Some Thoughts About Cyclops' Mental State

I did flip through a couple of issues of the main AvX mini-series two weeks ago. I was in Hastings, they were there, I'd heard Spider-Man was gonna get a cool moment, and what the heck. I'm not made of stone here people.

And it wasn't a bad moment. Probably a bit silly he survived the first hit from Colossus, but heck Piotr always (or at least used to be) a pretty nice guy, so he probably held back. Even if I should question whether someone dumb enough to think simply giving whales arthropod legs would enable them to live on land (without regard for how their bodies are designed to work with water to support them) would be capable of restraining himself enough to not kill a much weaker opponent. And that wouldn't apply to Illyana, but she was probably taking her time, a kid pulling the legs off an insect one at a time.

Anyway, I'm always up for Spider-Man being defiant and refusing to quit.

I did have a though about Cyclops, and surprisingly, it wasn't "Loser!" He's so convinced Hope is going to save mutantkind, and that the Phoenix Force is how she'll do it. I don't entirely understand the first (though I can guess, based off what I hear other people say about the X-Books), but I certainly don't understand the second. The Phoenix' job is to protect life by guarding the M'Kraan Crystal, correct? Making certain no one unleashes the neutron galaxy contained within. When it isn't doing that, it occasionally goes nuts from experiencing life as a human and destroys a bunch of stuff. So I don't know how that translates to "Will restore mutantkind", unless he figures the Phoenix Force can allow Hope to use her powers on a worldwide scale all at once. Which is, maybe, possible? I don't know.

But I wonder if Summers has stopped to consider what he's asking her to do. To take control of this entity, incredibly powerful, ancient, sometimes destructive force, and use it in a specific way. It seems like he would pay more mind to the "control" part of the equation. A lot of Scott's life has been about control. He has considerable power, Phoenix Force or no, but it's on all the time. So he always has to keep the ruby quartz eyeglasses on, or the visor. Cyke can't even do an '80s style glance over the top of the shades without risking blowing someone's head off. I think he'd have the most respect for the enormity of what he expects of her, especially as his allies all seem to be losing their grip on what is, at most, a portion of the Phoenix.

Setting aside whether Hope even wants to try and control the Phoenix Force (or restore mutantkind), there's the idea of whether she can, and what'll happen if she can't. I picture a failure being something similar to what'll happen if Flash loses control of the symbiont, only the planet will crack in half. The Phoenix was destroying worlds on its way to Earth (would it be funny to find out Earth simply happened to be in the way, and the Phoenix was actually headed for Knowhere, or the Badoon homeworld?), then it was split up and used for purposes it might honestly not give a damn about, and it might be a little pissed.

I'd kind of come to see Cyclops as a pragmatist, looking at the current mutant situation and trying to figure out how to keep as many of those remaining alive until they could figure out how to fix things. And to that end, he'd plan, play nice when needed, intimidate when needed, but he'd be trying the best idea he could to keep mutants alive. I don't know whether this whole cockamamie idea is a sign of how desperate he's become, or if it shows he's always been desperate, the drowning man, grasping at straws.