C'mon, Wolverine's New Costume Isn't THAT Bad

In a move that surprised literally no one, Marvel Comics has decided to bring Wolverine back from the dead (now with Hot Claws, baby!) and has made a pretty big deal of the whole thing. Of course, why wouldn't they? Wolverine has been the most popular X-person for the last thirty years across all media. His absence left such a large cavern, several alternate versions of the character were brought into the Earth-616 continuity to help alleviate the longing for our dearly departed Canucklehead. The surrogates worked with varying levels of success (Laura Kinney IS our Wolverine, dammit!), but ready or not, it's time for papa Logan to return.

As the "Hunt for Wolverine" miniseries crossover even is winding down, we're getting closer and closer to the debut of The Return of Wolverine, a five-issue limited series by Charles Soule (Astonishing X-Men, Star Wars: Darth Vader), Steve McNiven (Civil War, Nemesis) and Declan Shalvey. While the primary cover and a heap of the variant for the first issue of this series feature Logan sporting familiar outfits (which include the classic yellow getup and that silly ol' "Patch" persona), a variant cover by Shalvey for the second issue shows Wolverine wearing something a bit different.

Now before we go down this rabbit hole of objective observations that are based upon simple preferences of aesthetics (it's okay to disagree, guys), let's get this out of the way right up front: No matter what people may think of his new black and red outfit, it is by no means the worst costume Wolverine has worn...not by a long shot. Remember this little number?

The defense of Wolverine's new costume isn't solely predicated upon how bad (or simply dated) some of his other designs are, but it's a good enough place to start. What makes the new Wolverine costume kind of cool is the context of the variant cover of The Return of Wolverine #2.

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If you weren't too distracted by the new outfit, you'll notice that in the background of the cover is some sort of watercraft from which Wolverine seems to be leaping. The first impression we got was that this new costume has some sort of nautical-based design. The large buttons on the breast flap of his black top kind of back this up.

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"But Wolverine looks like the angriest sushi chef in the world in this costume," you might say, and... you wouldn't be wrong. This outfit does scream: "harshest judge on Chopped," for sure. But that doesn't necessarily make it a bad getup. If the naval vibe we're getting has any merit, the design is a good mix of nautical and classic X-Men outfit styles. The more we consider the setting of the cover, the more we're reminded of Captain Nemo in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and that's pretty good company to be in.

The thick red trim also evoke a futuristic military vibe, which also lends itself pretty well to Wolverine considering his background in the service. Declan Shalvey is one hell of an artist (his work on Warren Ellis' run on Moon Knight was fantastic, by the way), so the costume design we see on this cover most likely wasn't some sort of afterthought. In fact, based on the short sleeves and mostly black coloring, one could assume that this costume could be paying homage to the goofy Chris Claremonet-era solo series costume from yesteryear, but with a modern flare.

The outfit also hearkens back to the Wolverine from The Ultimate Universe. Hopefully his resurrection has made him into a massive jerk who preys on minors (fingers crossed). Say what you will about that version of the character, he did have a pretty awesome design...except of the soul patch he was sporting for a spell.

It's easy for a lot of comic readers to become jaded by huge tent pole moments from major publishers, especially when they involve the return or death of a major character (the former is especially damning and chips away at the stakes of storytelling), but we haven't seen Wolverine in this costume in action yet, so the jury is still out.

Shalvey himself has gone on record saying that there's absolutely an in-story reason for the uniform, and that it's deliberately different from what you would expect Logan to wear. "It's not a Wolverine costume... it's not designed for Wolverine. It's basically something he finds." In short, fans who have gone to great lengths to point out he looks like a culinary student who paid his dues only to wind up serving raw fish to tourists in a food court might end up eating crow instead of sashimi.

And for anyone still groaning over what could turn out to be a serviceable costume, we leave you this: