Cyclops Appreciation

[Anthony Shaw]

There's a page from around that time when Jean is thinking about his poor communication skills:



Unfortunately for you, Jean, he never really did.

If I am not mistaken, the next scene, or page, begins that awful love triangle. Although I dare anyone to read the hairy little monster's lines to Jean out loud.

Cyclops is my favorite X-Man.

[DakenGirl]

If I am not mistaken, the next scene, or page, begins that awful love triangle. Although I dare anyone to read the hairy little monster's lines to Jean out loud.

You're right. It was the next page. Just as gruesome as you remember it too.

And here's him nearly murdering Angel. Luckily the three-page rule means I can't put up the two pages where Jean lets down all womenkind with her drippy prevaricating over the hairy little guy who she just met who then crassly hit on her before trying to gut one of her oldest friends, all of which apparently made her horny for the guy, because I like to pretend that Jean is better than that and that never happened.

I also like to pretend the X-Men writers are better than to write a female character that crappily just so that guys who over-identify with Wolverine can think they have a shot with the any tall beautiful women half their age that they might be pining over.

Cyclops is my favorite X-Man.

Mine too!

[FluffyCyclopsRLZ]

Aaah, gotta love those stories in which Cyclops is a jerk for obsessing over his responsibilities, lol. You go and drool over some quitter/traitor, Jean. Attagirl.

[elgrey]

If this happens, I might just throw up. The damn Avengers claim Cyke a terrorist when they have an actual one in Stark, who has the "moral high ground" ;-;

I don't think it's very likely that they would use an Uncanny story to make Scott look bad or even make Tony look good at Scott's expense. Although after AvX got used to make Hope the Mutant Messiah into Hope That Weedy Girl Who Needs Help From The Avengers To Do What Jean And Rachel Managed To Do Just Fine Without Help From Anyone, and Cable & X-Force got used to redeem Bishop I suppose anything is possible. I think they might start in various books trying to mend fences between the Uncanny people and the Avengers, like having Emma and Magik helping out in Original Sin, and perhaps this will be the book that has Scott and Tony discuss the Avengers' culpability in creating the Phoenix 5 and in the death of Charles Xavier. (Although I won't hold my breath as I think they are officially supposed to be guiltless by editorial fiat and no one seems to be mentioning all that research none of the Avengers made any attempt to do on how the phoenix works. Nor has anyone at any point asked Logan what exactly he was smoking when he gave them the terrible information that he did.)

I would actually really like it if Scott was back on better terms with the Avengers. I'm really not a fan of conflict for the sake of conflict. I would love it if someone wrote a really good redemption arc for Wanda, although them writing it five years ago would have been better. I would love to see Erik on better terms with all his children. I was thinking when he saved Kitty from the bullet, and nearly killed himself doing it - and wanted it made clear that he wasn't doing it to please Scott or for his own redemption for her - and again with that little moment of his compassion for Dazzler and his anger and disgust at how she was being treated, that one of the many contradictions about Magneto is that he is a father, and a father of daughters, and every now and then one can see that aspect of him move to the fore, and I love it every time it happens, because his humanity really shines through. One day perhaps will get a story with Erik, Quicksilver, Wanda, and Lorna interacting. At least we got three of them together in No More Humans, very brief though it was. If we do get it, it will probably be just as the oceans are boiling dry, which will also be when we get that Scott, Cable, Alex, Nate, and Rachel story.

SCOTT'S BACK, SCOTT'S BACK, SCOTT'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (In the Movieverse). My sis was like "Is that Jean?" and I was like, I could care much less about her, I need me my Scott!!!!

I was thrilled to see both of them, but it was much more of a surprise seeing Scott. I did think Famke looked absolutely beautiful and more like Jean than ever. I thought the whole final sequence where Logan steps out of his room and the school is restored and there are happy mutant kids running to lessons and we see Storm is fine, and Henry is fine, and Colossus and Kitty are okay, and Bobby and Rogue are okay, and there is that dawning realization from Logan that he isn’t dreaming and he managed to change the future, was just a complete gift to the X-Men fans, and such a joyous scene after all the darkness that had gone before. And then to get not just Jean back but Scott as well, was wonderful. I thought Hugh Jackman did such a great job of showing Logan’s dazed confusion turning into daring to hope and then just not able to believe how wonderful it is that Jean and Scott are back again as well.

Well, I for one was super excited to see the returns. But was also annoyed by the continuation of. Oh look its a girl I like, time to make a move, and guy that is with the girl has to cock block. Ugh give me a break.

I do hear you. I was thrilled to get Jean and Scott back but I do think it’s a pity that the people who wrote the script didn’t try a little bit harder than to go for Hollywood obvious in that scene. There really are ways that two guys can interact with each other even when they both like the same woman that isn’t only about that, as even the briefest reading of the X-Men comics would reveal. It did feel a bit like suddenly we were in the 1980s when there were only certain ways male characters were allowed to interact with one another or else the gay cooties might get on them.

Given how many years Scott and Logan interacted perfectly amicably together when Jean was alive and after she died, and that Scott never said a word either to Jean or to Logan when they kissed, even though he saw it, and worked with Logan trying to help Logan find out about his past, immediately afterwards, it is a bit tiresome to get the reductive Hollywood movie approach to male-male and male-female relationships. Scott telling Logan to stay ‘away from my girl’ was utterly cringy in the first film because it was so wildly out of character for Scott, but they did make enough effort to show Scott as more than that that I could let it go. It was a weird mistake to make though as it’s so utterly unScott-like. This is, after all, the guy who was unfailingly concerned about Logan on missions, and whom Logan privately admitted that he would follow into hell, it’s not as if they had a pathetic combative Hollywood relationship in canon. The X-Men comics were usually better than that. And Scott’s always got along fine with Namor, too, even when Namor was hitting on Emma in front of him, and after he and Emma made out in front of him, and Emma told him she’d had an affair with Namor. He never had a problem with any of Emma’s exes either. He is just not a jealous guy and certainly not a person who has ever treated his wives or girlfriends like possessions. He didn’t even have a row with his brother when Alex slept with Scott’s wife.

Jean is more a traditional ‘fiery redhead’ in the Hollywood sense, in that she was quite jealous of Scott and would go after women who went after him, but she also did her best to save Madelyne and worked all night to save Emma. And I don’t think she saw Scott as necessarily a possession, as much as she was aware that he had never really interacted with a girl until he met her, having had his horrible upbringing in that boy’s only orphanage of crazy and then being kept more or less prisoner by an abusive guy who was running an all-male gang, so given that she was the first girl he met and he fell in love with her at first sight, one could see why she might be a little over-protective. Even without him getting vigorously non-conned by the Phoenix when it was pretending to be her, which, coupled with his bad habit of getting abducted by evil villains who rip his clothing and tie him up, might make any woman, even one without red hair, a tad over-protective of him.

It was a shame, though, that they used the one scene between the three of them to have Scott behaving in a way that no version of Scott would behave, but at least he had a pulse and wasn’t just that guy they killed off screen who no one really mentioned afterwards or bothered to mourn. So, huge step up, I would say. I was just so happy to see Scott and Jean back again that I was willing to let the iffy characterization go. I thought that Hugh Jackman did such a wonderful job in that scene of showing Logan's happiness to see them both again that it was fine. A whole film of Wolverine & The X-Men cartoon style godawful characterization would be hard to bear, admittedly, but for one scene that was really just a gift for the Scott and Jean fans anyway and I think meant only kindly, I can live with and really enjoy it.

[elgrey]

If I am not mistaken, the next scene, or page, begins that awful love triangle. Although I dare anyone to read the hairy little monster's lines to Jean out loud.

I don't think anyone could without retching. The next scene is horrible and gives me bad flashbacks to all those terrible old films where women were slaves to their hormones and never knew what they wanted. I hate the way they retconned Jean to be a drippy wet weed who can't resist Logan's...whatever the heck she's supposed to be seeing in him there I can't imagine as he's at his most repulsive behaviour-wise.

Scenes like that are why a lot of women flinch from heterosexual romances as they are so unbelievably male gazey most of the time and the women serves no function except to give credibility to crappy behaviour by some avatar for male writers/readers. It also unfortunately makes Logan immediately a million times less likable to women readers. That's one of those scenes where I don't blame Jean, I just blame the guy writing her badly. I hate it when characterization of female characters gets thrown under the bus to prop up a male character, and this was clearly all about pushing Logan as the poor widdle picked on short ass who isn't handsome and dashing like Warren and yet he too has his feelings....

Yeah, I don't care. You're a little creep here, Logan, and you shouldn't be encouraging him, Jean. Go want to shag him when he's done something heroic or self-sacrificing that isn't just about you being attracted to his...what? Obnoxious pick up lines? Unfounded confidence in his own irresistibility, washing optional? Total lack of impulse control? Spirited attempted to murder someone you actually know? Or just being pathetic and feeling sorry for himself? Last time I checked none of those actually made a guy irresistible to women outside of male fantasies. I love Logan and I love Jean and there has been some really touching interaction between them over the years but my god this was every shade of ugh.

[FluffyCyclopsRLZ]

Imagine if Scott used those awful pick-up lines on one of Logan's beards, lol.

Edit: Alright, HALF of those awful pick-up lines. I'm assuming Scott and aforementioned beard would just break out into laughter.

[DakenGirl]

I think they are picking and choosing from the original trilogy what is "Movie Canon" atm, They pick things that they liked and dropped things a lot of us didn't. Or just ignored it.

Yeah, I think you're right. It will probably be a while before we find out exactly what stuck.

I think he'll find Scott,Jean and Ororo a different way this time around, I have a feeling Jean or Scott might be essential to getting the other out of where they are. I'd really like to see a "Good Parent, Bad Parent" Scenario with these three with Xavier and Erik.

I would love that too! They have both ended up mentoring various members of the X-Men over the years and it would be great to see them acting like parents fighting over the kids some more. I like a domestic Chuck and Mags.

I just hope,they show the airplane jump of Scott and Alex. I think it's a very iconic moment (even if they keep changing it around here and there) in both summer's lives. Just as big as Jean witnessing her friend being hit by a car. I just think there is so much they can do with Young Xavier with these 3, since in hindsight they are some of his biggest achievements as a Professor for mutants (one United mutantkind, another was a queen, and another was a god.)

It would be an amazing opening sequence, especially if they do have the version where Cyke's beams kick in and it helps slow their descent, and Alex not letting him go to sleep because he hit his head, and them wandering around in the cold and Cyke being half-dead by the time they reach civilization and then him in a coma and them taking Alex away from him. I think that could be very affecting. Although as they've made Alex his dad as far as I can see, I don't know if they can have the whole one parachute between the two little boys and their mom telling Cyke to hold onto his little brother thing. I would hate to lose that. And I certainly don't want them bringing Vulcan in as the little brother because he's evil.

I agree with you. It would be terrific to see McAvoy Xavier interacting with young Jean, Cyke and Storm. Stewart Xavier did a really nice job of showing that connection to them, especially with Marsden Cyke in the first film. They did feel like father and son.

I really hope Fox crank up the speed of production on these movies. It seems nuts to not try to expand the franchise and get as much out there as possible. Especially as DoFP seems to have made $300M internationally in its first weekend, $111M of that domestically. It seems pretty clear Fox are not going to lose money on it and as Iron Man 3 showed, once you get a franchise up and running with a combo of solo movies and team movies, you only need a decent one every now and then and you can have a bunch of mediocre ones and people will still keep showing up because they know who everyone is and they like viewing stuff within that world. Iron Man 1 was good, but IM2 was a stinker, Captain America was dull, Thor was okay, Thor 2 was less than okay, Iron Man 3 sucked, and yet because The Avengers was pretty good, they all made a lot of money for Marvel.

Hopefully Fox will actually commit now and go on doing what they did with DoFP where they cast very good actors and tried to make a story with some wider meaning that honored the spirit of the comics.

[elgrey]

Imagine if Scott used those awful pick-up lines on one of Logan's beards, lol.

Argh! It's horrible enough it being canon that Logan was ever that ghastly. I would have to walk away from X-Men if Scott was ever written like that.

Edit: Alright, HALF of those awful pick-up lines. I'm assuming Scott and aforementioned beard would just break out into laughter.

I can imagine him getting one sentence in and then checking back to his 'How to pick up girls' book and going: 'Really? This stuff ever worked? On live people?'

Honestly, if it wasn't for all the sociopathic children that keep turning up, apparently riddled with Logan's DNA, who were conceived pre-1975, I'd say Logan was just a scared virgin who swaggers a lot when we first meet him because, honestly, those moves of his would be like libido death to ninety-nine point nine women out of a hundred, making his opportunities for procreation realistically really sparse. Unless his sex-life consisted entirely of women who sleep with the kind of guys they plan to kill in the morning so consequently don't mind having really low standards because no one is going to find out. His Weapon X training would probably have come in handy there, getting him out of the window the morning after before he was offed. It would also explain the high percentage of sociopaths in his offspring.

[OpticDreams]

I almost want Scemma in some future film.

[FluffyCyclopsRLZ]

I can imagine him getting one sentence in and then checking back to his 'How to pick up girls' book and going: 'Really? This stuff ever worked? On live people?'

And then he'd go 'Surely there's a more sensible way to get women to assault me?'

[AJpyro]

And then he'd go 'Surely there's a more sensible way to get women to assault me?'

Scott looking up a "How to Pick Up Chicks" book in itself is hilarious.

[elgrey]

I almost want Scemma in some future film.

Well, they sort of wrecked poor Emma's characterization in XMFC and then bumped her off in DoFP, so unless they're going to bring in the Emma who was on the Island with teenage Scott in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I'm not sure we even have an Emma Frost left in the cinematic X-Men verse to have a relationship with Scott. Which is a pity because she's a terrific character, but absolutely no one seemed to 'get' her in XMFC. They wrote her very badly and then they cast someone who did not work in the role.

And if we had Scott/Emma we might have Jean/Logan too, and I really can't bear relationships that reward stalkers. Jean being possessed by the phoenix and trying to rip Logan's clothes off again would be okay, as long as she didn't have to die for having a sex-drive later, but every attempt they've made in the films to turn Logan into a romantic character has been tedious or annoying or both. If you took the romance out of XMO: W it would immediately be a much better film, for instance. And even The Wolverine, which I really liked, had Logan moping after a woman who likes someone else instead of just interacting with her as if she were a person. It's so dull when the only relationships we ever get to see between male and female characters are romantic ones. Especially as the X-Men, in between all the soapy romances, is built on its really strong friendships.

[elgrey]

And then he'd go 'Surely there's a more sensible way to get women to assault me?'

I'm sure Scott would be fairly perplexed by the idea that a guy needs to be pro-active about the whole process, as surely a guy just needs to wear spandex and then they show up and have sex with them - unless he manages to kill their interest in him by asking them if they're the phoenix or telling them he's still in love with someone else or one of his other tried and tested cold water approaches.

[OpticDreams]

Well, they sort of wrecked poor Emma's characterization in XMFC and then bumped her off in DoFP, so unless they're going to bring in the Emma who was on the Island with teenage Scott in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I'm not sure we even have an Emma Frost left in the cinematic X-Men verse to have a relationship with Scott. Which is a pity because she's a terrific character, but absolutely no one seemed to 'get' her in XMFC. They wrote her very badly and then they cast someone who did not work in the role.

Continuity can be forgotten. They could go with young Cyke, and simply introduce a young Emma. Or simply use the older Cyke, and introduce as if she never died.

[FluffyCyclopsRLZ]

I'm sure Scott would be fairly perplexed by the idea that a guy needs to be pro-active about the whole process, as surely a guy just needs to wear spandex and then they show up and have sex with them

Amusingly enough, the spandex thing is totally optional. It only had much of an effect on Classic Jean and Scott's modern creepers, really.

Continuity can be forgotten. They could go with young Cyke, and simply introduce a young Emma. Or simply use the older Cyke, and introduce as if she never died.

How about Sinister cloning Emma as a back-up plan in case the Jott thingy didn't quite work out?