Cyclops Appreciation

[OpticDreams]

I come in peace. Take me to your leader. Cyke is a Martian.

[elgrey]

Poor Scott, he can see 10 moves ahead, go hand to hand with some of the best and dodge weapons fire from trained soldiers - but he always seems to get hit by random objects thrown from the crowd!

PS. The Utopia (Dark Avengers and X-Men) crossover is one of my favourite X-Men stories.

Mine too. I think it shows Scott at his best as the master strategist and the guy leading from the front. The way he outthinks Osborn throughout is one of my favourite things.

It was more that just to piss him off to make him careless, it was to make it very personal. With this move, Scott took Osborne functionally out of the final fight on Asteroid M. Osborne had all his attention focused on Cyclops and causing him as much pain as he could, rather than keeping his people organized and working together. That's why Scott is smiling all the while Osborne is pounding on him. It probably does show a deep masochistic streak given how much fun he is having getting beaten on by an Iron Man wannabe.

I know, and that's what I love most about the arc, it's just that I've banged on about that particular aspect of Scott vs Osborn so often in other posts and emails that I didn't want to repeat myself, but the way Scott keeps taunting him throughout to keep Osborn's attention focused on him so he can't come up with a counter-measure to Scott's multiple plans to take out the other Dark Avengers is to me Scott at his absolute best. I think it built on the self-sacrificing aspect that Whedon highlighted in Astonishing and did something even cleverer with it.

It's probably my favourite Scott scene of all time. I really didn't like it when he was written as being the general behind the lines rather than the guy who is in the thick of it. I felt that only dealt with his strategist side and not what he could personally bring to the fight. (Even if, in the case of Utopia/Exodus it was just being really annoying on purpose to win a fight, having already put his incredibly complicated plans in place.)

[Ambaryerno]

Holy hell, I'd forgotten how awesomely cheesy that 'Take me to your leader' panel was.

I think his grin in that panel sells it the best. He's being cheesy and reveling in it.

[FluffyCyclopsRLZ]

I think his grin in that panel sells it the best. He's being cheesy and reveling in it.

Oh, it totally does sell it. Still, broadcasting his trolling intent in such a was hilariously ballsy.

I really didn't like it when he was written as being the general behind the lines rather than the guy who is in the thick of it.

For what it's worth, Scott and Logan didn't particularly like it either.

[elgrey]

Oh, it totally does sell it. Still, broadcasting his trolling intent in such a was hilariously ballsy.

Everything Scott does in Utopia/Exodus is hilariously ballsy. This story gives me chills at how amazing he is.

For what it's worth, Scott and Logan didn't particularly like it either.

Yes, but who cares about their wants and needs, darn it?! Those editorial decisions were annoying me!

Scott, having had X-Club and Namor raise up a new home for mutants for him from Magneto's past work so that everyone with an x-gene has a new island sanctuary, decides he hasn't been quite awesome enough yet and ups the ante:

[elgrey]

They have a thing on TV Tropes called Crowning Moment of Awesome. To me, everything Scott does in Exodus is just one long Crowning Moment of Awesome.




This hurts in all the good ways. Asking Warren to be Archangel and Warren doing it is really painful and yet also - again - really awesome. (I so want Real Warren back.)

[elgrey]

Scott calling Osborn 'Norman' there just makes it even more perfect.

[elgrey]

(I'm hiding what's going on in the rest of the panels because I don't know if Anis has read this yet and I don't want give away the different aspects of Scott's plan and the way the X-Men are defeating Osborn's bad guys because that is so amazing a thing to read the first time.)

[elgrey]

[OpticDreams]

How other comic fans dislike him is beyond me. After reading that again I can only think of one thing. Jealousy. May his greatness never fade.

[elgrey]

Just posting this for the Namor/Scott hoyay:.



I still can't believe that Marvel put out an AvX What If and it wasn't about a threeway between Namor, Scott, and Emma. It's like they don't even want to sell comics.

[elgrey]

How other comic fans dislike him is beyond me. After reading that again I can only think of one thing. Jealousy. May his greatness never fade.

Amen to that!

I hope we get moments as amazing as this one again, but a writer would really have to go some to come up with a story that would beat how well Matt Fraction showcased Scott's tactical genius and willingness to sacrifice himself and to ask very difficult things of the people around him and convince them that they were up to it. Not to mention having everyone following him into a battle that looked unwinnable at the beginning and winning it, exactly as he said they would, by trusting in each other and working as a team.

As I said, the whole of Exodus just gives me chills and that moment when Warren quietly confirms that Scott wants him to unleash the absolute worst of himself and Scott does confirm it, and Warren does it, and wins a fight that couldn't otherwise be won, that, to me, is the kind of moment that packs as much of an emotional punch as killing a character but it's more difficult to come up with and takes a better writer.



I don't mind earned deaths when it was the only option but I hate it as a cheap shortcut to try to make a moment memorable. Anyone can go 'here's a nice character, like him, now he's dead, be sad' and elicit a powerful reaction from a reader by doing it, but sacrifices and betrayals and asking difficult things from people you love or them doing difficult things out of love or conviction that are that powerful just fill me with admiration, and I will take moments like that over an angsty death scene every day of the week.

[elgrey]

Wonderful X-Position with Greg Rucka on the Cyclops book.

So great that he sounds so enthused and full of ideas and at the same time so in sync with Brian Michael Bendis. They have both written Teen Scott so sympathetically and even though his life is basically a horror story they have still found humour and fun for him, which that poor kid really needs.

I loved all of Rucka's answers and how much he is thinking about Teen Scott as a teenager but also as a teenager with the awful childhood Scott had and how that is affecting him.

I so want sweet, innocent Teen Scott to have the chance that Adult Scott never did to have something in his life that isn't just plane crash-brain damage-orphanage-bullying-creepy stalkers-Multiply Abusive Manipulative Father Figure Sinister-runaway trauma-eye beams argh!-hate-filled mobs-Emotionally and Physically Abusive Brutal Father Figure Winters-Emotionally Unavailable Occasionally Manipulative Father Figure Xavier-Emotionally and Physically Unavailable Dead-A-Lot Bio Dad Corsair=Irrevocable Daddy Issues and death to the hope of ever being well-adjusted.

This book does sound as if it's going to go on as it began with some light for Scott instead of just new shades of suffering, and give this Scott the option of not being quite so horribly damaged as the adult one we know and love.

I am so grateful that right now there are people writing Scott (both versions) who actually like him. Long may it continue.

And wishing you many happy/exciting adventures in space with the less deadbeat back-from-the-dead version of your dad, Teen Scott!

[KusaSan]

When you think all the work he did for teh X-Men during Utopia and then after that, they just leave him like that...

[anthony_lynch15]

Mine too. I think it shows Scott at his best as the master strategist and the guy leading from the front. The way he outthinks Osborn throughout is one of my favourite things.



I know, and that's what I love most about the arc, it's just that I've banged on about that particular aspect of Scott vs Osborn so often in other posts and emails that I didn't want to repeat myself, but the way Scott keeps taunting him throughout to keep Osborn's attention focused on him so he can't come up with a counter-measure to Scott's multiple plans to take out the other Dark Avengers is to me Scott at his absolute best. I think it built on the self-sacrificing aspect that Whedon highlighted in Astonishing and did something even cleverer with it.

It's probably my favourite Scott scene of all time. I really didn't like it when he was written as being the general behind the lines rather than the guy who is in the thick of it. I felt that only dealt with his strategist side and not what he could personally bring to the fight. (Even if, in the case of Utopia/Exodus it was just being really annoying on purpose to win a fight, having already put his incredibly complicated plans in place.)

Another great thing I've always thought about the X-Men defeating Osborn and his Dark Avengers was that the X-Men were the first heroes/people to defeat them.
Up until that point the Dark Avengers, Osborn and HAMMER had won every fight, battle and manipulation.
Utopia was the first blow against Osborn's regime.