The Matrix Ruined One Important Aspect Of The X-Men Movies, According To Marvel's Kevin Feige

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Kevin Feige may be president of Marvel Studios today, but he got his start in movie producing the first "X-Men" film in 2000. During "X-Men," Feige was one of the biggest Marvel Comics fans on the crew; he smuggled "X-Men" comics to the actors after director Bryan Singer banned them from the set. I'm sure Feige appreciates his time working on 20th Century Fox's "X-Men" movies (there must be a reason Marvel Studios has been trying to fit them in rather than doing a clean break), but he's steered the MCU in a more colorful direction.

At a press conference for "Deadpool & Wolverine" not too long ago, Feige mentioned one long-standing controversy among comic nerds: how "X-Men" put the heroes in dull black leather costumes instead of the colorful comic book suits. Feige confirmed, as has long been suggested, that these costume designs were trend-chasing "The Matrix" (which had come out in March 1999, months before "X-Men" started shooting). Feige recounted, "There were studio execs in charge who knew that 'The Matrix' had been a big hit and they wore black leather so, 'Put [the X-Men] in black leather!'"

Indeed, you can see studios chasing the success of "The Matrix" during the 2000s. Plenty of blockbusters, from "X-Men" to "Equilibrium" to the "Underworld" series, put their heroes in leather trench coats or bodysuits. With "X-Men," though, it wasn't just about "The Matrix." It was symptomatic of the filmmakers trying to be as unlike the source material as possible.

How Marvel comics reacted to black leather X-Men

Tom Rothman (once president of 20th Century Fox, now CEO at Sony Pictures) has some good ideas on how to save the movies. His handling of the "X-Men" movies while at Fox, though, has been historically controversial. According to screenwriter David Hayter, Rothman's outlook in making "X-Men" was this: "The comic book fans will be done by 10:00 Friday night, and we have to get everyone else."

Rothman's attitude sounds almost refreshing nowadays when studios pander far too much to the fanboys. But it conveys an attitude of contempt for the material, as does (per Hayter) Bryan Singer apparently finding even the word "X-Men" too ridiculous to say out-loud. (Faaaaar from Singer's worst crime, to be clear.)

That's why you get lines in "X-Men" like Cyclops (James Marsden) asking Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) if he'd prefer to wear yellow spandex instead. The comics are silly and stupid, the movie is saying, and so we're going to make them "mature." If the X-Men's costumes look ridiculous in live-action, it's only because they were designed to be drawn within the hyper-colorful environment of comic books. (An argument for keeping them there.)

However, the uniform black costumes in Singer's "X-Men" movies have no personality – and most of the characters wearing these costumes don't either! When Singer came to "X-Men" years later for "Days of Future Past" and "Apocalypse," he again stuck the X-Men in boring dark costumes with only hints of color, even though "The Matrix" was no longer the shiny new thing in Hollywood's eye.

The "X-Men" movies are influential and poor representations of the source material, which is a deadly mix. "Ultimate X-Men" writer Mark Millar admittedly knew nothing about X-Men comics before getting that assignment, so he used the movies as research material instead. (Artist Andy Kubert at least offered some character-by-character distinctiveness and more yellow highlights.) Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's "New X-Men," aiming to rebrand the book, also stuck the X-Men in black-and-yellow jackets.

Others bucked the trend. In 2004's "Astonishing X-Men" by Joss Whedon, artist John Cassaday redesigned the characters back into Jack Kirby/Dave Cockrum blue-and-yellow. Cyclops (really Whedon) explained as such:

Recent (and acclaimed) cartoon series "X-Men '97" also joked back with Cyclops asking Cable if he'd prefer to wear black leather instead of the X-Men's usual costumes. If/when the Marvel Cinematic Universe makes an "X-Men" movie, I'm pretty sure those mutants will look more like Jim Lee's versions of the heroes and less like Bryan Singer's.

Then again, "Deadpool & Wolverine" proves that you can't coast to quality on a comic-accurate Wolverine costume alone...