The Ideal Ending for "Death of X" Discussion

[MarvelMaster616]

I thought I'd start a new thread on this topic since the "Death of X" announcement thread has grown considerably. If the mods still think this should be rolled into that thread, I understand. But for this topic, I want to shift the focus away from the event itself and speculation surrounding it. Instead, I want to focus on what the ideal ending would be for X-men fans.

First and foremost, we know the ending for "Death of X" isn't going to be ideal for any X-men fans. That's a given. Marvel isn't going to let "Death of X" end well for mutants, X-men, Cyclops, or any fans surrounding them because that undermines the larger narrative they've been telling since Secret Wars. I don't think that's something they're going to do at this point. They need to keep things bleak and dire for mutants, just like they did with M-Day. That way, the inevitable resolution is more powerful.

Ignoring the inevitable dismay that "Death of X" is sure to bring, I want to open the discussion up to what sort of ending that X-men fans would be okay with. It doesn't just have to relate to Cyclops' death. Looking at this event, based on what we know about it thus far, what would be the best possible ending? What would be the most satisfying way that X-men could end up in their current situation? I know that context sort of limits things. We've seen in Extraordinary X-men, All-New X-men, and Uncanny X-men how bleak and angry all the characters are. There aren't a lot of good ways they could've ended up like this. But I do think there are some that are more palatable than others.

Here's an example:

For me, personally, I think the ideal ending for "Death of X" doesn't involve Cyclops going full evil or the Inhumans being completely apathetic. I think the ideal ending involves Cyclops making a sacrifice that he knows is going to ruin his reputation and make everyone hate him, but he does it anyways because the alternative would be worse. In that sacrifice, he states outright that for Charles Xavier's dream to be reborn, it first has to die. It costs him his life, but it also allows him to reunite with Jean Grey in the White Hot Room, who says she's been waiting for him. That moment would nicely symbolize the death and rebirth of a dream that is so core to the X-men.

Now I don't believe for a second this will happen. I've already made my prediction for this event clear in other threads and I stand by it. I predict Marvel will have Cyclops go completely evil and try to commit genocide on the Inhumans in order to stop the T-mists. No mind control. No Void influence. Nothing. Marvel needs Cyclops to go completely evil so that his O5 counterpart has a greater challenge to overcome. This gives them a chance to completely warp a character in ways they could never get away with. As we've seen with Spider-Man, Marvel will jump at any chance to do something like this because they understand on some levels that it generates the kind of outrage and attention they need from their customer base. The ideal ending I just described would not generate enough. It may be satisfying to some fans, but it simply won't light up the message boards in the same way that an evil, genocidal Cyclops will.

I can even imagine that at some point in this mini, adult Cyclops will confront his younger self or O5 Jean and basically turn on them. He'll basically say to hell with them. They keep trying to change a future that he's fighting for. They're willing to sacrifice all the good moments he's had in addition to all the bad moments. I think that'll push him over the edge. That'll probably put O5 Jean, his younger self, and even his former teammates in tears. It's a moment that I think would be a complete gut punch to X-men fans everywhere and that's exactly the point. That's what Death of X has to be, which is why we're not going to get an ending that'll leave anybody feeling hopeful.

But I digress. I've shared my ideal ending for "Death of X." What about you? If you could end "Death of X" in a certain way, how would you go about it? What sort of moments would it include? What sort of scenes would it have? Discuss.

[DurararaFTW]

The "genocide" is a fight between Cyclops, Havok, Emma Frost, Sunfire, Rachel Summers, Magneto, Frenzy, Hellion and various other X-Men and a still very much Black Bolt led Inhuman army with deaths on both sides. At the end Cyclops seems to die but he is actually recovered and put into statis by Beast, hidden from both sides inside his lab in Attilan.

[Phoenix Raptor]

I personally fail to see how anything that happens to adult Scott has to automatically impact on Tyke. I understand why it'd work that way - Tyke proving that he's nothing like his older self - but I just wish any character development would happen to the "real" Cyclops instead!

Marvel's far too keen on replacing main characters with new versions for my liking......

[Dthirds123]

I just want the ending to treat cyclops with the respect he deserves, and give hope that this m pox crap will end soon

[Bl00dwerK]

My ideal ending? If all the mutants are, indeed, dying I would like to see the 05 sent back (before they die, of course) and fix all the crap from the last couple decades: Av.X, Schism (especially!), Prof X's death, you name it.

[Quiver]

Here's how I picture it; whatever goes down, Scott dies. But he dies the way he lived; convicned he's doing the right thing, maybe even actually doing the right thing. That's the kind of thing fans can debate over; it's not important for this story.

What is important? Is that he's dead. And he finds himself standing in the White Hot Room with Jean.

We see his expression; he isn't sad. he isn't shocked, or surprised; he's accepting. He knows that this was the end result of his path; that he was always going to die. Jean smiles at him, tell's Scott that -at last- it's time for him to rest, to put down his arms. To stop being the soldier, and spend time with the one's he loves...

And Scott hesitates. He admits to Jean the truth that's been underlying the character for years now; he doens't actually love her anymore. Yes, Scott Summers will always love Jean Grey... but she isn't the most important thing in his life. And she hasn't been for a long time.

And Jean tell's Scott she wans't talking about herself.

The White Hot Room falls away, and Scott finds himself in the middle of the X-Mansion. An X-Mansion which is full to the brim; students, and X-Men, humans and mutants. Everyone who has ever died in the cause of mutant rights, every ally, ever friend that Scott has ever known, all going about their ordinary business.

He walks down the halls, trading looks with the others around him; each one is a familiar face, each one is someone that Scott cared about. And, yes, Logan is there; Cyclops lingers at an open door, to see Wolvering sitting on a desk, lecturing a class of students.. Him and Scott exchange a glance -

"Logan."
"Summers."

- nod respectfully, and move on, no animosity between them.

Scott wanders down the halls, finally coming to the end of the corridor; a large, oak door. He hesitates a moment - uncertainty has been mounting as he reached this point- before pushing it open. Beyond the door is a study, lined with books... and a man sitting in a chair.

Chales Xavier looks up from his book, smiles as he see's Scott. He rises to his feet -and of course, Xavier is walking- and approaches him. He lays a hand on Scott's shoulder, gently, and tell's him, "Welcome home, son."

Cyclops reaches up, pulls down his mask, and opens his eyes. No optic blasts; they're just filling with tears. He reaches out, hugs Xavier tightly.

A three row panel at the bottom of the page, of the door shutting as the two men -father and son- are reunited forever. The door shuts, an X burned into the wood. The final words:

'The Dream Never Ends'.

[MarvelMaster616]

I personally fail to see how anything that happens to adult Scott has to automatically impact on Tyke. I understand why it'd work that way - Tyke proving that he's nothing like his older self - but I just wish any character development would happen to the "real" Cyclops instead!

Marvel's far too keen on replacing main characters with new versions for my liking......

Yeah, I know how you feel. I would've liked to see more development in adult Cyclops as well. I thought confronting his time-displaced self had a real impact on him in All-New X-men. It brought out the best in him and made for great stories.

I just think that the impact of adult Cyclops has been muted since AvX. He's not the leader of the X-men or the mutant race anymore. On top of that, he has a lot of baggage, going back to his relationships with Emma and Jean, as well as his clash with Wolverine. I think it has gotten to the point where that baggage is dragging him down and Marvel wants to streamline it. Having a time-displaced version makes that easier. As I've said before, that might have been the long-term goal of bringing the O5 to the future. They want to either set aside or undo this baggage. It's probably not going to happen all at once, but I think Death of X is part of that process.

My ideal ending? If all the mutants are, indeed, dying I would like to see the 05 sent back (before they die, of course) and fix all the crap from the last couple decades: Av.X, Schism (especially!), Prof X's death, you name it.

I'd like to see that too and honestly, I think Marvel is planning to do some major retconning down the line. It just won't happen with Death of X. More than anything else, the purpose of Death of X appears to involve raising the stakes so that a retcon is more necessary. They already have the mechanism in place thanks to the O5. As we saw in Battle of the Atom, what happens to them does indeed affect the timeline. So perhaps at some point, that affect will fix some of this crap, as you call it. Don't expect it to fix everything going back to M-Day, but I do think we're being set up for a major upheaval down the line.

[Bl00dwerK]

I'd like to see that too and honestly, I think Marvel is planning to do some major retconning down the line. It just won't happen with Death of X. More than anything else, the purpose of Death of X appears to involve raising the stakes so that a retcon is more necessary. They already have the mechanism in place thanks to the O5. As we saw in Battle of the Atom, what happens to them does indeed affect the timeline. So perhaps at some point, that affect will fix some of this crap, as you call it. Don't expect it to fix everything going back to M-Day, but I do think we're being set up for a major upheaval down the line.

That's what I expected the 05 were being brought to the present to do, but I'm not too sure anymore. I hope it still happens, at some point. Maybe they're just playing the long game, exhausting whatever stories they can come up with in the meantime.

[bubibartra]

Retcon is a mistake, charcters NEED evolution. Retcons is failure, retcon to xavier dream is failure de all the evolutiom from Morrison. Other OMD? no thanks.

Not more retcom

not more Bendis

[cyclopcap]

Good Thread MM616, Love your reviews by the way, big fan.

You nailed it for me.....I want him to die a hero at the end even if the world doesn't know it. But most importantly for awhile now, I want him to be shown reuniting with his one true love Jean Grey in the White Hot Room.........and if they ever do bring him back, I want his first words to be "To me, my X-men".

[Bl00dwerK]

Retcon is a mistake, charcters NEED evolution. Retcons is failure, retcon to xavier dream is failure de all the evolutiom from Morrison. Other OMD? no thanks.

I would agrue that most of what I've seen from the last couple decades was a mistake. There's a reason the X-Men used to be more popular back then than they are right now.

[MarvelMaster616]

Good Thread MM616, Love your reviews by the way, big fan.

You nailed it for me.....I want him to die a hero at the end even if the world doesn't know it. But most importantly for awhile now, I want him to be shown reuniting with his one true love Jean Grey in the White Hot Room.........and if they ever do bring him back, I want his first words to be "To me, my X-men".

Thanks for your kind words. Every now and then, I try to have a productive discussion on this message board. It doesn't always work out, but it's still worth trying.

I agree that a reunion with Jean Grey in the White Hot Room would be an important part of any ideal ending. The precedent is there. He did sense Jean's presence during AvX and during Whedon's run on Astonishing X-men, he had more than one vision of her. If Cyclops' death is to be fitting or endearing in any way, I think this should be part of it.

Except that Marvel isn't going for fitting. If O5 Cyclops weren't around, maybe they would. But he is. Because of that, they need to give him a bigger chip on his shoulder. Having his adult self go completely evil would accomplish that and just like Marvel did with Jean, they're trying to focus on younger versions of these characters with less baggage.

If we don't get that ending (and there's a 99 percent chance that we won't), maybe I could write something for my website and blog. I have a feeling that Cyclops fans and X-men fans in general will need it.

[LocoSteve]

My ideal ending? If all the mutants are, indeed, dying I would like to see the 05 sent back (before they die, of course) and fix all the crap from the last couple decades: Av.X, Schism (especially!), Prof X's death, you name it.

I have a feeling that might be the case in the future. Its the only way i see how they can bring the m-pox status quo to a close.

[bubibartra]

I would agrue that most of what I've seen from the last couple decades was a mistake. There's a reason the X-Men used to be more popular back then than they are right now.

avengers was verry very popular post disambled and pre-civil war

now the avengers are lowly

retcom avengers preCicil war when Tony stark turns an complet jerk?

[Bl00dwerK]

I have a feeling that might be the case in the future. Its the only way i see how they can bring the m-pox status quo to a close.

How many mutants are confirmed dead, so far? I keep reading that mutants are dying but still haven't seen them say which ones. If Death of X comes out and shows a bunch of A and B-listers dead a "retcon" would seem more likely.