Wolverine is finally back from the dead. More specifically, an aspect of a version of Wolverine at the end of the universe who has become the host of the Phoenix was sent back in time and has been around for a while but our default Wolverine is more recently back from the dead thanks to a lady with resurrection powers who wanted to take over the world and fill it with zombies. Putting all of that aside, the questions fans most want answered is “what shirt is he going to wear?”
There are a lot of options for this. He could just wear a white tank-top undershirt like that’s something regular people wear in public. He could wear his classic “tiger-stripe” costume that everyone loves. He could finally bring back the perfect X-Men: Evolution outfit. Heck, he could just go full Quitely and rock an open jacket with no shirt. This question seemed to get answered with the reveal of the UNCANNY X-MEN Vol 5 #14 cover with Wolverine in the classic John Byrne brown costume. When the cover for HOUSE OF X #1 by Pepe Larraz came out with the same costume, it seemed like a closed case.
However, there has been a shocking breakthrough in the case. Colorist extraordinaire Marte Gracia showed his textless colors on the cover and there was an interesting difference. See if you can spot it below.
That’s right, Wolverine is wearing his X-Force color scheme, complete with glowing red eyes that tell you that he is out for blood. For his part, Gracia claimed this was a coloring error.
Loo, my mistake I fixed it in the final image.
— MARTEGRACIA (@RGBSEXONPSDS) April 8, 2019
This story was incredibly believable, sometimes mistakes happen or designs take time to finalize. That is, until an announcement today. Marvel announced a new one-shot WOLVERINE VS BLADE SPECIAL #1 and revealed an interesting cover. It again, shows Wolverine in his grey X-Force duds, symbolizing that the world isn’t as black and white as those sissy X-Men believe it to be.
Artist David Wilkins has been working on this for quite some time, posting this preview on Instagram back in November.
So what does this all mean? Probably that Hickman planned on having Wolverine wear his X-Force clothes in HOUSE OF X but those plans changed at the last minute. Wilkins pained style meant that he couldn’t redo all the art so they kept it around. It really isn’t a big deal and it’s nothing that anyone should spend their lunch hour writing an article about. Sometimes people wear different clothes. It’s kinda weird that people are worrying so much about it.
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
