Can the X-Men teams and franchise continue successfully without Cyclops ?

[Avenger88]

Do you think that if Cyclops gets offed, or becomes a full-on villain and no longer leads an X-Team during AXIS, then characters like Storm, Emma, Iceman, Beast and the JGS staff will be able to carry the X-Franchise ?

This doesn't count the ANXM team as they're off doing their own thing and right now possibly stuck in the Ultimate universe for the time being.

I think not. Without Wolverine, Jean, Professor X and the de-facto leader of mutantkind Cyclops the X-Men franchise in general will be done for. They'll either all become Avengers in the near future or be relegated to C and D-list status. The JGS is already a major mess with no real leadership, and with Logan gone I doubt that anything good can come out of that school ( they're bringing in Friggin Spider Man to keep that School relevant HAHAHA ). With Cyclops gone, nothing good will come out of the X-Franchise in general lol.

[Mr. Brightside]

Storm and Emma would become the friendlier version of Scott and Xavier. Though who would take all the crap from making the harsh decisions needed for mutant survival? Wolverine is dead, Xavier is dead, Cyke would be gone, and Storm wouldn't be second fiddle to Beast. Sooner or later, they'd need a new Scott.

[ariwl1]

Well there was the Outback period. Sure Wolverine was around for that, but he wasn't quite the attention whore then, and in general it worked. It's one of my least favorite periods of the franchise but that's just my taste.

[Avenger88]

Storm and Emma would become the friendlier version of Scott and Xavier. Though who would take all the crap from making the harsh decisions needed for mutant survival? Wolverine is dead, Xavier is dead, Cyke would be gone, and Storm wouldn't be second fiddle to Beast. Sooner or later, they'd need a new Scott.

Yeah it's gonna be a disaster IMHO. I'm glad they're grooming the younger Cyke for the leadership role.

[Perfection/Emma 2]

I would want Emma, Magik, Psylocke, Monet, Husk, Jubilee, Rachel, and Pixie to leave and form a Birds of Prey type team

[DurararaFTW]

The francise? Yes. The teams? No. If they are killing or taking Cyclops out of the picture some other way, they are already setting up a big reversal in which Wolverine and Cyclops come back to make everything right again. And until then it'll unfortunately fall to Storm to fail at keeping things together.

[norj]

Cyclops is not irreplaceable there are people who can take over leadership of the X-Men. Karma can run the school Storm, Dani, Dazzler and Spidey can lead the field teams.

[Perfection/Emma 2]

I just hope all the Xavier school kids and Eva are dropped on Storm. Leaving Emma to do her own thing

[KaleRylan]

Cyclops is not irreplaceable there are people who can take over leadership of the X-Men. Karma can run the school Storm, Dani, Dazzler and Spidey can lead the field teams.

I think the question was focused a bit more on the business question than this.

Karma, Dani, and Dazzler cannot sell books.

Storm could once, and maybe could again if they did it right, but I think she still needs some re-growth time. And Spidey (though I love him) is not an X-man and shouldn't be tasked with keeping the franchise alive.

No, as it stands right now from a sales/franchise point of view, Scott seems to be a necessity. There's a few others that also can do it: Wolvie, Jean, maybe a returned, revitalized Xavier, possibly Magneto, but in general as much as it might annoy the scott-haters, he's the center of the franchise right now. Tearing him out of the middle of it would be a dangerous decision without some good marketing.

That said, the All-New X-men are still around and maybe they were always meant to eventually supplant their older selves (dear god I hope not)?

Given how sales are going anyway though, it's sort of a moot point.

[Magneto]

I'd stop buying the X-Books, especially if Bendis is still writing. I'd only buy Magneto.

[MarvelMaster616]

I say no. I don't think the X-men comics can continue successfully without Cyclops. Maybe they could've gotten away with it if Wolverine were still alive. But with him dead, that's a LOT of missing star power. Just look at Ultimate universe as the best example of what happens when star power is lacking. Ultimate X-men didn't have Cyclops, Wolverine, or Xavier. It also didn't have Beast, Nightcrawler, Dazzler, or Angel either. But it's because it lost so much star power that it failed. During its relaunch, Ultimate X-men became the worst selling X-men comic.

There's also X-men Forever. It killed Wolverine, Beast, and marginalized Cyclops. It even took Xavier off the board at one point. As a result, it has horrible sales and got canceled prematurely.

There's one other factor that needs to be considered. Brian Michael Bendis is using Cyclops heavily in his stories with Uncanny X-men. And historically, Marvel doesn't undermine Bendis' stories. If he wants a character, they let him use that character. Taking Cyclops off the board would really disrupt the story he's been telling for two years now. It would also really disrupt what he's doing with Cyclops' revolution in Uncanny. That's why I think it would be the worst possible decision Marvel could make if they killed Cyclops. There are too many examples of how this sort of thing fails miserably and it would undermine their bottom line. And say what you will about Marvel. You can expect them to do what's in their best economic interest. For the moment, keeping Cyclops alive would be in their best interest.

[Jackraow21]

Sure. If it can survive without Wolverine it can survive without any of them.

[norj]

I think the question was focused a bit more on the business question than this.

Karma, Dani, and Dazzler cannot sell books.

Storm could once, and maybe could again if they did it right, but I think she still needs some re-growth time. And Spidey (though I love him) is not an X-man and shouldn't be tasked with keeping the franchise alive.

No, as it stands right now from a sales/franchise point of view, Scott seems to be a necessity. There's a few others that also can do it: Wolvie, Jean, maybe a returned, revitalized Xavier, possibly Magneto, but in general as much as it might annoy the scott-haters, he's the center of the franchise right now. Tearing him out of the middle of it would be a dangerous decision without some good marketing.

That said, the All-New X-men are still around and maybe they were always meant to eventually supplant their older selves (dear god I hope not)?

Given how sales are going anyway though, it's sort of a moot point.

If the writers can't write a compelling story without using Xavier, Scott, Wolverine or Jean the franchise deserves to die, fortunately there are plenty of existing characters they can use.

[antiochene]

Sure it can (and I say that as a Scott fan). Both the franchise and the in-universe X-Men would make do. There might be some stumbles as they sort out what's most marketable (and I would probably be hugely amused to see what the explanations would be from a certain crowd if Scott was removed and the sales figures he's supposedly doomed for the last decade didn't bounce back up) but in the end it'd be fine. There are too many worthwhile characters in the X-verse for it not to be.

Now, do I want to see an X-franchise without Cyclops? Of course not, and I don't really think we will.

[Kuwagaton]

Sure. If it can survive without Wolverine it can survive without any of them.

Let's see how well they're doing two months after they've stopped milking his death.