It's that museum effect again. Most WW2 US sub pictures that people see, or subs they tour are the late war configurations.
At the outset of World War II, U.S. submarines were painted black, a color that oddly enough didn’t work for the kind of battle surface operations the boats would engage in. Beginning in the summer of 1942, some fleet boats were repainted in an overall Ocean Grey. It was not until 1944 that the shadow-shaded grey camouflage came into widespread use.
After a few patrols you should get new paint schemes in your upgrades along with the more cut-down conning towers that are ubiquitous to late war US subs. Those black subs looked odd to me in the beginning as well.
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