“Cyclops is nobody’s favorite.” You or someone you know has said this. And how deeply wrong you were, oh Mayor of Wrongville. Cyclops is THE centerpiece of X-Men. An official Marvel fan poll placed him as the #1 most beloved X-Man. I would remind you, this is a list with Wolverine on it. This week’s stellar Uncanny X-Men Annual #1 is all about the return of the savior of mutantkind. In honor of that, here is a mounted rebuttal in favor of Corsair’s Favorite Son.
Q: Isn’t Cyclops kind of a stick in the mud?
A: Sure. The guy never learned how to have fun. At fifteen, before he could drive a car or kiss a girl, he was selected to be the spokesperson for an entire race of people. This is not a mantle he chose, but one that was thrust upon him. He didn’t ask to be the permanent face (and greatest leader) for mutants, but it is the role he was given. And he always made the best of it.
Q: Didn’t Cyclops kind of… abandon his wife and kid?
A: Okay, uh, that one’s kind of hard to defend. But Our Man Scott never learned how to be apart of a real family. His parents were taken from him in a Shi’ar attack. He went to live in an orphanage owned and operated by a supervillain. His brother, Alex, got adopted when he did not (ouch). Cyclops would come to find out later that his dad was not in fact dead, but had abandoned him to become a space pirate and shack up with an alien. Deadbeat Dad might just be a hereditary trait.
Q: Didn’t Cyclops kind of… cheat on his wife?
A: *shakes fist at the sky* Grant Morrisooooooooooooooon!
We’ve been dealing with the fallout of this particular plotline for two decades. Yes, truly a garbage move on behalf of Scott. But his beloved wife had returned from the dead and was acting strangely (read: Phoenix). And so Scott left his first love for the love of his life. No arguments. Emma Frost is the love of Scott’s life. And as Emma would later surmise to Jean herself, “Your nightmare was my love story.”
Q: Didn’t he kill Xavier??
A: Phoenix did it.
Q: Didn’t Cyclops turn mutants into a separatist militia?
A: Listen here, bucko! Imagine you wake up one day and the race of people YOU ARE THE FIGUREHEAD OF has gone from two million to two hundred overnight. And it wasn’t even your personal failures that did it, but rather the mistakes of the Avengers, that lead to the Decimation. Might you want to, say, protect them? To keep account of your own people and make sure they were looked after? The Utopia era is the best being made of a terrible situation.
AvX? He was attacked. IvX? The Inhumans are supervillains in that story.* Has Cyclops earned a second chance? Honey, if chances are earned, Cyclops has maxed out.
*A mounted defense of Emma Frost coming after proper provocation.
So how’s about if we open our heart back up to Cyclops, father of Cable & Ruby Quartz, leader of the Summers Rebellion, & the longest running X-Man? Never an Avenger, Defender, or Guardian (though he was kiiiiiind of a Champion), Uncanny X-Men Annual #1 is the best way to show your support for Cyclops, the greatest of all the X-Men.
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