A Great Pair of Jeans! By Jack Kirby and Barry Windsor-Smith

                     

X-Men #9 (1965) Jack Kirby natch!

X-Men #53 (1969) Barry W-Smith 

Scarlet Witch's Hair Color Part 4

Last time we established that Wanda's hair color reverted to brown way back in 1970's Avengers #75 (click here for details). For the most part her hair's remained rich brown aka red aka auburn aka chestnut aka marsala ever since....though there've been a few variations along the way. 

Black or brown? Scarlet Witch by John Buscema (l)...and by Bob Hall channeling his teacher Buscema (r)

1990s: Yeah I know Wanda's hair color is the kind of brown that can be called "red"; but it's criminal to depict Wanda with bright tomato-red hair--you know, the shade that's normally associated with Medusa or Matt Murdock or Jean Grey. Wanda should never be depicted as a Jean-clone as she was back in the late '90s (leave that sort of stuff for Madelyne Pryor). That's Jean in the first panel and Wanda in the third--I think. 

X-Men #335 (1996)

2000s: Ultimate Wanda had black patent leather tresses.   

2005: Basic brown at the conclusion of House of M.

2007: The lighter, gingery red-brown hair she sported as Wandjelina  was wrong. Just. Wrong.    

New Avengers #26

     

There you have it, a look at Wanda the Scarlet Witch's hair hues. If you want a refresher you can check here and here and here. So, which do you prefer, the brown or black? I must confess that while I find Wanda's deep brown hair lovely, I've always preferred the black as it's a great counterpoint to Pietro's white hair. Plus I feel Wanda's black hair is a better complement to her usual red attire, it's got that le rouge et le noir thing going on. Ah well, c'est la vie...  ;)

And for good measure, here's the hex-tossing, long-tressed Elizabeth Olsen!

      

The Medusa Effect...and the Prime of Ms. Jean Grey

We all know that Barry Windsor-Smith's early Marvel work was undeniably Kirbyesque, but here's more evidence that Marvel Girl aka Jean Grey was a Medusa manquée ;) 
They're both great, kick-ass characters--love 'em both!

1967 Fantastic Four Annual #5 Kirby

1969 X-Men #53 Barry Smith (Windsor-Smith) 

The Medusa Effect...and the Original X-Factor!

Let's start the new year 2014 off with--yes, more Medusa! Over the years many have noted the similarity between Medusa's 1969 Spidey-bashing emerald ensemble and the early X-Factor costumes.

Go Green! Medusa and Jean Grey

And not only did Jean Grey and her fashionable Factor cohorts "borrow" Medusa's costume...

Project Runway meets X-Factor: Cyke, Hank, and Jean strike a pose

...but later on Jean also swiped Medusa's fabulous follicles! Or is Ms. Grey's massive hair growth a by-product of that freaking Phoenix Force?

Silver Age snippet: A Kirby creation featuring Medusa and Jean and a few other familiar figures in between! Consider yourself no-prized if you can identify this extremely well-known classic cover.