The Adventures of
Cyclops and Phoenix #1
Writing: Scott
Lobdell
Art: Gene Ha
What Went Down: Jean
Grey wakes up in an unfamiliar setting after falling unconscious during her
honeymoon with Cyclops. Unable to use
her powers, she still manages to escape and save a fellow prisoner who just
happens to be Cyclops. Turns out the
happy newlyweds have been transported two thousand years into the future to the
Askani Cloister during a raid by Apocalypse’s troops. The remaining Askani are losing, but still
fighting, and their leader is an elderly Rachel Summers.
Rachel is almost defeated by one of Apocalypse’s head
soldiers, Ch’Vayre. The powerless Scott
and Jean attack him, and manage to fend him off with the help of a futuristic
gun. While they escape, Rachel explains
that Apocalypse rules the world. The
Askani is the organization that took Scott’s son to the future back in the
eighties in X-Factor to cure his
techno-organic virus. A clone was
created to throw Apocalypse off the real Nathan’s trail. You see, Nathan is the perfect bodily host
for Apocalypse, since the villain wears out the bodies he possesses faster and
faster with each one. Together a cured
Nathan and Rachel would be powerful enough to defeat Apocalypse.
Rachel uses her powers to give Scott and Jean weaker
versions of their own powers, since the bodies they inhabit are cloned from
their genetic descendants. Then she
falls into a coma. The couple recalls
passing out on their beach vacation, and then they discover Apocalypse’s
army. Ch’Vayre holds up the baby Nathan,
and threatens to kill the child if they don’t turn over Mother Askani
(Rachel). Scott and Jean get in another
fight, rescue the baby, and flood the area to cover their escape. Trapped in the future in bodies of their
closest genetic descendants, the couple vows to raise Nathan (the future Cable)
by themselves.
How It Was: Even though Cyclops is my favorite X-Man, the
idea of him headlining a series without the benefit of the other X-Men to
demonstrate his leadership is still a hard sell. Add in the fact that Jean is along for the
ride, and we all know this series is going to be chock full of reaffirmations
of undying love and affection. Still
it’s good that Scott Lobdell takes the time to celebrate the couple’s new
status quo as husband and wife with a mini that resolves some lingering
storylines.
The real reason to buy this book is the artwork by Gene
Ha. Everything is so clear, but looks so
alien—the design of the Askani Cloister is a perfect example with its angled
and curved walls. Just looking at it
makes you feel like you could get lost in it.
His Scott and Jean duplicates are suitably old and haggard, as opposed
to the pinups most super heroes resemble, and Ha’s characters are some of the
most expressive I’ve seen in comics.
Rather than just draw Baby Nathan with some metal crap on his face, Ha
goes the extra mile and makes something that is creepy and unnerving in its
appearance.
As for the plot, it moves at a decent pace even though
it’s all setup. The body-swap of Scott
and Jean is a nice callback for Rachel from ‘Days of the Future Past,’ and realistically
Cyclops never got any sort of narrative closure from the eighties X-Factor story where he gave up baby
Nathan. There’s a decent amount of
action to break up the exposition, even though the stakes aren’t readily
apparent at the beginning.
Where it falters is that this issue doesn’t really give
us much of a feel for the new alien world Scott and Jean find themselves in,
nor does it give them any time to really reflect on their situation. There are some fun comments where Scott pokes
fun at the absurdity of Summers family continuity, and they do acknowledge that
everything they know is gone, but we never get the “freakout” or any relatable
response to these circumstances—Scott and Jean just go on because they’re X-Men
and that’s what they do. Also, the enemy
Ch’Vayre is sort of interesting—he’s characterized as an honorable knight-sort
who genuinely believes in the order brought by Apocalypse’s rule—but his
design, especially his hair, is bland and generic. In a world where mutants are dominant, I was
hoping to see more than a bulked up helmetless-Robocop.
Immunity to shock and despair aside, this is a fun little
adventure so far. Unlike most dystopian
Marvel Universes, this one doesn’t have the fun geek appeal of seeing changes
to all your favorite characters and concepts because they’re all gone at this
point. What works is the family on the
run, and the fact that by the end we have an impossible task for the couple to
complete. Though their reactions are a
little too stoic to be believable, it’s still fun to see Scott and Jean face
such a huge problem with limited allies, resources, or familiarity with
anything.
For X-Men Fans
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