Just 'cause I is dorky (and the other option is getting on with catching up the work I missed in the last 4 days):
Wolverine's original costume was yellow and blue with black slashes on it. He wore this in his first appearance, when he fought the Hulk and the Wendigo, and in his second, when he joined the X-Men.
He stuck with the yellow and blue costume (which was muy ugly) until the end of the Dark Phoenix saga. The famous (well, mildly so) John Byrne drawing of Wolverine in the sewer, lookin' all mean an' shit, is in the yellow & blue costume from right near the end of the Dark Phoenix story.
In between Dark Phoenix and Days of Futures Past was a 2-part story where Kitty Pryde joins the team (first use of the "Welcome to the X-Men, ___________. Hope you survive!" cover text). In the other half of the plot, Wolverine and Nightcrawler go up to Canada and get involved in a brouhaha with the Wendigo and some members of Alpha Flight. This was the first appearance of the maroon & tan costume. That was 1980.
Maroon & tan had its day right up until ca 1991 when the big '90's relaunch kicked in. (There were several, but for me the big one was when they launched "New" X-Men, X-Force and canned Claremont.) At that point, all of the costumes got hideous redesigns (no offense) and Wolvie was put back in a yellow & blue costume. Not quite the same, nor as ugly, as the one from the 1970's but still not my cuppa.
As someone used to point out on this site, the last couple years of the 1980's -- basically all the Paul Smith and JR Jr period -- the X-Men were largely out of costume anyway and just wore civillian clothing. That, combined with more mundane plots and a greater use of real-world locales, helped to ground the series. Of course, right after this we had Silvestri, the Outback period, Siege Perilous and a general spiral down into darkness.
Morrisson lifted X-Men out for a little time and made it something I was able to read without wincing and grinding my molars.
I fear there will not come another. |
). I'd gotten interested enough over the course of Morrison's run that I'd planned to pick up at least the first couple of issues of whatever the continuation title turned out to be, but seeing the cover killed that impulse dead. More money to spend elsewhere, I suppose.