Ok. So as we are all aware by now, Marvel has decided to kill a “major” character for each financial quarter of their operations. So far, the major deaths have been the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four (Which I totally called it) and Ultimate Spider-Man (essentially the “main character” of the Ultimate Universe). But what next? Who will Marvel kill next? Rather, what major character will die next. Apparently, Bucky Barnes wasn’t considered major enough to warrant the press for his death in Fear Itself #3. And I’d imagine that most of the other casualties to come from the series wont matter either… And from what I’ve been hearing, most folks don’t feel that Johnny Storm and Earth-1610 Peter Parker are big enough characters to be shocked about. I’d also imagine that Marvel execs have heard and read the grumblings of the masses as well. And maybe they just might have a “real” shocker waiting for us in the coming months. So here, I tell you about the conspiracy against Cyclops that makes me sick.

[Since his inception, Wolverine has always been a problem...]

Starting off, it’s no secret that most modern day X-Men fans prefer Wolverine over Cyclops (Which is a shame…). And for a lot of folks, I can understand the reasoning as to why they would be feel that way. But it’s not really their fault as to why they’d like Wolverine of Cyclops. It’s Marvel’s fault. Let’s go back. Starting with Uncanny X-Men, when a new team was assembled to rescue the First Class from Krakoa. Wolverine said that he’d never take orders from Cyclops. And for a while, that’s how it was. Then there’s the mess of a love triangle between Scott, Logan, and Jean Grey. Wolverine just couldn’t leave the woman alone. And when Cyclops and Jean married, Logan sure as hell wasn’t happy about it. But the tension remained. Writers over the years have loved to tell stories where Wolverine undermines Cyclops’ authority and his relationship with Jean Grey. In the “Age of Apocalypse” most folks got their wish, when it was revealed that Jean Grey and Wolverine were a couple in the absence of Cyclops. The 90’s X-Men Cartoon also made this clear… But that’s about when things started to shift for the worse.

[Why is Wolverine in front?]

There’s a load of promotional material for the 90’s cartoon that features Wolverine, front-and-center, over Cyclops in the team shots. Especially in the re-releasing of the series on DVD. I’d also argue that Wolverine had a larger focus than Cyclops in most of the episodes of the show. Although, that could just be me being spiteful here… But all my friends around that time, were always talking down about Cyclops because of that cartoon. And to be fair about it, he wasn’t all that different in the comics of that time period. He was kind of a “rules-nerd,” whereas Wolverine bled 90’s Extreme Juice. So following that cartoon, the next X-Men show featured the X-Men as teenagers trying to blend in with Humanity as they went to school. “X-Men: Evolution.” In this show, that majority of the major players of the comics were kids, however, Storm and Wolverine were adults. Why the hell is Wolverine a “teacher” over Cyclops? This is the when the trouble really started to kick up. Every so often, you’d get a Wolverine-Centric episode where Cyclops was nowhere to be seen or heard from. They even devoted time to showcase X-23 (Wolverine’s Clone). Come on guys. Also Cyke was a bit of a nerd in this show as well…. But that’s not nearly as bad as how they treated him in the Live-Action movies.

[Arguably, Angel had even less screen time than Cyclops and yet... Just about every movie poster for all the movies are like this... I only found one where Cyclops had equal presence as everyone else... And that was a combined character-face teaser...]

Starting off, Cyclops is established as kind of a spoiled adult-teacher’s pet to Professor Xavier and is belittled by Wolverine as soon as they meet. Also, Wolverine flirts with Jean as soon as he sees her, and she goes for it. And over the course of the movie, it just got out of hand. Whether it’s Wolverine stealing Scott’s motorcycle, or Jean and Logan giving eachother secret looks, or the focus of the trilogy movies being built around Wolverine… Cyclops just couldn’t catch a break. He was damn near a mute in all the movies as well. Most offensively was his off-screen death at the hands of Jean/Phoenix during the 20-or-so minutes of the 3rd movie. Cyclops is killed by the love of his life after letting out a giant emo-optic blast to the heavens. WTF Marvel? All they found was his glasses. Which is also stupid, when you consider what actually happened. Then she broke those too. And the only thing that could calm her down was who? Wolverine. And when it came to the climax, Wolverine saved the day. He was the only one who could get close. So he stabs her and she dies his arms. Looks like Wolverine came out on top of that situation. Around the same time, Jean also died in the comics (currently for the last time). Again, she died in Wolverine’s arms… In the same way. Just disgusting. Then when the Wolverine movie (which takes place in the 70s) came out, the film execs put Cyclops in that movie as a kind of throw-away cameo. So when “X-Men: First Class” came out and it took place in the 60s, Cyclops was now too young to appear in the movie with an appropriate age. So they replaced him with his YOUNGER brother, Havok, to take his place instead. But the same reasoning didn’t stop them from putting Emma Frost in the movie. An OLDER Emma Frost than the one that appeared in the Wolverine movie that takes place a decade after “First Class.”

[If anyone should be killing Jean in an heartfelt emotional moment, it probably should be Cyclops...]

Then lets look at the recent X-Men cartoon, “Wolverine and the X-Men.” Strike one is in the title. In this series, Cyclops is about the biggest sad-sack that you’d ever did see. He can’t lead for crap, and Wolverine is the glue that brings the X-Men back together. Cyclops is just worthless in this series. But let’s look over to the video game side of things. Capcom, mostly known for it’s fighting game franchises of the 1990s, put out a series of games featuring Marvel characters. Cyclops had always been a staple in the majority of these. Wolverine had been in all of them. In Marvel Vs Capcom 2, they included 2 different versions of Wolverine… But with the announcement of Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Wolverine was around for Day 1, but where was Cyclops? In an interview before the release of the game, one of the producers of the game was asked about which characters that Marvel would not allow them to use in the game. The producer motioned to his eyes in a “visor” motion and crossed his hands into an “X”. It was kind of weird that he wouldn’t use his name, when all the other characters he spoke about not making it in had been named. So I thought to myself, “That’s kinda weird.” But there was still hope. There would be downloadable characters. If Shuma-Gorath made it into the game, surely Cyclops could too. Then the earthquake in Japan happened and all Downloadable Content was put on hold. So fast-forward to Comic Con San Diego 2012, and a new version of MvC3 is announced. Shortly afterwards, the entire new roster is leaked and later confirmed by a producer. Guess who isn’t on that list? Cyclops. Why? No explanation given.

[I hope he embraces this instead of death...]

Now look at the state of Cyclops currently. He’s gone from being that “Boy Scout” that only plays by the rules, to the King of the Mutants who will do anything for his people, even if it means killing any and all threats. He commissioned a Black Ops team of mutants, lead by Wolverine, to kill. Kill everyone that would threaten the lives of Mutantkind in anyway. He’s declared independence from the United States of America. He’s put Professor X in a corner. His actions made Beast quit the team. Nightcrawler’s faith in Cyclops lead to his death. A lot of fictional folks in the Marvel Universe are no fan of the current Cyclops, and the way it’s been feeling lately? It would appear that there is also an editorial agenda against him. Marvel has building Cyclops up so high that when he finally falls, he’s going to burn so bright that he’ll blind all the readers who see it. “X-Men: Schism #5″ and “Fear Itself #7″ are final issues of the two major Marvel events. And they both are set to come out on in the same month. Interviews from and around Comic Con suggest that it’s no coincidence that both of the books are finishing at the same time. And as far as Fear Itself goes, you’ll remember a certain promo that featured Cyclops in Magneto’s costume while he questioned what he had become. As of typing this, Cyclops hasn’t been featured in the primary story. What’s the deal with that? Well… I think I know.

[Even when he leaves, Cyclops still doesn't receive the center focus...]

The writing on the wall… When Schism concludes, The X-Men will split into two teams to be reflected in two separate books. Uncanny X-Men will be renumbered to #1 and a new book will be launched, Wolverine and the X-Men (Just like the show). Clearly, Wolverine is the leader of his X-Men, but what about Uncanny? It has been strongly suggested to not expect Cyclops to lead the Uncanny team. The cover to the new Uncanny X-Men #1 is loaded with silhouettes… As of writing this, the only character revealed to be on the cover is Emma Frost, however it looks like Magneto and Juggernaut (most likely Colossus) are also on the team. And unless Marvel tries to swerve us and suggest that Cyclops joins Wolverine’s team, there are only 2 realistic options here. The first being that Cyclops leaves the X-Men behind, whether that means he becomes a villain or he or quits like Spider-Man always does is to be seen. The other option is that Cyclops is the next major Marvel death. But unlike the other deaths, I’d imagine that announcing a polybag issue for the death of him would be a marketing mistake. I don’t know about you, but if they announced his death months in advance, I’d have stopped reading Uncanny X-Men the moment they announced it. I know I wasn’t happy about it when Cyclops “died” in 1998. I think I stopped reading X-Men for at least 8 years after that. And it wasn’t even like he was gone for that long either. So just imagine what I’d do if this really comes to pass. For certain, I’m gonna flip a fucking table. So apologies in advance, if I happen to do that in your company. Typically, I pride myself in correctly guessing the outcome of stories, but this is one time where I hope I’m wrong. Dead wrong. A world without Cyclops would be like a world without cheeseburgers. Just a really sad place.

[No Cyclops here... ;( ]

I’d imagine that you’re probably tired of reading this by now. So… If you made it to the end. Good Job! No. Great Job! And thanks for hearing me out. There’s an anti-Cyclops initiative out there. And it’s looking like the “Powers-That-Be” are about to cash in on their hard work. And if you think that I’m overreacting to the mistreatment of Cyclops, take a look for yourself, then let me know if I’m wrong about this. But we’ll see… This October, may be the last time we see Cyclops in a long time. But I hope not.

-Fleet

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