• Mike Carey understands him best.
  
• Lowe certainly knows what he's talking about.
  
• Victor Gischler barely knows what day it is.
  
• Aaron likes Scott and Emma as a couple, so he earns points for that, but he really doesn't seem to understand the character beyond the obvious.
• Gillen and Remender have a nice first year interpretation of Cyclops; either could write him in a "good enough" sense, neither would write him as well as he should be written.

I like that my two favorite X-writers (Gillen and Carey) gave what I consider the best, most thorough answers. Giving a detail of depth to the character, still presenting us a flawed and real character, yet still allowing us to see the bigger picture, the pro and positive and heroic side of the character. In fact if I were knew to comics, I would probably end up walking away from that discussion with those two as my favorites anyway. 

As was shown in Astonishing X-Men, and stated by Mike Carey in the interview above; Scott didn't choose or want to be leader. Charles made Scott leader, and why'd he do that? Because he had nothing else in his life. Hank was a genius, Warren was a rich super-hunk, Jean was an incredibly powerful goddess who Xavier favoured, even Bobby was a confident guy with a loving family. Scott was that weird kid, with no family, no friends and an "eye condition". Charles made him leader to give the kid something to work toward. 

@FadeToBlackBolt said:

As was shown in Astonishing X-Men, and stated by Mike Carey in the interview above; Scott didn't choose or want to be leader. Charles made Scott leader, and why'd he do that? Because he had nothing else in his life. Hank was a genius, Warren was a rich super-hunk, Jean was an incredibly powerful goddess who Xavier favoured, even Bobby was a confident guy with a loving family. Scott was that weird kid, with no family, no friends and an "eye condition". Charles made him leader to give the kid something to work toward. 

Oh yeah, that was during "Torn". But I always thought Emma was just feeding his self-doubt at that time in order to break him.  In his "Origins"-one-shot Xavier states, that its his ability to lead and inspire (I don't know the exact wording, because thats one of the few books I only have the translated version of) that made him chose Scott.   Anyway, nice summary, I really enjoyed reading it :)

@fodigg: Yep, no worries.  Cyclops is my favourite Marvel character, edging out Spidey. His best writers, in my opinion, have been Grant Morrison, Joss Whedon and Warren Ellis.     Leadership:All of the above understood what makes Scott great. Cyclops is crippled with self-doubt, this is evident in every decision he makes, that he's ever made. As was shown in Astonishing X-Men, and stated by Mike Carey in the interview above; Scott didn't choose or want to be leader. Charles made Scott leader, and why'd he do that? Because he had nothing else in his life. Hank was a genius, Warren was a rich super-hunk, Jean was an incredibly powerful goddess who Xavier favoured, even Bobby was a confident guy with a loving family. Scott was that weird kid, with no family, no friends and an "eye condition". Charles made him leader to give the kid something to work toward. What Xavier didn't realise at the time, was that Scott was learning and adapting. Cyclops has always questioned himself, and that turned into a constant internal questioning of everything around him. Naturally, this could be misconstrued as paranoia, but it became more of an awareness of the faults and strengths of those around him; which is why he's such an excellent tactictian. He was able to view Magneto's philosophy with the same open-mindedness that he did Xavier's, concluding that for mutants to survive, safety must come before integration; an idea that neither Charles or Erik subscribe to. Magneto views dominance as the only means of achieving a future for mutants, while Charles sees assimilation as the only chance. Scott's view lies somewhere in the middle, he doesn't wish to dominate, but he believes that humans should assimilate into mutant culture as well.  And the best way to do that at the moment, is to make sure that mutants have a tomorrow, hence his Isolationist policy.   Personality:  Cyclops' power, as with a lot of mutants, is analogous to his personality. It's constantly in a state of pure uncontrollable destructive energy, that he's forced to control, channel and unleash at specific times. When Scott was with Jean, she enjoyed him being a quiet, duty-minded and idealistic individual who loved her, and little else. One of the reasons I dislike Jean Grey is that she was selfish. Scott Summers has struggled with self-esteem issues his entire life, and rather than try to help him, she flirts with Logan, and subconsiously encourages him to be more like Wolverine; which is something Scott can't do. Wolverine is a being who exists in a constant state of rage, who's able to calm it. Scott, on the other hand, can't calm it, he has to bottle it up. It Wolverine had Cyclops' personality, he'd have stabbed everyone by now, and similarly, if Cyclops had Logan's personality, he'd be a terrible leader, as he'd rule with his emotions rather than with pragmaticism. Scott doesn't do that, he effectively creates an ideal leader within himself, in what I believe is an attempt to make Professor X proud of him as a son. Xavier gave him this role, and Scott wants to fulfill it perfectly, which is why he is able to separate his humanity from his decisions. He creates, in himself, the reality and the human. He is completely pragmatic, and accomplishes this by closing himself off. Emma, when she started her relationship with Scott, understood this, and rather than ignore it, or ask him to unload all at once, she simply accepted this and loved him for it. Emma would ask how he was, and if he was bottled up, she would simply be there. Jean, however, would press the issue, which is something you can't do when Scott is in "Leader-Mode". His merger with Apocalypse very much caused him to see himself as a flawed human being, and embrace his human side, and in doing so, made him a stronger person. Effectively, rather than seeing attacks on his leadership as personal attacks, which he did formerly (like when he left after Storm became leader), he sees attacks on his leadership as attacks on his leadership. Fortunately though, this allows him to view the issue on its merits, and decide that he's right (which he is). Of course, constant challenges do chip away at him and because he's been in Leader Mode for so long, he hasn't been able to switch off. He hasn't been able to have dinner with Emma and watch a movie. The fact he barely acknowledged Kurt's and Cable's deaths was criticized by many (including myself) at first, but it was actually accurate. Scott can't break, for one second. He can't stop being the Leader.   He knows what he's doing is right and that if he breaks, mutantkind will break with him, it will collapse to Xavier's idealism, or be destroyed by Magneto's warmongering.   He is the Messiah of the Mutant race, not Hope.   As for defining story arcs; Morrison's New X-Men, particularly Murder at the Mansion, Assault on Weapon Plus and Planet X, and Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, particularly Torn and Dangerous.

Just went through and read this today...I have so much faith in Gillen to write Uncanny. He truly gets these characters in a way that Matt Fraction could never hope to.  

Just went through and read this today...I have so much faith in Gillen to write Uncanny. He truly gets these characters in a way that Matt Fraction could never hope to.  

@The Dark Huntress: I agree with 100% there. It's too bad Wolverine is getting Chris Bachalo while Uncanny X-Men is getting Greg Land. >_>

@The Dark Huntress: You know what, it's worth it to look on the bright side of things. :D

Pacheco will probably be more than enough to make for Land. Still wish Bachalo would do some work on Uncanny, I may pick up some issues of Wolverine and the X-Men for the sole reason of enjoying his art. :P