I never knew why this costume had such a short shelf life. My layman's guess is that the colors tended to blend more into the background on issue covers. Given all of the other costume-wearing people usually present on X-covers, that translated to Wolverine blending into the background. And since Wolverine, whose popularity was high and growing, was a sellable asset on covers, those covers were in danger of losing a very marketable tool for Marvel.
With the launch of the X-Men spinoff in 1991, I notice it took only about 3 or 4 issues for Wolverine to reappear in his more bold yellow and blue colors. The coincidence of trying to sell a new comic book title with Wolverine's reversion to his more recognizable costume was, dare I say it, uncanny. :)
Never a huge Wolvie fan, but the few issues I did pick up were in this period.
STILL the BEST costume colors for him..!! It even caused me to pick him up as my first Secret Wars figure at the time..., probably the best SW rendition.
Byrne's best revised X-Man costume. Evidently the "return" of the original costume in the '90s was because of Jim Lee; according to Byrne, Lee called him up and bragged that he'd gotten rid of that terrible tan and yellow costume, unawares that JB had designed it to get rid of that terrible yellow and blue one! Oops!
The yellow costume went well with the rest of the original Alpha Flight uniforms. Always thought of it as more of his costume from his Alpha days.
Tan and brown look suited the character much better IMO. And it had a pretty good run.
Recall as a kid wantingn to see more of the yellow costume as all I had seen for the most part was the new tan and brown look. But once the yellow one returned it made me realise that it wasn't the best look for him.
Funny to read comments saying how short-lived this brown costume was. I remember when it was introduced, and as the decade wore on I realized it had out-lased his yellow costume's tenure by several years, and had pretty much become the "official" costume.
And then the yellow came back, and it's been, holy crap, 20 years! So the brown era is reduced to a geological "blip" in time.
My point is, I feel old.
(for the record, I like both costumes a lot, associating both with great stories and X-eras...)
Always wondered why they never used THIS color scheme but with the "tiger stripe" costume design?
Where the "tiger stripe" costume is YELLOW, that's where I'd color TAN and where the "stripe" costume is BLUE is where I'd color BROWN.
BYRNE changed the colors because a Wolverine, in nature, is shades of Brown, and as a wild "animal" character, Logan wouldn't likely run around in yellow and blue.
I remember a Wolverine/ Nick Fury graphic novel (by Chaykin) where SHIELD guys joke at Wolvie, wondering why he wears the jammies (the brown and tan), until they see Wolvie in action and state that on him, it's a HUNTING outfit.
Best Wolverine costume. Hard to believe what I thought was the norm is now considered a minor flirtation with different colors.
ReplyDeleteI never knew why this costume had such a short shelf life. My layman's guess is that the colors tended to blend more into the background on issue covers. Given all of the other costume-wearing people usually present on X-covers, that translated to Wolverine blending into the background. And since Wolverine, whose popularity was high and growing, was a sellable asset on covers, those covers were in danger of losing a very marketable tool for Marvel.
ReplyDeleteWith the launch of the X-Men spinoff in 1991, I notice it took only about 3 or 4 issues for Wolverine to reappear in his more bold yellow and blue colors. The coincidence of trying to sell a new comic book title with Wolverine's reversion to his more recognizable costume was, dare I say it, uncanny. :)
Never a huge Wolvie fan, but the few issues I did pick up were in this period.
ReplyDeleteSTILL the BEST costume colors for him..!! It even caused me to pick him up as my first Secret Wars figure at the time..., probably the best SW rendition.
Byrne's best revised X-Man costume. Evidently the "return" of the original costume in the '90s was because of Jim Lee; according to Byrne, Lee called him up and bragged that he'd gotten rid of that terrible tan and yellow costume, unawares that JB had designed it to get rid of that terrible yellow and blue one! Oops!
ReplyDeleteThe yellow costume went well with the rest of the original Alpha Flight uniforms. Always thought of it as more of his costume from his Alpha days.
ReplyDeleteTan and brown look suited the character much better IMO. And it had a pretty good run.
Recall as a kid wantingn to see more of the yellow costume as all I had seen for the most part was the new tan and brown look. But once the yellow one returned it made me realise that it wasn't the best look for him.
Thanks for all the comments, gentlemen. It's quite an amazing piece of historical art.
ReplyDeleteFunny to read comments saying how short-lived this brown costume was. I remember when it was introduced, and as the decade wore on I realized it had out-lased his yellow costume's tenure by several years, and had pretty much become the "official" costume.
ReplyDeleteAnd then the yellow came back, and it's been, holy crap, 20 years! So the brown era is reduced to a geological "blip" in time.
My point is, I feel old.
(for the record, I like both costumes a lot, associating both with great stories and X-eras...)
dp
Always wondered why they never used THIS color scheme but with the "tiger stripe" costume design?
ReplyDeleteWhere the "tiger stripe" costume is YELLOW, that's where I'd color TAN and where the "stripe" costume is BLUE is where I'd color BROWN.
BYRNE changed the colors because a Wolverine, in nature, is shades of Brown, and as a wild "animal" character, Logan wouldn't likely run around in yellow and blue.
I remember a Wolverine/ Nick Fury graphic novel (by Chaykin) where SHIELD guys joke at Wolvie, wondering why he wears the jammies (the brown and tan), until they see Wolvie in action and state that on him, it's a HUNTING outfit.