23 years ago, X2: X-Men United foreshadowed the superhero boom when it proved lightning really does strike twice. Marvel had struggled to get their heroes on to the big screen for decades, but their first outings lacked the kind of bright, spectacular superhero costumes we’ve gotten used to. The first X-Men movie even explicitly mocked them, with Cyclops cracking wise about how Wolverine shouldn’t expect yellow spandex.
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Now, 23 years later, Wolverine’s signature look from X2: X-Men United is officially up for sale. Heritage Auctions is offering both Wolverine’s jacket and Wolverine’s claws, meaning collectors can finally own this piece of X-Men history. The jacket is entertaining opening bids from $50,000, while the claws expect a starting bid of $8,000.
Wolverine’s X-Men Jacket & Claws Are a Piece of Superhero History
Wolverine’s claws were crafted from hard composite rubber with metal armature/substructure and grips; they were carefully spray-painted to resemble metal. The design was simple but effective, allowing Fox to recreate Wolverine’s signature mutant power. These claws were actually used in the film, and they’ve taken a little damage; Heritage note they show production wear and age, including scuffed surfaces and paint loss on the top, bottom, sides, and edges of the claws. The center right claw is broken, missing an approx. 1″ portion at the knuckle section.
Meanwhile, the motorcycle jacket was crafted from brown pebbled leather with standing collar, robust front zipper, 2-long slash side pockets, 3-yellow leather armbands on each arm. It does feature a smart nod to Wolverine’s comic book costume, with yellow leather armbands on each arm, and 2-distinct bias-cut suede and leather embellishments at the waist. These were designed to evoke the famous “slashes” along Wolverine’s traditional outfits, and are about as far as the original X-Men films were willing to go when it came to superhero costumes. Like the claws, the jacket has marks of age; this includes rubbing, scuffs, scratches, cracked leather at the extremities, stiffening, and 1-missing leather armband on the left arm.
This is the first time these have gone to auction; they’re from the personal collection of director Bryan Singer. These X-Men costumes will no doubt command a hefty price, boosted by this year’s Avengers: Doomsday. There, iconic X-Men characters are returning to the big screen at last; the film is confirmed to feature the likes of Patrick Stewart and James Marsden, although Hugh Jackman is not yet confirmed for the film. Ironically, Doomsday is finally giving X-Men fans the comic book accurate costumes they craved for 23 years ago.
Jackman himself finally got to wear a comic book accurate costume in Deadpool & Wolverine, much to audiences’ delight (there was also a shot of his older brown and tan comic book outfit, too). Assuming he does indeed return in Avengers: Doomsday, he’ll likely wear a variant of that rather than the X2 designs, but that doesn’t mean these will be forgotten. For one thing, X2‘s jacket even influenced the comics themselves, which ditched yellow spandex for a couple of years and went for biker jackets.
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