Fugly X-men Costume Redesigns and X-News
March 18, 2008Joss "Astonishing" Whedon and John "Mutant Skillz" Cassaday’s run on Astonishing X-men has been incredible, to say the least. It turned my brain into pudding with its sheer AWESOMENESS and ASSKICKERY. I don’t think I enjoyed any X-men run as much as I did with theirs. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. However, with Whedon and Cassady, their end comes not with a whisper, but with a bang- a bang of AWESOME- with Giant Sized Astonishing X-men.
Come June, the team of Warren "Extremis" Ellis and Simone "Shaddupa Your Face" Bianchi will be taking over Astonishing X-Men in Second Stage. If there’s a team that can live up to the former team’s legendary run (THE LEGEND OF AWESOME), it might be Warren "Thunderbolts" Ellis and Simone "This Guy Should Be Paid More" Bianchi.
Ellis can write a very good flow of dialouge and is extremely good with characterization, as proven by his Thunerbolts run. And that’s exactly what Joss "I Have Buffy Fanboys" Whedon did. John "Comic Realims" Cassaday’s style mixes a good bit of realism with traditional comic book art, which makes his panels very dynamic and believable. Simone "Photo Realism" Bianchi draws and paints with so much realism, it makes the page jump out and come alive like my mother’s tune casserrole after a couple weeks in the fridge. It’s going to be very interesting to see how that’ll work in the panels.
What I definitely loved about John "Slick Costumes" Cassaday was his redesigns of the X-Men costumes (erm… uniforms). They were sleek, realistic, non-exaggerated, useful and very practical, but at the same time they were, as they were meant to be, astonishing. Out of all the Cyclops costumes ever created, this Astonishing one was my favorite.
However, Marvel comissioned Simone "I’z In ur X-Men, Roonin ur Costumz" Bianchi to redesign the Astonishing X-Men costumes. I read his interview over at Marvel.com and he said he said he designed them to fit his style and the storylines. I guess they’ll write stories about how the fashion police fucked over the X-Mansion because of these atrocious costumes.
Great art, I gotta say, but what the fuck is up with those X badges?
"Hey, man. Know how I know you’re from the X-Men? You’ve got a HUGE X sticking out of your chest."
"Yeah, well, we wanted to make sure you knew who we were. Those tiny-ass X’s on our belts just weren’t doing the trick."
"Uh-huh. You look like TGIF waiters."
The Wolverine costume doesn’t look so bad, actually, except for that goddamned X badge. He looks like the Mutant police. The mask looks classic, so I’m fine with it. The shoulders look very X-Men Evolution-y, which some people like. The rubbery texure to the boots and gloves seem fine, though I would imagine those to be somewhat uncomfortable.
The Nightcrawler costume looks a bit Cyclops-ish with the lines running down the sides, but that works well for him. Actually, as long as they keep the color scheme, I’m okay with this. It’s not as memorable as the classic Nightcrawler costume, but it looks good on the elf.
Now, this, this is blasphemy. I’m happy Simone "Blasphemer" Bianchi kept the condom-man type suit, but the way he changed up some things, it’s just… wrong. The yellow wrist bands were simple but it looked nice, and wasn’t over-the-top. Less is more with Cyke. But look at what they did. What the fuck is that? Futuristic bands of uselessness! And then, there’s the big-ass X, which would’ve looked good on his belt…. wait… what the fuck?! Where’s his belt?! He looks naked! Oh, please, when they color this in, don’t have your underwear outside. What’s that thing on his left shoulder? A shawl!?!
Cyke’s been brought to a legitimate general status by Joss "Cyke is Awesome" Whedon, and then Simone "Cyke is Gay" Bianchi breaks him down to this? Nnnnnooooooo!!
Oh well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I’m still iffy about the whole thing, and I’m nervous that the new team won’t be able to match the previous run, but let’s stay optimistic and hope for an astonishing Second Stage.
Art ganked from IGN.
Previous Comments
@Ade
Actually, Simone already said he changed it to accomodate his style and the storyline.
Posted by comicology at March 18, 2008, 9:10 pmI think (and looking at most forums, most people agree with me) that the new costumes are terrific, particularly Wolverine. His costume actually looks modern, for once, but still incorporates the brown costume and astonishing suit in one look. As for the X-badges, I like them. They create the feeling of the costumes being a team uniform without having to go for the Morrison leather look.
Posted by Dan at March 18, 2008, 10:44 pm@ Dan
Well, if it weren’t for the big X badges, I would like Wolvie’s new costume. I loved his X-Men Evolution costume. The big X’s just throw me off a great deal.
Cyclops’ costume is just… it’s wrong to me, though.
X badge on Storm’s costume looks okay, though.
Posted by comicology at March 18, 2008, 10:50 pmDon’t they have the colored rendition of such costumes anywhere?
Anyway, I can’t say I cared too much about the new looks. Cyclops is especially bleh. I don’t know, but why is everyone obsessed with unnecessary fashion accessories now? There’s all these animes with unnecessary belts and zippers, and now we have superheroes with unnecessary wrist bands!
Off Topic: I have a couple of comic sites to recommend. Take note that I don’t work for them, so this isn’t spamming! ^_^
Posted by Nightdreamer at March 19, 2008, 9:36 am@ Nightdreamer
I regularly visit comicpants. Never even been to Eyeoncomics.com.
The unnecessary belts and pouches were a thing of the 90s, though. Remember Cable’s costume? And Cyke’s body belt? And Cap’s belt, which contained nothing?
Posted by comicology at March 19, 2008, 11:22 amI was talking about animes currently doing it. But you’re right, now that you mentioned it, Cable and Cyke’s body belt were annoying.
The authors of comicpants and eyeoncomics used to maintain one site before going their separate ways. They’re both pretty cool: comicpants because it also covers manga, and eyeoncomics because it has ratings.
Posted by Nightdreamer at March 19, 2008, 12:11 pmThe best costumes were the leather - going back to the spandex sucks no matter how many zippers or badges they add. Cyclops’ best costume is from the 90’s after the leather.
Posted by Xmanconti at July 3, 2009, 12:35 pm@Xmanconti
The leather jackets or you mean the movie ones? I actually didn’t like those. How long did those last?
What Cyclops costume are you talking about, man? The leather came in 2000s, yeah? The New X-Men costumes, right?
Posted by comicology at July 3, 2009, 2:16 pm
Bwahahahaha! TMB will be back, it never left. It was just on vacation.
.. I think I’d have to drop by often 
The new costumes fucking fucking suck. There was no need to change the costumes. Now wait till they melt our ears off with excuses like “It’s vital to the storyline.”
Posted by Ade at March 18, 2008, 6:50 pm