The 90s Comics Blog

History of The Wolverine Costume

1/25/2017

Brown Suit by Jim Lee

The OG Wolverine - Original yellow

First Appearance Wolverine

Over the years Wolverine has had a ton of different looks, but the first one people usually think of is the signature classic yellow. He first appeared in 1974's The Incredible Hulk #181, sporting a yellow costume that has had many variations of the look since. Let's jump right into the history of the Wolverine Costume and see how it's changed over the years.

Looks familiar right? This is the original yellow costume Wolverine wears in his first appearance and it has spawned many re-designs, tributes, and knock-offs. The costume was designed by John Romita, Sr. The original mask for the costume had some noticeable differences. Mainly the visible nose and whiskers.

The Icon - classic yellow

This is more along the lines of what people think when they hear "Wolverine". It has everything, the skin tight suit with contrasting colors, tall Batman-like ears, big red belt, and the iconic black stripes. The classic yellow is a look that has stood tall for over 40 years! And behind every good costume is a story that contains equal parts myth and fact. The legend goes that artist Gil Kane incorrectly drew Wolverine's mask on the cover of Giant-Size X-Men #1. This is what gave him the Batman-like appearance. Series artist Dave Cockrum is said to have liked the cover version so much, that he went back and redrew his pages to match.

OG Yellow Classic

Fang

This is a weird one. After Wolverine defeated Fang, a member of the Imperial Guard, he decided to take the costume as his own. This only lasted two issues (thankfully) but is still a common alternate costume for Wolverine. Dave Cockrum was ending his run with X-Men and wanted to leave the next artist with a costume that was difficult to draw. Uncanny X-Men #107 was Cockrum's final issue, after that the reins were handed over to new artist, John Byrne. Byrne quickly reverted the costume back to the classic yellow but more changes would soon follow.

Brown

This is another one of Wolverine's classic looks. The brown costume was a staple throughout the 80s and early 90s. Byrne eventually got to change the classic yellow into something a little different. Unlike the Fang costume, the brown took a few pages out of the OG costume's book. You can see the red belt is back, so are the pointed boots and iconic mask. Uncanny X-Men #139 is the first appearance of the brown suit. It was also the official introduction of Kitty Pryde into the X-Men.

Classic Brown Suit

Black

All Black Wolverine

1988 bought about an ongoing Wolverine series to the stands. During the first year of publication, series artist John Buscema gave Logan an all black suit. I mean it was murdered out, nothing but black. Even black face paint. It didn't last long and even while he was sporting this new all black look in his own monthly comic, he still was seen wearing the brown suit in the Uncanny X-Men.

enter jim lee: Blue and gold

Even the most casual X-Men fan has seen the unified look of the team sporting blue and gold. These training uniforms were one of the best attempts at getting the team to wear matching costumes. Although they didn't last long, the blue and gold are still used here and there. They stand out, even amongst the hordes of super hero teams the 90s gave us.

Classic Yellow II

In the years that followed the Classic Yellow II stayed mostly intact with a few exceptions. In X-Men 25, Wolverine had his signature adamantium claws downgraded to bone thanks to Magneto removing all the metal from his body. This created an awkward time after, where everyone's favorite X-Men was without his main weapon. To remedy this, events unfolded to replace the adamantium in his body in Wolverine #100. The big twist was his body rejected the process. Turning Wolverine into a noseless beast.

This new feral Wolverine Costume and storyline was met with massive amounts of negativity. Marvel quickly and quietly pushed aside this new Wolverine. Less than a year after later, the plug was pulled and everyone pretended like it never happened.

If you had to pick one costume to represent Wolverine it would have to be the Classic Yellow II. It's very similar to the original yellow with a few tweaks to bring it into the modern era. When Chris Claremont left, Jim Lee decided to give Wolverine his "real" costume back. Boy are we glad he did!

Movie Wolverine

The early 2000s had Wolverine in a variety of costumes. Due to the success of X-Men on the silver screen, a lot of Wolverine projects were given the green light. Not only did we have the films but Ultimate X-Men, X-Men Evolution, Uncanny X-Men, New X-Men and Astonishing X-Men to name a few. The version of Logan played by Hugh Jackman was fairly close to the source material. His battle suit, however, was mostly black with yellow highlights. Almost an inverse of the original color scheme.

The later Movies started to portray Wolverine with less and less clothing. Seen sporting a tank-top in much of X-Men Origins, to lots of shirtless time in 2013's The Wolverine. The running joke is the next solo Wolverine film will feature a fully nude Hugh Jackman. Thankfully, with the trailers released for Logan, the next solo Wolverine film, it looks like our burly hero will be putting the clothes back on.

Astonishing x-men

One of my personal favorite X-Men runs! Wolverine can be seen sporting a familiar costume. His suit is mostly yellow and blue with a few minor changes. The most noticeable is the mask, which is probably the mask to most closely resemble the original that we have seen. No whiskers, but the points were toned down heavily to match the original design.

X-men Evolution

Wolverine had a few distinct costumes during the show's 52 episode run. The first two seasons had him rocking something that looked like it payed homage to the brown suit of the 80s. The brown was turned into a burnt orange and his suit had lots of straps on the gloves and boots. This new suit also gave him knee pads, although I'm certain his knees have the same healing properties as the rest of his body.

Season three introduced a new black suit with yellow highlights. The mask was removed and he was given a utility belt the 90s would be proud of. I actually really like the subtle yellow stripes on the shoulders. I feel like it's just enough to set it off right.

Ultimate x-men

Yet another Wolverine Costume can be seen in Ultimate X-Men. This book was a reboot of sorts indented to be a jumping on point for new readers. Logan had a black top with a pointed design that turned into a yellow midsection. The pants were black as well and it gave the costume a sandwich'd look. This was changed after a few years to more closely match the suit being used in X-Men Evolution.

x-force - Back in black

During his time with X-Force, Wolverine had a new slick black suit. This costume drew inspiration from both the brown and original black designs. The black and gray with red eyes made clear his stealthy intentions. While outside of X-Force, he continued to wear a more traditional yellow suit. But while doing covert ops type missions with X-Force, the black suit was worn.