That's where Cyclops currently stands in the Marvel universe. Once the mutant Captain America who was leader of the entire mutant race and personal giaglo to Emma Frost, he has fallen on some really tough times. Even if he was under the influence of a cosmic force, he's still the asshole that murdered Charles Xavier. Now he's a fugitive from SHIELD, his powers are all fucked up, the X-men hate his guts, and Emma Frost won't let him see her naked anymore. But that hasn't stopped him from trying to be Cyclops in the pages of Uncanny X-men. It's just way fucking harder.
For nearly half the series now, he has been investigating a new wave of Sentinel attacks that have been targeting him, his X-men, the Jean Grey Institute, and mutant sympathizers. We haven't gotten too many clues as to who might be behind this other than they like to dress as Ultron cos-players. But one thing Cyclops is sure of now is that SHIELD has been keeping their thumbs comfortably in their asses in confronting this threat. He's also sure that Maria Hill badly wants her to fuck him, but he hasn't found a way to use that just yet. I'm sure that's part of his plan. He's just taking it one step at a time.
Right now, the first step is to learn more about these Sentinels. So at the end of Uncanny X-men #20, he paid a visit to the Jean Grey Institute to enlist help from the team that hates his guts and maybe piss Wolverine off just for shits and giggles. It not a pleasant meeting to say the least and it quickly went to shit. But a preview released by Newsarama shows just how quickly it went to shit. It also shows that the conspiracy against Cyclops might run a little deeper.
UNCANNY X-MEN #21
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W) • CHRIS BACHALO (A)
Cover by ALEXANDER LOZANO
Artist Variant by TBA
• The Cyclops Revolution marches on!
• Who is the mysterious figure building Sentinels for SHIELD?
• Find out what happened to Dazzler since Mystique took her down back in UNCANNY X-MEN #9!
This preview essentially confirms what Cyclops already suspected in the previous issue. Somebody with a fuckton of resources and way too much free time is conspiring against him, seeking new ways to fuck with him. Since his powers are already broken, that's not as hard as it could be. And since his credibility with the X-men at the moment is worse than Donald Rumsfeld's credibility on planning an invasion, they're not going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Hell, even if Cyclops finds the asshole responsible and drags him or her to the front door of the Jean Grey Institute with a signed confession tattooed on their ass, it probably wouldn't do him any good.
That's the growing issue here in Uncanny X-men. I get why Marvel decided to take Cyclops down a few pegs. He was living pretty damn large for a while, being the undisputed leader of the X-men and banging Emma Frost in his spare time. The man needed to be humbled. I just get the sense they're entering overkill territory. This is a guy who was already fucked over badly in the X-men movies. Does he really need to be fucked over any worse here? I say no, but that's just a drunk's perspective. Nuff said!
