I quit reading X-men years ago. To me, it was just a big mess with "new directions" every 3 months, and a shuffling off of old characters in favor of, sometimes, the flavor of the month flash in the pans.
The other problem was Wolverine, to be honest. I got real tired of him real fast.
My favorite character was always Cyclops. The original badass of the bunch. You know, the xman that took on wolverine and handed him his ass on a platter.
But somewhere along the line, Cyclops was lost and replaced with Mr. Rogers with a sugar suppository. Then, he just seemed to disappear all together.
Storm sucked as a leader, wolverine was in every book going, they broke colossus, Nightcrawler seemed to devolve inward...I dont know what the hell happened to havok, polaris, Iceman and Angel.
But the one character that just seemed to Stop! was cyclops. A master tactician and battle leader, he just seemed to disappear.
So, what happened to him? Anyone able to tell me anything good about him lately. Is he in a book I might like to check out, or has he become a wraith, showing up in house adds?
Thanks.
Posted by Mystery Lad on :
Well- he's currently the head X-Man, since Xavier's off finding himself. Cyke engineered a move to San Francisco after the most recent destruction of the mansion.
He's created a secret 'wetworks' team featuring all the claw, blade, and blood characters. They're supposed to be assassins. Yep, Cyke's all about the ultimate sanction these days.
He had a 'mental affair' with Emma Frost shortly before Jean Grey's last death, and he and the White Queen have been shacked up ever since.
I have a feeling you won't find much to recognize if you pick up ASTONISHING X-MEN or UNCANNY X-MEN, which are the two titles most likely to feature him.
As for the others you list:
Storm= Mrs. Black Panther still shows up in ASTONISHING X-MEN and is available for other X-title usage, apparently. This month, anyway.
Wolverine= "was in every book going"- even more so, since Marvel's created the 'Wolverine Family' with X23 and Daken.
Colossus= 'Broke?' You mean by 'killing' Kitty? He's kind of getting over it, or trying.
Nightcrawler= Now a priest, I think. After being the son of a devil. Literally. But I'm not sure that still stands or if everyone's wisely ignoring it.
Havok= Leader of the Starjammers, after Corsair's death. He's devoted to killing Vulcan, the long lost third Summers brother, who is totally insane and has taken over the throne of the Shi'ar.
Polaris= Now the full-fledged daughter of Magneto, she lost her powers, got some other ones briefly, then has had them restored. She's with Havok in the Starjammers (in more ways than one) and has recently become all buddy-buddy with Crystal, her former sister-in-law. She and Alex can be found in WAR OF KINGS-- which I suggest you check out. I'm enjoying it heaps. At least till the inevitable casualties begin.
Iceman= still as ignored as ever. He's in San Francisco and gets a cameo every once and again.
Angel= Got healing powers as a second mutation, but they haven't been mentioned recently. Can now shift into Archangel. I almost typed 'at will', but I'm not sure that's really the case. As in, I don't know if it's a matter of his control. He's in X-FORCE (the before-mentioned squad of 'snikt' assassins) as Archangel, but in the regular X-titles as Angel.
Now, doesn't that give you the warm fuzzies?
Posted by rickshaw1 on :
...
ya' know, ive read some ...not so great stories, but...this sounds like some editor somewhere just decided to do the most ridiculas things they could think of...badly.
3rd summers kid? Corsair dead? Mental affair?
Dear lord in heaven, the xmen are dead. All thats left it sounds like are the caricatures.
Posted by Mystery Lad on :
Some of that's going back *several* years. It was Grant Morrison who penned the mental affair that kicked off the Cyc/Frost relationship.
Vulcan's been around 2 or 3 years, as well. To be fair, he's barely appeared in any of the main X-titles (if any). His story's been told in Ed Brubaker-penned (initially)miniseries and now in WAR OF KINGS.
X-Men dead? Nah. They've been through worse.
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
In my opinion Cyclops has been terribly written for some time. They balance him as "Emma's patsy", "scornful son angry at Charles Xiavier" and "I'm so tough because I'm so bossy".
Many X-characters are written woefully out of character these days. I keep waiting for one really good creative run.
Posted by Set on :
While I wasn't in love with every choice made, Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men did a nice job of presenting Cyclops as a serious character, both as Scott Summers, and when he took the glasses off.
He had a smattering of 'classic' moments in the run, such as being confronted by Logan about his shacking up with Emma 'before Jean's body was even cold.' (He replied with a mean look, which in his case, blew a hole in the side of the mansion, and sent Wolverine flying out into the yard.) He enacts a plan that requires his own death, with cold efficiency, and over the protests of teammates. He jokes with Emma, catching even her off-guard. He tricks the 'big bad' into getting a facefull of optic blast that lights up the sky and lets the rest of the team know that he's still on his game. With Joss at the helm, I kind of dreaded Cyclops getting the 'Xander' treatment and Wolverine getting the 'Spike' role, but, if anything, I think Joss might have had a dislike of Wolverine, because Logan got butt-monkeyed several times (usually by telepaths or whatever, which, to be fair, he's deadweight against anyway...).
Probably one of my favorite depictions of Cyclops non-powered strengths in play was after the fall of Asteroid M, when he ended up leading a rag-tag group of Acolyte survivors across the Australian outback to safety. The most fractious bickering non-team-friendly group possible, and he forces them to work together to survive, to the point where, by the end of it, half of the Acolytes are berating the others for not cooperating with this, their hated enemy!
Posted by rickshaw1 on :
I have missed, admittedly, more than a year or two of the xmen due to the problems i mentioned above.
And honestly, I can only really think of two situations where Scott stood out in my mind as THE MAN! One was in the Savage land when he defeated the grey guy on top of the dome, and the other was when he went up against Dyspare or whatever his name was. After than, there was the scene at Jamaica Bay where he looked like a bum in Xfactor or Xforce, whatever it was. Then there was his constant belittling by Xavier and losing the top spot...and it continued. The last time I saw him in anthing that seemed to matter to the character, he was melded with Apocalypse and being "burned out".
Not only that, but his costume from the claremont Byrne era was the one that showed him the best to me. Simple, unadorned, basic. He didn't need belts and pouched and pockets or jackets. It was just Scott, the powerhouse that was forced to be in control at all times, no matter what. This was a guy that sawed off mountains and punched through miles of bedrock on sheer determination, guts, and drive. No silly catchphrases, no MTV cool shots, just a badass that quietly got the job done.
He ranked as one of marvels best tacticians, second possibly behind only Captain America. He could lead a team that was falling apart through hell with a bucket with no water, a can of lighter fluid, and a surfboard if necessary. He had a plan, that usually was broken by other members of the team for whatever reason, but he always found a way to salvage things from the wreckage.
He is the reason that I liked Rick Flagg in the Suicide Squad. He lead because it was his job. And with the Xmen, it was lead, follow, or get the hell outta the way. Others may have grown into leadership, but Cykes was the one that showed everyone how, even Xavier.
Posted by rickshaw1 on :
Hmm, poor phrasing on my part about the two situations. I meant to show that they were the last times that i saw the character used as the true leader and powerhouse that he was. After that...well...
Posted by CJ Taylor on :
quote:Originally posted by Mystery Lad: Some of that's going back *several* years. It was Grant Morrison who penned the mental affair that kicked off the Cyc/Frost relationship.
In the coda to his run, Morrison had a reborn Jean from the future mentally nudge Scott through the timeline to love Emma. That seemed so forced to me.
Here he just lost the love of his life- again! The Emma/Scott thing was more a play to have a solid couple again. I'd rather have Scott become a brooding man, angry with his direction, taking a more hard nosed slant (like he has) without the Emma bonding.
Posted by cleome on :
The more I read about what's happened to the X-men, the more I think that the only X-men story I might want to read again would be the old Claremont/Anderson graphic novel.
Y'know, there's a lot to be said for self-contained stories. Sometimes. :/
Posted by Sarcasm Kid on :
Didn't he lose his hair and start calling himself Mr. X or something?
Posted by Stealth on :
quote:Originally posted by cleome: The more I read about what's happened to the X-men, the more I think that the only X-men story I might want to read again would be the old Claremont/Anderson graphic novel.
Y'know, there's a lot to be said for self-contained stories. Sometimes. :/
What about the X-Men/New Teen Titans team-up special? Wouldn't that meet the criteria?
Posted by cleome on :
That's a good'un, all right. (Too bad my copy is three timezones away in my brother's garage; presuming he hasn't "power-sold" it yet.)
It's not so important now, what with the cartoons and the films presumably drawing interest from those who aren't hardcore fanpeople. Still, back in the day, somebody I knew pointed out that the graphic novel would tell a newcomer most of what they needed to know about the team in a relatively short time-- while still leaving room for an actual plot. They wouldn't need to buy 200 additional stories spanning 20 other titles to get everything they needed to know out of it.
Maybe that's a lost art in Superhero-land. It was kind of rare even back when I actually paid attention to what was going on with all this stuff.