Cyclops is awesome. Really.
Nov. 23rd, 2006 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerGIP, because while I may have my problems with Joss Whedon, he at least understands that Cyclops has been a sorely neglected, under-appreciated character (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
disc_sophist and I are members of the PETS, the People's Ethical Treatment of Scott... I have *got* to make an icon of that one of these days) and has FINALLY given him some character development that he's sorely needed since the 70's.
That's the problem with poor Scott Summers. I finally isolated exactly why he's such a boring character to most. The poor guy is perhaps the ONLY major comic character to have gotten virtually zero character development since the Silver Age. I mean, virtually all major superheroes were pretty much like Scott back in those days. I mean, hell, can you imagine if Batman today was still like the Batman of the 60's?
But during the period when everyone else was getting fleshed-out characters, what happened to Cyclops? He was half a character, always serving to be someone else's foil. When he wasn't playing straight man to Wolverine, he was being Jean's handbag. He was a textbook example of why writers should follow the rule "Show, don't tell," because all anyone ever did was tell with Cyke. How often did we ever see just why he's the leader of the X-Men? Or why Jean always goes back to him? I imagine so many people watching the X-Men movies and going, "Why the hell doesn't she go with Wolverine?!" We never see it. And while geeks might be able to pick out one or two moments of Cyclops coolness in the past, that doesn't change the overwhelming common perception that he's a stiff, humorless dick.
And frankly, that jars with what he's supposed to be. He's the frickin' leader of the frickin' X-Men, right? But do we believe for a moment that he's inspiring people to follow him? Does he ever give a stirring, inspiring leader speech like Superman or Captain America do? Are we to believe that he's only the leader out of, what, a pity position by Xavier?
There's always been a potentially awesome character in Scott Summers, but he needed to get out from under the shadows of women (Jean and Emma included) and to stop serving purely to make Wolverine cool (and also to get the stick out of his ass just a teeny bit, all while within the realms that make sense to the character) to really show us why he's the leader of the most popular team in all of comics.
Thank god Joss bloody Whedon is finally doing it (and it helps that Scott w/o his shades/powers looks kinda like Nathan Fillon from FIREFLY/SERENITY), and here's hoping other writers take his cue and run with it.
Regardless, I still wanna do my LETHAL WEAPON style Scott/Logan buddy movie comic.
And to think, this post had started with the simple intent of announcing that, starting this year, I am going to make it a personal Thanksgiving tradition to watch PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES.
disc_sophist and I are members of the PETS, the People's Ethical Treatment of Scott... I have *got* to make an icon of that one of these days) and has FINALLY given him some character development that he's sorely needed since the 70's. That's the problem with poor Scott Summers. I finally isolated exactly why he's such a boring character to most. The poor guy is perhaps the ONLY major comic character to have gotten virtually zero character development since the Silver Age. I mean, virtually all major superheroes were pretty much like Scott back in those days. I mean, hell, can you imagine if Batman today was still like the Batman of the 60's?
But during the period when everyone else was getting fleshed-out characters, what happened to Cyclops? He was half a character, always serving to be someone else's foil. When he wasn't playing straight man to Wolverine, he was being Jean's handbag. He was a textbook example of why writers should follow the rule "Show, don't tell," because all anyone ever did was tell with Cyke. How often did we ever see just why he's the leader of the X-Men? Or why Jean always goes back to him? I imagine so many people watching the X-Men movies and going, "Why the hell doesn't she go with Wolverine?!" We never see it. And while geeks might be able to pick out one or two moments of Cyclops coolness in the past, that doesn't change the overwhelming common perception that he's a stiff, humorless dick.
And frankly, that jars with what he's supposed to be. He's the frickin' leader of the frickin' X-Men, right? But do we believe for a moment that he's inspiring people to follow him? Does he ever give a stirring, inspiring leader speech like Superman or Captain America do? Are we to believe that he's only the leader out of, what, a pity position by Xavier?
There's always been a potentially awesome character in Scott Summers, but he needed to get out from under the shadows of women (Jean and Emma included) and to stop serving purely to make Wolverine cool (and also to get the stick out of his ass just a teeny bit, all while within the realms that make sense to the character) to really show us why he's the leader of the most popular team in all of comics.
Thank god Joss bloody Whedon is finally doing it (and it helps that Scott w/o his shades/powers looks kinda like Nathan Fillon from FIREFLY/SERENITY), and here's hoping other writers take his cue and run with it.
Regardless, I still wanna do my LETHAL WEAPON style Scott/Logan buddy movie comic.
And to think, this post had started with the simple intent of announcing that, starting this year, I am going to make it a personal Thanksgiving tradition to watch PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES.
