Part four of the AvX analysis is going to discuss what is happening to Cyclops and the fact that he is in this mysterious privately owned jail. (Anyone want to bet its own by Norman Osborn) Sure Cyclops went all Phoenix all over the planet but lets take a look at some others who did some similar type actions and got away with it without an issue.
1. The Incredible Hulk
He is walking destruction and has been since he's been created, sure he's the misunderstood hero and at times has helped people, but he's also caused massive chaos, damage and pretty much destroyed entire cities.
After the World War Hulk story line Hulk actually laid waste to Manhattan, there is no way you can tell me that no humans were killed in the Hulk's rampage.
Now I can't say that the Hulk gets away with everything, he is often hunted down by the government, but even in the AvX story the Avengers recruit the green Hulk to come join them in taking down the Cyclops and Emma Frost.
The story World War Hulk takes place after the story Planet Hulk where Hulk was sent off planet so things would be more peaceful for him. Doesn't exactly sound like he had to pay for his crimes.
2. Wolverine He's the best there is at what he does, and what he does isn't pretty.
Hand ninjas, sure killed lots of them. Yakuza hit men, yep killed a whole lot of those too. Maurauders, purifiers, vampires, soldiers, you name it Wolverine has killed it, and that's when he's not been possessed.
He's been made Death by Apocalypse and has acted as one of his four horsemen. He lead a team of X-Force on a mission to kill the child Apocalypse and has been killing people since before the civil war.
But as recent as issue #305 he was taken control of by Dr. Rot and had gone on yet another killing spree, and this time the police were looking for him. How do they know its him? A child drew a picture of the killer, and what he drew was Wolverine standing with his claws covered in blood. Way to help the kids headmaster Wolverine.
3. Deadpool another member of the upstanding Weapon X program and member of X-Force is a gun for hire that at times has killed so many people the number is too high to count.
Sure some are villains but regardless of the nature of the men you kill you should still go to jail and stand trial. How Wolverine can sit back and judge Cyclops yet offer Deadpool a spot on his team is a bit ridiculous.
Wade is crazy, sure there's that, but he still needs to be brought to justice for what he's done, or at least get some serious medical attention.
4. Black Widow, upstanding member of The Avengers or secret agent and previous gun for hire.
She was trained by the Soviet Union to be a spy, a sniper and enhanced with super soldier formula to be a femme fatale killer. She started her time in Marvel as an enemy to Iron Man and defected from Russia to join the hero community of the United States.
The Avengers movie gave a bit of a hint of the amount of 'Red' Widow has in her file and how she's looking to make up for it, Loki himself listed some of the horrific things Widow has done in her time as a spy. I guess if you're using your skills for the Avengers however, all is forgiven.
5. Hank Pym aka Yellowjacket aka Goliath has a checkered past as well and is responsible for a lot of crimes. While he did serve time for some issues, for most he was forgiven.
He is the man who created Ultron, a killer robot that has caused insane damage as well as has been seen as being responsible for the destruction of the world in an alternate timeline.
He has committed domestic abuse, hitting his wife, he then built another robot to fight the Avengers in hopes to defeat it himself to save face.
He built a robot clone of Thor that ended up killing Bill Foster, another man taking up the mantle of Goliath. So of course just like Wolverine he should be running a school over in Avengers Academy.
6. Jean Grey the previous Phoenix, when Jean was possessed by the Phoenix force she caused mass destruction and even destroyed an entire race of people.
Now it was determined that might not have actually been Jean, and she did "die" in a battle on the moon, but she also did come back.
So is it because she died that when she returned she wasn't held responsible, or was it because we're going with the real Jean was at the bottom of a lake? Also, maybe we should troll the lakes to see if the real Cyclops is also there.
7. The Thing, yes good ol' sweet Ben Grimm.
What did he do? Well during the Fear Itself Storyline he was possessed by the power of the Serpent and became The Breaker of Souls.
While under the serpent's power and what did he do with that power. He destroyed his famous Yancy street.
He fought Thor along with the Hulk taking out the God of Thunder. Biggest of all, he took down Avengers Tower. knocking it down and then blasting it from the sky.
You know what happened to Mr. Grimm after doing all that? Nothing. He's back on the Avengers, he said he felt bad about it, and all was good. Ridiculous.
Now we have Scott Summers, Cyclops of the X-Men, the man who has fought off Apocalypse, stopped Magneto, helped save Wolverine's soul from Hell and has been a leader to those who have been hunted, hated and feared because they were born different, a base criminal.
The list can go on, Scarlett Witch, when she said no more mutants that resulted in not just mutants losing their powers but for some they died. Daredevil, Colossus, Psylocke, pretty much any person who's been on an X-Force team have all killed at one point or another yet they've never had to pay for their crimes. In the last issue of Consequences he says something to Wolverine along the lines of imagine what the trial is going to be like. Possession by cosmic entity will be his plea, but why does he even have to go to trial? Are we to believe that in the picture above of the Thing destroying New York, no one was injured or killed? Or when he knocked down Avengers Tower, it fell on no one?
Cyclops has a reputation in comics for being a character people like to beat up and criticize, was his original character portrayed as someone who should be? Maybe. But can't it be said then that he is one of the few characters in comics who has fully grown, developed and reestablished himself in the Marvel Universe?
I understand why the Avengers had to win the AvX storyline, even though in the end everyone was teamed up, its still an Avengers win. But to destroy a character and the last ten years of story development seems a bit much for any type of story, they would have been better off killing him entirely.
Now we have All New X-Men #1 coming in November where we see our present day Beast travel back in time to get the original X-Men to try and convince them not to commit genocide. Will this save Cyclop's character or will the nerdy young Cyclops just do even more damage? Waiting patiently for November.
Be sure to check out Parts 1 - 3 right here on the BOOM Page! Click on the Comics Boom tab to see all comic book related articles including this series.
