Posted in: Comics | Tagged: cyclops, marvel, uncanny x-men, x-men, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

Uncanny X-Men Annual #1 is Marvel's Apology to Cyclops Fans [X-ual Healing 1-23-19]

Published Sun, 27 Jan 2019 09:00:06 -0600

Last updated Sun, 27 Jan 2019 11:33:01 -0600

There's only one X-Men comic in stores this week, but it's the most important one in a decade. Read on…

Sworn to sell comics for Marvel executives who feared and hated the fact that Fox owned their movie rights, The Uncanny X-Men suffered great indignities, but with a corporate merger on the way, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in all of comics.

Uncanny X-Men Annual #1
(W) Ed Brisson (A) Carlos E. Gomez (CA) Salvador Larroca
Cyclops!
Rated T+
In Shops: Jan 23, 2019
SRP: $4.99

The story opens on Muir Island "several weeks ago," as Cyclops' optic blast explodes out of his grave, followed by the beloved mutant leader crawling out and back to life. This took place prior to Extermination. We then get a flashback to "several years ago" where a young Scott Summers is walking through Cambridge, Massachusetts and encounters mad scientist Professor Tavin Tierney, who has created a giant robot named Straggon which is rampaging on the MIT campus. Cyclops stops the robot by incapacitating Tierney and is thanked by a young student named Paul Douek, who appreciates cyclops saving him, letting him know he has a wife and a baby on the way and offers to repay the favor anytime. Side note: the "old-timey" pages here look so much better than most modern pages in Marvel comics. It's not that colorists are untalented, but the modern coloring techniques just don't look good on paper, IMO, YMMV. They look better on a screen.

Marvel should just color all their books like this. Seriously.

Anyway, ten years later, Kid Cable shows up at Douek's house with the remnants of the Phoenix Cage, created in Secret Avengers #26 as part of an attempt to imprison the Phoenix Force during Avengers vs. X-Men. Kid Cable wants Douek, now an engineer working for Tony Stark, to develop a much smaller version of the device and says he'll see him in two years. Two years later, after the funeral of Scott Summers on Muir Island, Kid Cable and Douek visit the lab where Cyclops' real body is being held. Kid Cable explains what Emma Frost did during the Death of X event, but this is also an explanation of what Marvel did to poor Scott.

Just as Douek's desires for a better Cyclops echo those of X-fans who spent the past decade wishing Marvel would stop the character assassination.

Kid Cable and Douek implant the new, smaller Phoenix Cage into the chest of Cyclops' corpse. We then flash forward to "several months ago," to the scene in Phoenix Resurrection where the Phoenix Force brings Scott Summers back for a few moments to share one last kiss with the newly returned Jean Grey. During that kiss, the Phoenix Cage absorbs some of the Phoenix Force's power, not destroying it like last time because this time it's entering willingly. Back to "several weeks ago, Kid Cable and Douek greet the newly returned Scott at the gravesite, their mission successful. Back at Kid Cable's hideout, Douek explains how they brought Scott back and thanks him again for saving him back in the day when things were colored nicer. One week later, as Kid Cable heads out to kick off the Extermination event, he forces Scott to stay behind. A week after that, Professor Tierney is released from prison and finds a note in his lab with Paul Douek's address on it, left there by Kid Cable.

Back at Kid Cable's hideout, as Kid Cable and Cyclops drink root beers (see the final scene in Extermination), Kid Cable briefly recaps the events of that series. When Cyclops questions how Kid Cable could claim to do what he does to protect the timeline while simultaneously screwing with it to bring his father back, Kid Cable speaks on behalf of all Cyclops fans once more.

Kid Cable then offers Cyclops a test. He tells him that the X-Men are currently in the midst of their final battle with X-Man in last week's Uncanny X-Men #10, sure to meet their doom unless Cyclops shows up to save them. But at the same time, Professor Tierney is on his way to Paul Douek's house to murder him, his wife, and their child. Cyclops can only save one. Which will he choose?

Of course, Cyclops saves Douek, and we know what happened to the X-Men. The next day, Cyclops and Kid Cable visit the beach in British Columbia where X-Man disappeared himself and the X-Men, and he explains what we already knew: that everything that happened to him in the years leading up to his death was the result of an intentional attempt to get rid of the X-Men in order to focus on properties whose movie rights were owned by Marvel, like the Avengers and the Inhumans.

But with the X-Men's movie rights returning to Marvel thanks to the Fox/Disney merger, that's all over now.

Now, Scott Summers will set everything right by rebuilding the X-Men, starting in Uncanny X-Men #11. Even Wolverine will have a chance to redeem himself. A bright new future awaits our beloved mutants, thanks to the return of their true leader.

Apology accepted, Marvel. Now don't screw it up again.

There was no competition, but we find it hard to believe anything could have beaten this one either way.

Other stuff happening in the X-verse:

Matthew Rosenberg, writer of Uncanny X-Men, has quit Twitter. Mostly.

In our poll last week, over 40% of voters said the X-Men Disassembled storyline wasn't worth the X-Men line relaunch. 36% were undecided. Just 23% thought the story made the end of all the previous generation of titles worth it.

If you can't get enough Cyclops (and who can blame you), our friendly competitors at Adventures in Poor Taste have been publishing Cyclops articles all week.

See previews of next week's Exiles finale, Weapon H finale, Age of X-Men Alpha, Black Panther vs. Deadpool, X-Force, and Dead Man Logan.