It’s a good day for fashion, eh?
Less than an hour after we posted our talented Redesigning team’s looks for a theoretical 2025 Hellfire Gala, Marvel released design sheets for this year’s Hellfire Vigil, a July one-shot serving as a year-later memorial for the First Krakoan Age and setup for some of the next year’s storylines, written and drawn by a number of current X-creators.
Because it’s a memorial, black figures heavily into many of the designs shown by Federica Mancin and Luciano Vecchio. The kids from Exceptional X-Men and Uncanny X-Men get to play dress-up, too. We even get characters we haven’t seen since Krakoa twinkled out of this plane of existence, like Karma, Wolfsbane, Catseye, Angel Salvadore and Jumbo Carnation.
(To be fair, I’ve dropped a lot of X-books and am not reading the Unlimited stories, so if those characters have been cropping up beneath my notice, whoops!)
Check out the design sheets below, and keep scrolling for the basic deets.
And for the love of God, check out the Redesigning team’s work. They’re really good.
Each year, mutantkind gathers for a night of joyous celebration, mutant pride, and delicious drama at the HELLFIRE GALA! This year’s Hellfire Gala one-shot, X-MEN: HELLFIRE VIGIL #1, strikes a different note as the X-Men reflect on the loss of Krakoa, but it still promises to be mutantkind’s biggest night. And as is tradition, fans can look forward to seeing their favorite characters serve super hero high fashion looks designed by some of the industry’s leading talents! Today, see some of the design work for the giant-sized one-shot from artists Luciano Vecchio, an X-Men superstar known for his current work on Storm and upcoming issues of Uncanny X-Men, and rising star Federica Mancin who makes her exciting X-Men debut next month in Exceptional X-Men #10.
A night of reunions, returns, and revelations, all setting the stage for the next year of X-Men storytelling! Always one of the most talked about comics of the year, the Hellfire Gala is now a beloved staple of the X-Men mythos, even inspiring the new season of the hit video game Marvel Rivals. In addition to Vecchio and Mancin, this latest installment will be written and drawn by various creators behind the X-Men’s current era including Jed MacKay (X-Men), Gail Simone (Uncanny X-Men), Eve L. Ewing (Exceptional X-Men), Murewa Ayodele (Storm), Stephanie Phillips (Phoenix) Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing (NYX, Giant-Size X-Men), Geoffrey Thorne (X-Force), Alex Paknadel (Astonishing X-Men Infinity Comic), Jason Loo (Dazzler), Javier Garrón (Uncanny X-Men), Netho Diaz (X-Men), Sara Pichelli (Scarlet Witch), Declan Shalvey (Mystique), Roi Mercado (Phoenix) and Marcus To (X-Force).
“This is a Vigil, not a Gala, so these looks are striking, but more solemn, less flashy yet still fun, that reflect each character’s history in a Post-Krakoan way,” explained Vecchio. “Unlike previous years where I focused on individual designs one at a time, here I worked in bunches at once to create a cohesive look while keeping singularities.”
“I found inspiration by limiting myself to work with mostly black and white, and figuring out what that sparked in each character’s iconography,” he continued. “I started with Storm, following Murewa’s directives and adding some twists of my own, and then worked on the list of characters he wanted to appear in his segment. I did the same with the Outliers and Gail, and then I added characters from my own list of who I wanted to show up.”
“Being part of a major event like X-MEN: HELLFIRE VIGIL was an incredible mix of excitement and nerves,” Mancin shared. “I am truly grateful and humbled to be given the unique opportunity to contribute to it and work on the outfits for Emma, Sophie and the trio from Exceptional X-Men. It all came as a big challenge, but I was lucky to work with such an amazing team that helped me throughout the process and inspired me to do my utter best.”
Check out Vecchio and Mancin’s designs and preorder X-MEN: HELLFIRE VIGIL #1 at your local comic shop today.
Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom. Follow him @danielpgrote.bsky.social.
