u/Shadow_Morpher

I wanted to ask this question because, as of recently, I've seen some mixed opinions of Grant as someone who really loved Grant. I was wondering why people seem so mixed with them? For me, my love for them and their writing of Cyclops came down to Scott beginning to question everything in his life. Reading up from the past to now, you can see that Scott really didn't get a choice in a lot of respects of his life, especially with him being the leader of the X-Men. He was groomed into the role by Xavier, but that was never a choice Scott got to make willingly and seeing him in some respects began to question that was interesting and what made me love Scott in the first place. I loved seeing him question who he really was and what he wanted and wanted more of it. 

Then the way Grant showed Scott's and Jean's relationship as both loving each other but wanting something different in their relationships was good and the way I still see their relationship today and wish they had expanded on this rather than doing the whole she was in a corset for everyone but me.

I'm still sad and wished a writer would take their Cyclops and bring it to it's logical conclusion.

With the way Alex was talking during interviews and the solicits of the book showing him and Robyn talking about his wild side, I thought maybe we would have an exploration of that. We would get to see this wild side of him that he lost, and we kinda did, but it felt like a retread of stuff we've seen: X-Factor with Apocalypse or New X-Men with Magneto. We see him let loose with his powers on Apocalypse and Magneto in those books and we something  similar in the solo. There are parts that I loved for sure. The ending was great and something I felt the character needed for a while now in admitting the whole child solider thing is wrong and should be less militant. But The Cyclops solo showed me another problem that I've had with the character: the idea of him being something different.

What I mean by this is we've seen several stories, especially in the 2000s, of doing something different with Scott. In New X-Men, we were given the idea of Scott being repressed and when he is taken over by Apocalypse, he starts to question his entire life, his desires, and what he truly wants in life. Which was an interesting idea that could've led to something, and we see this with some of the dialogue in New X-Men. Specifically, in 138, Emma tells Scott to stop letting himself be an old superhero and Scott tells her he's never been allowed to be anything else, but it ultimately just leads to Scott wanting dirtier sex and nothing else.

In Bendis' X-Men we see the revolutionary arc of the character and there's nothing revolutionary about it. He's just the same character, just more aggressive and open. There's no revolutionary sentiment, no revolutionary ideas, just a more aggressive approach to Xavier's philosophy.

In Krakoa, it's the X-Men finally getting a home and what does Scott do now that there is no more fighting and no more X-Men, Nothing, he's just the same character.

In the solo, we get this idea of Scott being wild and this idea of him being less restrained, but he doesn't do anything that makes me see that.

We so often see these new concepts with the character that just leads to nothing but the character feeling the same with a different coat of paint. I really love these ideas and wish someone would actually do something great with it, but they always just seem to just have the same character with a little bit of flavoring instead of something that actually might be different.

https://www.nexusmods.com/marvelrivals/mods/9623

Mod by HubaBuba5.

For anyone wondering this is from New Exiles #9-10. Gambit is the son Sue and Namor but is still Gambit without the kinetic powers. He's currently with the Exiles in world were the 05 X-Men are genderbent. I really don't know how Claremont thought of this.

I was recently reading back up New X-Men and my god do I love JPL's artwork. I get why people don't really like Quitely and Igor can be hit or miss but the issues drawn by Phil Jimenez, Ethan van Sciver, and JPL are really great.

So, I’ve been wanting to make a post like this for a while now because, seeing stuff on the internet, I’ve started to realize that a lot of people, especially on Tumblr, X, and some subreddits, just don’t understand what was going on with Scott’s character during New X-Men. I’ve seen people state that the affair happened because they wanted to make Scott’s character edgy, or Scott just wanted Jean to wear a corset and be sexy, and while those aspects are there, they don’t really tell the full story of what was happening. I’ve tried looking all over the internet for people who have come to the same conclusions I have, and it kinda bothered me that, for a topic that has been this widely discussed as the affair, there really isn’t any discussion of the main aspect of the affair. This is not meant to be a bashing post, nor is it support for one side or the other, but simply a look at the affair and Scott’s character as written.

Repression, Desire, and What it Means to be a Superhero

Repression has always been an aspect of Scott’s character from the beginning in the 60’s to New X-Men but the way Grant applied Scott’s repression was different it wasn’t about the self inflicted repression he put on himself like not being able to love anyone because of his eyes or feeling he has to not lose control because he can’t control his powers so he can’t just be careless and reckless both of those things were self inflicted chains Scott put on himself, but for Grant instead of doing that Scott’s repression still has self inflicted gunshot wounds but also people’s expectations in issue 143 Scott tells Logan and Fantomex, “I’m sick of the stress! I’m sick of the constant drama! I’m sick of living up to people’s expectations…!” These new feelings that Scott has now, he doesn’t see them as something that is bad. The problem is that he knows that these things inside his head aren’t exactly good. We see that in 116. In 128, 138, 142-2, 143, and 150, Scott doesn’t want things to go back to the way they were. He wants to let loose and stop being repressed and just do what he wants. This draws problems as we see in 116, 116-2, 117, and 139 that Jean wants things to go back to the way they were before Scott’s possession, and she sees this all as him being confused, and we see from Scott that this clearly isn’t the case. This goes into 125. Nova tells Scott that Jean despises him for his weakness and wishes for him to be more of the hero he presents himself to be. This is followed up in 126 by Jean telling Scott he’s her favorite superhero. This is later referenced in 139, where Emma tells Scott to stop being such an old superhero, and Scott tells her he doesn’t know how and that he’s never been allowed to be anything else, and Emma tells him he can be anything he wants with her. These three pages are to me the most telling about the way Grant views Scott’s and Jean’s relationship and marriage: that they both want different things out of their relationship and marriage, that they’ve both changed, both are afraid of what this means for their relationship and marriage, and now it’s time for the affair.

The Affair

A lot of people seem to believe the affair starts in 128; however, I think that is kind of wrong. The start really begins in the annual, where we see Emma try and unsuccessfully to seduce Scott, and then in issue 118, we see Jean ask Scott if he and Emma had sex, which he truthfully tells her no, but she doesn’t really believe him, as we see in 139, where she tries to go through Emma’s mind to see what happens in Hong Kong. This is ultimately why I don’t really believe in anyone that says Scott was manipulated by Emma into having an affair so he’s completely out of responsibility for it and I think that it’s somewhat true Emma did manipulate him I still don’t think he’s completely blameless I actually think he should take a lot of the blame for this because even after Emma tries to get him to have sex with her and his wife questioning if they had sex he still willingly goes to her for help. We later see in 131 Hank willing to talk to Scott, but Scott just doesn’t budge and still goes to see Emma even after his warning, but the main reason why he goes to Emma is why I don’t feel like he’s blameless, and that’s because of why he goes to Emma in the first place for help. The reason why I think he goes to Emma is that Emma represents what Scott truly wants, acceptance for what he’s feeling. The first bit of real dialogue between Emma and Scott is Emma telling Scott she desires him in front of Logan and Beast, and that the world isn’t black and white anymore. She tells him that what he feels is ordinary, and we see that in the flashback in 139 to the annual. We see Emma constantly doing what she wants and not really accepting Xavier’s dream; she openly opposes it in 116 and then continues on that in 118 and 120. He’s not going to her because she’s going to help him fix his marriage, but because she’s going to accept the feelings that he has and feels like he can open up to her when he can’t open up to his wife. This all leads to 131 and the start of the cosplay.

Cosplay

I’ve seen a lot of people confused as to why Emma dresses up as Dark Phoenix or makes statements like Scott wanted to dominate the Dark Phoenix because it’s Jean at her most powerful, and while that might be an aspect of that, I don’t think that’s the reason. The reason why Scott wants the Dark Phoenix so badly is that it’s Jean at a point where she is doing whatever she desires. It is her at her most uncontrollable state, and Scott desires this because it’s what he wishes for himself. Grant brings up a lot of parallels in the comic. In 125, Nova makes the comparison between Jean and Scott and how their repression is similar. Emma in 139-2 compares herself to Jean Jean being the pure soul, and her being shallow, spiteful, and manipulative. But there’s also another parallel between this and the Dark Phoenix that this is Scott’s Dark Phoenix. Both stories start with the character having repressed feelings, both get mind controlled by an evil person that releases these feelings and forces them to confront those feelings, and both follow in doing destructive behavior. Jean consumes a sun, and Scott has an affair with Emma, which leads to the death of Jean.

Conclusion

Ultimately, I think the whole affair was meant to move Scott in a new direction, one where his repression is free and he is no longer restraining himself to his old ideals and can finally move forward.

For me it has to be these two. Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix is something that gets talked about and we're going to get to animation of it for season 2 and I really don't like Cyclops here. He just kinda feels like he's there. The only thing a remember from this run is Scott hurting his knee in the first 15 pages of being in this new world and I just had to sit there and laugh.

Bendis' Uncanny X-Men is just whatever. I genuinely hate the Cyclops was right thing. I hate the he's a revolutionary and doesn't do anything revolutionary he's just more aggressive in his speech and I hated the I wouldn't touch you with Namor's trident just felt disgusting and unneeded.

Artwork by Stephen Byrne

My media literacy isn't great so could someone tell me why Grant made John beg for his life? He lost all his aura here.

Tony and Netho I know you two are definitely not seeing this but if you are please draw this instead of his current suit.