Cyclops (2026) Review
Long gone are the days of Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, leader of the X-Men, being sidelined, or labelled as a boring boy scout to mainstream audiences. With his recent popularity resurgence, we have seen Summers across various comic book media, from X-Men ‘97 to Marvel Rivals’ newest playable character its about time the best X-Man, in my opinion, got his flowers, and with the launch of a new miniseries at the start of this year i have never felt more fulfilled as a long time fan. Now that the 5-issue mini has concluded, it’s safe to say this is another strong display of why Scott Summers is just such an awesome character.
Written by Alex Paknadel (who has been working on a few titles over in Marvel’s mutant corner recently) and illustrated by Rogê Antônio, Cyclops follows Scott Summers, currently leading the X-Men, operating in Alaska since the fall of Krakoa, doing what he does best, making the world safer for mutants. After another mission showing off his leadership skills, optic blast prowess, and soldier like commitment to the cause, he receives a letter informing him the orphanage he and his brother Alex (Havok) grew up in has been demolished. After reminiscing with an old carer at this institution and a discussion of Scott’s own trauma and brain damage (the reason he can’t control his optic blasts) he heads back to the X-Men only to be shot down by the Reavers, led by Donald Pierce, currently using mutant children as slave labor to unearth a mysterious metal. In the crash, Scott’s visor is destroyed, making him virtually blind. Teaming up with escaped mutant prisoner Mei, Scott must now save the day blind, whilst being hunted down by Pierce’s newest mechanical monstrosities.
What follows has to be some of the best Cyclops action I’ve seen on the comic page since the days of Bendis’ Uncanny X-Men. It’s clear to me in both the dialogue and the action on the panel that this creative team understands Cyclops as a character, most prevalent in the themes they choose to showcase. Much of this mini focus on Scott’s relationship with control, a prevalent theme for the character across the decades, Scott visits his old home happy for it to be demolished as it cant have any control over him, even not inviting Alex in an act of ‘sparing him’ from the trauma. This need for control is clearly presented to us in the opening of Issue 1, where Scott’s control is framed as a bi product of his responsibility as a leader, and without him being in control, mutants get hurt. This is clearly building on the Krakoan and post-Krakoa status quo, where Scott feels some personal responsibility for failing Professor X, letting his dream fail again and then internalising that pressure. In Issue 3, this lost dream of Krakoa and the pressure it caused on mutants is addressed by Mei, to which Cyclops snaps back at her, deflecting his own feelings with his duty as a soldier.
This integration of the idea of control and how much Scott is really in control of is most clearly seen in the tension of the mini. Whilst Scott is all about control, his powers are ultimately uncontrollable, his ability to channel the mass destructive power of the ‘punch dimension’ means he must constantly seek ways to limit himself. With both his visor and glasses destroyed in this story, we see what restrictions Scott has placed onto himself and ultimately what happens when he cuts loose. In a mirrored way, the choice of the Reavers, cybernetically enhanced mutant killers, as the villains showcases control taken to the extreme in Pierce’s horrific experiment on the human body. He has full control of his literal body and that of others, whilst his followers like Tearjerker fight for any scrap of autonomy, as Scott calls out those who choose to become Reavers. In his mind, they are so insecure of their control of the world, they let Peirce ruin them. It is in the interactions between Tearjerker and the other Reavers, both confrontational and conversational, that Scott’s prowess and pure mastery of tactics are shown in full display and if those fail he has more than enough fire power when he’s not limiting himself.
At the same time, a similar tension is drawn upon Scott’s conflicting status as both a hero for Mutantdom and as the first soldier for the mutant cause, Scott, in his conversations with Mei, repeatedly speaks to her as a commanding figure, asking her and her fellow captured friends to be his X-Men. While at the start of the mini this is presented in a negative light, showing the burden Scott carries being past onto others to young to fully grasp the responsibility (much like how Scott was forced into this role), it is also shown in a positive character building moment when Scott teaches these children how to harness their potential in order to ultimately defeat Peirce, who at the story’s conclusion is revealed to have been trying to mine Uru, the metal commonly used by Asgard. Whilst Peirce admittedly is a one dimensional antagonist, he and his Reavers, as previously mentioned, mainly serve the purpose of hyping up Scott and being excellent punching bags.
Moving back towards this relationship with the new character Mei the series subverts our expectations. Whilst it feels like Scott’s training of her may lead into us getting a brand new X-Man, the ending of the mini pivots, building from their conversations across the mini, Scott tells her and her friends they need to live normal lives away from the burden of being an X-Man, and in an incredible piece of character writing Scott tells Mei “I’ll be an X-Man so you don’t have to”. In this, Scott reasserts himself as a hero for mutants, taking the burden of his people and moving forward for them. This is a great miniseries that captured what I believe to be the most interesting parts of Cyclops’ character whilst also showing off just how cool Scott Summer truly is and why he is the X-Man.
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