Silver Age Marvel costume changes

[Jolly Mon]

It was even part of a scheme by Magneto, as the costume was technologically engineered to sap Warren's energy as seen in later issues of Avengers. The plan involved Magneto having to wear the costume himself, and, er... let's just say he didn't look quite as imposing in it as he did in his original red-and-purple w/ the cape. Especially since he insisted on wearing his Magneto helmet on top of it.

That's right. At the end of the Avengers story, they still didn't know where Angel was after Magneto drugged him and swiped the costume. Do you know where/if they ever resolved that?

[MichikoS]

The issue in which those costumes debuted (#39 'The Fateful Finale') was pencilled by Mr. Heck. It's a pity that Masterworks X-Men #4 is the only volume I do not own, as each of those Masterworks volumes contained an insightful foreword by either Stan Lee or Rascally Roy Thomas, often also going into some detail about the reasoning behind costume design.

Hmmm, I seem to recall that Ross Andru was the artist responsible for the costume redesign. I can't recall where I read that, unfortunately, and it may be wrong.
Michi

[Bad Wolf]

It was even part of a scheme by Magneto, as the costume was technologically engineered to sap Warren's energy as seen in later issues of Avengers. The plan involved Magneto having to wear the costume himself, and, er... let's just say he didn't look quite as imposing in it as he did in his original red-and-purple w/ the cape. Especially since he insisted on wearing his Magneto helmet on top of it.

Havok's original costume had a similar story, and he wore that for years as well.

[Mormel]

That's right. At the end of the Avengers story, they still didn't know where Angel was after Magneto drugged him and swiped the costume. Do you know where/if they ever resolved that?

Yeah yeah, it was resolved in the pages of Captain America #174 and #175. Prof X, Cyclops, and Jean track Angel and the other missing X-Men down and find them (and some mutant villains) strapped to a machine built by the Secret Empire, so they can serve as the power source for a battleship. Needless to say, the Empire's plan is thwarted and all the mutants are freed.

Interestingly enough (and on topic again), the creators of those books chose to feature the X-Men in their original blue-and-yellow colour schemes, not in their individual costumes. Maybe that was just Englehart's personal preference, I don't know. Maybe he found it a more 'iconic' look, maybe he disliked the individualised costumes, maybe he figured that the X-Men -like the FF- needed to be 'in uniform'. But in retrospect, it looks like a regression.

[Mormel]

Hmmm, I seem to recall that Ross Andru was the artist responsible for the costume redesign. I can't recall where I read that, unfortunately, and it may be wrong.
Michi

I can imagine that, he was the artist on X-Men for a while before Don Heck came on. If they were planning ahead a bit, I could see how Andru would have the designs for the new X-Men costumes finished for Heck to use them when he started drawing the book as the Factor Three story ended.

[Dizzy D]

The issue in which those costumes debuted (#39 'The Fateful Finale') was pencilled by Mr. Heck. It's a pity that Masterworks X-Men #4 is the only volume I do not own, as each of those Masterworks volumes contained an insightful foreword by either Stan Lee or Rascally Roy Thomas, often also going into some detail about the reasoning behind costume design.

And I agree with Dizzy on Angel's first individual costume. While I kind of like it, the colours really scream and the suspenders look silly. I'm also not certain about a later re-design that made its debut in a flashback story, the costume he wore when he called himself the 'Avenging Angel'. It was red-purplish with a black streak across the chest and a diagonal halo on the chest. The halo was incidentally the only part of that costume that was integrated in the design of his next costume, the blue-and-white, which would become his most iconic look.

I , on the other hand, do like the Avenging Angel costume. It's a lot more subdued than the graduate costume and it also doesn't have the silly suspenders for one. The blue/white costume is Angel's best though. (Leading to one of the most unintentionally funny bits in the original X-Men comics when they are about to face the Z'nox: Angel staring at the yellow costume and having a whole soliloquy that whenever he is looking at his costume, he's wondering if he will one day be buried in it... then shows up at the meeting in the next panel in his white/blue costume. Probably unintentional, but in my mind either Angel is thinking that he's very clever and cheating the reaper or he just wants to leave a well-dressed corpse behind.