Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Cyclops #1 Preview

Scott Summers Gets a Do-Over on Life With Cyclops #1


Cyclops #1 is going to be an exciting bit of nostalgia mixed with an epic space opera. With this comic coming out in just a few days, I thought it would be nice to do a sort of Cyclops #1 Preview, if you will. This preview is very unofficial, but it should help you to get an idea of what to expect.

Cyclops #1 Preview Variant Cover

It is important to note here that if you haven't been reading comics in the ALL-NEW Marvel Now! phase, you might find Scott Summer's first solo outing a bit confusing. To get you caught up, the newest and youngest version of Cyclops was brought by Hank McCoy to the future. Beast's intentions were to show Scott Summers what he used to be with the hope that it would change the present day man back into a better person. But then things got sticky. Once the original X-men tried to return to their own timeline, for some unexplained reason, they couldn't and they were stuck in the present. (See All-New X-men to get really caught up on what's going on here.) Then things got extra-planetary.

There is a lot more to read about in The Trial of Jean Grey, but to get to the point, young Scott Summers meets his Space Pirate father and decides to adventure across the galaxy with him.  Leaving his one true love and his original X-men buddies behind, Cyclops is off to travel the stars.

Cyclops 1 Preview

I think this ongoing series has a lot of potential, especially when you weigh the young Scott Summers against his present day counterpart. While I will wholly admit that I actually like the revolutionary Cyclops a lot better than the goody-goody righteous leader that he has always played, there is just a lot of baggage on Cyclops right now. The Phoenix force came and took over his body and as a result, (spoiler alert) Scott ended up slaying Charles Xavier in cold blood. Now that the events of A vs. X are over, Cyclops has been a very heavy character to follow, and it's not without it's rewards. I love his new costume, his new crew, and his new attitude, but after a while, I start to wonder where its all leading to? With Bendis at the helm, I know that Uncanny X-men (the book with the central role surrounding Scott Summers and his team of X-defectors) has a good chance of staying excellent. But with Cyclops on-going series, we get a bit of relief from the darkness that Uncanny X-men just can't achieve. At least not for some time.

I am looking forward to an era where the X-men team will be whole again. Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. Marvel and its writers seem to have more fun destroying characters, teams, hell even entire universes right now than they want to re-establish the status quo. I, for one, look forward to Cyclops being a nice book to find some comic relief and possibly more light-hearted story lines. The father-son dynamic is sure to be filled with strife as well as heart-warming moments. Plus, setting the whole run in outer space opens the dynamics of this story up to unlimited possibilities.

In the very short preview that I have seen, the writing of Greg Rucka is quick and funny. We get enough exposure into the life of Cyclops without bogging the development of the story arc in redundancy. The art is beautiful. Russell Dauterman brings the youth and excitement of this Cyclops directly to the page. There is still much to be seen as far as what type of alien characters we will run into, but so far Dauterman brings the depths of space to life brilliantly with the help of colors by Chris Sotomayor.

Here's to new comic book Wednesday!

Check out a preview of the book over at Comic Book Resources:  http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=21456

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