Jean Grey / Phoenix Appreciation 2024

[kcekada]

Agree, it’s a step down from the hellfire gala. Those shoulders, the weird boots, the full head condom look awful.

The more I see it, the more it looks like someone stupidly wants to retain a semblance of the Jim Lee design -- which is a mistake in my opinion. The shoulders and the headpiece both call back to that costume -- and those elements keep getting used - as in X-Men Red and her previous costume. LET IT GO!

[Wiccan]

It's one of the most iconic things from her costumes. To list all that have it (that I can remember):

- Blue X-Factor
- Jim Lee 90's
- Revolution
- X-Men Evolution (cartoon)
- X-Men Red
- X-Men Red green version
- Dauterman Gala/Duggan's X-men
- X-Men 97 (it's slightly different from the original one)

I think it's cool that they finally added it on a Phoenix costume.

[Havok83]

It's still the same kind of shape covering her forehead with something in the middle. Obviously Dauterman designed it to evoke the cowl from the previous costumes that had it.

On the main cover the new Phoenix costume is also like that without covering the sides of her face or jaw, though I'm guessing that's not the "correct" version? I wonder if we'll get the concept art/design sheet.

but the fact that it doesnt extend down to her jaw makes it infinitely better than the others. The 90s headpiece is a dated relic from an era that looks out of place today, much like pouches, underwear over pants/tights, excessive spikes, etc.... The HFC tiara was a modern homage that should have inspired this new look

[Devaishwarya]

This. They should have gone with purple Phoenix. That would have looked great. Then again, maybe they wanted to avoid Maxima vibes…..

I do think another colour would have actually been better to set her new cosmic journey apart from all that she's been through before. She already wore Green. Red. White. Black. Purple, recently. What would she look like in a dark "cosmic/starry" blue with gold or silver accents?

[Tank]

The more I see it, the more it looks like someone stupidly wants to retain a semblance of the Jim Lee design -- which is a mistake in my opinion. The shoulders and the headpiece both call back to that costume -- and those elements keep getting used - as in X-Men Red and her previous costume. LET IT GO!

Agree. They keep retreading those elements, and aesthetically they just dont look good. Jean’s beautiful face should be free and shoulder pads or giant shoulder anything is so dated.

[PotniaTheron]

IMG_0239.jpg
Guys, I'm really excited for Jean to manifest the Phoenix on a scale never accomplished before.

[Exodus]

IMG_0239.jpg
Guys, I'm really excited for Jean to manifest the Phoenix on a scale never accomplished before.

after the conclusion of Grant Morrison's Here Comes Tomorrow, I wonder what this really means?

[PyroFN]

I do think another colour would have actually been better to set her new cosmic journey apart from all that she's been through before. She already wore Green. Red. White. Black. Purple, recently. What would she look like in a dark "cosmic/starry" blue with gold or silver accents?

I personally I am very lenient with repeated elements being used, especially when they are character specific iconic elements (Literally defending the headpiece and shoulder pads in this thread when it’s really not that big a deal to me? That’s me.), but the Krakoan Era has all been green, which should only be a description of the island plant-life. Not the color choices of Jean’s costume.

Og Marvel Girl, I gave a pass. They went with a classic look. Updating it should have been an easy choice, but whatever.

X-Men: Red (Green Variant)? Ugly color choosing on another full body suit (with armored plating albeit), but it popped up for all of one comic issue. Forgettable enough for me to not care that much.

Gala outfit 1? We have seen it look better in other colors, but the way they use the green here is unique compared to greens of one color across multiple outfits. I approved, despite it being another body suit.

Gala outfit 2? Too safe, but it was only there for one event and it had at least interesting bits to look at. Like the gold accents and patterns or the see-through.

Gala outfit 3? Again, too safe and it went borderline boring. Were it not for Dauterman going with bold choices like the headpiece, sparkles, bell-bottoms that separate through the middle of the bottom of the pant legs, and spiked shoulder pads, I probably would not have paid any attention to the costume.

New Phoenix? People out here are complaining about a headpiece and shoulder pad combination that Jean pulls off better than any character, but no one wants to mention how they smacked green on Jean again in ANOTHER one piece body suit with nothing breaking up the torso?! Get your priorities straight people! We got more important issues here than complaining about the most interesting bits of the costume.

[Gray Lensman]

I personally I am very lenient with repeated elements being used, especially when they are character specific iconic elements (Literally defending the headpiece and shoulder pads in this thread when it’s really not that big a deal to me? That’s me.), but the Krakoan Era has all been green, which should only be a description of the island plant-life. Not the color choices of Jean’s costume.

Og Marvel Girl, I gave a pass. They went with a classic look. Updating it should have been an easy choice, but whatever.

X-Men: Red (Green Variant)? Ugly color choosing on another full body suit (with armored plating albeit), but it popped up for all of one comic issue. Forgettable enough for me to not care that much.

Gala outfit 1? We have seen it look better in other colors, but the way they use the green here is unique compared to greens of one color across multiple outfits. I approved, despite it being another body suit.

Gala outfit 2? Too safe, but it was only there for one event and it had at least interesting bits to look at. Like the gold accents and patterns or the see-through.

Gala outfit 3? Again, too safe and it went borderline boring. Were it not for Dauterman going with bold choices like the headpiece, sparkles, bell-bottoms that separate through the middle of the bottom of the pant legs, and spiked shoulder pads, I probably would not have paid any attention to the costume.

New Phoenix? People out here are complaining about a headpiece and shoulder pad combination that Jean pulls off better than any character, but no one wants to mention how they smacked green on Jean again in ANOTHER one piece body suit with nothing breaking up the torso?! Get your priorities straight people! We got more important issues here than complaining about the most interesting bits of the costume.

Green is basically Jean's signature color. Taking her out of it for too long is like removing purple from Psylocke, black from Cyclops, or yellow from Firestar. Or blue from Beast. Some characters are just so associated with certain colors it just feels wrong to put them in something without it - the only way is to evoke a classic costume with a color swap (like Dark Phoenix or the Phoenix Five Jean variant costume). Changing too much at once, both the colors AND the basic design just seems weird.

[Devaishwarya]

You can say that Black and Gold are Storm's signature colours but she's worn white, black/red, purple...Wolverine has had a range of costumes and colours...sure the costume is identifiable but it's the character that makes it iconic. Jean has already worn a range of colours...but each one has been identifiable as Jean. And again...this is not even that crazy a change. All the elements of her green costume are there minus the sash and plus a couple of add-ons. Even the colours are the same...green, gold, black.

[PyroFN]

Green is basically Jean's signature color. Taking her out of it for too long is like removing purple from Psylocke, black from Cyclops, or yellow from Firestar. Or blue from Beast. Some characters are just so associated with certain colors it just feels wrong to put them in something without it - the only way is to evoke a classic costume with a color swap (like Dark Phoenix or the Phoenix Five Jean variant costume). Changing too much at once, both the colors AND the basic design just seems weird.

1) Blue is Cyke’s signature color. Not black. Black has never been a signature of Scott’s at any point outside the New X-Men. Betsy’s wardrobe is blue. Her hair is what has been purple, which is the equivalent of Storm’s white hair or Jean’s red hair. Firestar was literally the only one you got right.

Beast is…..tricky. It’s blue because of his hair…..but as far as uniforms go, he usually leans black and yellow to break up the blue in his costumes historically. However, the blue speedo is his most iconic, so it is not clear cut as to what to do with Beast beyond making him a furry blue ape.

2) The Phoenix Five Jean costume is not 616 canon. It looks incredible, but it is not synonymous with Jean herself. (And it pains me to admit that because it is the most different Jean costume compared to her entire wardrobe)

3) The “too different=too weird” mindset is low-key cowardly from my perspective. Yes, we do keep signature coloring in mind so as to not stray too far from the iconic aspects of a character only in the realm that the color means something to the character…..but that can also be accomplished with silhouette’s and patterns. Jean literally has a Phoenix symbol or ‘X’ symbol she can fall on for recognizability or the aforementioned headband that has been topical recently in this thread.

If you want a proper solution for this, you ask what it is that is iconic about Jean Grey. Green is synonymous with Jean if you want to go with Green Phoenix or Marvel Girl. One can be tweaked because the Phoenix costume can be put into different variations. We literally have three variants of the same costume: Red, White, and Black.

The only other is Marvel Girl, which the fans desperately wanted Jean to steer away from, which one would think that would logically mean alienating the color most associated with it. My hot take: I don’t mind going to Marvel girl aesthetic if we do something different with it. To show an evolution of it, instead of always wearing green or body suits. And especially both together.

[Wiccan]

At this point I'm not even sure what exactly each of you guys are trying to say, so I'll just say: I like the new costume and I like that it's green. It's fine for Jean to wear other colors sometimes, but the green and yellow/gold is indeed her main (individual) color scheme. I didn't like the purple costume from that Weapon X book, it looks like it's some weird lightning or a coloring mistake.

[Gray Lensman]

1) Blue is Cyke’s signature color. Not black. Black has never been a signature of Scott’s at any point outside the New X-Men. Betsy’s wardrobe is blue. Her hair is what has been purple, which is the equivalent of Storm’s white hair or Jean’s red hair. Firestar was literally the only one you got right.

Beast is…..tricky. It’s blue because of his hair…..but as far as uniforms go, he usually leans black and yellow to break up the blue in his costumes historically. However, the blue speedo is his most iconic, so it is not clear cut as to what to do with Beast beyond making him a furry blue ape.

2) The Phoenix Five Jean costume is not 616 canon. It looks incredible, but it is not synonymous with Jean herself. (And it pains me to admit that because it is the most different Jean costume compared to her entire wardrobe)

3) The “too different=too weird” mindset is low-key cowardly from my perspective. Yes, we do keep signature coloring in mind so as to not stray too far from the iconic aspects of a character only in the realm that the color means something to the character…..but that can also be accomplished with silhouette’s and patterns. Jean literally has a Phoenix symbol or ‘X’ symbol she can fall on for recognizability or the aforementioned headband that has been topical recently in this thread.

If you want a proper solution for this, you ask what it is that is iconic about Jean Grey. Green is synonymous with Jean if you want to go with Green Phoenix or Marvel Girl. One can be tweaked because the Phoenix costume can be put into different variations. We literally have three variants of the same costume: Red, White, and Black.

The only other is Marvel Girl, which the fans desperately wanted Jean to steer away from, which one would think that would logically mean alienating the color most associated with it. My hot take: I don’t mind going to Marvel girl aesthetic if we do something different with it. To show an evolution of it, instead of always wearing green or body suits. And especially both together.

1 - Scott has been wearing black going to the team uniforms all the way to Claremont, only switching to blue for X-Factor and the Jim Lee suit. Then it was back to black for All-New, and Astonishing, and the whole period through up until now except for when they put him back in the Jim Lee costume, or one-offs like his first Hellfire Gala costume. Not counting the teen version, of course. He had some variant of blue the moment he stepped out of the team colors of black and yellow.

2 - I thought she was in it for a few panels during her resurrection story when the adult Jean came back?

3 - I think you always need to have something to tie any costume evolution to the character. Color isn't always the best one, but most of Jean's have either been green and gold, or had something to call back to the Phoenix. There is her red and yellow look from X-Factor, but I don't think any character outside of Warren has ever revisited an X-Factor costume.

[Wiccan]

1 - Scott has been wearing black going to the team uniforms all the way to Claremont, only switching to blue for X-Factor and the Jim Lee suit. Then it was back to black for All-New, and Astonishing, and the whole period through up until now except for when they put him back in the Jim Lee costume, or one-offs like his first Hellfire Gala costume. Not counting the teen version, of course. He had some variant of blue the moment he stepped out of the team colors of black and yellow.

2 - I thought she was in it for a few panels during her resurrection story when the adult Jean came back?

3 - I think you always need to have something to tie any costume evolution to the character. Color isn't always the best one, but most of Jean's have either been green and gold, or had something to call back to the Phoenix. There is her red and yellow look from X-Factor, but I don't think any character outside of Warren has ever revisited an X-Factor costume.

I consider Cyclops' classic costume to be blue. Which might be an inconsistency on my part cause I do consider the first OG 5 costumes as black, but err. I feel like retroactively at least they're usually colored like that in modern times? It might also be that his 90's costume is definetely blue and it feels similar to the classic one (even though the whole blue and gold thing seems to come from misinterpreting the OG ones that were supposed to be black).

The Phoenix Resurrection costume was just the classic Phoenix one in black and red.

[Gray Lensman]

I consider Cyclops' classic costume to be blue. Which might be an inconsistency on my part cause I do consider the first OG 5 costumes as black, but err. I feel like retroactively at least they're usually colored like that in modern times? It might also be that his 90's costume is definetely blue and it feels similar to the classic one (even though the whole blue and gold thing seems to come from misinterpreting the OG ones that were supposed to be black).

The Phoenix Resurrection costume was just the classic Phoenix one in black and red.

That's probably where my issue there comes in. There is the classic Phoenix costume in the P5 colors, then there is the cover only P5 stylized suit.

The rest, Scott has been in blue enough I can understand anyone thinking that blue is one of his colors. While he doesn't have as many blue costumes, at least one of the those is his most famous look. Add in that blue highlights have often been used with black in many comics, and well, it's easy to see.