Mein Gott! The Redesigning team has finally gotten to the fuzzy blue elf, the teleporting swashbuckler, the Draco himself, Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler!
There were a lot of great ideas and a lot of excitement for this round, as everyone thought about the funnest and sexiest ways to put a spin on this classic mutant.
Nightcrawler’s original look, designed by Dave Cockrum, has stood the test of time, as he keeps going back to the streamlined black, red and white look over and over. The blue fur, shadowy face and glowing eyes (not to mention tail!) are also iconic characteristics.
How did our team decide to spin these immutable traits and make their own take on Nightcrawler? Read on to see, and follow all of our artists on socials to see more of their amazing work.
R.L. White
rlwhitesillustrations on Instagram and Tumblr
RLWhitesArt on X and Bluesky
My reimagining of Nightcrawler for my developed “The New Mutants” animated series (I made a pitch idea back in November) bridges the gap between swashbuckling, adventurous pirate and modern “emo-chic” aesthetics. Drawing heavy inspiration from the artisanal cosplay work of Toxiekat on Instagram, the design incorporates high-contrast textures like Renaissance-style leather pouches and a twisted rosary cross necklace to ground Kurt’s classic silhouette in a more tactile, detailed reality. To lean into his agile, circus-bred nature, I’ve developed a “pretty boy” character model capable of expressive, anime-inspired emotive range, paired with dynamic action poses that pay homage to One Piece character Roronoa Zoro’s multi-blade style — perfectly capturing the chaotic elegance of his teleportation-based combat.
Trae Middlebrooks
Trae.Drew.That on Instagram
My Nightcrawler redesign is inspired by both his mothers’ most iconic looks. The white color scheme on the bodysuit references many of Mystique’s costumes. The gold Oni-style mask evokes Destiny’s famous eyeless mask, and represents an embrace of his demonic appearance.
Isaiah Cox
isacoart.bsky.social on Bluesky, isacoart on Instagram
I was pretty excited about this round because it was probably the first male X-character I found myself *really* interested in drawing! My inspiration stemmed a lot from circus acrobat costumes, both vintage and modern, as well as German Expressionist art! The spandex suit with layered pieces on top, the intricate detailing, the bold graphic lines and shapes? All things I felt would be PERFECT for a Nightcrawler costume! In addition, I took a beat from Alex Ross’ idea of giving him violet/indigo as his signature color, and I felt like that was such a rich, gorgeous color to use. I decided to give him a dagger instead of double sabers as a nod to one of my favorite dual-wielding characters, Nanami Kiryuu from Revolutionary Girl Utena, just for the fun of it! I made an entire sheet spread out of it, imagining that this would be for some kind of visdev project for the X-Men, so I definitely had a blast with this one!
Joshua Bruckner
joshington_bear on Instagram, joshingtonbear on Bluesky
Nightcrawler is always sleek and elegant, so that was my main goal in the redesign. I pulled a bit from his swashbuckling persona as well as his circus performer background to end up with something dangerous, dark, sexy and a bit grungy. I like playing with characters’ colors, and gray and blue felt like stealthy neutrals that fit his shadowy appearance.
Please note the dangly cross earring and questionable facial piercings, likely from his teenage circus days.
Jamie Fay
jamiefayx on Instagram
Colored by k_petchock_art
Here is my redesign of Nightcrawler, with the great Kyle Petchock providing the colors. When redesigning Kurt, I played with changing his color scheme, but anything other than red, white and black didn’t seem right. Like most of my redesigns, I pulled elements from the character’s previous looks and mixed them together, and added in some of my design flair. In Nightcrawler’s case, I pulled from his original, Revolution-era and X-Men Red looks. I wanted it to be functional, sporty, heroic, but most importantly, scream Kurt. Kurt’s my favorite X-man, and I hope I did him justice.
Haydn
ThatsSoHaydn on Instagram
For this design, I leaned into the swashbuckling pirate ensemble that Kurt is sometimes known for. Ornamented in gold trinkets, feathers and his trusty cutlass, I still wanted to keep his recognizable red, white and black color scheme.
Joshua Bruckner
Joshua Bruckner is a lifelong artist, X-Men fan and scientist, in that order. He lives in Massachusetts and spends his free time reading comics, redesigning X-Men, drawing comics and arguing about X-Men. Follow him at @joshington_bear on most social media.
