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Nathan Greno
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Posted: 10 July 2019 at 9:43pm | IP Logged | 1  


JB, do you mind settling a debate? Is Cyclops wearing a black or blue uniform on this cover? Much thanks! 

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John Byrne
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Posted: 11 July 2019 at 3:07am | IP Logged | 2  

Black.
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Stéphane Garrelie
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Posted: 11 July 2019 at 3:48am | IP Logged | 3  

While intended as black, i always saw it as dark blue.
Same thing for Spider-man or even the Black Widow's second costume.
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Stéphane Garrelie
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Posted: 11 July 2019 at 3:55am | IP Logged | 4  

... and Nigthcrawler's...skin.
The Beast's fur too.. or would it be slighly lighter? not by much though.
Or it's simply the same color, the difference being the one texture beween fabric, skin and fur.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 11 July 2019 at 4:16am | IP Logged | 5  

Blue highlights on black is one of the oldest conventions in comics. Anyone who can't simply accept that should maybe look for a different hobby--or a different job, in the case of those "pros" who insist on being "clever".
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John Byrne
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Posted: 11 July 2019 at 4:19am | IP Logged | 6  

The Beast's fur too.. or would it be slighly lighter? not by much though.

••

Originally, the Beast's fur was grey. But grey is a "K tone" and costs more, so he turned black, actually as a story element. The black had blue highlights, as was typical. But some writers started referring to him as blue, as inkers dropped blacks and the highlights became the whole thing.

(So--how about that time Stan referred to the Silver Surfer as "white"?)

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Darren Taylor
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Posted: 11 July 2019 at 4:27am | IP Logged | 7  

I've always seen these as coloured highlights to Black. 

The fact they have later been turned into the highlight colour I just always took as peoples inexperienced showing, regrettably while they were left in charge of the reigns. As close as it gets to turning up to class already wearing a Dunce hat!

 
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 11 July 2019 at 4:50am | IP Logged | 8  

There were artists that started drawing Spider-Man’s black costume totally open like it was blue back in the day. Never understood that. 
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John Byrne
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Posted: 11 July 2019 at 5:01am | IP Logged | 9  

DEADLINES!!

As they crush ever closer, artists--mostly inkers--start dropping blacks. Saves time. This is how Batman's cape turned blue, how Queen Hippolyta became a blonde, and how the X-Men's school uniforms went from black and yellow to blue and yellow.

In parallel, it's also how the animated versions of Storm ended up in a white costume--even tho the animators had ASKED ME what color it was. There is a tendency among some people to see only the highlight color.

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Adam Schulman
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Posted: 11 July 2019 at 5:16am | IP Logged | 10  

And this is why the Beast should've gone back to his original X-Men look permanently. 

I'll admit that from Cyclops' "graduation" costume onward through the '90s, his suit always looked more like blue with shadow than black with blue highlights. Maybe that's just my eyes. 

I only knew that the original X-Men uniforms were black and yellow because I read a reprint of UNCANNY X-MEN #1 -- where they sometimes looked purely black, I think -- before reading any later reprints. 

I'm more confused as to how Darkseid's arms and legs went light purple (pink?) for several years. Or how Quicksilver's costume went from green to blue -- it just suddenly happened and that was that, no correction in the next issue of AVENGERS!
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Stéphane Garrelie
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Posted: 11 July 2019 at 5:23am | IP Logged | 11  

Mmm-mmm.
Blue highlights in black hair is of course the reference.
Now i'm obviously not the only one liking dark blue as a color, and writers (and readers) sharing that taste looks like a possible explanation, for black costumes "officialy" becoming dark blue as series goes on.

... and being black with blue highlights when the artist or writer prefer it that way.

There's what is on the sheet of paper, and there's what we see, and what we like to see, the intent of the artist, the one of the writer, and the way the reader see the result, his own interpretation of the visual message (sometime oriented by words and sometime not) resulting of both what he understand, of his own taste and of how much the conventions really matters to him. 

Does a child or a naive reader really care if it is blue or black with blue highlights? It's the color Superman's hair or of the parts of Spider-man's costume or here the color of Cyclops' costume. He'll probably see it as blue for a costume, will understand it's black for hair, may wonder or not then if it's the same for the costume, but in the end will simply knows if he likes the costume or not, as it is. 

And i love Cyclops costume. This one at least, which is my favorite.

And i like this visor.


Edited by Stéphane Garrelie on 11 July 2019 at 5:27am
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John Byrne
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Posted: 11 July 2019 at 5:24am | IP Logged | 12  

I'm more confused as to how Darkseid's arms and legs went light purple (pink?) for several years. Or how Quicksilver's costume went from green to blue -- it just suddenly happened and that was that, no correction in the next issue of AVENGERS!

••

When mistakes happen--such as Darkseid's skin tone changing--they can easily become canon as many colorists tend to check only the most recent previous example for reference.

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