Before his untimely death, Cyclops showed why he went from a hated outlaw to a beloved hero, and how much the X-Men need him against Orchis.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers from X-Men #7, now on sale from Marvel Comics.
When fans think of powerful X-Men, they understandably tend to focus on Omega-Level Mutants. Storm, Magneto and resident telepath Jean Grey (with or without the Phoenix Force) can turn the tide of battle in the X-Men’s favor single-handedly.
As impressive as those peak specimens are, the rest of the X-Men shouldn’t be slept on. Any member of the team can use their powers impressively when given the chance. While Cyclops’ leadership and tactical abilities have been his most valuable skills lately, he was just given a chance to show how impressive his optic blasts can be. In X-Men #7, by Gerry Duggan, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia and VC’s Clayton Cowles, Cyclops’ team is short on powerhouses with Grey, Polaris and Rogue busy on Arakko. Overwhelmed by animal-human hybrids created by Orchis’s mad scientist Dr. Stasis, the X-Men needed someone to step up. That turned out to be Cyclops.
Bouncing his optic blast off a hybrid and through a stoplight, Cyclops can take out multiple foes at once. That inspired Synch, who had previously considered Cyclops arrogant after he declared himself the X-Men at the Hellfire Gala. The X-Men can defeat Stasis’ forces, but it doesn’t come without a cost. Sunfire inadvertently causes a fire by using his powers against a highly flammable hybrid. Synch can stop the fire by using Omega-Level skills, saving some civilians in the process, but many likely perished in the initial blaze.
Even more significant to the X-Men is the death of Cyclops. In the process of saving a baby from Stasis’ right-hand hybrid Bornan, Cyclops suffers a serious wound to his carotid artery. It wasn’t fatal until Stasis, disguised as an EMT, delivers a killing blow. He also whispers something to Cyclops that the mutant leader can’t remember after his resurrection, exposing another flaw in the X-Men’s most important innovation. While Stasis’ words could be a major problem, they have more immediate concerns.
Krakoa’s Resurrection Protocols make death a minor inconvenience for mutants, Cyclops’ public death means he can’t return to duty in his usual identity. The public outpouring of grief over his death (seen in previous issues of X-Men) means that he has to take on the Captain Krakoa identity to remain a member of the team. It also shows how far Cyclops has come in the decade since his 2012 heel turn in the Avengers vs. X-Men crossover.
In the years following the Scarlet Witch’s catastrophic declaration of “No More Mutants,” Cyclops was radicalized. Keeping his people from going extinct saw him embrace anti-heroes like Namor and Magneto as allies. He even fielded a team where Storm was the only member not to have a supervillain phase, which he dubbed the “extinction team.”
Cyclops’ hardline approach to leading mutantkind culminated in the AvX crossover, where he attempted to use the Phoenix Force to save his people. Courting power that could end the world mobilized the Avengers, including Wolverine and Beast, against him. While Cyclops’ initial plan was to make mutant messiah Hope Summers the Phoneix’s host, the power wound up being dispersed among himself and four other “Extinction Team” members, dubbed the Phoenix Five.
Cyclops was the last man standing after the rest of the Phoenix Five were defeated. In the ensuing climactic battle, Dark Phoenix Cyclops murdered Professor Xavier. He would spend a brief amount of time in jail as a political prisoner before escaping and leading an outlaw X-Men team.
That Cyclops could go from public enemy number one to a beloved hero isn’t a huge surprise on some levels. People love a good redemption story in any universe. It can be argued that Cyclops was never truly a villain, just a man doing his best in horrible circumstances. With mutants thriving, he can be the hero he’s always been deep down. Cyclops heroism might be the only thing that can stop what Stasis and Orchis are up to.
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