Wolverine and Cyclops have had their fair share of beef over the years, from power dynamics in the X-Men to both vying for the same love-interest, Jean Grey. And all those years of tension between them finally came to a head as a direct result of the 2015 Marvel Comics event, Secret Wars, which saw Wolverine launching one particular attack on Cyclops that he claims was “the greatest thing I’ve ever done”. Of course, in a truly ironic twist of fate, this ‘greatest thing’ Wolverine had ever done was a complete and utter joke right from the start.

In the Secret Wars Too story titled “The Bear Without Fear” by Ryan Browne, Wolverine is approached by three distinct versions of Cyclops – each representing a different era in the X-Men leader’s comic book career – all of whom have a bone to pick with him over Jean Grey. They all claim that Logan stole Jean away from them, so one of them decides to attack Wolverine, as there was ‘no way’ Logan could block his optic blast. They were wrong.

Using just one set of claws while picking his teeth with the other, utterly unbothered, Wolverine blocks the attack launched by Cyclops. And he doesn’t just block it, he splits the single energy attack into three ricocheted blasts, and sends them shooting at all three Cyclops at once, with terrifying precision and accuracy. Indeed, even Wolverine is taken aback by how awesome that counterattack was, excitedly exclaiming, “That’s probably the greatest thing I’ve ever done”.

Wolverine’s ‘Greatest’ Feat Against Cyclops is Utterly Meaningless

The scene depicted in Secret Wars Too is by far one of the most impressive feats Wolverine has ever pulled off, especially against Cyclops. Unfortunately, due to the nature of this particular comic, it’s utterly meaningless. As confirmed on the cover of the issue itself with the message “A Marvel Comics Non-Event”, nothing that happened in Secret Wars Too is canon. It’s a gag comic, one filled with self-aware jokes and absurd scenarios, all of which supposedly happened during 2015’s Secret Wars.

Wolverine never casually took down three separate versions of Cyclops at once, and he certainly didn’t do it one-handed. The entire scene was played up for a laugh, but what it did instead was it gave Wolverine one of his most badass and utterly awesome moments in his Marvel Comics history, which is made even better by how completely relaxed and totally cool he was while he downed the Cyclops trio. Nothing Wolverine has done before or since will match this moment, which is why it’s a shame that it’s totally meaningless.

Wolverine Tried This Move on Cyclops In-Canon, & It Didn’t Work Out

Age of Apocalypse

While readers didn’t get to see the battle itself, Wolverine and Cyclops engaged in a fight to the death that resulted in Cyclops blowing off one of Wolverine’s hands in the skewed timeline of the Age of Apocalypse, which was only separated from the Earth-616 continuity by the death of Charles Xavier at the hand of his time-displaced son, Legion. That means everything that happened to the characters in the Age of Apocalypse could happen to their main continuity counterparts, including Wolverine getting one of his hands blown off by Cyclops’ optic blast.

Blocking and simultaneously countering Cyclops’ optic blast resulting in the defeat of three Cyclops at once, all with just one set of his claws, was an undeniably impressive and awesome feat, but it’s actually a good thing that it happened outside the established canon, because if he tried that in-canon, Age of Apocalypse proved that it would not have ended in Wolverine’s favor. However, despite the circumstances surrounding it, this attack on Cyclops really was “the greatest thing” Wolverine has ever done.