The Big Picture

• X-Men '97 features new costumes that pay homage to the team's origins in Marvel comics.
• The costumes reflect specific storylines in the X-Men's history and reference classic appearances.
• The show also pays homage to X-Men animated projects and video games from the '90s.

X-Men '97's latest episode has a very tongue-in-cheek line regarding the mutant heroes' costumes; when Cyclops (Ray Chase) tosses his son Cable (Chris Potter) a blue and yellow X-Men uniform, the time-traveling soldier asks: "Am I going to war, or a circus?" Cyclops responds: "What did you expect, black leather?" This is an inversion of a similar line he said in Bryan Singer's first X-Men film, and it's ironic given how far the superhero genre has come as well as the fact that the X-Men don new costumes. "Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 2" sees the X-Men split into two groups: Blue Team, led by Cyclops, travels to Asteroid M to confront Magneto (Matthew Waterson) while Gold Team, led by Storm, attempts to stop Bastion (Theo James) once and for all. Their new costumes are a nod to various points of the X-Men's history, as well as another X-Men animated project.

The X-Men's New Costumes Reflect Their Origins

X-Men '97 showcased the X-Men slowly changing their costumes over the course of Season 1; Storm (Allison Sealy-Smith) gained a new black suit during "Lifedeath - Part 2" while Jubilee (Holly Chou) went out shopping and picked up a new black bodysuit to go with her trademark yellow trenchcoat. The rest of the X-Men have donned outfits that call back to when they first joined the team. Cyclops and Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale) are wearing the outfits they had back when they were Charles Xavier's first students. Jean's green and yellow minidress is a callback to her time as Marvel Girl.

Wolverine (Cal Dodd), Nightcrawler (Adrien Hough), and Storm are all wearing the uniforms they were first sporting during Giant-Size X-Men #1 by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum; this is the story that kickstarted the mighty mutants' rise to prominence within Marvel Comics, especially as Wein handed writing duties to Chris Claremont shortly afterward. Claremont crafted an epic run on the title, weaving epic storylines like The Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past while honing in on the "mutants as minority" metaphor and transforming Magneto into an anti-hero of sorts.

Jubilee and Cable's costumes hold different origins. In Jubilee's case, her new uniform is a reference to the time when she became a vampire. When the X-Men briefly relocated to San Francisco, they came under attack from vampires, and a depowered Jubilee was transformed into a creature of the night thanks to a vampire-engineered virus. She'd eventually regain her "firework" powers after a battle with the mutant Emplate. Cable's outfit pays homage to his appearance in Marvel VS Capcom 2, where he's a playable character. The X-Men have a long history with Capcom games in the '90s, so it's only natural that X-Men '97 continues to pay homage to that era.

'X-Men '97' Pays Homage to 'Pryde of The X-Men'

The X-Men's new costumes aren't just a treasure trove for comic fans. Former X-Men '97 showrunner Beau DeMayo revealed during one of his "homework assignments" on Twitter that the show would pay homage to the Pryde of the X-Men animated pilot. It featured the X-Men - this time consisting of Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Dazzler, and Nightcrawler — battling Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants while also welcoming new student Kitty Pryde. Like X-Men '97 and X-Men: The Animated Series, Pryde of the X-Men drew heavily from Claremont's run on the X-Men comics. It was also directed by Larry Houston, who'd go on to direct several episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series and is a producer on X-Men '97.

Pryde of the X-Men also serves as the basis of an X-Men video game from Komani, which got a shout-out in the X-Men '97 episode "Montendo". When Jubilee and Sunspot (Gui Agustini) are trapped in a video game by Mojo, they wind up on Asteroid M - in a similar situation to the final level of Konami's X-Men game. The X-Men's costume changes are just one of the many ways the X-Men '97 creative team is paying homage to the history of the X-Men.

X-Men '97 is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S., with the Season 1 finale premieres next Wednesday.

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