A star spanning yarn begins.
Creative Staff:
Story: Greg Rucka
Art: Russell Dauterman
What They Say:
Cyclops just discovered that the father he thought died long ago is alive and well and A SPACE PIRATE. After the events of “Trial of Jean Grey”, Scott Summers stays in space to learn some valuable lessons from his dad.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Way, way back when I frst started readeing X-Men comics back in the early 80’s, one of my favorite things was the use of the Starjammers and Scott Summer’s connection to it with his father being Corsair. Though I’ve been out of X-Men comics for nearly twenty years, I’ve dabbled a bit in the last year or two and have tried to wrap my head around this really awkward piece that was brought in with the original charactes from the 60’s version being warped into the present and coping with the way the world is. It’s just far, far too complicated to really work well. I didn’t realize that the Scott Summers used in this series was actually that one, I thought we’d be getting the older one, but what we get in the end may be a lot more fun overall. A chance at a bit of a space adventure romp separate from the rest of the Marvel Universe a bit is definitely appealing since there’s so many places to go and old friends to touch base with.
With this series, things start off with Scott already on the ship with the familiar characters that populates it, such as his father Corsair, his girlfriend Hepzibah, Sikorsky the medic, Ch’od and Raza. And, of course, Cre’reee. Scott, being at the tender age of sixteen, is obviously struggling with his existence since he’s seen how his life went through his older self and all the chaos and drama, of which there is much, and he’s intent on not being like that. Hence, upon discovering that he has a father, ends up on his ship. Which is tough on Corsair because when this happened the last time around, Scott was a good bit older and the two handled it differently. So there’s definitely some tension there from Corsair’s side, which is fun in watching how Hepzibah tries to ease him into it a bit more.
A lot of the heavy lifting here is just getting Scott to work his way through the crew so we get familiar with everyone and what’s going on in a simple way, but also working through his emotional state since that’s what the narration is all about. It works well enough, though even for me it felt like time was dialed back by about forty-five years to when I last saw Scott this way, so it was a bit disconcerting. But what really works well here is that as it all comes together, we get Scott and his father set to go on an adventure together to see some of the wonders of the universe, which you know will get them into a bit of trouble, before they reconnect with Hepzibah and the others in a few weeks. The potential for fun is most certainly there, though for me it’s still leaning more on Corsair’s side than Scott’s.
In Summary:
Cyclops has a pretty light touch kind of feel here as it sets the stage for a road trip adventure between father and son, but it’s the right touch and the right kind of story that leaves me wanting a lot more right away. Even if it’s with a Scott that I’ve long outgrown wanting to read about. Greg Rucka provides an easy read here that connects us with the crew in a basic way, giving more time to Hepzibah and Corsair in addition to the internal dialogue we get from Scott, and it works since we’re about to set loose from them for a bit. What I didn’t realize was that Russell Dauterman was working on this book when it debuted, and having adore his work on Thor recently, that has me even more excited just to see what he may have over the next few issues. While I was wary as everyone else when it was first announce, the first installment has ignited a real curiosity with it.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: May 7th, 2014
MSRP: $3.99
