Crossing galaxies, timelines, and dimensions, the X-Men have had a wide variety of costumes since their origin in 1963, and Cyclops is certainly no exception. Recent fanart from digital artist Mark Eastwood (@mrkstwd) shows off some favorite costumes of X-Men leader Scott Summers over the years, all in a vintage comic print style.
In a series of posts on Instagram, Mark Eastwood returns to a style he has played around with before, but has perfected in the last year or so.
Noting that Cyclops was the first character he drew in this style when he was first figuring it out, Eastwood has come back to do the character justice in this series.
Scott Summers Has a Style For Every Battle
After illustrating Scott’s classic look from Uncanny X-Men #39, Eastwood jumps ahead to the 1980s with this blue and white X-Factor Cyclops. After the X-Men team had grown and morphed over the previous decades, X-Factor was a new mutant team meant to reunite the original X members: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, and Iceman. That nostalgic feel is evoked in this outfit, keeping the skullcap and visor almost the same and still working with blue, but adjusting the flare on his gloves and boots. It also gives him one large X across the chest, and makes the complementary color white to tone down the primary colors of the usual X-Men suits.
Jumping ahead a few years to 1991, this Blue Team look is what a lot of Millennials and Gen X’ers grew up with. Many Instagram comments on this art rave that this is their favorite Cyclops look. Losing the flaring gloves and boots for a more modern update, this suit also lets Scott’s hair fly free. Picking up after Chris Claremont’s revolutionary X-Men run ended, this design is also what was used for costume inspiration in the X-Men animated series, the show that first introduced many of today’s comic readers to the X-Men.
Cyclops Gets Dark and Gritty
At the turn of the century, the X-Men had more than a few apocalyptic events to necessitate a costume change. In 1995’s Age of Apocalypse, Charles Xavier’s son Legion travels through time to kill a young Magneto but accidentally kills his own father. Because of this, Apocalypse attacks ten years earlier, drastically changing the future. This ’90s long-haired tough guy version of Cyclops reflects his time spent working for the bad guys; but even though his look changed, his heart was always kind, and readers discovered he was a traitor to Apocalypse, helping humans and mutants escape.
This 2001 Eve of Destruction art nails the look from that event. Cyclops was still dealing with having merged with Apocalypse when Magneto kidnapped Xavier, and only a small team of X-Men could help. This is definitely a suit for a stealth X-mission to Genosha to rescue their much-loved leader.
The series ends with this 2001 look, designed by Frank Quitely for Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run. Planned by then-new Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, the title was an attempt to put X-Men comics back into their glory days of the ’70s and ’80s. Inspired by the realism from the Fox X-Men movies, the suits from this series stuck to yellow and black, featuring fewer jumpsuits and more armored jackets paired with pants. As for the numerous X’s, Eastwood notes, “There are up to 17 ‘X’ symbols on this outfit (when you include the back and sides), but there’s always room for more.”
Eastwood has even more X-Men outfits across many characters on his Instagram, including Jean Grey, Storm, and Wolverine. A 2D and UI designer, he also has concept art on his personal website for a wished-for continuation of the X-Men Legends games on modern consoles. The vast portfolio of X-Men art like the Cyclops costumes shows just how truly talented a fan Mark Eastwood is.
