Posts Tagged ‘Cyclops’

Review: A+X #15

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , , , on January 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

A+X #15One has Blue Fur and the other is wearing Horrible Pajamas.

That’s literally all I took away from this first team up in A+X #15 which pits Science vs Magic with Beast and Dr Strange. While the story is fun and there are a few good one-liners, this is a pairing I would have loved to have seen across a whole issue rather than just half. This seems to be the biggest issue with A+X (beyond constant reuse of characters rather than always going for something new), with only half an issue to tell a story you often get something short and sweet. For some of these stories that works just fine, but for others, it really does make the story feel empty. Like they really could have done more with it.

Also, does this cover image make Dr Strange look like Wil Wheaton? Just a little…

Then we have the continuing adventures of Cap and Cyclops. Now, the only reason these two are working together is because the Skrull guy could confirm that those two are not Skrulls. Then, with their Skrull captured (cause the guy was smart enough to move his heart), they head off looking for a Skrull safe house… and call in backup. Why does this feel like it’s negating the whole reason these two enemies are working together? How can Cap or Cyclops trust that Emma, the Cuckoo’s, and Ant-Man are not Skrulls? I know they needed Emma to to conveniently use her telepathy to save the day… and I suppose you could argue that it’s the fact that they are using the powersets of said individuals are a good reason to trust they are who they are… but still, it defeats the purpose of the teamup. If all Cap needs “proof of powerset” then he could cuff Cyclops and be done with it.

Ah yes… plot holes..

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DOFP: Marsden pulling a Cotillard?

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , , on August 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Marsden told Vulture that he will not be in Days of Future Past, ergo Cyclops will not be resurrected.

And X-Men: Days of Future Past next year, or no? I mean, Cyclops was disintegrated, but if there’s time travel … No, no X-Men, unfortunately. But who knows? If this next film really works, Bryan [Singer] has said he wants to fix a few things, so hopefully that’s one of them. It was great, to have a movie like that, the first two or three X-Men, and the studios in Hollywood work really hard to find a formula that’s successful, and you want to keep that intact, so …

Did you have a chance to see The Wolverine yet? Because Jean Grey, even though she’s dead, gets to have a lot of moments in it. No, I haven’t seen it yet, just the trailer … but I hope that lays the ground for more. We’ll see. I always liked Cyclops, but they have a lot of characters that they have to parcel out, spend time with each one, make sure everyone feels like they’ve been given their due, introduce them appropriately, but you could do a spinoff of every one of those characters and give them so much depth to the story line.

Does he mean that he’s spoken to Bryan or just that this is what he’s heard? Clarification would be nice but there is no telling what is really going on this film, except that they’re giving it all away already. I mean, with their announcements before and during ComiCon, what is there left to really surprise us with?

  • They could have held off on the Sentinels till at least next year, giving us some wonderful ‘Cloverfield’ style shots of it to wet our appetite. Instead we get full frontal already.
  • They might have held off on Quicksilver but with the Whedon announcement they probably realized they needed to show that they had already had that planned lest look like they ripped off Avengers. Bishop was already revealed, along with Blink and Warpath, so… who’s left? Misty Knight?
  • They’ve also already told us Wolvie is the time traveler and give us the core of the whole time travel plot. They could have held back on that too, again, till at least the first full official trailer and such.

All that’s left is to give us the actual plot. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but it does seem like all the big stuff that could have been used to entice us through glimpses and reveals closer to when the movie comes out (or at least not ten months away) have just been dropped on the table for us to fiddle and get bored with.

What am I saying? I’m saying that something like Cyclops being alive would be a really awesome thing. Not only do the fans want it, but it would be something that would be a surprise (though only in the way that Marion Cotillard playing Talia was a ‘surprise’ to anyone in the Batman fandom, but still).

Marion Cotillard down right said she wasn’t Talia.
Benedict Cumberbatch said he wasn’t Kahn.

Everything comes in threes…

Could Marsden saying he’s not coming back as Cyclops be our third? It wouldn’t take much to hide it as the future stuff seems to be all done indoors and we only need a single shot of him to prove the point, he could knock that stuff out in an afternoon.

Anyway, here’s hoping… but with these films, I have learned to expect disappointment.

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Review: All-New X-Men #12

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , , , , on June 5, 2013| 2 Comments »

All-New X-Men #12 cover artworkOnce again, never trust the cover of a comic book, they lie to you… blatantly.

Havok and young-Scott do meet up and it’s actually kind of touching. Scott doesn’t realize his brother is alive (though why no one told him in all this time or he didn’t hear his brother’s M-speech I have no idea), so it’s a really great reunion where, as Cap puts it, Havok gets to see Scott ‘at his best’. Unfortunately we don’t get a lot of character time here as we should, and that’s because Jean attacks Wanda.

Jean, who promised she wouldn’t go poking into other’s minds, gets a look into Wanda’s mind and sees House of M and the most crippling words ever uttered in an X-Men comic: ‘No More Mutants’. Again, why have these kids not heard of this yet? You think they would grab a history book or go on this new fangled thing called Wikipedia?

Anyway, the old team already see Wanda as a bad guy cause last they saw of her she was in the Brotherhood (they must not met Rogue yet), so it’s natural they would be a bit wary of her. For Jean to see the House of M events from Wanda’s own mind because she was apparently ‘screaming it’, you can kinda understand Jean’s reactions, even if it was played up a bit much. But what we really need to take from this issue is two things:

  • Wanda was forgiven for ‘going insane’ and nearly destroying mutant kind. How does this parallel with Cyclops? People would argue that while Wanda was literally ‘insane’ over the loss of her child, Cyclops had a lot more control over his facilities, esp in how he treated things afterwards by going on his little Revolution kick. What I want is an issue that is nothing but Wanda and old Scott having a little chat…
  • Wanda was ‘screaming’ the event in her mind. Obviously she is very much haunted by what she did. Her children died (and though they ‘came back’ she didn’t get to raise them). Her husband left her after she used him, killed him and brought him back (while insane). She has to believe that almost no one trusts her any more, even if they say they do. And this trust issue is dealt with organically.

The sad part is that this is all great stuff… but in the wrong comic. Remender will ignore all of this for his tripe in Uncanny Avengers.

Other high points: Mystique is up to something, as always. Lady Mastermind isn’t stupid. Creed kinda is but we knew that already.

And as was pointed out by greatrhodeybutt on tumblr:      

and it’s real funny how the idea of the uncanny avengers is mutant/humans together. uniting mutants and humans.  uniting avengers and x-men.

and cap is throwing lines around like “you’re an avenger. i trust you.  but these x-men”

THANKS CAP

Yeah… pretty much that.

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DOFP gets Petitioned

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , on February 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Scott and Jean in X3Petitions have become a bit of the rage lately, it’s a quick and easy way for large groups of people to get their point across, such as the current petition to cancel Avengers Arena. They can also be just for fun, like my favorite, the petition to the US Government to build a Death Star.

The latest petition I’ve come across is for Bryan Singer to have James Marsden reprise his role as Cyclops for Days of Future Past. Here is what it has to say:

The fans of X-men would like to see James Marsden return to the screen in the next X-men First Class: Days of Future past film as Cyclops. We are hoping to get Bryan Singer to see that there are still Cyclops fans out there that want to see him return. Especially with Cyclops being the leader of X-men! Since James Marsden left with Bryan Singer to do Superman and that’s the reason Cyclops was given an untimely ending, we think it’s only fair to see James Marsden reprise his role! Please sign so we can take notice of the return that his character deserves!

Certainly no one will claim that Cyclops was given anything close to a great role in the X-Men movies. Then when Marsden was unavailable for X3 he was given one of the most pointless death scenes of all time. So what would be achieved by bringing him back?

Everything.

The comic Days of Future Past is about time travel and changing the future. We don’t know at this time if the DOFP movie is supposed to change things so that the original movies happen… or change things so that the original movies didn’t happen. All we know is that there will be an apocalyptic type world in the future which could easily be post-X3 and that is what needs to be stopped from happening. It’s very possible that in doing so they change things so either just X3 doesn’t happen, or X2, 3 or X1,2,3.  Or, those movies remain untouched altogether. Anything goes right now, especially when considering that The Wolverine is canon post-x3 and DOFP could affect the continuity of his film.

So, having Cyclops character show up could do one of two things:

  • Prove that there is already an alt universe that, by being changed, makes the original movies happen.
  • Prove that the original movies are now alt-universe and a new canon universe has been created.

All this is done by just having Cyclops alive either at the beginning (when the time traveler is sent back) or end of the movie (I assume we’ll get a last glimpse of the future unless they want to be cruel and leave it up in the air).

Granted, Cyclops isn’t the only character who died, but he is the most telling. Jean, well, she is known to die and come back so that’s up in the air (plus she might already have come back in The Wolverine). The Professor was already hinted at still being alive. Cyclops would have the most impact as a ‘game changer’.

So the question is… will he be back? Well, there has been no word from Singer who has been making casting announcements via twitter. The thing is, DOFP hasn’t even started filming yet and it’s not like Marsden would have to do much, film wise, so even if he is working on a project he could spare the day or two of filming needed, after all, he did it for his death in X3. So he could literally be brought in at last minute… or even kept ‘hush hush’ as a surprise like with Wolverine in First Class.

If I was going to use Cyclops to show the future had changed that dramatically I would totally try to keep it quiet just to get some zing in at the ending of DOFP.

But if he never planned to bring Cyclops back, would a petition like this make a difference? As I said, there is a long way to go until the cut off time to bring Marsden in for filming. I guess it just depends on how much of an effect a living Cyclops would have on the storyline. In truth, I don’t think it would have any more effect on Singer’s decisions than all the other factors he’d have to look into for doing such a thing. It’s like the peititon to cancel Avengers Arena, Marvel only cares about the bottom line of the sales figures. I’m sure if Singer wanted Cyclops in the movie, or didn’t want Cyclops, then such things have already been decided or at least in the works.

Of course, Singer could also be cheeky about the whole and bring Cyclops into the story… as Alex’s younger brother.

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Review: Uncanny X-Men #19

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , on October 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Review: Uncanny X-Men #19

Aka, yes, Scott Summers has officially gone insane.

Not a single doubt about it…

The only question is when did he actually start loosing it? Was it when he gained the powers of the Phoenix, was it after House of M, was it when he started to cheat on his wife (either of them), when he lost Jean Grey (either time), or perhaps does it go all the way back to the death of his family?

I really don’t know…

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Review: Uncanny X-Men #18

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , , on September 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Uncanny X-Men #18

Uncanny X-Men #18

Uncanny X-Men #18

And Scott proves that he’s gone absolutely mad while Illyana admits it outright.

Illyana pretty much says in so many words that she’s gone insane, apparently been like that for a while now and purposely messed up Piotr’s life in order to prove this to him. Ah, what are siblings for?

As for Scott, yeah, I’ve feared for his mental stability since, well, before Schism and this just puts it all into perspective. Dude, if people are comparing you to Magneto, then you might want to step back and rethink what you’re doing. Though I have to admit, I do like Scott’s retort. “I’m nothing like you, I’m winning!”

This is the kind of actions that can only end in bloodshed, and if you know what happens in AvX #11 then you see my point.

Scott’s downfall is becoming both poignant and annoying. He’s a man who’s had the weight of an entire people on his shoulders and has gone through so much pain and suffering, both personal and on a global mutant scale, that he’s simply become lost in the woods. On the other hand, he’s being so tediously ripped to shreds that one has to wonder if someone just has it in for Scott or in a bad fan fic move he’s being drug down to build someone else up?

As for Emma, she continues to prove my point that she’s a great bad guy… but a horrible good guy. Though honestly, Scott, you kinda deserve it, her cheating on you with Namor cause, you know, you cheated on Jean with Emma… once a cheater, always a cheater.

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Character Spotlight: Scott Summers aka Cyclops

Posted in Characters, tagged , , , , on September 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Scott Summers aka Cyclops

Scott Summers aka Cyclops

Scott Summers aka Cyclops

Concept Stage:

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a big fan of the X-Men leader, mostly because he seems to get the short end of the stick whenever the writers decide that they want to do something different in the storylines. I’m not totally convinced that he’s really supposed to be as bad as he is in the comic, what with the ‘dumping his wife and son for a girlfriend whom he later cheats on anyway and oh he kinda looses it when the mutants start to become extinct’.

Actually, that last part kinda makes sense considering how much he’s been put through over the years, something was bound to make him snap.

Regardless, as much as I don’t care for a character, I still want to do right by them and Scott is no exception. He’s billed as the leader of the X-Men, the stalwart boy scout, and that’s what I’ve created in X-Men: The (fan fic) Series. A man who earns the alt nickname ‘the Boy Scout’, but at the same time is not the ultimate stick in the mud either.

How do I do this? By making him a true leader. He’s the one who everyone turns too when they know that things are going wrong. He’s the one who takes on the responsibilities for creating the team, it’s his idea even. He’s the one who comes up with the plan of action in a situation. He’s the character willing to make the tough and sometimes unpopular decisions because they are the right thing to do, and not because the Professor or anyone else told him to.

Also, one storyline from the comics and movie I’m going to do away with is the Scott/Jean/Logan triangle. Part of the reason is that it was done to death in the movies (literally), but mostly because I don’t want Scott’s role as leader being defined by that relationship. When he butts heads with Logan it will be because these are two fundamentally different people who look at the world from skewed perspectives. I don’t want their conflict basically watered down to a “stay away from my woman” trope as it so often is.

In the end, Scott will be the leader because, as Jean will put it, “you got [the role as leader] because you’re the right man for the job.”

And of course the best leaders are often reluctant.

Character Background:

Scott has a closely traditional origin of being from Hawaii then after having lost his family in a plane crash he moves to Alaska to live with his grandparents. He finds his way to Xavier’s as a teenager where he grows up with Jean Grey and Warren Worthington III. Of course he has a little thing for Jean but never really thought he had a chance, not that Warren got much farther himself.

In an effort to cure himself of a fear of flying due to the incident which killed his family, Scott took flying lessons once he was old enough and is now a licensed pilot with his own personal plane.

After graduation he did a couple of years of college while helping out at Xavier’s seeing as the school has grown vastly in the past few years, picking up the likes of Robert “Iceman” Drake who becomes his best friend.

Currently Scott is Xavier’s math teacher, Algebra, Calculus, Trigonometry, etc.

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Reblog – “Cyclops: the Worst Leader (an interview)”

Posted in Characters, tagged , , on September 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I have never cared for Scott Summers as a character, though I thought he got a bit of a bum rap in the X-Men movies. But why my ‘meh’ attitude towards the X-Men leader? You can pretty much boil it down to everything mentioned in this hilarious blog post Cyclops: the Worse Leader (an interview).

And a specific example:

The first time?

Yes, the first time, I married her exact physical duplicate who wasn’t related in any way, and quit the team.

What?

Well, technically I was forced off the team by Storm, who thought I should concentrate on my wife and son.

Son?

But then I heard my original girlfriend was still alive, so I abandoned my family with no explanation to join a new team with the original girlfriend.

What??

Of course, I didn’t tell the original what was going on, either, and swore everyone who knew I was married to secrecy so I could go back to dating my resurrected girlfriend in peace.

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

When my wife came to find me, demanding to know what the hell was going on, things looked pretty grim for a while.

Hard to believe that would bite you in the ass.

But fortunately it turned out that she had been a clone all along.

So you mean totally identical, unrelated women aren’t that common?

Also, maddened by jealousy, rage, and grief at our son’s kidnapping—

Kidnapping?! You didn’t think this was worth mentioning?

—she had struck a bargain with a demon to give her incredible powers so she could take revenge.

Why ever would she want to do that?

So we just defeated her like any other supervillain, and she committed suicide. Things sorted themselves right out after that!

To be fair though, I really think Cyclops got a raw deal. I don’t think his story was meant to become as bad as it did… kinda what happens when you have several decades and different writers involved in the story telling.

But really… the whole thing about Maddy… that’s when I start with the epic face palming.

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