Marvel Teases Nightmare Redesign For Founding X-Men Hero

Published Oct 16, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows. Sign in to your ScreenRant account One of the original X-Men reveals their nightmarish upgrade is even more terrifying than Marvel initially suggested. Human prejudice in the Marvel Universe manifests as a collective hysteria towards mutants. Radical anti-mutant factions weaponize media propaganda and political rhetoric to convince the public that the mere existence of Homo Superior poses an immediate threat to humanity's survival, which spreads irrational panic across the globe and puts innocent mutants in danger. As heroic as mutants show themselves to be, human fearmongering portrays them as the biggest threat to humankind. If the planet's most beloved mutant champions ever chose to abandon their heroism, they could easily prove humans right. Storm could effortlessly destroy entire countries by herself by causing massive natural disasters, Professor Charles Xavier could trap millions of people inside their own minds, and Iceman could singlehandedly start another global ice age. Magneto could achieve what he has been dangerously close to multiple times before, violently shifting Earth's magnetic poles. The fact that even the most powerful mutant villains haven't done anything like this goes to show just how necessary heroic mutants like the X-Men are to the world. Only in a few select timelines do the X-Men drop their morals and show the world how dangerous they can be. Midnight X-Men's Iceman Might Be Even Scarier Than Marvel First Suggested Midnight X-Men #2; Written By Jonathan Hickman; Art By Matteo Della Fonte Ahead of Midnight X-Men #2's release, lead designer R.B. Silva shared concept art for several famous mutants' redesigns in this nightmare universe. Silva's concept art reveals new designs for a bat-like Hank McCoy, a female Shadow King, and a vampiric Bishop. One of the most notorious redesigns is Midnight X-Men's red Iceman, who had already been teased to be made of pure blood in Skan's variant cover C for Midnight X-Men #2. However, Silva's take on Bobby Drake doubles down on the horror inspirations, with a visibly decaying, skeletal Iceman covered in spikes, posing like a zombie. R.B. Silva's concept art presents various ideas for each character. Just like his Beast art offers several possible heads for Midnight Hank McCoy, his Iceman artwork proposes a version without a nose, with varying degrees of zombie-like features, and with varying lengths of spikes. Still, all these variations seem much more aggressive than the Iceman depicted in Midnight X-Men #2's variant cover, where Bobby Drake looks like his regular self, only red instead of light blue. Midnight X-Men's Iceman Concept Art May Be Fully Canon Midnight Iceman May Transform More Than His Regular Self Midnight Iceman, in particular, may be able to go through every variation of R.B. Silva's concept art in the pages of Midnight X-Men. Corrupted by his vampirism, Bobby Drake's body may be bound to decay with time, and he may be willing to sprout deadly blood spikes and elongate his limbs during battle. Normally, Iceman covers his body in snow, increases his size, and summons a variety of ice weapons from his limbs. An evil version of the Omega-level mutant may be much more creative with his abilities. Midnight X-Men's Iceman may be able to construct jagged spires of frozen plasma, slide across battlefield structures on terrifying ruby-red blood flows, and project crystalline shards of his enemies' blood directly from his emaciated frame. Besides being able to manipulate ice, this Iceman may be able to increase his power the more victims he amasses, which might make him one of the most lethal of the empyres, right next to Empyre Queen Storm. How the empyres around him react to a living body of blood fighting alongside them remains to be seen. Which Midnight X-Man is your favorite so far? Midnight X-Men #2 is available November 18 from Marvel Comics Movie(s) X-Men (2000), X2, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) TV Show(s) X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-Men '97 (2024) Video Game(s) X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), X2: Wolverine's Revenge (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994) First Film X-Men (2000) Character(s) Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Phoenix, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Morph, Nightcrawler, Havok, Banshee, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Cable, X-23 Comic Release Date 213035,212968