Looking at the character’s 63 year history, there are some costumes that stick out more than others. These are his major costumes, the ones that he spent the most time in, each of them signaling a change to the hero and his team. These are the major Cyclops costumes in X-Men history and have helped define who he is as a hero and leader.
5) The Original X-Men Costume
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
The X-Men have had quite a history, with early days of the team setting the groundwork for what the team will be. The original five X-Men’s first costumes were a more uniform look, and helped define Cyclops’s look in the years to come. The original blue and yellow X-Men costume is one of those classics that always looks good and Cyclops’s set the standard for his costumes in the future. Blue and yellow were colors he’d use over the years in numerous costumes, especially blue, and the costume’s skull cap mask has been a feature of many of his costumes. It’s a great look for the character, and was a precursor of things to come.
4) The New X-Men Leathers
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
New X-Men is one of the greatest books in X-Men history, and it brought some big changes to the team. One of the biggest was the team’s costumes. Instead of the multi-colored spandex, the team started wearing black and yellow leather costumes. Cyclops looked amazing in the black and yellow leathers. His thin visor is one of the best visor designs ever, and his undershirt looked fantastic on him when the jacket was off. The costume just felt like something Cyclops would wear into battle, and for a lot of fans, it’s one of the best looks for the character.
3) Astonishing X-Men Costume
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) kicked off a new era of the team after New X-Men, with the team going back to more classic superhero looks. Cyclops’s costume from this period is one of the best of his costumes. It uses blue and yellow, the perfect colors for the hero, and has the full skull-cap mask. It’s a costume that borrows heavily from his second costume, but modernizes the whole thing perfectly. This costume would last until the Utopia era, where a few changes would be made to it (the lines on the costume changed positions and colors, culminating in all of them coming together on his right shoulder), which was basically a modification of this one. This is the costume he first started wearing as the leader of the mutant race, and it’s basically perfect.
2) Cyclops’s Second Costume
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Cyclops’s second costume was a great modification of the original X-men costume. Scott kept the dark blue, got rid of the most of the yellow, except for the trunks, the gloves, and the pirate boots (which are my favorite Cyclops boots), and kept the full skull-cap mask look. He started wearing this costume in X-Men (Vol. 1) #39 in 1967 didn’t change it until X-Factor (Vol. 1) #1 in 1985, making this the costume he wore the longest. There have been several flawless Cyclops costumes, ones that influenced everything that came after them, and this is one of those. While not the most popular, it is the one that had the most effect on every costume he wore over the intervening years.
1) ’90s Jim Lee Costume
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Cyclops has so many amazing costumes, but there’s one that everyone thinks about when they think of the X-Men’s leader: the Jim Lee designed costume that premiered in X-Men (Vol. 2) #1. This is the costume that the character wore during the most successful period of the X-Men, the one that he wore in X-Men: The Animated Series. This is the one that millions of fans have seen, and it’s become the main Cyclops costume for casual fans. The irony of it is that the costume has a lot of problems that fans mock in other ’90s designs — the bandoliers, the straps, the pouches — but for some reason they work for it. Fans freaked out when they saw its big screen first appearance in the Avengers: Doomsday trailer, which really says it all about how beloved this costume is.
What’s your favorite Cyclops costume? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
