In the early ’90s, Jim Lee‘s run as the artist of Uncanny X-Men drove the title to even greater heights than before, and he was given the opportunity to headline a second X-Men comic book series which debuted with record setting numbers. Lee has long since left Marvel behind to co-found Image Comics and step into the role of co-publisher at DC Comics, but his take on the X-Men is unmatched. And this summer, Marvel is turning some of Lee’s trading card images into variant covers.
Starting in July, 30 Marvel titles will feature alternate cover images that were drawn by Lee and his longtime inker Scott Williams for an X-Men trading card set. Every cover has reportedly been digitally remastered, with new colors by Jesus Aburtov, Israel Silva, Chris Sotomayor, and more.
As part of his X-Men # 1 relaunch in 1992, Lee was given free reign to redesign almost every costume for the team. And unsurprisingly, the outfits he created went on to become iconic. For example, Cyclops wore this outfit for the better part of a decade before he “died” and merged with Apocalypse. It’s a long story, and then Cyclops got better. But for a generation of readers, this is the outfit that defined him.
Look at that overly bulky belt and those useless straps on his legs. Does it get any more ’90s than that? Why, yes it does. Feast your eyes on Lee’s take on Cable, the militant mentor of the New Mutants/X-Force. Of course, this is based upon a Rob Liefeld design, so there are big pouches and even bigger guns.
Although Lee never got to include the classic White Queen in his run as the Uncanny X-Men artist, he revisited her John Byrne designed Hellfire Club outfit in this image.
You can find the rest of the currently revealed Jim Lee trading card variant covers in our gallery below.
What did you think about the newly remastered artwork by Lee? Let us know in the comment section below!
Images: Marvel ComicsÂ
