Redesigning Pixie

Half-mutant, half-fairy, 100% Pixie. 

One of the breakout stars of the Academy X generation, Megan Gwynn aka Pixie, created by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, and Michael Ryan, was thrust into the spotlight in the early 2000’s and filled the role of the young newcomer to the team, like Kitty Pryde before her. Relentlessly positive, sparkly, and with a lineage that links her to one of the X-Men’s oldest villains, her popularity surged high enough that she supported a miniseries, Pixie Strikes Back, in 2010.

Eventually, all good things must end, and Pixie’s time in the sun started to wane in favor of other, shinier young mutants. Like many generations of young mutants before her, she found herself bouncing from book to book as a supporting cast member and background extra without too many spotlight stories on her. Though featured in the Krakoa era, it wasn’t until Simon Spurrier’s series’, Way of X and Legion of X, that Pixie became a proper supporting character again.

But the #PixieStix (I just coined that as our name) have never lost hope. One day we will see our pink haired icon return to the popularity she deserves!

Redesigning X-Men was designed to highlight the incredible work of fan artists across the globe celebrating the mutants they love so much. Check out the work of our amazing crew of artists and follow their work on social media! 

Angel Solorzano

I’ve always loved Meghan’s fairy-mutant powers so I thought it would be interesting to play with that aesthetic giving her a modern costume with nature details that can simulate tattoos.

Léa Dupic

I went in a dreamy tinkerbell balletcore fairy of the woods kind of direction with Pixie, with a hint of something dangerous lurking beneath her cute dreamy vibe. She’s kind of grimy, and I dressed her up in earthy tonesto contrast with her saturated wings and hair. And full disclosure, I got very inspired by fellow redesigner Stephen Reinfurt’s take on her.

John Marsh

Pixie’s Welsh background is a recurring aspect of her character and as a miner’s daughter it felt right to tie her to the Welsh Miner’s strike of the mid 80s. I’ve imagined her wearing her father’s jacket, emblazoned with the iconography of LGSM – The Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners alliance that joined in solidarity with the Miner’s Union against the UK Conservative government.

On Krakoa I could see Pixie being a proponent for speaking truth to power.

Josh Cornillon

I love Pixie, I’m on record defending her as one of the best parts of the last few decades of X-Men (check out the Pixie episode on Cerebro, available wherever you listen to podcasts!) and one of my favorite character friendships is Pixie and Armor. With this design, I wanted to reference late 60’s/early 70’s fashion and specifically tie it together with my Armor redesign from the previous Redesigning Armor round – the two characters on a team together!

John Caden

I think Pixie is best when she is contrasted between the fey, otherworldly being and a regular teenage girl, so I wanted to put her in a mundane setting – taking a selfie at the gym.  I feel Pixie wouldn’t have a structured costume but would probably go to battle in workout clothes as well.  Ok, mostly this was just an excuse to make the hoodie 🙂

Joe Bortner

When I was in middle school, Pixie was one of the most iconic X-Men characters to me–something about her design made it look to me like she was always comfy? I tried to capture a lot of that at-first-glance warmth of the character in this design, while also folding in a few elements that evoke a vintage airplane pilot (maybe a little cliche lol). 

Karen Charm

I’ll admit it – Pixie is one of the few X-characters who I really have no attachment to, but she’s part of the family at the end of the day. I wanted to make a cute looking outfit for her, springing off of her UK background. I tipped the plaid to make a bunch of Xs all over and generally aged up her styling to go with the coat. 

Alex Buckland

My original idea for this redesign was simply “sorceress supreme pixie” and quickly turned into this grand fairy look. She’s living her best fairy princess life! You can’t fight the forces of evil if you ain’t cute. 

Sara Fangirl

I really procrastinated on this redesign bc I didn’t know what to do with it bc I had so many ideas for it, not to mention that Pixie is one of my favorite characters and I wanted to do her justice.

The most difficult part was her wings, so I used her wing design from the Marvel Super War game since it was simple and pretty, and I also wanted to give her a short chubby bodytype bc I didn’t want to limit myself to only drawing one bodytype. For the colors I chose pink and blue bc they work so well together.

Hector Barros

Something about her personality and her psychedelic powers made me picture her as a neon-pastels mod girl. For her Nightmare persona, I took inspiration from classic pin-up girls and the DarkStalkers franchise.

Al Angelo

It’s been really exciting being a part of this group.  When Pixie came up for this month’s character, I knew it was the motivation I needed to finally join you all as an aspiring artist.  

I wanted to have fun with this design, aiming for something whimsical and cute!  Being an Academy X fan, I wanted to bring back her rainbow butterfly wings.  From there I thought, just have fun.  (Immediately what came to mind was, “space buns”.  I don’t know, laugh with me, but it was a must.)   

Dia Falconer

I was so stoked to get to redesign Pixie this round! I had actually just finished reading Pixie Strikes Back and ended up feeling super inspired by her outfits and personality in that. That 2010 era of fashion is so prominent in the series, so I really wanted to pull from it and incorporate it into my design. Remember when people would throw on a long shirt, leggings and a pair of UGGs and call it a day? Consider this look a bit of a love letter to that trend.

Brad Clayton

“My concept for this is a Limbo ruled by Pixie that shifts to accommodate her. The vibes are American Mcgees Alice, now with added Kpop. Tidy!”

Stephen Reinfurt

For this redesign concept, I wanted to get away from the team costume look and tried to do something unique to her and her personality. I came up with a backless tight-fitting outfit that wouldn’t affect flight and includes accents with swooping curved lines. The “X” symbol is included more subtly as part of the stitching. I made her look less human and more “fantasy creature” with some fun little details with her eyes, ears, and flowering hair that looks like it’s floating. Overall I wanted this piece to have a dream-like quality as a representation of her hallucinogenic magic powers.  

Josh Cornillon