Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Superhero Media: Cyclops Odyssey

Get it, because he's called Cyclops? And there's a monster in The Odessey called the cyclops? It's clever, because it refrences something you don't expect! At least, I guess that's what's going on in the author's mind. Brian K. Vaughn is actually a pretty solid comic writer, so I'm not sure what was going on here, though "editorial mandates" does spring to mind. Our story is set during the "New X-Men" era of X-Men (the era when the team was attacked by Charles Xavier's evil twin sister - no, really) and focuses on Cyclops (the X-Man everyone loves to be bored by) taking a trip to "clear his head" because of events in another comic. Cyclops leaves the mansion on his motorcycle and drives to... Canada? It's not clear, and the art and storytelling does not help. When he arrives, Cyclops is attacked by Black Tom Cassidy and The Juggernaut


Somehow, Cyclops survives the encounter and follows a couple of the world's most fearsome mutants back to their spacecraft (because they have one) and learns that they are working for someone even more powerful than they. Think on that for a minute, more powerful than the fucking Juggernaut. Spoilers; it's just some cyborg guy who is (temporarily) defeated by falling rocks. The villain's name is Ulysses, to keep on with the whole Odyssey theme, he's a former solider whose men were killed in the crossfire of some X-Men/Evil Mutants fight and he became a cyborg to seek nonspecific revenge. There's something about some mutant-hate organisation and then Cyclops uses his excellent people-skills (no joke) to defeat Ulysses and goes back home without saying much about his adventure to anyone. 
 
Maybe I'm being unfair, because I'm not fond of X-Men or Cyclops to begin with, but I found this comic to be dull and silly. The story echos The Odyssey in only the broadest terms and the enemy is about as deep as a puddle. Why the hell are Black Tom and the freaking Juggernaut afraid of the guy? Juggernaut has fought gods and a crippled soldier with robot parts scares him? Possibly worth the time of a die hard Scott Summers fan, but I was glad to put it down and be done with it.

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