Wolverine is the best there is at what he does. Now, usually, that means slicing up bad guys, being a gruff loner with a heart of gold, and training young mutants. However, something else should be added to the things Wolverine is the best at — having awesome costumes. Wolverine has been around for over fifty years in the comics, and through those decades has had some amazing costumes. Wolverine’s costumes have helped define who the character is, and have played a huge role in his popularity. Wolverine would still be a great character without the sartorial excellence he’s shown, but there’s a chance fans wouldn’t have liked him as much in lesser threads.
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Wolverine’s costumes have run the gamut from bright superhero spandex classics to dark costumes made for sneaking through the shadows and killing everything in his way. Wolverine’s best costumes do what all superhero costumes should do — tell a story about who he is just by looking at him. These ten Wolverine costumes from the comics are the cream of the crop, helping to define who Wolverine is for different generations of fans.
Old Man Logan
“Old Man Logan” is one of Wolverine’s best stories, introducing an older, grizzled version of the character living with his guilt in a dystopian world controlled by villains. Now, this version of Wolverine didn’t actually wear a costume, instead wearing his civilian clothes and a long duster coat. Later, when Marvel brought the character to the 616 universe, he kept wearing his civilian clothes, trading his duster in for a brown, fur-lined, possibly leather jacket, a white undershirt, jeans, and boots. This basically became his costume, as he wore it on his solo adventures with the X-Men and basically anywhere else he showed up.
This look speaks to how Old Man Logan was as a character. His guilt over killing the X-Men because of Mysterio’s mind control was enough to keep him out of the costume forever. Instead, he chose to wear his clothes, the kind he wore with the family he loved before they were taken by the Hulk Gang, as his fighting togs. It’s a simple, rustic look that speaks to the fact that Logan isn’t messing around — he’s not going to get dressed up for a fight, instead preferring to be comfortable while he’s tearing his enemies apart.
The New X-Men Costume
2000’s X-Men eschewed the classic colorful spandex of the X-Men comics, instead going with black leather costumes with yellow accents. The comic followed suit starting with 2001’s New X-Men; the team decided that their missions were better served with black leather jackets and pants. While many fans prefer the more colorful costumes, there’s something to be said for the X-Men’s uniforms at this time, especially Wolverine’s.
Wolverine looked awesome in his black-and-yellow leather jacket, white undershirt, and leather pants. The silver X-belt was a nice touch, and he started wearing dog tags again (almost certainly because the movie made such a big deal of them). Wolverine always looks good in black and this costume felt like something he’d wear while he was out riding his motorcycle. It fits this era of Wolverine very well and remains an underrated look in the pantheon of Wolverine costumes.
Wolverine’s Blue-and-Yellow X-Men Uniform
When the X-Men first started out, the team wore blue-and-yellow uniforms. Eventually, the five original X-Men would start wearing their own costumes and the school uniforms dropped to the wayside. They’d return for the New Mutants — although these would go so dark with the blue as to be almost black — but eventually they would get their own individual uniforms as well. In the early ’90s, blue-and-yellow X-Men uniforms would return for the team who found themselves out in the Shi’Ar Empire. These uniforms had a somewhat different design than the preceding Xavier Institute uniforms, featuring a red belt and a large X-Men symbol on the abdomen, as well as leg straps for some reason (the reason is the ’90s).
Wolverine looked fantastic in this uniform. To begin with, Wolverine’s colors had been yellow and blue for years, so that fit him. This costume did feel like a modification of his yellow-and-blue costume, except it had more blue and it had sleeves. There was no mask, but that was fine — Wolverine actually looked more intimidating without it. It proved to be a great look for Wolverine, and he later returned to it during his feral years, with the only modifications being that it was more battered and he wore a red or blue bandana with eyeholes over his face.
The Black Madripoor Costume
When the X-Men battled the Adversary in Dallas, Texas, the world thought that they had been killed. Instead, the team went through the Siege Perilous and ended up in Australia. During this time period, known as the X-Men’s Outback era, the team was careful about keeping their survival a secret. Around this time, Wolverine started to hang out in the South Asian nation of Madripoor. He had been going there for decades and took on the Patch identity to make sure that no one thought he was Wolverine — although, let’s be real, the hair is a dead giveaway. When he was on missions in Madripoor, he donned a new costume.
This one was pretty simple compared to what he’d worn before. It was a black spandex tank top, black pants, and short black gloves. Sometimes, he’d also paint black paint over his eyes for camouflage as well. It was the kind of costume that no one would look twice at, and it was very different from the other superhero costumes he had worn before. It wouldn’t immediately make people think of the superhero Wolverine, do it served its purpose well.
The Age of Apocalypse Weapon X Costume
The X-Men have had some amazing adventures, including one of the best alternate universe stories ever — The Age of Apocalypse. In a timeline created when Legion accidentally killed Xavier decades before he’d found the X-Men, Apocalypse was able to attack the world earlier and quickly conquered the Americas, fighting a genocidal war against humanity with his mutant empire. The X-Men were formed by Magneto and had very different looks. Wolverine, known as Weapon X in that universe, got a very different costume, but one that suited him perfectly.
The costume’s main color was dark blue, and it was topped off with a tank top with red slash marks on his pecs. He didn’t wear a mask but did have what appeared to be red tattoos that mimicked the costume’s slash marks around his eyes. He wore a simple red X-belt and the blue pants were unadorned, leading to sleek boots. It’s an awesome look for this darker Wolverine, giving him an air of intimidation that’s enhanced by his missing left hand, which showed that he would never stop fighting no matter what his foes took him.
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The Classic Yellow-and-Blue
This is going to be controversial because many fans out there think that Wolverine’s classic yellow-and-blue costume is the definitive Wolverine costume. It’s the one that he wore when generations of readers discovered the character. It’s the one from X-Men: The Animated Series, making it a part of many fans’ childhoods. That’s why it was such a huge deal when a modified version of this costume appeared in Deadpool & Wolverine — fans had been wanting to see this look on the big screen for 24 years at that point. This is the costume that the vast majority think of when they think about Wolverine.
It’s really something of a work of art. While an argument can be made that Wolverine shouldn’t wear such bright colors, they actually fit who he was at the time he started wearing them. Wolverine had spent years as a secret agent and assassin and donned this brighter costume when he joined Canada’s Department H as a national superhero. This costume spoke to him stepping out of the shadows and becoming an actual hero instead of a killer. Once the mask changed to the one we’re used to in Giant-Size X-Men #1, the costume reached its best state. While it said a lot about Wolverine’s new role in life, it also still showed pieces of his wild side, thanks to the blue tiger stripes. It’s a striking costume, and that’s the most important part; no one will ever forget it once they see it.
The Modern Yellow-and-Blue
Eventually, the X-Men moved away from the black leather uniforms and went back to individualized spandex costumes. Instead of going back to one of his old Wolverine designs, Wolverine decided to modernize a classic. This costume took the base of the classic yellow-and-blue but changed multiple facets of the uniform. At first glance, it seems familiar, but the details are different from the old yellow-and-blue, each one catching the eye.
The mask’s wings were much smaller, reminiscent of the mask he wore in his first appearance, The Incredible Hulk #181. The costume did away with the trunks, and the sides of costume, for years yellow with blue tiger stripes, were changed to blue with yellow stripes. The blue extended down to mid-thigh. The boots were the same as the classic boots, topping off an excellent reimagining of one of the most iconic costumes in comic history. Wearing this costume, Wolverine would join the Avengers and become headmaster of his own mutant school, leading the X-Men into battle. It’s easily Wolverine’s most prestigious costume and it looks amazing.
The Black-and-Grey X-Force Costume
Wolverine has long been a stealthy character. That and his willingness to kill led Cyclops to have him form a new X-Force, one which would hunt down threats to mutants and exterminate them with extreme prejudice. Wolverine’s showy yellow-and-blue costume wouldn’t exactly fit this sort of work, so Wolverine went with much darker colors that would let him blend in with the shadows: black and grey. However, despite going in all-new directions with the costume, he still went with a classic design.
While the costume did include some new elements, the gloves and the boots becoming altogether more strappy, the costume’s basic color design hearkened back to his brown-and-tan costume, while also having aspects of the modern yellow-and-blue. The red eye lenses were also a nice touch for the costume, giving Wolverine a more sinister look that fit the bloody missions he went on while wearing this costume. It was a nice departure that paid homage to many of his best costumes, and he looked lethal while wearing it, which was the most important part.
The Classic Brown-and-Tan
Wolverine wore the classic yellow-and-blue costume from 1974 to 1980. Artist John Byrne, almost finished with his tenure with the X-Men, decided to give the character a new costume and it debuted in Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #139. This costume did away with the yellow and blue that had made Wolverine so famous and swapped them for brown and tan (although sometimes, it looks orange or yellow). Byrne, a native Canadian, wanted to give his fellow Canuck a more wild look, one that fit his name and spoke to the animal inside of him. Wolverine wore this costume from 1980 to 1991, and it’s beloved by a certain generation of Wolverine fans who grew up with it.
This costume screams Wolverine. The more natural colors remind readers that he’s just as home in the forest as he is with people. The way it uses color is different from the yellow-and-blue, with the brown section leading down to the trunks. The red belt is a nice touch as well, fitting with the overall motif of the costume. It’s a stone-cold classic and Wolverine looks phenomenal in it.
The Modern Brown-and-Tan
The Krakoa Era was the biggest change to the X-Men mythos in years. The X-Men started their own mutant nation, one open to heroes and villains alike, and became a superpower on the world stage. This led to many of the members of the team getting new costumes, including Wolverine. On Krakoa, Wolverine was the field leader of the X-Force, the Krakoan CIA, so the bright yellow-and-blue just wouldn’t cut it, so Wolverine went back to the brown-and-tan, but made some changes to make it unique.
The modern brown-and-tan uses colors in the same way as the modern yellow-and-blue did, while also being reminiscent of the black-and-grey X-Force costume. The brown runs down the middle of his body, and the tan is on the outside. Unlike the modern yellow-and-blue, there’s no tiger stripes. This costume takes pieces from two of Wolverine’s best looks and melds them together into a costume that is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s Wolverine’s best costume by far.
What’s your favorite Wolverine costume? Let us know in the comments below!
