Hey, folks how's it going? As you can tell from both my icon and name I'm a Cyclops fan. During my many excursions on the internet I've stumbled across a blog site known stormantic.com and found some rather interesting reads((most of them of course focused on Storm)). While I'm not sure how many people have heard of this site what I found of interest was this...
The above image is illustrated by Alan Davis in which Scott is pleading his case as the writers were contemplating killing him off at the end of "The Twelve" storyline. I'm sure just about everyone's read or at the very least heard of the storyline so I won't bore anyone with the details. Anyway, what I found extremely interesting are the responses that followed suit. If I may quote
"Lots of folks know that Cyclops isn’t exactly one of my favorite characters. He’s not someone I would want to know in real life as his personality is more about being stoic, tactical and taciturn. However, those traits are exactly why I love him in the X-Men. He makes Wolverine and Storm more interesting by comparison. In a team book, his perspective creates complexity and his interaction with other teammates makes for good stories.
It was really cool to find the above image by Alan Davis in which Cyclops argues for his existence. At the time this was drawn by Davis, Marvel editorial was about to kill of Cyke and merge him with big bad Apocalypse. Davis was not a fan of this idea and drew this artwork to argue his point. I find it to be a definitive understanding of the character and I agree with everything it says. To me, it’s not about whether Cyclops or Storm is the better leader. It’s about what kind of leader would I rather follow if I were an X-Man. I prefer Storm because I would rather have an empathic ally than a stern taskmaster. However, Cyclops represents the patriarch, and like Wolverine, we must learn from and rebel against his authority if we are to become our own leader. Cyclops serves a very important function in the X-Men. He represents the life lessons of The Emperor tarot card and I wouldn’t want it any other way."
Now my problem with the above comment is first, the crass favoritism towards Storm, second is how the author comparison of Scott to a patriarch or familial and religious figure, and third is how he makes it sound as though Scott's only role within the team is to serve as an authoritative doormat. Other comments would follow describing Cyclops as the "uncool" desire a return of the old days him being the "nerdy, uptight, and conflicted leader." To me a lot of those comments imply to me that everyone except Cyclops is allowed to experience character growth and become "hip" and "cool" versus being competent, dependable, and consistent. I've even read a comment on another forum in which one person preferred Scott as Jean and Professor Xavier's "lapdog".
In the case of Storm fans; is it really hard to swallow that the only reason isn't able to lead is because she is having to devote the majority her time to being queen of Wakanda or do people just simply not want Scott to lead?
I honestly don't understand the reasoning behind a lot of these fans opinions. The Scott Summers that we have now is a culmination of his character from the sixties on through the eighties. As far as the nineties I don't remember much about him sans the cartoon, Zero Tolerance, and that ghastly costume with those useless pouches, miscellaneous belts, and half-cowl. From what I understand that was an era in which the character practically did nothing and yet it seems people are okay with this out of utter dislike from him and/or favoritism towards other characters.
So my question is why is it that others want him to regress back to a time in which there was no character growth for anyone and instead only plot-based characters, gimmicky cross-overs, and just bad writing overall?
Personally my favorite era is his current incarnation. He's over Jean, he's no longer lamenting over his inability to control his powers,he's confident, and he's adorned in a costume that reflects his better years.
So, which era of Cyclops do you prefer? What role do you like him best in and why? And please let's keep things civil and objective.
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