|
These columns almost always come from a little spark of inspiration, sometimes from a suggestion from a friend. This one is a bit of both. This is not the first time I've designed a costume for this character, but this time I came at her from a different perspective. And, of course, I've included some of past costumes, for comparison, contrast and commentary.
Jean Grey began as a typical Stan Lee heroine. Her code-name, Marvel Girl, did little to stir the imaginiation and her powers, while potentially interesting and useful, were treated as second-rate, even comparing her to her youngest team-mate in the original X-Men, Iceman. Also, like Sue Storm/Richards, she would eventually become a fashion model, apparently the only suitable occupation for an attractive woman in the Marvel Universe. One of the funniest moments from X-Men #1 has Jean trying on her costume for the first time and exclaiming how wonderful it looks. She even goes so far as to suggest that it had to be designed by Christian Dior! Now, I don't want to step on any toes, but those old yellow-and-black outfits were anything but high fashion, even in the early Sixties, when people were so disturbed (presumably it was Cold War anxiety, or something of that nature) and to think that narrow lapels on suits and pillbox hats on women were attractive.
It wasn't long before the X-Men got individual costumes and Jean was no exception. This was when she went from yellow on black, with a full-head cowl, to the green and yellow mini-skirt look. She would wear a version of this outfit until her brief semi-retirement from the X-Men following the events of Giant-Size X-Men #1. I know that in the late Sixties, the mini-skirt was pretty popular, but by the mid-Seventies, they were long out of fashion. Let's not even mention how often Jean must've given some poor villain heart failure, when she levitated over him in the that short skirt.
When Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum picked up where Giant-Size X-Men #1 left off, they had plans to bring Jean back into the team, eventually, with a new name and an updated costume. But first, she had to suffer the indignity of having an expensive, stylish evening gown altered by the House of Logan. Not being a gifted tailor, Wolverine just ripped the dress so she could run from the Sentinels. "Not so blasted short," were her words, as I recall. This from a woman who, only weeks before, fought super-villains in a mini-skirt!
Next came Jean's first, and most famous, "death" and subsequent resurrection, as Phoenix. Piloting a Starcore space shuttle down from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s abandoned space platform, where Steven Lang had taken the X-Men, after they had been captured by his Sentinels, through the worst solar flares "in living memory", Jean died. In the moment of her death, however, she made contact with a god-like being later dubbed the Phoenix-force, which seemingly resurrected the heroic telepath, complete with new name and a snazzy new costume.
Apparently, among it's other faculties, this Phoenix-force had better design sense than Jean or Professor X, because the Phoenix's costume was excellent, even if an editorial decision forced the artists to color it in Jean's old color combo of yellow and green. I've read that, originally, Dave Cockrum intended her to have a gold and white color scheme, more of an Egyptian look, but the editor argued that Marvel publishes color comics, and what was not an acceptable color. Also, it's been argued that white would have allowed the artwork on the other side of the page to show through, considering the cheap paper and printing of the period, that's probably true.
In any case, here's what it might have looked like, had they gone with Cockrum's original color scheme.
And, of course, the Phoenix costume as it first appeared.
Over time, the Phoenix-force began to break free of the constraints of Jean's merely human morality, helped along by the meddling of Jason Wyngarde, A.K.A. Mastermind, unleashing the full fury of the Phoenix-force, Dark Phoenix.
Hollow-cheeked and somewhat emaciated-looking, at least the red went better with the gold boots, gloves and sash. Dark Phoenix represents the first time in mainstream comics that a hero was transformed into a real villain. Although technically insane, by human standards, she was also completely amoral. After warping space to travel from the Milky Way to the Shi'ar Galaxy, she caused a star to nova, to feed her ravenous hunger, killing billions of aliens and sealing her fate. Returning to earth to confront he former friends, she was overcome by Professor Xavier, only to be teleported into space to face the vengeful Shi'ar. Xavier challenged the Shi'ar Empress, Lilandra to a duel of honor for Jean's life and the X-Men fought Lilandra's Imperial Guard in the so-called Blue Area of Earth's moon. In the heat of battle, the barriers Xavier had placed in Jean's mind to contain the vast power of the Phoenix-force began to fail, first transforming her into Phoenix, again, and quickly, into dark Phoenix.
She fought a running battle against the combined forces of the Imperial Guard and the X-Men, allowing them to weaken her sufficiently so that the last lingering part of the Phoenix that was Jean Grey could activate some ancient piece of alien weaponry hidden there and use it to kill herself.
At the time, of course, we all thought that Jean was dead and gone, but John Byrne had other ideas. In the pages of Fantastic Four, Byrne brought her back from the dead, but not from the point where Dark Phoenix died on the moon. The FF discovered a translucent cocoon on the bottom of Jamaica Bay and brought it back to the Baxter Building for investigation. Inside, in suspended animation for several years, was Jean Grey, just as she had appeared when she piloted the Starcore space shuttle to a crash landing at Kennedy Airport, torn evening gown and all.
Jean became a founding member of the new mutant super-team, X-Factor. I never cared for the X-Factor costumes, so I haven't bothered with it, here. It was red and gold, which made it an improvement over some of her earlier outfits.
When the original members, Cyclops, Angel, Marvel Girl, Iceman and the Beast left X-Factor to return to the X-Men, Jean tried a few different costumes, finally settling on various versions of her X-Men Gold Team costume.
One problem I have with this costume, is the lack of decent footgear. I know this is a comic book, and I know some characters don't have to worry about stone bruises on their feet or traction or other painful realities of combat. I know all these things, but I still prefer a costume with some decent boots to it, unless there's a good excuse for a super-hero to wear brightly colored socks, to fight bad guys. Lately, she's worn both her green/gold Phoenix costume and a newer, bolder Phoenix costume, but my research didn't yield enough good reference for it, so I didn't include it.
Another thing that bugs me is the strange "pads" on her thighs. This is an odd place to put pads on a costume, if you're going to leave other, more sensitive areas relatively bare. Do they have some function? If so, what? I've never seen any reference to any useful purpose, so I would dispose of them. I understand they may just be intended as some kind of "pattern" or design element, but I just don't get it.
For my costume, I decided to go with a less individualistic design. She's and X-Man and the X-Men are a team, so I think they should dress like a team. I've always like the styling of Neal Adams' Angel costume, the blue-black body suit with the white center panel, breaking up the monotony. I knew I wanted something like that, for Jean and the X-Men. I liked the shoulder pads and the headgear she's worn, the last several years, especially if I can give it some function. My idea is that she wears one of the portable mini-Cerebro units as part of her costume, built into the headgear. For colors, I swent with dark blue and gold, mainly, but with a touch of red. Her belt is meant to resemble parts of Cyclops' costume. Scott Summers, Cyclops, and Jean had been lovers for years, and were married, a few years back. I understand that Scott is dead, in the current X-Men continuity, so her costume is also meant to resemble his style. And, of course, servicable footgear.
It's not flashy or trendy, it's meant to be the uniform of a leader of a team of heroes who fight to defend a world that hates and fears them. Jean could be such a leader, in spite of her fashion-model past. That's what I'd like to see.
Let me know what you'd like to see, and don't forget, we have a Collector Times Online chat session on Dalnet, every Wednesday night at 8pm Central Time, in collectortimes. Stop by and see us, sometime.
|
