in the eyes of more enthusiastic cyclops fans, and i mean no ill will with that categorization, having cyke become jaded to the "heroes don't kill, x-men don't kill" doctrine is just the same as if captain america made an avengers hit-squad. or superman. he's a boy scout, again not derogatory, and this drastic shift in his personality [though well-written] seems almost out-of-character. i'm all for it, not being the hardest of cyclops fans, and i prefer a more realistic, "noir" leaning in my characters. but i completely understand both sides of the argument.
entirely understood. i've been veering away from x-men in the last few years, only really getting back into the main comics around the time of utopia x, and things like that. it seems, to a casual reader like me, that he's simply hit his limit. so few mutants, so many still dying, a lifetime of fighting for a dream that he is constantly seeing denied him. it's like when a movie cop turns dirty; dark and gritty and kind of cool but not anything that can last without the audience getting bored. it'll return to the status quo eventually, but for now, i'm enjoying the ride.
in new x-men he was disillusioned more than ever, but that changed when astonishing came along. he grew in to his role and grew with emma. he was actually in a good mindset before messiah complex.
I can see what Disappear is saying, but for those of us who spent ages thinking of Cyke as an obedient boy-scout, it's not an easy pill to swallow just to say: "Ok he's a bad-ass now and we accept that.".
It doesn't feel like he is believably bad-ass, just that someone's decided he is one.
every so often cyclops has a defining arc that sets up the character for the next few years. he had it with simonsen in x-factor, he had it during the claremont/byrne run, and he had it during morrison's run.
the problem is that he had one during astonishing. he grew both as a person and as a leader. emma brought out sides to him he would have never shown jean.
yet he goes from that, to messiah complex, and then to today. it's against the entire point of the character.
not an obedient boy scout. just a man with a clear set of ideals. he's going against them right now.
i don't even mind that he set up x-force. i don't mind that he's ordered people killed. it's the fact that he's so damn comfortable with all of it, and shows almost no remorse about it.
I don't know I think he started to gradually change. I saw hints of it in Uncany X-men were mutans were crucified outside the mansion. The cold ruthless Cyclops started to emerge. Stuff like that over time can make you cold and ruthless, thats what I mean by conditioned.
__________________ Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.
- General George Patton Jr
KMC Community Forums
Jan 17th, 2010 02:46 PM
