Have you heard the sad, sad story of Madelyne Pryor?
A mother, a pilot, a clone, and a Goblin Queen, Madelyne Pryor has lived many lives in her short time as a mainstay of the X-Men franchise. First appearing in Chris Claremont and Paul Smith’s Uncanny X-Men #168, Madelyne’s mystery and tragedy would come to define one the most impactful periods of X-Men history, Inferno, and her legacy continues to live long after her death.
Madelyne has been back over the years, or at times, a being pretending to be Madelyne, but only recently in Hellions by Zeb Wells and Stephen Segovia, have we seen the glimpses of the Goblin Queen’s proper return to the franchise. With the upcoming finale of Hellions giving way to her return, and an announced story in Vita Ayala and Rod Reis’ New Mutants to follow, this spooky season, we’re all about the Goblin.
X-Twitter has built a community among X-Men fans, with diverse and exciting voices coming together to challenge and expand the realm of conversations comics fans can have. Like previous entries in our Redesigning series, we tasked fan-artists from #XTwitter with the task of Redesigning Madelyne Pryor however they saw fit, with inspirations and aesthetics that are all their own.
I’m so proud to work with these artists, and seeing their creative process up close is incredibly inspiring. Follow these artists as they create the next generation of comics, genre-pushing fanart, and more.
Karen Charm
“As a fan of original Paul Smith Maddie, I wanted to wind it back to those days and give her another chance free of Goblin (not that I don’t love our Queen and everything she stands for). So I honed in on the butch mechanic techie vibe, keeping the Weezie haircut, and taking major inspiration from Bulma. Also I love that her brief codename “Anodyne” also means “not likely to provoke dissent or offense; inoffensive” LOL.
BUT THEN @emilywritesgood was talking about how great the original Erik the Red costume was and I knew I had to do something with that, keeping it largely intact except for some alterations to enhance the fetish and have it not look completely ridiculous. Overall the theme for both is “showing up Scott Summers.”
Alex Buckland
“Before I even started on coming up with ideas I knew I wanted to do a non-Goblin Queen look for her too because that’s the Maddie I love! So, I was hugely inspired by an unused design by Marc Silvestri and a little bit of the uniforms in New X-Men. For the Goblin Queen look I wanted it to feel a little vampiric and updated from the usual Goblin Queen design.”
Josh Cornillon
“I have the fortunate role of having all the Madelyne art sent right to me, and looking over the incredible designs in my inbox, I knew I couldn’t aim for Madelyne’s Goblin Queen history in a way that one of them hadn’t already knocked out of the park. My starting point was really to think about how little established ‘Madelyne’ I could use without losing the essence of who she is. Without underboob, without black tattered fabric, without signature bad bitch energy, what would Madelyne become?
I also referenced Sean Kelly’s S/S15 NYFW collection (inspired by the betrayal of Julius Caesar) with a gown of heavy fringe and a nod to Madelyne’s tragic fall from grace.”
Christian Tomas
“The Maddie that I envisioned occupies a role in the X-Men that is similar to Emma Frost: a complete fashion baddie who loves her tribe and embraces the title of Goblin Queen. Thought it was important to keep her hair short and wavy, as a visual distinction from other redhead mutants. Elements of the dress itself come from Han Kjøbenhavn, namely the choker that incorporates the subtle X logo. “
Valentine Smith
“She was someone long before she became the Goblin Queen, so I wanted to give her a couple options depending on what avenue she would take upon resurrection. She finally gets a choice, and I look forward to seeing that play out for her. Who says the modern woman can’t party in hell AND also provide comms + tech for her friends?”
Dani Murano-Kinney
“So at the time while I was doing some concept sketches for this project, I had been watching Evangelion for the first time, a trans feminine right of passage. The sketches I was doing we really rooted in a really traditionally gothic aesthetic, even looking at old RE Salavodore novels for inspiration. But given how much Evangelion deals with the dissection of one’s own identity, I wanted to push beyond these sketches. Our contemporary view of Maddi has always been through the lens of her Goblin Queen aesthetic, which is neither good nor bad. For me though, I have never been able to separate this look from Maddie’s trauma. I wanted to posit something more transformative in this redesign. What if Inferno didn’t happen? What if Scott didn’t leave? And eventually I landed on this idea of Maddie being a member of the X-Men and piloting, of course, a mecha-suit. It just seemed fun and over the top in a way that, for me, means so much to my engagement of that character, for whom I simply want the best.”
Joshua Bruckner
“My inspiration for Madelyne as the Goblin Queen was a sorcerer attending a gala in hell, ready to make a dramatic entrance. I wanted to push the goblin aspect of her name, so her headpiece and face covering emulates a goblin’s pointed ears and nose. For a redemption arc look, I was imagining Madelyne getting into a simple outfit inspired by her pilot’s jumpsuit and something almost clerical. She could wear this while traveling through time with her son Cable, righting wrongs and fighting demons.”
Kenneth Laster
“As soon as it was decided we were doing Maddie, I immediately knew I wanted to base the look on Thierry Mugler whose designs are inexplicable in how they work on a human body and what better tribute to the original Goblin Queen costume. Another fun element was adding a headpiece that works both as a signal of her queen status and a dark mirror to Jean’s head sock she wore in the 90s.”
Johnny Bugge
“I love Maddie so much, I wanted to give her two fun outfits. I always loved the idea that if she was redeemed, she can open up a plane repair shop. As for her goblin queen look, I really wanted to give her a sheer lingerie vibe. She has some of her favorite accessories too, like her high heeled boots, choker necklace, and Alex Summers!”
Calvin Lin
“I didn’t know anything about Madelyne Pryor and after reading her backstory and gasping aloud in shock multiple times, I decided on this look for her Goblin Queen-sona. I wanted to push the demonic influence with the halo of horns and wanted to try to capture her sad rage with the energy coming off out of her eyes like floating tears!”
Héctor Barros
“My first designs were very (very!) complicated, and none of them worked, so I went for simplicity.
Dragon Ball’s Bulma inspiration for her civilian look, and an evolved form of her famous (infamous?) underboob Goblin Queen costume for her bad girl escapades.”
Joe Bortner
“For Maddy’s Goblin Queen design, I wanted to include elements from a lot of the intersecting elements of Madelyne’s backstory–her left arm is reminiscent of Magik’s Darkchylde form, given Maddy’s deal with N’astirh. The fire wings and burned-up trenchcoat also vaguely recall ideas of Jean, and the black-and-red color scheme being owed largely to Mister Sinister. At the same time, I wanted to give Madelyne a distinct visual identity and silhouette–and I thought that the wings and trenchcoat suggesting an “X” behind her would be a fun move. For ‘Maddy the Mechanic’, my process was a lot simpler–I pulled together a Pinterest board and pieced together a fun outfit I thought Maddy would wear.”
Justin Barcelo
“This design challenge was actually a weird mix of something new for me while being right up my alley. While I’m a professional comic artist I don’t really read or draw cape comics, I generally reside in the fantasy and sci-fi side. X-Men actually happens to be the one I keep up and so when approached with the idea of getting to design Madelyne Pryor I was thrilled! I really like the idea of the Goblin Queen and wanted to modernize it a bit and lean into her role a bit more. So I focused more emphasis on giving her a crown that was (somewhat) compatible to Marvel Girl and some more royal filigree to fill out portions of her cloth. I also gave her spiked metal pads and spiked platform boots because I go to anime school of character designs where spikes and high collars mean VILLAIN, but also so that when she’d appear on a page she’d physically take up more space, literally reigning over the other figures in the composition as the queen she is. Also I just want Marvel to have a big tall queen figure so I took my chance with Madelyne!!”
Bradley Clayton
“For my design I decided to take more of a BDSM direction than anything suited to heroics as I consider that very much her lane. I think as a character shaving her head to rid herself of the strongest visual connector to Jean makes a lot of sense and also she’s just powerful and sexy like this. Kept her iconic underboob and added these powerful sexy muscle car flames as a nod to her inferno days.”
Dillon Snook
“For my design, I decided to focus on the Goblin Queen moniker and push into the Unseelie Court realm of goblins and evil fae and stuff like that.”
Rosi Guillen
“I wanted to capture a few things about Maddie in one place, she is Cable’s mother, she is a pilot, she is a victim of Sinister’s. This is a Maddie that has slain her villains and become something not human, not mutant, and unapologetically herself. She carries a shotgun full of heat and magic and her cybernetics make her near-immortal without relying on Krakoan resurrection. Her callsign is “Queensguard” because she is still the Goblin Queen, that part of herself is just lying dormant.”
Kameron Youngblood
“I tried to polymerise her Black Rook look and her Goblin Queen aesthetic into something that looked regal; queenly, but decadent. I went for the appearance of a Black Phoenix. Something dark, yet avian, and I gave her an aquiline nose to further compliment that.
This was fun, as my biggest dreams are character design and to one day make covers for Marvel, DC, or Milestone. Gimme a follow @vyrkolach to track how successful I end up being at either haha”
Erik Ojo
“on redesigning THEE madelyne pryor: i wanted to lean into her goblin queen persona and some of her original costume’s gothy villainous dominatrix motifs, but also make it a bit less “oh wow she must be wearing five layers of boob tape”. sharp, tattered shapes, claws, decadent jewelry, spiky mismatched thigh-high platform boots. blacks, reds, and golds, in reference to the og costume’s color scheme, and some twinklings of dark phoenix.
i wanted to give her a fit that referenced her pre-inferno existence as a pilot, but represent it through the lens of her post-inferno personality. madelynes been forever changed by the revelations of her existence + the pain she went through. yet, she is more than the goblin queen, more than her trauma. as a representation of processing all her pasts, her far more practical mechanic/pilot outfit – sports bra, jacket, cargo pants, and some sweet kicks – still has a similar color scheme to her goblin queen fit, and her gloves + tools are enchanted with that good (citation needed) goblin magic.”
