{"id":26488,"date":"2022-09-14T13:35:38","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T13:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=26488"},"modified":"2022-09-14T13:35:38","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T13:35:38","slug":"cyclops-volume-2-a-pirates-life-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2022\/09\/14\/cyclops-volume-2-a-pirates-life-for-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclops volume 2: A Pirate\u2019s Life for Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy John Layman<\/strong>, Javier Garr\u00f3n<\/strong>, Chris Sotomayor<\/strong>, & various (Marvel)
\nISBN: 978-0-7851-9076-9 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

When mutant genius Henry McCoy<\/em> learned he was dying, he used time-travel tech in a last-ditch attempt to give his life meaning. Seeking to prevent an inter-species war, he brought the young, na\u00efve X-Men<\/strong> of his own youth into the future to reason with his radicalised former comrade Scott Summers<\/em>, praying the still idealistic and hopeful teens could divert Mutant Enemy Terrorist No. 1 from his path of doctrinaire madness\u2026<\/p>\n

The gamble paid off in all the wrong ways. Rather than shocking modern day Cyclops<\/strong> back to his senses, the confrontation hardened the renegade\u2019s heart and strengthened his resolve. Moreover, after McCoy the younger somehow cured his older self, he and the rest of the X-Kids were trapped in their own future and began gradually defecting to the fundamentalist team\u2026<\/p>\n

Eventually, the temporally-misplaced First Class ended up living with the elder Cyclops\u2019 crew, but everything changed after Gladiator<\/em> of the Shi\u2019ar<\/em> realised Jean Grey<\/em> AKA Marvel Girl<\/em> – and future host of the cosmic force known as the Phoenix<\/strong> – was back. The alien emperor rashly attempted to abduct and execute her for the crimes of her older self, but his insane pre-emptive punishment plan was foiled by an assembly of X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy<\/strong> and intergalactic buccaneers Hepzibah<\/em>, Ch\u2019od<\/em>, Raza<\/em> Longknife<\/em>, Korvus<\/em> and insectoid medical wizard Sikorsky<\/em> – collectively known as The Starjammers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

During the sideral shenanigans, 16-year-old Scott met his long-believed-dead dad. Now going by Corsair<\/em> and undisputed leader of the cosmic privateers, Christopher Summers<\/em> invited his boy to stay behind when the mutant heroes returned to Earth\u2026<\/p>\n

Enduring and barely surviving a steep learning curve to become a full-blooded galactic buccaneer whilst forging bonds of comradeship with the exotic crew, Scott eventually takes off with his dad for some true father-son time only to discover Corsair\u2019s darkest secret whilst being marooned on a desolate planetoid.<\/p>\n

Facing slow death, Cyclops devises a way off but it\u2019s possibly worse than being eaten by the mudball world\u2019s predatory lifeforms\u2026<\/p>\n

Scripted by John Layman, illustrated by Javier Garr\u00f3n and coloured by Chris Sotomayor, this compendium collects issues #6-12 of Cyclops: <\/strong>(December 2014-June 2015), following the chronal castaway into emotional typhoons and universe-shredding crises before making safe harbour back on Earth\u2026<\/p>\n

It begins with the Summers family back aboard the Starjammer with the kid geekily seeking to impress his crewmates. His eagerness leads to disaster and the ship\u2019s ambush by master star pirate Captain Malafect<\/em> of the mighty vessel Desolation. Outgunned, outnumbered and seemingly helpless, Corsair savagely turns on his son, beating and denouncing him\u2026<\/p>\n

When the triumphant villain maroons the Starjammers to die a slow death in a lifepod, he keeps Scott as his newest recruit and Corsair just so\u2019s he can torment and torture his old shipmate\u2026<\/p>\n

Soon the kid is learning the darkest sides of space pillaging, and it\u2019s all he can do to keep the bodycount low. His squeamishness and eagerness to please doesn\u2019t initially endear him to his new shipmates either, but he gradually befriends some of them. Pretending to torture Corsair helps his standing but the real turnabout comes after Captain\u2019s daughter Vileena<\/em> decides she really likes the \u201cPirate Boy\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

The X-Man Cyclops was regarded as one of the most brilliant tacticians ever born and now his timeslipped junior self proves that gift came early as the complex long game he initiated when the Starjammer was first taken begins to pay off.<\/p>\n

As his marooned former shipmates are picked up by slavers, he leads a (relatively bloodless) raid and acquires a Shi\u2019ar super-weapon dubbed a \u201cstarcracker\u201d, endearing him further to Malefect and Vileena whilst losing forever the leader of the crew faction intent on killing him\u2026<\/p>\n

Riding high in the buccaneer\u2019s regard, Scott leads an away mission whilst the Captain seeks to sell the ultimate weapon leading to the liberation of his father and an all-out war that pits his new friends against his old crew. In the end, it can only end in disaster and tragedy\u2026<\/p>\n

Rightly, the tale should end here, but also included is the final issue which was the tenth instalment of publishing event Black Vortex (Cyclops <\/strong>#12; June 2015). The story detailed how many of Marvel\u2019s space-based heroes and villains became embroiled in the quest to possess a cosmic mirror that bestowed infinite power on any who used it.\u00a0 Prior to this chapter, Scott reunited with his X-Men as a mystery opponent named Mr. Knife<\/em> out-manoeuvred the Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova<\/strong>, Captain Marvel<\/strong> and many more\u2026<\/p>\n

Now reunited with his school chums and on the run again Scott sacrifices himself – as do Iceman and Groot – to the Black Vortex, hoping the resultant power-hike will help their friends before ultimately corrupting them\u2026<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, readers won\u2019t learn the answer here, as we conclude with a feature on Garr\u00f3n & Sotomayor\u2019s process for turning drawings into full colour art , leaving us to the seas of fate and another collection for answers and culmination\u2026<\/p>\n

With covers & variants gallery by Alexander Lozano and Andrea Sorrentino, this is – despite my cavils and quibbles – a thrilling, heart-warming, funny and astoundingly action-packed romp. Cyclops:<\/strong> A Pirate\u2019s Life For Me <\/strong>combines cosmic intrigue and dashing derring-do with solid characterisation and wild blue yonder wonderment, and will delight any fan of cosmically light-hearted Marvel Movies like Guardians of the Galaxy<\/strong> or Thor: Love and Thunder<\/strong>. What more could any wide-eyed, entertainment-starved child of the wondering stars want?
\n\u00a9 2014 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. 2021 MARVEL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Layman, Javier Garr\u00f3n, Chris Sotomayor, & various (Marvel) ISBN: 978-0-7851-9076-9 (TPB\/Digital edition) When mutant genius Henry McCoy learned he was dying, he used time-travel tech in a last-ditch attempt to give his life meaning. Seeking to prevent an inter-species war, he brought the young, na\u00efve X-Men of his own youth into the future … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Cyclops volume 2: A Pirate\u2019s Life for Me”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,182,79,242,107,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-captain-marvel","category-guardians-of-the-galaxy-graphic-novels","category-marvel-superheroes","category-pirates","category-science-fiction","category-x-men"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-6Te","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26491,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26488\/revisions\/26491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}