Everything You Always Hated In X-Men
4. The "Yellow Spandex" Line
Comic book movies in general love their wink-wink hamfisted fan service, and though X-Men toes the line pretty well for the most part, screenwriter David Hayter couldn't resist one toe-curlingly daft reference to the heroes' iconic original attire from the comics.
In the movie's third act, the X-Men don black leather costumes to do battle as a team - a choice of wardrobe that proved massively divisive with fans who felt it deviated too much from the yellow spandex numbers from the comics.
And so, as the X-Men set off to do battle with Magneto and co., there's a line where Wolverine mocks the black leather outfits, only for Cyclops to retort, "What would you prefer, yellow spandex?"
Though producer Ralph Winter insists that the line wasn't intended as a jab at fans, it's nevertheless a pretty groan-worthy nod towards the mutants' original attire from the comics.
Later X-Men films proved to be a little less embarrassed about flashing some yellow, but it certainly took some years getting there.