Did you like Jim Lee's X-Men designs?

I'm in the middle. Didn't hate them(possibly due to nostalgia), but what came before and since has been better.

I love the way Jim Lee draws, but I didn't like his designs. I really wish he didn't bring the yellow suit back for Wolverine, but he still looked cool because Jim Lee's idealized style make almost anything cool.

Kind of. I liked his designs for Beast, Rogue, and Psylocke. Did not like Cyclops and Jean. His redesign of Gambit's face was cool, but his costume was weird. Hated how he put Wolverine back in his shiny yellow costume from the 70s that no longer suited his charecter.

Yes, there were more hits than misses. Though the misses were BIG misses. I agree with everyone on the stupid choice for Wolverine's old yellow costume.

This.

No. I liked the style he used for anatomy, but the costumes were all misses for me. Rogue's didn't match for codename at all, Psylocke's was barely there, Storm's was atrociously ugly, Cyclop's boy scout costume just didn't look all that cool...just a bunch of misfires.

No, his designs were not that good. I do like his art tho.

I didn't know Lee did these designs but I've always liked them. Except for Wolverine.

Rogue, Cyclops, and Gambit are great.

They're the best X-Men designs

No, I actually actively hated them even as a kid. I am unapologetically a fan of so many things nineties: the over-the-top storylines, the MTV-inspired relationships/attitudes, hell I find novelty in Adam X. But those outfits are ugly.

Storm's all white ensemble attends too much to the carpet matches the drapes rule.

Psylocke's outfit would make Stacy X blush. And what is up with the leg ribbon?

Jean Grey looks boring and the orange in her outfit coupled with her hair makes her look like a Creamsicle.

Scott's weird shoulder belt thing is weird, but I'm overall not offended by his outfit.

Beast and Wolverine look good. Gambit's is okay.

Rogue's isn't bad per se, but it's one of my least favorite outfits and is just generally not aesthetically pleasing to me.

Jim Lee made EVERYONE look so iconic-- HOWEVER with everyone looking too perfect and ripped it was hard to see the X-men's human sides a lot of the time..

My favorites are Psylocke, Storm, Rogue, and Beast.

@selina_sublime:

I agree that these are the worst offenders. That all white costume on Storm commit one of the worst offenses - it makes her look like an old lady running around in drapes. I think this was the costume that made me actively start disliking her overall coloring, because the lack of contrast between her hair, and costume, just drew attention to all the most bland parts of her design. And I agree that that Rogue's is nice - but it is so generic, and all the interesting parts of her powers and code name are stripped away to make her look '90s Cool, which saw everyone put on leather jackets to look edgy and break up the lack of detailing. Otherwise, she's just wearing a bodysuit with interesting accessories.

No.

They were definitely some of my most favorite x-men costumes. Rogue, Gambit, Psylocke; you name it. Whenever I think "Behold! Optic Blast!" I immediately think of this.

The only thing that irks me a bit in these images is that the X is on the wrong side, but they are game sprites so it doesn't really matter. It is a shame Jim Lee left Marvel, but I did enjoy some of WildC.A.T.s.

I personally like them. Are the dudes overly jacked? Yes. Are the chicks all dressed like skanks? Yes. Are a lot of the costumes impractical? Yes. Is Collosus wearing pants? Nope! And it's all glorious! that was the beauty of the 90s and the comics I grew up they were like 80s action movies in appearance. and those were the costumes I got into the X-Men with so double points.

I thought they looked awesome as a kid, still like'em to this day

Considering the time the designs were created, and how artwork referencing these designs still exists even today, I loved them for the most part.

My favorites were:

Cyclops: I have never been a fan of underwear over the uniform, but if I had to pick one costume where I liked it would be this one. I LOVED what most people hated; his shoulder harness and all those wonderful pockets and pouches. I also love that you could see his hair, which was a popular trend during that era that was actually started by Warren during his Angel days.

Jean Grey: Again, I loved the pocket/armor on her thighs and how the blue on chest bisected her breasts and went all the way down to you know where. The only thing I didn't care for was the fact that she was never drawn having any kind of footwear, and I HATE sock boots. I assume that her "boots" were connected to her costume, but it still bothered me anyway.

Storm: I never thought of her costume as white. In fact, if you look at the first issue where she sported the costume, the shade is clearly different than her hair and the shading clearly meant it to be a metallic color, like CHROME or silver for example.

Rogue: I loved the green and yellow as the colors compliments the team look, which is one thing I liked about Jim Lee. The costumes were individual and some had different colors, but they all seemed to go together either by sharing some of the same design elements such as color/material, or shoulder pads, brown leather jackets, or something like that.

And my favorite Jim Lee costume? The X-men Strike Force training uniform! I would totally cosplay that with the right materials if I could!

The training uniform is by far my favorite costume he designed. I liked the first few issues when these were worn instead of individual costumes.

Even if Storm's outfit was silver, though...it was still pretty ugly to me. I actually had that same thought, but when you see most of the way she was colored, it was a flat white.

Colossus, Beast, and Wolverine looked fine. Everyone else was fairly ridiculous.

I thought Cyclops half mask thing was weird. Why wouldn't he just wear the visor like we saw him do before and later on.

When I was a little kid....yes. I also thought Limp Bizkit was a good band when I was a kid.....so, take that how you will.

@cattlebattle: You still think Limp Bizkit is a good band.......don't deny it.

They were great. Rogue look the best.

In many ways, these are THE X-Men designs for me.

The only one from that picture that I like at all is Gambit's. Slightly Rogue. Not too crazy about the rest. I do like how he has Cyclops's hair out. I feel like it should always be like that for him honestly. I was liked Cyclops's X-factor costume with his hair out.

Am I the only one who thinks Psylocke's outfit was trash? And seeing it actually getting adapted into a movie...

Heh. Funny how you mention three of the people with costumes that Lee did not design.

No. You are not alone. I never thought it was cool. I've never been a fan of the swimsuit look for heroines. It always seemed lazy. I think the biggest issue with adapting the "ribbons tied around limbs" look that Elektra and 90's Psylocke have for movies is the difficulty keeping them consistent in different shots, and not getting in the way of clear shots - seems like an easy way to get set up for "150 Things Wrong With X-Men Apocalypse" treatment.

90s. nuff said.

Agreed. If there's a single thing I like about the modern trends in comics, female characters actually dressing some actual uniforms would be one the most eye pleasing ones.

Yeah I said that.

Not defending it or anything because I don't like it much myself but I think Psylockes costume was supposed to mirror Elektra's costume. They were both Hand assassins and the costume Psylocke had looked really similar to Frank Miller and Bob Sinkweicz version of Elektras costume, only purple. It's possible that it was intended for her to lose the costume after a while as she broke free of the Hands control and was given an X-Men uniform when rejoining the team, it was also possible that she would have got her old body back as well, but all that became impossible to alter after the X-Mens popularity in the early 90s.

Yeah, I fully posit that having Psylocke being a female "bathing suit assassin" was purposeful and was supposed to imply that the Hand had all their female killers dress like that......in different colors of course.

Like this, but with more skin. Because as you know, you're not a female, unless you reveal skin, cleavage, and/or your legs.

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Anyway, I'm sure this was unintentional, but I like how Psylocke's ninja '90s outfit had some callbacks to the original costume with the two pink streamers. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all I liked about it. Especially since her costume eventually added the Crazy Face Tattoo:

Some of the costumes were ok.

Cyclops could still be wearing his Jim Lee look today if it had evolved with the times. Losing the trunks, making the boots actually look like boots and the rest of the costume less like painted skin and more like clothes.

Storm and Rogue were good.

Archangel was garish

Gambit was good, but I would prefer a muted purple to hot pink.

Colossus needs pants.

Psylocke's costume is lingerie.

Magneto's Marvel now and All New All Different costumes are better.

Beast is a tech guy...most of those characters carry more with them than a speedo.

Wolverine's costume was ok. but I don't like the rest of the costumes, especially the designs for Jean, Storm and Cyclops.

@cattlebattle said:

Not defending it or anything because I don't like it much myself but I think Psylockes costume was supposed to mirror Elektra's costume. They were both Hand assassins and the costume Psylocke had looked really similar to Frank Miller and Bob Sinkweicz version of Elektras costume, only purple. It's possible that it was intended for her to lose the costume after a while as she broke free of the Hands control and was given an X-Men uniform when rejoining the team, it was also possible that she would have got her old body back as well, but all that became impossible to alter after the X-Mens popularity in the early 90s.

Maybe, but I'm talking about the general concept of female standard for costumes. Even Jean Grey, who's like one of the few who barely suffered from this, had to wear a mini skirt into battles during some era... I understand, comic book fanboys need their virgin minds something quite fetishy to be filled with and all that, but I'm truly glad we're past that. I mean, femmes fatales in vulgar swimsuits? lol cmon. We can do better.

Btw, for some reason, I always wanted to see the Lady Mandarin aspect of Betsy to be explored. The costume was also proper :p

yup still have those first 2 issues and bought the graphic novel from his arc years later.

but his artwork was much more appreciated in wildC.A.T.s. really wish DC brought them back in a series.

Well, you are holding something from 30 years ago by today's standards. Comics back in those days were primarily aimed young men and there wasn't such an aggressive feminism craze back then, nor did anyone take comic books that seriously, they were considered a niche interest for nerds. I am sure one day that most progressive, first world countries will adopt healthier, meat free diets, then, those people will back at our generation and think were were a bunch of savages even though we, living in the present day, don't think twice about it. Basically, what I am trying to say here is that it's silly to judge things like that....I think Femme Fatal ninja bikini squad was fine....for its time.

The Lady Mandarin costume was a just a female version of the Samurai-style costume Mandarin wore at the time.....hence the name. I think if Claremont would have stayed on the book the Hand and Matsuo Tsurayaba and the Upstarts would have been a thorn in the X-Mens side throughout the early 90s rather then just having the one and done story in the Omega Red arc, so, there probably would have been more focus on Psylocke.

I guess I'm looking at it from the PoV of some near-combat experience. The meaning of the uniform and gear in the battle is essential and no matter how hard you (speaking in general) try to justify it, such justification doesn't really exist. What I'm advocating for isn't a trend of time, but matter of logic. And yes, I truly believe even in a comic book, there should be just as much logic as it possible, and for any concept in talk. So when I witness ladies in bikinis without appropriate superhuman attachment that serves as a replacement for actual defensive equipment in the battles so hardcore, no real life equivalent can serve as an analogy for, then yes, there's something that defies logic in here on all of them possible levels and it has to be critisized accordingly. I mean we're talking about art: freedom of imagination, symbolism and aesthetics, so I don't mean it to become tastelessly prosaic or kitschy, vice versa, I only mean that there are aspects that have to outgrow its "kitschy aestetics" to embrace a more analytical and thus imaginative take on said themes. When I claim ladies waging wars in swimsuits hadn't aged properly, I stand by every single letter of it and more. Again, this is art, moreover very superhumanly driven one, so while certains aspects have to be taken into rational consideration, symbolysm and permissible (for that fantastic art) imposibility (for our reality) can be still freely explored. For example, there's that character, Bombshell I think... Ok I googled properly, and she's called Bomb Queen. Maybe I'm misinterpreting something, but from what I've read once, the way I remember at least, she is a superhuman (strength, durability, the whole package I think) who's very vulgar, not only personality wise, but as much "exteriorly" speaking (like over the top, pun unintended). She's that example of "sexually liberated", "give no damn what you think", "your lust - my power" kind that some advocate to be the real representation of feminism, other call it exploitation, but let's leave these specifics for the next argument. Point is, her outfit works because she's actually invulnerable. A crimelord that can go wild and let loose all of them complexes and repressions due to unattachment to regular stratum (classes and rules) simply being out of their norm and perception - beyond it, evolutionary or not, that's in the eye of the beholder (and that's the reason I like this genre). That's where such concept translates perfectly - aesthetics, symbolism, meta-messages (celebrity permissiveness, carnal hysteria, societal degeneration, mass odium etc.). I probably could've added more, but my knowledge ends with some wiki I read like couple of years ago and spontaneously recalled just now, with the right timing. So, all in all, unless there's a specific character and expression around her, I don't think there should be any tangible reason for women to look like that en masse. I hope I explained myself better than just making it look like I'm simply zeitgeisting "PC" right here.

It's hard for me to judge what comic book readership around the 90s was, but stereotypical generalizing of said readership for today is beyond flawed in my opinion. It's like saying that lots of hoodlums (hope I use the term right) are also geeks because they can spend all day and night playing Xbox, making them gamers, and hence, geeks? Inaccurate right? ;)

About Claremont, as always, him staying would be totally preferable of course, but that's every true beliver's answer by default so... No kidding though, I, for some reason, always had a soft spot for potential story of Psylocke becoming Mandarin's top assassin. Shared universe in its most beautiful.

No you're not the only one. I to this day despise that stupid suit. It made her character development non existent for a decade. Then she got randomly killed off. Even people cosplaying her look silly wearing it. Her Lady mandarin armour rocked though. I wish that would have gotten more attention. As Psylocke is one of the only women around, that can rock some sexy skin tight armour.

Rogues design is possibly the Only suit of that time I like, simply because of cosplayers. Particulary Abi Sue, She rocks the suit.

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These were great at the time! The harness Cyclops was wearing made no sense but Jim Lee made it look great! How did Jean or Psylocke get into those outfits? No one cares! They were eye catching. Cyclops had never had pants before and Wolverine looked great in his brown outfit. I prefer it to his crazy yellow get up.

Cyclops and Storm were my faves

No they were great. A bit dated now but still they were good for then.

Everything he draws look amazing. When rendered by others, most of the time the designs would suck

Jim Lee's art for X-Men has always been amazing.