Sometimes I find it necessary to take matters into my own hands. After the SPIDER-MAN debacle of rumors this past week, I decided to follow-up on that... 'other' Marvel project that has been taking quite a bit of hits from... well... just about everyone. I decided that I had had enough. It was time to cash in some frequent flyer miles and use my FOX contacts to get me access to images and designs that... otherwise, I should never see (until the 'making of book' anyways).

Card keys and signings in. First there was the problem with gaining admittance to the lot... I had a source leave a drive on pass for an assumed name... guards never check photo IDs... ever.

Amazing... all these years... and getting on a lot is still easy for a redheaded circus freak like myself. Without a single wrong turn I found myself at the office of my magic little elf, who would allow me admittance to a certain... ahem.... place for me to see a lot of stuff.

First up... Let's just go on and tackle WOLVERINE. I only saw one of his costumes, and I can only assume it's from when he has officially 'joined up'. In this shot I can definitely see what people were talking about when describing these as being a bit MATRIX-y. This isn't any... known Wolverine costume. It's black... form fitting, with deep dark reddish sorta colored jacket type thing tucked into these mid-forearm lengthed gloves. The claws jut out through these gloves. The body positioning was hunched, as if ready to spring upon someone. The hair was... Wolverine hair and did not seem to denote any big hair problems. And... he seemed a bit upset. Now... the issue for me comes in the movement of this character. If he moves the way Wolverine is supposed to... then this costume would look cool... but if he just poses about... well... suckola.

Now... for MAGNETO... This costume did not ooze suckage. In fact it did have a good amount of style to it, and looked pretty cool to me. Starting with the helmet... is a bit... I don't know... It isn't quite MAGNETO's helmet. In actuality, imagine crossing the old Mandarin's mask with Magneto's helmet. Ok... that didn't help. It has a domed out top, which leads down to bit of a violent 'M' like shape that frames the face quite nicely. I only saw this from a straight on shot... so I can't describe the way it looks... all the way around, but the tips of the 'M' were pointed and violent looking, while the points above the eyebrows were more rounded. Now... onto the costume proper.... As described previously... it is a grey... a real dark dark grey... Executive material.... The comment about the 'Tarkin collar' before was appropriate... the cape is not a flat across the back type of cape... in fact the end of it is rounded, with a deep deep red material for the inside of the cape. The costume is very tapered, in the sense that the shoulders are very broad, with lines and folds in the cloth that accentuate a thinner waist. Quite regal in a militaristic manner. The pants are quite loose and 'Buck Roger-y' in the sense that ROCKETEER manner.... it's all this dark dark grey though. Non-emotional... very.. formal looking.

PROFESSOR X.... First off.. the wheelchairs.... I saw two. The first one is a picture perfect reproduction of the wheelchair from the first few issues of X-MEN comics... I assume this is the wheelchair we'll see him in, when he's in public (specifically the Congressional scenes). Then there is the... Other Wheelchair, which looked quite a bit like the Professor X wheelchair from the latter Clairmont years, right before the complete hoverchair, but the one that was pretty dang high tech looking. He is... Bald of course, one can never be sure... remember, they put that damn wig on Lex Luthor in SUPERMAN.... The coolest series of shots I saw of Xavier were of him going into the room housing CEREBRO...

CEREBRO... first... there is the entrance into the room that holds CEREBRO... It's very mechanically cool looking... Cold lighting from above, the doors are circular, with a stylized beveled 'X' into them... they part and recede into the walls. There is a lit area around the rounded doorways... This is pretty damn cool looking. Then, there is a platform that leads into a very dark orb-ish room. As Cerebro hums to life, Xavier sits upon his wheel chair arms out stretched, as though commanding some oracle to come to life. The lighting on him is dramatic and from down low... and overall... the impression is awe... the room seems quite large from the image and the scale. Some of the X-Men stood behind him, hid in the shadows backlit from the stark lighting from the exterior room. In ol Charlie's wheelchair arms are some controls of some sort that give him... control.

The three X-babes.... Jean Grey, Rogue and Storm... To start with, Jean Grey.... She's in a semi-Trinity outfit, but around the knee area, the costume had rippled-like areas... You ever play with Major Matt Mason toys? Remember the sort of YM-3 accordian armed nature? Kinda like that, but in the hip, thigh and calf area it's form fitting. As for the top half... well, in this shot she wore the zipper down to right above the cleavage area, but it looks as if it could be zipped to below the chin, and the zipper could be pulled to her crotch, if undressing was what you had in mind. The abdomen area of the costume was... corsetted looking. Her hands were exposed, and she looked a bit hot. Once again... much will be told when we see her in MOTION. I really can't stress that part enough. Still shots of the costumes can be... manipulated... But in still form, while it isn't any existing X-Men costume... It doesn't SUCK outright. Rogue... all I saw of her, was a brief... mysterious shot of her, wearing a green 'jedi-ish' hood, with her face in shadows. Of all the characters I had access to at this location... that's all I could make out. The fact GREEN was used gave me hope that perhaps... maybe we'll get a good ol calling back to the early days of Rogue. Then STORM... she's always been the most stylish of the X-women for me. No mohawk.... no LOOOOONG flowing white hair... instead it's white hair, but in a bit of that old White Queen haircut, from the Hellfire Club days. She is in a similar black-Matrix-y costume, but with a cape that DOES attach to the wrists, and forms a bit of that ol 'infinity' lazy eight type of thing. I can't wait to see her fly in this thing. The female costumes looked sexy and ready for fighting.

SABRETOOTH... of the bunch... the least intriguing to me. I saw photos of him merely in a passive state... not really the impression or shots that I wanted to see. But... hey... beggars can't be choosers. The disturbing part is his long blonde hair, which... is a bit too... viking-y for me. He does have a pronounced brow, but in the shots I've seen... the word... "klingon-y" is not appropriate. He has the sideburns that lead into a moustache, and he looks friggin huge. He was wearing a floorlength brown leather overcoat that had once seen better days. The shots were not the best in the world, but you could see that his fingers came to exaggerated points. He seemed to be wearing basically normal clothes beneath the coat though.

MYSTIQUE.... For anyone that slobbered over 7of9... well... Mystique looks hot. Same sort of haircut as 7of9... but deep red... blue skin, basically nudish. And I'll give Stamos credit in that field... she has the right body to be nudish. The scales were imperceptible in these shots, but if others say they are there... hey... maybe they are. Do I miss the white dress and that badass necklace? yes. But... this doesn't SUCK. I really do want to see some nice good shots from the film itself, rather than these character sheets and bad conditioned photos... but... I did get the idea that her eyes would be replaced digitally with yellow oversized eyes... at least from the early designs...

CYCLOPS.... Once again, MATRIX-y... but his black leather/latex whatever has a raised... subtle X to it. The lighting caught it right so here and ya know... I lived through them bad X-FACTOR costumes... I can live with this. Above his visor, his hair is uncovered and lose... Looks kinda good. We'll see...

MAGNETO's Lair..... looks as if it were carved 'Guns of Navorone-style' out of a mountain. The archways are round with these metal braces. Magneto's desk is solitary and lonely looking. Nothing upon it besides his elbows. Behind him, the carved cave wall erodes away seemingly to reveal a big metal wall, with a circular window or exit or something that I couldn't perceive behind him. It was... again... pretty cool.

Overall... this stuff did not look bad. There was no NEON. There were no big Club Eros styled naked adonis men statues. The shots I was seeing were publicity shots... not frames from the film footage, so it's impossible to pass judgement on how the look of the film will ultimately come across. The main thing is... they did not look STUPID. Magneto's lair and Cerebro were Waaaaaay cool looking. Sabretooth could have been better... there was an additional shot of him in a outfit of somesort that was a bit... suit-looking. Very odd choice in my mind for a character as savage as his is supposed to be.

I may very well be returning to L.A. this weekend for further studies... I have not decided as of yet. Screw it... I'll go. I need to see more and since there was only 5 hours between my flights, and traffic is such hell in LA... well... sure I could have stayed, but then I would have missed seeing PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, THE SHINING and DRUGSTORE COWBOY at the Drafthouse tonight. sigh... So much to do... so little time...