I am really tired of the Cyclops hate and the Team Blue hate. I think Generation Hope is going to find its footing. I haven't like New Mutants since the original version came out and Magneto ended up their teacher. Uncanny X-Men and X-Men are solid core titles with good build up that could use more pages but I am happy to see where they are going. (Definitely Uncanny is more solid at this point than straight up X-Men but the new spin on the sentinels has merit.)

Cyclops is not Hitler, Cyclops is not a fascist. The characters in the books themselves are debating ideas that have genuine merit. If you only watched the Battlestar Galatica reboot for dogfighting then clearly you were missing the point and if all you want to see in X-Men is people beat the snot out of each other then you don't get why Stan Lee and Jack Kirby started the series in the first place. Discourse is good. Conflict is good. Contemplating how humanity survives and what does even the word "humanity" mean anymore is GOOD.

The main problems I am having with Cyclops who has been a favorite X-Men of mine since I was a kid is that he has lost some of the charm and pathos he had decades ago. He was an awkward skinny guy people called Slim who let the weight that Xavier put on his shoulders combined with his own fear of accidentally killing those who get nearest to him with one slip of his glasses turn him into a stoic robotic mute, but his team members always knew there was a caring deeply feeling guy underneath all that. If you disagree go read 60s/70s X-Men and come back and debate this with me. His glasses did slip! Bad things did happen! He had his reasons for his "emo". However his love for Jean grey always gave him such pathos and it was nice to actually get thought bubbles and see what was going on inside that head of his because it was never going to come out of his mouth.

Cyclops is written or talked about in over 8 different X-Men related titles right now and every writer is going to have their own way of going about it and it seems the only guideline is "Cyclops doesn't do anything but order people around" which means you never really get to see inside his head. (there are like 2 exceptions to that in recent releases but I am talking in a generalized manner.) The latest X-Men Legacy was actually the first issue I ever liked because of how they treated both sides of the schism argument with respect and how Cyclops wasn't written like a fascist cranky old man.

We know everyone loves Wolverine. He has always been a popular character with side titles and god knows what else. Which I find hilarious as a woman because he was introduced as murderous, egotistical, thuggish, and his so called "romance" with Jean Grey felt more like having the worst stalker of all time for the majority of the 80s Chris Claremont years.

Of course the X-Men movies did nothing but increase the "Cyclops is a prick and Wolverine is a badass" standard that has been set.

Then of course there is his completely off tempo "romance" with Emma Frost which honest to goodness makes me feel sorry for her these days with the way they write how cold Cyclops is to her compared to the way he treated Jean in her various identities. Blargh.

Blargh. That is all I have left. Eloquence has left the building. Also have a humbug while I am at it.

And as for the title of this post I stand by it. "Cyclops sucks" sounds like "I hate Adele" or "the mainstream is evil and I read indie comics where no one is a quiet conflicted leader types" in my ears. Flame me all you like. The guy isn't perfect and his writing is even less so, but look at old Cyclops and look at what new Cyclops is trying to say about saving EVERYONE and give the guy a break.

(And dear writers, give us some thought bubbles or at least have him stop being such a prick to Emma and actually talk to her about this stuff so he comes off a little more HUMAN.)