Although Cyclops is a complex and very interesting character in the comics, X-Men adaptations continually failed to make Scott Summers feel as cool as Marvel writers intended. While James Marsden and Tye Sheridan delivered some decent performances, the X-Men movies never recovered from placing Cyclops in an awkward love triangle with Wolverine and giving him one of the first film’s most infamous lines.
That’s why I’m happy to see more recent TV shows and games put some more respect on Cyclops’ name. I highly recommend you go watch X-Men ’97, play Marvel Cosmic Invasion‘s new DLC, and look out for Cyclops in Marvel Rivals and Avengers: Doomsday later this year. Once you do, you’ll like Scott Summers a lot more.
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I’ll admit that Cyclops was never one of my favorite X-Men characters growing up. While I thought his powers were unique, the character came off as somewhat one-note and lame compared to the likes of Wolverine, Storm, or Magneto. Reading some more X-Men comics started to shift my opinion a bit, but the first episode of X-Men ’97 is what really got me to like Cyclops.
The show’s premiere showed how powerful Cyclops truly could be as he used his powers to cushion his skydiving landing and adeptly move around in a fight as he was blasting enemies. It wasn’t just awesome action that made Cyclops more interesting; the show put him through an emotional wringer.
He had to deal with a government that wanted mutants dead, try to lead the X-Men in the wake of Professor X’s apparent death, learn the woman he had a child with was actually a clone, and send his son into the future to save his life. After watching X-Men ’97’s first season, I came to care for the character more than ever before. Apparently, I’m not the only one, as he’s now starting to look amazing in the video game medium, too.
On Monday, Marvel Cosmic Invasion added him as a DLC brawler, and he looks like a lot of fun to play. I can’t think of another character in a beat ’em up that has powers similar to Cyclops, and his special move has one of the best attack animations I’ve seen in the game yet. I’m now itching to replay a game because of Cyclops’ addition to it, which is not something I thought I’d ever write just a couple of years ago.
Scott is also set to come to Marvel Rivals later this season. While we haven’t seen any gameplay yet, he is the star of the recent Sins of Alchemax trailer. We see him fight lots of Alchemax soldiers using his optic blasts before ultimately overloading his powers to try and save Moon Girl. Even though he’s captured at the end of the trailer, it comes off as more heroic than pathetic, a balance the X-Men movies could never maintain.
X-Men ’97, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, and Marvel Rivals have all put in the work to redeem Cyclops and make him an X-Men character I’m genuinely excited to see in new adaptations. The second season of X-Men ’97, coming out this year, will likely only continue that trend. That’s why I think it’s the perfect time for James Marsden to return in Avengers: Doomsday and potentially redeem his character.
I hope that Cyclops not only has a memorable action scene in the next Avengers movie, but that the movie also taps into the character’s more emotional side as his world faces multiversal annihilation. James Marsden could give his live-action portrayal of the character the redemption it deserves and potentially draw more people to check out all the recent shows and games the X-Men character has been in.
If you think you don’t like Cyclops, think again.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
