Previously On X-Men: ‘Cyclops #1’ Comes Out Strong

All else aside, this week’s books feature two things that define the current X-office; an emphasis on solo series, and an inability to create an even release schedule (two issues this week, five next, including both flagship titles and two Wolverine books).

Cyclops #1 – Book of the Week

By Alex Paknadel & Rogê Antônio

Cyclops revisits the orphanage where he grew up, then gets shot down by a new batch of Reavers on the way home.

• Cyclops’ near-superhuman geometric skills are an established but not oft-referenced part of his character.
• When confronting the A.I.M. goons, Cyclops gives them two options, saying, “In the first, you try to overwhelm me… In the second, you get to walk away with your teeth. What’s it going to be?” Then the goons attack him, and he says, “the second it is, then.” So, um, shouldn’t he have not attacked them? Once again, it feels like this books need some kind of editor whose job it is to catch stuff like that…
• As the footnote helpfully points out, Robin Hanover is from Classic X-Men #41-42, specifically the backup stories therein (For its first 43 issues, Classic X-Men paired a reprint of an old X-Men story with a new character-specific backup story). Classic X-Men #41-42 were a rare two-part backup that chronicled Scott’s time as a child at the orphanage, which is secretly run by Mister Sinister. Robin Hanover was one of the nice people who worked there, and tried to help Scott. While she is now recognizing that it was a shitty place, she still doesn’t seem to know about Sinister’s involvement — despite Classic X-Men #42 having ended with Robin coming face-to-face with Sinister and being changed as a result of it.
• And Havok did indeed blow it up in the opening arc of Hellions.
• The idea that while Cyclops thinks he came out of the orphanage unbroken, Robin remembers a much more spirited young Scott upon his arrival is an interesting one; I hope Paknadel does more with it amidst the apparent survivalist/Reaver battle stuff we’re primed to get now.
• Speaking of, Donald Pierce, leader of the Reavers, dates back to the “Dark Phoenix Saga,” where he debuted as cyborg member of the Inner Circle. Uncanny X-Men #229 introduced a gang of unrelated cyborg criminals whom the X-Men mostly defeated (and took over their Australian base); three of their number joined up with Pierce, Lady Deathstrike, and the three (now cybernetic) Hellfire Club mercenaries Wolverine attacked in X-Men #133 to form a new group of Reavers which were the X-Men’s principal recurring foes at the end of the 1980s. Since then, Pierce and the Reavers have appeared in various configurations. This new batch seems to be all new character.
• Cyclops notes he can’t control his optic blast due to physical brain damage; this is another long-established detail, and it means that when, say, Rogue absorbs Cyclops’ power, she should have no problem controlling his optic blast.

Despite Cyclops being my favorite character — and my favorite single issue of all-time being, essentially, a solo Cyclops outing — I’ve never been a huge fan of Cyclops solo outings. What makes the character pop is his relationships to other characters, whether with Xavier, or Jean or Emma, or Wolverine (or some combination thereof), or the X-Men as a whole. Put him on his own, and you lose a lot of that.

But I enjoyed this — “Cyclops in a survival situation” is one of the more successful solo Cyclops tropes, Paknadel seems to have something to say about the character, and Antônio’s work seems to have leveled up even just since the pre-“Age of Revelation” Wolverines and Deadpools mini. Paknadel has said he wants this series to stand as an “evergreen” Cyclops story, akin to Magneto: Testament or the Claremont/Miller Wolverine miniseries. I don’t know if a solo Cyclops story can do enough to capture what makes the character to accomplish that, but this is at least a good start.

Check out Tony’s full review of the issue here.

Wade Wilson: Deadpool #1

By Benjamin Percy & Geoff Shaw

Battling a resurgent death wish, Deadpool takes a job for Hammerhead to wipe out a rival gang of drug traffickers.

• I’m not sure it’s physical possible for a grown man to stuff himself inside a cow, and for that cow to live/seem normal (if pregnant) until the man emerges from it.
• Deadpool’s healing factor returned to its normal, super-charged, state in Wolverines and Deadpools #3.
• Hammerhead is a longtime Spider-Man villain (debuting in Amazing Spider-Man #113) who often gets trotted out in other books when a writer needs a distinctive mob boss type character (as here).
• Blind Al is a long-time member of Deadpool’s supporting cast; she last appeared in Wolverine (vol. 7) #23.
• What happened to make Deadpool suicidal is, of course, intentionally left a mystery, but given the brief glimpse we get of her, it presumably has something to do with his daughter, Ellie Camacho (last seen in Wolverine and Deadpools #3, where she was one of the titular Deadpools).

As frequent readers of this column know, I tend to run pretty cool on Deadpool. All else aside from that series, I did enjoy Percy’s take on Deadpool in the “From the Ashes” Wolverine/Deadpool team-up book. But Percy’s approach to Deadpool’s humor there isn’t really present here, as the plot involves a morose, misanthropic Deadpool (at least to start). Deadpool has long been a darkly humorous character, but this issue is heavy on the “dark” with little of the “humor.”

And that cow thing is just weird.