Back in 2000, one of the most commented on aspects of Bryan Singer’s X-Men was the costuming. In what proved to be a pretty sensible move, the film ditched the primary colored superhero suits seen in the comics and cartoons in favor of a more plausible looking leather jumpsuit. Cyclops even referenced the choice of costume during the film, responding to Wolverine’s snarky, “you go outside in these things?” with “what would you prefer, yellow spandex?”
Now, nearly twenty years later, things have come full circle in the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Kodi Smit-McPhee was last seen wearing X-themed black battle armor in Apocalypse, but it seems the character’s swapping that look for something very reminiscent of the comics. At least, judging by the photo down in the gallery below, he is.
Nightcrawler made his debut in 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1 wearing this style of suit and barring a couple of minor revisions over the years, it’s proved remarkably resilient. Sadly, neither Alan Cumming’s take on the character in X2: X-Men United or Smit-McPhee’s younger Nightcrawler in Apocalypse even attempted to realize it on the big screen. So it’s nice to see it finally appear.
And let’s face it, it’s probably in the nick of time, too. Dark Phoenix is probably going to be the final blockbuster X-Men film in the Singerverse now that Disney’s acquisition of Fox’s IP is all but a done deal. While the Deadpool strand of the universe might tick on a while yet, you have to imagine there’s a lot of meetings going on behind the scenes right now at Marvel Studios as they begin preparatory work on what the X-Men will look like in the MCU.
It makes a certain amount of sense that they’ll be eager to distinguish themselves from what came before so, who knows, we may be in store for a whole raft of more comic-accurate costuming for mutant heroes and villains. Either way, X-Men: Dark Phoenix hits cinemas on February 14th, 2019, and only then will we get a better idea of where these characters are headed over the next few years.
