As a new team ofAvengersface threats across the world,the franchise is making a significant change by giving the heroes matching costumes. However, these new looks aren’t just about team unity - the new Avengers uniforms include new features that make every member more effective. The decision is particularly interesting given that theX-Menfranchise is currently making the opposite change - abandoning a team uniform for more individual costumes.
Fans have known for months that Captain America’s new Avengers Emergency Response Squad will be wearing matching jackets emblazoned with the Avengers ‘A.’ However, in a preview of Steve Orlando and Scot Eaton’sAvengers Assemble #2,the team’s tech expert Night Thrasherreveals the costumes give them extra resources and protection.
While giving this new team of returning and first-time Avengers a feeling of team unity, the jackets are also bulletproof and fireproof, while also housing GPS locators and medical supplies. These costumes change the game for several team members, withheroes like Hawkeye and Janet van Dyne’s Wasp now able to shrug off bullets. However, they also offer extra utility forpowerhouse heroes like Herculesand Wonder Man. In recent years, Wonder Man has tried to live his life as a pacifist superhero, using his powers to protect but not harm. GPS and medical supplies give the unkillable hero way more utility as a scout and emergency responder (the latter being exactly what Cap’s new team is intended to embody.)
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The Avengers' Jackets Are Basically Utility Belts
Bulletproof, Fireproof and Containing GPS & Medical Equipment
While Marvel’s mainAvengersseries sees Captain Marvel’s team facing off against a series of Earth-threatening events predicted by Kang the Conqueror, Captain America’s new roster are focused on providing immediate superhuman response to emerging threats. Based out of Avengers Mansion, the team are something of a throwback to what the Avengers franchise looked like in previous decades, with even thejackets meant to evoke their 1990s designs. Returning heroes like She-Hulk, Lightning and Photon bring tried and tested expertise, while new recruits like Lightspeed and Night Thrasher update the roster for 2024.
Avengers Assemble #2sees the Avengers going up against classic Fantastic Four villain the Red Ghost, while future issues will see them battle Doctor Doom and Red Skull’s newly empowered daughter Sin. The idea of this Avengers roster is that they can charge into danger before anyone has a clear picture of what threat they’re facing, making their added protection a major plus. Carrying a fireproof garment and medical supplies focuses the Avengers on helping civilians in danger, and a GPS is a much-needed addition in a world where heroes are frequently kidnapped or punched across multiple states.
While the Avengers are embracing unity, X-Men’s new costumes emphasize individual heroes and their powers.
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Meanwhile, the X-Men Are Copying the Avengers
Individual Costumes Spell Out What Makes Each Mutant Hero Unique
While the Avengers are making moves to create a sense of unity,the X-Men’s new ‘From the Ashes’ era is embracing individuality. For most of X-Men history, its heroes (at least the main team) have worn matching costumes, which sometimes with their own unique abilities (for example, masking the heroes' mutant genetics from Sentinel robots.) The costumes were part of Charles Xavier’s longterm dream for the X-Men - co-opting the superhero aesthetic to build trust between humanity andhomo sapien.
However, following the dissolution of the mutant nation of Krakoa,the bonds that once held the X-Men together are fraying like never before.Cyclops and Rogue are on the cusp of a rivalrythat will force Marvel’s mutant heroes to pick a side, while heroes including Wolverine and Kate ‘Kitty’ Pryde are officially done playing hero, trying instead to live quiet lives free of X-Men drama. In this environment, Jed MacKay and Clayton Cowles’X-Menhas presented a roster of heroes with very different looks. While Cyclops wears the traditional red and blue, Quentin Quire wears pink in a reference to his telekinetic powers, while his former girlfriend Temper wears light blue and orange, denoting her temperature control. Likewise, Psylocke, Magneto, Magik and Juggernaut all have their own looks.
The obvious reason that the Avengers have always had individual costumes while the X-Men have a team look is that the teams were conceived by Marvel in very different ways.Avengerstitles have always united heroes who already have their own lore and solo series, while X-Men introduced its mutants as heroes from the start. However, in 2024, those legacies aren’t the only force in play, with the X-Men andAvengers' new costumes showing the teams' very different perceptions of unity in 2024.
The Avengers
X-Men
The X-Men franchise, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, centers on mutants with extraordinary abilities. Led by the powerful telepath Professor Charles Xavier, they battle discrimination and villainous mutants threatening humanity. The series explores themes of diversity and acceptance through a blend of action, drama, and complex characters, spanning comics, animated series, and blockbuster films.
