Oh, don't tempt them. They might just do it out of spite.

••

I try not to be paranoid, you know? But sometimes. . . .

What gets me about Namor as one of the "Phoenix Five" is that he is surrounded by flames. The Sub-Mariner. Surrounded by flames... Why do they not see the issue there?

I find the fact that Scott is weilding both Cap's shield and Thor's hammer a bit tedious. Once with the Maestro off in the far future carting around everyone else's paraphenalia is fine. Hulk is, after all, "the strongest one there is." All he had to do was wait them out and he won all the prizes. Then the Avengers vs. JLA book gave a Superman on the ropes against the "big bad," clearly using every weapon at his disposal to win. Besides nothing said "DC AND Marvel" the way the image of DC's premier hero holding both of Marvel's premier bits of weaponry. But now...

Now it looks like any and everyone who gives the Avengers a beat-down picks up the shield and hammer and carts them around as trophies. Makes Cap and Thor look more than a little lame...

As for Scott being written off-model, the issue I read recently had Magneto counseling Scott not to go too far with his vision of how Mutant/Human relations should be established. He was beginning to remind Magneto of himself in his younger days. Scott assured "Erik" that he knew what he was doing was right for his people. I'm not sure how his involvement in setting up X-Force as a "black ops" agency informs this new "wiser, more determined, more visionary" Cyclops...

Y'know, looking back, I also did a childhood sketch of a Cyclops-As-Phoenix "What If" concept... Hm... Wait long enough and it looks like the books will come around to giving you "what you think you want."

On the topic of "jumping off points" for the X-Men, I also left at issue #201, with Storm besting Cyclops in one-on-one combat. Not only was Scott written as a conflicted jerk who was uncertain of his feelings, but he was consisently out-thought and out-manuevered by Chris' complete Mary Sue archetypal "Woman In Power" who's can not only defeat you, but lectures you on the credo of the warrior as she does so, with impeccable, perfectly-deserved arrogance. You are unworthy of the time she is giving you in kicking your lily-white ass. You idiot.

Claremont had only two years previously written X-Men #175, wherein Cyclops, on his own, held out against the entire team of possessed X-Men who were apparently being manipulated by Madelyne Pryor-As-Phoenix. Somehow Mastermind was really behind it all, so maybe Claremont felt none of Cyclops' victories "counted," or "he had it easy." In any case, it was apparently the last hurrah for the character for decades to come.

Now he is regaining a bit of his former prestige by becoming that most prized and sought after thing a writer can give to readers in this modern day and age: An Unrepentant Bastardly Badass.

You're welcome, everyone. (Nods and bows as roses are thrown...)