So here we are at the end of critically acclaimed, House of Doom...I mean Secret Wars and with all of the excitement and hope I felt at the beginning of this journey, unfortunately quickly turned to disappointment, then disbelief until it finally atrophied into total disgust. Where do I begin to retrace this...mess? Right at the top, Cyclops:when I saw Scott break out the Phoenix egg and with no hesitation or past regrets (hurting some egos while he's trying to save his race from oblivion..again) became the Phoenix again, I could not stop smiling...However,shortly after reading more,I stopped smiling and have not truly smiled to this day... You snap the man's neck???? He can walk on the surface of the sun and you have Doom BREAK HIS NECK.Then you proceed to doo doo all over the mutant race. Granted All of Battle world was a toilet seat, but after reading the first couple of X-men/mutant related titles, I felt I was witnessing a trend not of hope and unity but of decay and once again extinction. I'm not going into all the details of why years of future past, E is for Extinction, the age of apocalypse, house of m and x-men '92 in my opinion are some of the worst storylines ever, you have either read them for yourself or know some unfortunate soul that has. In the end and whatever side you find yourself on, a couple of questions will come to you;Reed Richards, hands down in my book, The smartest dude or rubber band in any reality. His son is in fact one of the most powerful beings in most realities you will come across. His daughter,not even a teenager yet and her daddy (smartest dude...ever) asks her for her assistance solving superhuman problems...So with all this brain power, cosmic muscle to literally box with god and now responsible for the recreation of our reality,replacing all that was wiped away...and this is best he could do????? Then he what, goes on a reality hopping vacation with his mutant children, while terrigen mist decimate the mutant population...again, the asshole that is responsible, black nut , first gives his kid to kang for stupid reasons only he can fathom, then proceeds to crash his giant space castle on top of new York purposely exposing the world to mutating mist transforming humans into nu-humans and at the same time sentencing the mutant race to death. Yet, the entire fricken world is still trying to wipe out the remaining mutant populace while they seem to get along and tolerate the inhumans that have forever changed the human race.Epic fail for Reed Richards, mutants, and most importantly for Scott Summers and his years of doing what's right by everyone, mutant or not. IM sick of the cylops hate machine, constant negativity and lack of loyalty from his family and team he helped build, protected, sacrificed and even died for. The mutant race may have physically saved by Hope and the Phoenix, but it was Cyclops that helped heal the hearts and minds of his people. Cyclops was right!

Is Cyclops Jesus? I guess unlike Jesus he's hated by his own followers, but what if he was faking his death, so he could come back stronger than ever in 3 days and completely wipe out all inHumans and NuHumans?

Cyclops vs. Doom was one of the most pathetically drawn fights ever. Ribic is a talented artist for sure, but the fact that two "cosmic entities'" fight ended in "melting one's armor, cracking one's neck" is just.... *sigh*

I didn't mind Cyclops to die, it wasn't his event or something (duh) but whatever Hickman pulled right there, and the way he did, was crap writing altogether.

This.

I mean for as much pandering as they had for the X-Men Mythos with the tie ins (which is a critique i have about the OP's threads title), it's all irrelevant since the only canon mutant that really had anything going for them pre-SW was used as fodder.....Which wouldn't really matter since I get they had to kill a powerful and relevant character for hype, but its so lamely written that it's basicaly summed up as "And then Cyclops died" even if you look a it for what it is instead of what it could be.

@koays:

It was also funny that he used a heavily "magneto-in-his-worst-day" influenced speech to talk about... the dream.

Maybe it summed up what Hickman was thinking of Cyclops, but he didn't sound like himself at all. Not even like Hickman himself wrote him before. And he actually wrote him very well... sigh

@adamtrmm: Lol totally agreed.

It almost feels like he was asked to write Cyke out of the story, or he was told that the plans were for Cyclops to be painted as super extremist post-Secret Wars(or post Bendis....really all the same). But whatever it was it kind of adds to the reason the death didn't work...He's so short sighted that the world is over and Doom is god and yet his final speech is about how mutants will prevail...its just not Cyclops and it's kind of forced.

@koays:

It almost feels like he was asked to write Cyke out of the story, or he was told that the plans were for Cyclops to be painted as super extremist post-Secret Wars(or post Bendis....really all the same).

That and especially that actually sounds very much reasonable, but I have hard time to believe that Hickman will do something he isn't willing to. I mean that's the same guy who managed to turn two flagship Avengers titles and then the very much "nothing will be the same" market dominating super-event into a continuation of his FF (love) story. I mean, if only we had that kind of enthusiastic writer on the X-men... FF fans must be celebrating.

But whatever it was it kind of adds to the reason the death didn't work...He's so short sighted that the world is over and Doom is god and yet his final speech is about how mutants will prevail...its just not Cyclops and it's kind of forced.

Absolutely. And everybody who didn't join a blind Cycho-hate bandwagon will see it.