X-Men's The Dark Phoenix Saga debuted Jean Grey's iconic Dark Phoenix costume: a red suit with golden boots and gloves -- but she almost sported a very different look, as revealed by several alternate designs that have surfaced online.
Shared by Marvel Executive Editor and SVP of Publishing Tom Brevoort, Dave Cockrum's unused designs included a tight blue suit and an outfit comprised of a white crop-top and golden belt. "The Phoenix costume was going to be white, but with the bad paper comics were printed on, EIC Archie Goodwin was afraid readers would be able to see the page on the other side through her figure," he explained.
The Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont and John Byrne began with The X-Men #129 and ended with issue #138. The iconic story saw Jean Grey bond with a galactic entity known as the Phoenix Force, thus developing god-like powers and becoming the Dark Phoenix.
The Dark Phoenix Saga has been adapted to film twice, once in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand and again in 2019's Dark Phoenix. Both films were written by Simon Kinberg with Zak Penn serving as co-writer on Last Stand. Dark Phoenix is the last X-Men film made through Fox. Neither movie featured any variation of this particular Dark Phoenix costume.
Marvel celebrated The Dark Phoenix Saga's 40th Anniversary in Oct. 2019 by releasing a variety of X-Men variant covers.