All-New X-Men #18 Review – Get Your Popcorn Ready
I’m an unapologetic fan of Cyclops. Always was. Yes, he’s broody. Yes, he has a tendency to whine and throw pity parties. But he’s a strong leader. When he loves, it’s like no other. He’s reliable. And he doesn’t get along with Wolverine. Of course I’m going to like him, even though he gets hung up on Jean Grey. It’s been interesting to watch older Scott interact with young Scott, and it broke my heart to see young Scott taking his older self’s death so hard. It wasn’t entirely about knowing when he dies, it was about how he died. As far as young Cyke knows, Scott declared a unilateral war against the inhumans. Instead of talking to the inhumans about what he found on Muir Island, he took it upon himself to destroy one of their terrigen clouds.
He died being seen as a terrorist across the world. When people see young Scott’s face, they immediately assume he’s that terrorist. Everyone tries to prop him up as what they think he is or they think he should be. At the beginning of All-New X-Men in 2015, young Scott left his friends for a bit to sort himself out about his older self. Since then, he’s shaken himself free of caring about what others think. Well, almost. It all kind of changed when he joined in the attack on New Attilan, and every inhuman sees a young terrorist.
Cyclops has a bit of an identity crisis on the battlefield, one that nearly ends his life more than once. All of the inhumans are out to kill him, even though none of the mutants want to kill any of the inhumans. All they see is a terrorist they want to exact their revenge on a second time. Even when the battle is over, the X-Men treat him like he’s that same terrorist. It’s hardly fair, and yet, it’s a very human response. It’s hard to see someone with the same face without treating them like they would the other person.
As Scott slinks off to mope, a mind hopping inhuman named Mosaic decides to steal his body for a bit so he can escape back to New Attilan. He jumped from mutant to mutant in the fight, but he ended up coming back with the X-Men. He forces Scott to steal a Blackbird and jet away. He promises Cyclops over and over that he’s only borrowing his body and he will give it back when he’s free. In the meantime, why doesn’t Scott just hang out and look over his memories, or the memories of other mutants he inhabited? Sometimes their memories will bleed over to a new host.
Since he has nothing else to do, he checks out Magneto’s memories. Many were ones I remembered from the 90s, such as the time he pulled the adamantium out of Wolverine’s body. But there’s another memory that is far more intriguing to Scott, such as the memory of Emma Frost confessing to Magneto what really happened to Scott Summers.
My jaw hit the floor. I nearly squealed with excitement. Oh, it’s on now!
Pretty damn accurate description of the real villain, Scott. You get a golf clap for that.
The next issue in the Inhumans vs. X-Men storyline is IvX #4 that releases TOMORROW, February 8th. You better believe that’s the first comic I’ll read on new comic book day.
Our Rating: YUS
Author: Dennis Hopeless
Artists: Mark Bagley, Andrew Hennessy, and Nolan Woodard
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Publish Date: 02/01/2017
Acquired via Purchase
