Scott Summers aka Cyclops is one of the Top 5 Dead or Alive Greatest X-Men of all time. Disagree? Why’s that? ‘Cause you think of Scott as a by-the-book lame? That he isn’t as cool as Wolverine? I’m going to go on a limb and say this is all based off what you seen of him portrayed in the X-Men films or X-Men Evolution series (we praise the 90’s animated show though), right? Fuck. Out. Of. Here. With. That. Weak. Shit. Bruh. We gotta take it to the god damn books. The Bible, man. Scott Summers has been doing the Lawd’s work for years. There are other appreciation posts for the Gawd of Summer, but here’s why Scott Summers is the most underrated.
That I would even show UP to this fake shit”
1) “We On The Same Team
Giving You Respect, I Expect The Same Thing”
We know Scott Summers as Xavier’s first draft pick for his school of gifted youngsters as well as being the leader. You don’t get to lead the team by being soft. Scott Summers may have been depicted by the book back in the day but that method has changed to “Whatever The Fuck It Takes.” The times have changed and become more and more dangerous for Mutants, and Scott Summers has had to change with the times as well. Shit is getting gritty out here and Summers is the man for the job. Nick Fury once said about the kid,
“The less time Scott Summers has to make a decision, the better the decision is.”
What the fuck? What? Come on, man. In the time it takes folks staring at the McDonald’s menu like they never been there before, Scott Summers done come up with a plan to shut your favorite villain down. Also, Scott Summers is the reason most of your favorite heroes are alive and made it back from their missions in the field. Pay fucking homage.
When anti-mutant groups was out there killing mutants, seeing their actions as a right by god… what did Scott Summers do? He told Wolverine, “Hey, man. Get the squad together. I need y’all to bend the block,” which was getting X-Force established. Oh, and when the rest of the X-Men found out? Scott gave them the “Yes they deserved to die and I hope they burn in hell” speech. He ain’t having that shit. Even Wolverine wanted Scott to chill, which culminated all along the road to “Schism” driving a rift between the two.
When the student Idie Okonkwo was left to defend her mutant brethren and civilians from a Hellfire Club attack, she was linked telepathically to Cyclops and Wolverine on the situation. Wolverine was saying, “Get out, I’m on my way.” That boy Cyclops though? That boy Cyclops said, “Aye… Do what you got to do homie ’cause WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE.” Idie went ahead and put that Under Armor on then proceeded to get her Call of Duty kills in to unlock that XBox achievement.
Wolverine was pissed cause he ain’t want a kid to have to go through that… but that boy Cyclops told him like it is, like “Well you shoulda been there. You better stop coddling these kids. It’s war time, baby. They ain’t students no more, these kids right here are soldiers now, b”. Which is why Logan left with some students to start the Jean Grey School and others stayed with Cyclops ’cause they knew that murder music was coming and were getting prepared for it in the trap.
2) “No One Man Should Have All That Power”
We all know that Cyclops eyes could have put him in line to be drafted to the Uchiha Clan in Naruto. As Wolverine put it, the man is walking around with a fucking Nuke in his head (two gigawatts, my dude). He can take down a sentinel in a glance. We don’t always get to see him let loose.
What doesn’t get highlighted is the second part of that power that deals with spatial awareness — the geometry between objects, trigonometry, calculus all that shit, b. He sees the angles, kid. He can do trick shots with his blasts, bouncing them off surfaces and with precision (Wolverine saw him knock the center out of a quarter, leaving just the outer ring). He’s taken down speedsters with predicted shots, as well as taking down his own team on occasion. Y’all need to respect the skill, people.
3) “Blood of a slave, heart of a giant”
The alternate universe version of Scott Summers from X-Treme X-Men is bad fucking ass. Hailing from Earth 70213, he was raised as a slave but was taken in by Xavier and Fury for the Civil War. He dropped a dope ass quote too that summed up his time in the war, saying:
“Xavier and Fury trained us pretty well. I probably killed six thousand men. And I didn’t give a damn. Until I saw the looks we got from our own side.”
Corporal Summers was a great addition to the cast of X-Treme X-Men, led by Dazzler (who wasn’t a joke either, man). He brought the stern military background to the book as well as being a fucking powerhouse. The great part was seeing him cut loose and have fun in the book as well as being one of the crew that survived and is in our current universe (Earth 616).
4) “Not To Gloat, If I Ain’t One Of The GOATS
Ya’ll Probably Missed My Track Record”
Ryu from Street Fighter fux with ya boy. Need I say more?
5) “I Do This For My Squad, I Do This For My Gang”
Marvel Universe now has The Gawd of Sunglasses Hut labeled as a mutant terrorist. For real though? Oh, ’cause when the Phoenix was coming back and Scott was preparing Hope for the task with extreme training, believing that she could contain it this time, and Captain America ran up on him at Utopia talking about “Hand Hope over, we’re going to handle this” with a whole cast of Avengers behind him, and Scott Summers The Gawd told Captain America “Hold up, you come into my house, this haven for mutants and expect me to hand this girl over to you? Now you give a damn that we was out here getting merked? Now that shit is about to go down you expect me to just hand off one of our own to you and the fucking army you brought here? GET THE FUCK OUT MY FACE WITH THAT SHIT, B”? Is that why?
Steve Rogers had to catch the Red Dead Revolver to the shield early. Never mind ya mans and them Wolverine who was about to kill Hope when it looked like she couldn’t get the Phoenix under control and Scott had to cock block that kill. Then the Avengers fucking broke the Phoenix into 5 portions and shit, which in the end led to Scott Summers being one of 5 with the power of the Phoenix before taking the last of it from Emma when they started getting dusted off one by one. This also led to Scott giving Charles Xavier the fade to end all fades. The loss of Charles Xavier was tragic, no lie there. Scott is at fault even though he wasn’t in full control, but… they were in a heated ass argument, man. Xavier told him “Sit down boy” and was getting in the dude’s head. Scott warned him to get his ass the fuck outta dodge. Xavier should have backed the fuck down. I’m just saying… (biased as hell, I know).
I mean it all worked out in the end, Hope takes the Phoenix and uses to reset the game for mutants. Mutants are back after years of hiatus, from only 198 to millions now. However, somebody got to be the bad guy. Cyclops kills Xavier while under the influence of the Dark Phoenix and he is vilified now (never mind all the good he did before cats was hating and forcing his hand with all that power). But remember back when that shit happened to Jean Grey? And she super nova’d a star and killed billions? Nah? Okay.
Summers is still seen as Public Enemy #1 and considered a terrorist, but he still going about protecting Mutants. That’s all he’s been trying to do is get Mutants right. Did shit get fucked up along the way? Yeah. Did Charles Xavier get the Gillette Razor 5 o’clock shadow fade? Yeah. But somebody gotta be out defending these folks that are thrust into the world of being a mutant and aren’t going to have the choice to go to the School for Gifted Youngsters to learn about it ’cause they got guns all up on’em. When it’s wartime for mutants, Scott Summers is there to prep them for that Hard Knock Life.
In closing, I gotta quote Homeboy Sandman, ’cause when it comes to Scott Summers in the game right now? The Scott Summers that’s putting in work, saving mutants, training them to defend others, coming to grips with what others are saying about him and not letting that drive him from the mission? Come on, man. Scott Summers knows he ain’t ever going be your favorite, but he ain’t here to be that — he only in the game to get the job done for the future. The future is going to be all Scott Summers everything, because in the present?
“The deep don’t want’em around, he too street / the street don’t want’em around, he too deep”
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Show Comments
Anjuan Simmons
Now THIS is one of the best pieces I’ve read in a while. I have always liked Cyclops. In general I always like leaders best (Optimus, Leonardo, Duke, etc.) But, Scott was always on that, “I got 213 plans to win” master-strategist tip. Thanks for writing this.
Razor
Cyclops was actually portrayed exceptionally well in X-Men Evolution, you probably meant the Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon right ? because that was where he was portrayed horribly bad.
Young Yamcha
As someone who used to hate on Cyclops, even as a kid, this article just converted me into a possible fan. Gonna have to dig back in some issues with new eyes on the character now. Thanks for writing this!