Pixie (Megan Gwynn) is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Hailing from Wales, Pixie belongs to the subspecies of humans called mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities, and to the species of humanoid magical beings named fairies, who are born with supernatural powers. Her hybrid mutation grants her pixie-like eyes, colorful wings that allow her to fly, and "pixie dust" that causes hallucinations.
After a confrontation with the revived former member of the New Mutants, Magik, she gains the ability to use magic and a magical weapon called the "Souldagger." Her main use of magic is a massive teleportation spell, which makes her a key asset to various X-Men missions and teams and places her as one of the titles' primary magic users. She was first introduced as a student on the Paragons training squad at the Xavier Institute in New X-Men: Academy X #5 (November 2004), later joining the New X-Men team, and then graduating to the Uncanny X-Men team.
Pixie has been described as one of Marvel's most notable and powerful female heroes. Since her original introduction in comics, the character has been featured in various other Marvel-licensed products, including video games, animated television series, and merchandise.
Publication history
2010s Pixie debuted in New X-Men: Academy X #5 (November 2004), created by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, and Michael Ryan. She appeared in the 2008 X-Men: Pixies and Demons one-shot, her first solo comic book one-shot. She appeared in the 2010 X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back series, her first solo comic book series. She appeared in the 2010 Avengers vs. X-Men anthology series. She appeared in the 2019 Age of X-Man: Nextgen series.
2020s Pixie appeared in the 2020 Cable series. She appeared in the 2021 Children of the Atom series. She appeared in the 2022 Legion of X series.
Fictional character biography Megan Gwynn is a Welsh teenager from the fictional mining town of Abergylid. After her father died in a mining accident, Gwynn left Wales. She would later discover that the villainous Mastermind was her real father. Originally, Gwynn had short pink hair, pure black eyes, and rainbow butterfly-like wings.
After enrolling at the Xavier Institute, Gwynn joins the Paragons under the tutelage of Rahne Sinclair. Following the events of "House of M", almost all of the Institute's students are depowered, with Gwynn being one of only twenty-seven students to retain their powers.
Quest For Magik Gwynn, Blindfold and her classmates are sucked into the realm of Limbo, where they are attacked by demons.New X-Men (vol. 2) #37 (June 2007) After Darkchilde saves the group, she asks N'astirh to bring Gwynn to her. Despite her friends' pleas, Gwynn submits to Magik's request to use her soul to create a Soulsword and Bloodstones, magical stones forged from an innocent soul. Anole's intervention saves her, but leaves the spell unfinished, resulting in the creation of only one Bloodstone and a "Souldagger" instead. Magik explains that the Souldagger is a portion of Gwynn's own soul and that the remainder of her soul has been filled with black magic.New X-Men (vol. 2) #39 (August 2007)
Messiah Complex When the first new mutant since M-Day appears, Gwynn joins X-23, Hellion, Anole, Surge, Armor, and Rockslide in attacking the Purifiers' base.New X-Men (vol. 2) #44 (January 2008) Outnumbered, Gwynn panics and cannot teleport the team out until Rictor, who infiltrated the Purifiers as a spy, helps her concentrate. She manages to cast a hazardous "blind teleport", which scatters the X-Men between Washington, D.C., and the Xavier Institute.X-Men (vol. 2) #205 (January 2008) Predator X later attacks the Institute, going after the weaker, wounded students in the infirmary. Gwynn, realizing that X-23 had killed this type of creature before, attempts to teleport Predator X to X-23's location. However, she mistakenly takes the majority of the students and Beast alongside her and the creature, dropping them in the middle of the X-Men's fight for the mutant baby with the Marauders on Muir Island.New X-Men (vol. 2) #46 (March 2008) During the fight, Gwynn is brutally beaten by the Malice-possessed Omega Sentinel, but stabs her with the Souldagger, exorcising Malice from Omega Sentinel's body.X-Men (vol. 2) #207 (March 2008)
Pixies and Demons Gwynn returns to her hometown after the X-Men disband following the conclusion of Messiah Complex. However, she finds the demonic N'Garai are plaguing the town and are kidnapping people to feed their leader Kierrok. She calls in the X-Men to help defeat the N'Garai, and Gwynn has to face her fear of the mine in which her father was killed to defeat the demons. After defeating Kierrok, Cyclops and the rest of the X-Men take Gwynn back to America and she joins the newly reformed X-Men in San Francisco.Free Comic Book Day: X-Men - "Pixies and Demons" (2008)
X-Infernus
Despite her cheerful persona, Gwynn begins to reveal her anger and bitterness over her initial experience in Limbo and her incomplete soul, feeling that she is less than human. During a training session, Nightcrawler points out that her personality changes when she uses the Souldagger. This causes her to summon it and her personality turns sinister. She stabs him in the chest, causing him to pass out. Upon regaining her senses and removing the dagger, she finds that it has freed the Soulsword housed within Nightcrawler's body. Sensing the Soulsword, Magik teleports to Earth to reclaim it.X-Infernus #1 (February 2009) However, Gwynn engages her in a fight, demanding to have the stolen portion of her soul returned, and refuses to hand over the sword. Magik defeats Gwynn and regains her Soulsword, teleporting away.X-Infernus #2 (March 2009)
While the X-Men battle demons in Limbo, Witchfire defeats Magik and adds Gwynn's Bloodstone to her amulet, causing her to lose control and teleport to Belasco's castle. There, Witchfire forces her to become her new apprentice and begins forging another Bloodstone from Gwynn's soul, causing her to transform into a demon.X-Infernus #3 (April 2009) Witchfire uses the Bloodstones to summon the Elder Gods to her aid. Gwynn is reluctantly forced to work together with Magik to defeat Witchfire. While the X-Men battle the Elder Gods, Magik fights Witchfire and strips her of the amulet containing the Bloodstones. Magik and Gwynn use their blades to destroy the amulet, but Witchfire escapes.X-Infernus #4 (May 2009)
Pixie Strikes Back Gwynn finds herself and several of her teenage teammates under a spell, causing them to live under the impression that they are ordinary high school girls. However, the illusion begins to fade, with Gwynn finding herself in confrontation with the demon Saturnine. Meanwhile, a woman arrives on Utopia claiming to be her mother, demanding to see her. Later, her mother shows up in the Wyngarde mansion, where Lady Mastermind is fighting with Martinique. She tells them to stop acting like the babies of the family and that they have been usurped while Gwynn is seen in the next panel, revealing that Jason Wyngarde is her biological father, and the Mastermind sisters are her siblings.
X-Men: Second Coming When Cable and Hope Summers return from the future, Bastion starts putting his plans into action in taking her out. He first begins by taking out the X-Men's teleporters, sending Magik to Limbo with a weaponized spell.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #12 (June 2010) Gwynn is placed on a rescue team to get Magik back from Limbo, where she encounters N'astirh. He tries to convince her to kill Magik and in exchange he will restore Gwynn's soul. However, Gwynn turns on N'astirh and frees Magik.X-Men: Second Coming - Revelations: Hellbound #1-3
X-Men: Schism During the events of "Schism", Gwynn has been teleporting various teams of X-Men around the world to combat Sentinels. During one fight she injures her hands and has to sit out as she can no longer teleport. According to her, without painkillers, it hurts too much to concentrate, and with them, she cannot think straight enough but will still stand by her fellow students to help take on the giant sentinel approaching Utopia.Generation Hope #11 (November 2011)
Regenesis Recovering from the events of Schism, Gwynn approaches Velocidad at first to get help with her medication but when they start talking, things become quite flirty between them and eventually start kissing. Hope walks in and catches them in the act and storms out. Gwynn then slaps Velocidad and leaves. She is later packing to return to Westchester when Hope approaches and begs her to join her team, as they need a teleporter.Generation Hope #12 (December 2011)
After a training exercise, Hope finds a new light on Cerebra and has Gwynn teleport the group to Pakistan to locate the mutant. The group splits up with Pixie teamed with Velocidad. They are ambushed by soldiers and separated.Generation Hope #13 (January 2012) Gwynn ends up captured by them and after being rescued, teleports the team and an amnesic Sebastian Shaw back to Utopia.Generation Hope #14 (February 2012)
Wolverine and the X-Men Gwynn graduated from the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning and became an official X-Man in the final issue of Wolverine and the X-Men.Wolverine and the X-Men #42 (April 2014)
Powers and abilities Megan Gwynn possesses insect-like wings (depicted of various colors depending on the artist) that allow her to fly. Initially, her wings were broad and multicolored, similar to a butterfly's, but recent depictions show her to have iridescent, translucent wings, more like those of a dragonfly. It has been suggested that her wings' appearance is affected by her psychological state.X-Men: Legacy #248 (July 2011) In addition, her mutation allows her to produce a "pixie dust" that causes hallucinations, often with comedic effects, such as demons seeing bright bubbles and teddy bears, or in one instance, causing Wolverine to see and try to fight a herd of unicorns. In another instance, Gwynn uses her dust seemingly harmlessly to enhance the audience's perceptions of Dazzler's light show during a concert. She states that she has no idea what individuals affected by her dust are seeing.New X-Men (vol. 2) #38 (July 2007)
After Magik takes part of Gwynn's soul in an attempt to create a Soulsword, Gwynn gained the ability to detect the supernatural, describing the dark portion of her soul as a compass that detects other sources of dark magic.
Because the spell to steal Megan Gwynn's soul was interrupted, a new Soulsword could not be formed. Instead, Gwynn can summon a Souldagger, a mystical item that disrupts magic and harms magical beings. Because of her connection with Magik, as Gwynn uses the Souldagger, her personality changes and becomes darker.
Though untrained in the mystic arts, Megan Gwynn is able to wield magic, largely due to black magic which has filled the missing portions of her soul.New X-Men (vol. 2) #42 (November 2007) She is capable of teleporting herself and large groups over vast distances and across dimensions with relative ease, though teleporting without focusing can be hazardous, causing those transported to be scattered and potentially harming herself. Gwynn has also been able to banish demons using magic.X-Men (vol. 3) #15.1 (October 2011)
Reception
Critical response