary in the Fangs of Doom. Shagreen ordered his Dark Bamf to take them down, but the corrupted Bamf provided little opposition against Nightcrawler's efforts. Nightcrawler defeated Shagreen by destroying his magic-staff. As the mystical energy dissipated, all of its conjoined effects ceased to exist. Dark Bamf separated back into normal male Bamfs, who subsequently reunited with their female counterparts.
Presumably, all of the Bamfs returned to their native village and continue to thrive to this day. During the reopening of the X-Men's school, now named the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, dozens of Bamfs were accidentally introduced to the school's environment. These Bamfs are devious and cause great trouble and destruction, stealing possessions and food.Powers and Abilities
Powers
Teleportation: All Bamfs possess the natural ability of teleportation. A Bamf can teleport by displacing himself into the Brimstone Dimension, travel through it, and then returning to the original dimension at a certain distance from the point of departure. When they disappear in teleporting, Bamfs leaves behind smoke with a stench reminiscent of burning brimstone. This is a small portion of the atmosphere of the Brimstone Dimension that escapes while the aperture is open. Their teleportation is invariably accompanied by the muffled sound of imploding air rushing to fill the vacuum left where their body was. The mechanics of their tele-location abilities is similar to that of Nightcrawler, however with subtle differences. As Bamfs are not mutants, their power is derived through a natural magical process inherent in all members of their species.
- Subconscious Spatial Awareness: Unlike Nightcrawler, Bamfs do not require foreknowledge of their destination in order to safely teleport. They can instantly teleport to any point on the globe that they desire without fear of accidentally re-appearing inside of a solid obstacle.
Micro-Suction Discs: Bamfs, much like Nightcrawler, can stick to objects with the surface of their hands and feet. This enables them to scale surfaces.
Limited Muscle Memory Mimicry: Bamfs posses an unknown degree of Muscle Memory Mimicry which enables them to quickly learn and perform new martial arts with little instruction or training.
Prehensile Tail: Bamfs posses tail which allow them to grab onto objects with relative ease. Their tails are at least strong enough support their own body weight (between 19 and 101 lbs) and are deft enough to fight with like a sword or blunt object.Average Strength Level
Habitat
Habitat
Gravity
Atmosphere
Population
Miscellaneous
Type of Government
Level of Technology
Cultural Traits
Representatives
Notes
- The Bamfs were created by writer Chris Claremont, based upon ideas conceived by Dave Cockrum.
- The existence of the Bamfs is predicated by the theory that whenever an individual creates an idea, that idea manifests itself as reality in an alternate dimension.
- Bamfs share many physical characteristics with another alien culture known as Boggies. However, there is no geneological relationship between the two, and as far as it is known, Bamfs are not even aware of the Boggies' existence.
- Bamfs also share common physical traits with the mutant X-Men known as Nightcrawler. However, Nightcrawler is much taller than the average Bamf.
- The Bamfs are in love with Kitty Pryde, and jealous of Lockheed.
Trivia
- The term Bamf is actually a form of onomatopoeia - one of the most recognizable ones in any Marvel Universe (as well as the snikt from Wolverine's sheathing claws). Whenever Nightcrawler teleports, he discharges particles of escaping brimstone from the realm of Limbo. When the brimstone makes contact with an oxygen-rich atmosphere, it creates a sound effect which is commonly referred to as Bamf.
Appearances
- Uncanny X-Men #153
- Nightcrawler (Volume 1) #2
- Nightcrawler (Volume 1) #3
- Nightcrawler (Volume 1) #4
- Excalibur (Volume 1) #118
- Excalibur (Volume 1) #119
See Also
- 13 appearance(s) of Bamf (Race)
- 2 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Bamf (Race)
- 13 minor appearance(s) of Bamf (Race)
- 2 mention(s) of Bamf (Race)
- 11 image(s) of Bamf (Race)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Bamf (Race)
Links and References
- Boggie
- Colossus (Fairy Tale)
- Enchanted Princess/Dark Phoenix
- Fiend-With-No-Name
- Jinjav Sabree
- Kitty Pryde
- Kitty's Fairy Tale
- Lockheed
- Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner)
- Noble Prince
- Pirate Kitty
- Shagreen
- Wind Rider
- Wizard Xavier
- X-Men
- Uncanny X-Men
- Nightcrawler (Volume 1) limited series