Contains spoilers for Judgment Day #5!Despite being one of Marvel’s most iconic heroes, the X-Men‘s leader Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, has surprisingly complex powers. Both their nature and their origin are often depicted in confusing ways, however the mutant leader’s R-rated death just confirmed that his body has one jaw-dropping adaptation that allows his optic blasts to function.
Cyclops’ powers are simple in action – his eyes discharge a beam of concussive force, striking his targets with varying degrees of force. Confusion often arises thanks to the visual similarity with Superman’s heat vision, to the extent that some comics even get confused and act as if Scott Summers is firing heat from his eyes. Despite this, Marvel’s official policy is that Cyclops is firing concussive force, not lasers. Where things get more confusing is exactly how Cyclops gathers the power to do this. Internet rumor suggests that Scott’s eyes are portals to a dimension full of kinetic energy, but this has never been true of the comics – it’s a claim that was originally posed in the 1986 edition of Marvel’s official character handbook, with subsequent versions altering and outright contradicting this claim in the years since. Either way, the handbook alone would lack authority even if it had one clear argument, since it’s the handbooks which document the comics, not the comics which obey the handbooks.
Another more commonly accepted explanation for Scott’s power is that he metabolizes sunlight, converting the energy to kinetic force when he opens his eyes. How this energy is stored has again been portrayed inconsistently, with some suggestions he uses psionic power to keep it in check, and others that his optic blasts don’t materialize until he opens his eyes to fire them. However, Scott’s recent death in Judgment Day #5 (from Kieron Gillen and Valerio Schiti) seemingly sets the record straight. Fighting against the Progenitor, Scott is killed when the Celestial removes his invulnerability to his own optic blasts, causing his head to explode outward. Of course, fans shouldn’t worry about Scott, since the mutants of Krakoa now have the ability to bring back their fallen heroes.
Cyclops’ Skull Officially Contains His Powers
The Celestial’s words seemingly confirm the idea that Cyclops’ kinetic energy is stored inside his head when it’s not being used. Were Cyclops’ eyes simply portals to another dimension, losing his invulnerability might have blown off his eyelids, but there’d be no way for the force to crack his skull, since it would never be inside his head. This moment confirms that Scott Summers contains his immense power using his skull with apparently no effort. Cyclops’ optic blasts have been compared to atom bombs at their full powers, meaning that Cyclops’ powers include the ability to store that kind of pressure inside his skull without even having to try.
Cyclops’ Skull & Neck Are Superhuman
Many fans have pointed out in the past that in sending out a blast of force, Cyclops requires superhuman neck strength not to immediately ruin his spin, however it turns out that his skull is also enhanced in order to keep this staggering power locked away inside. What’s particularly exciting is that Judgment Day is a major Marvel event. However future writers choose to depict Cyclops’ powers, it’s now pretty inarguable that he is containing pressurized kinetic force inside his mutant skull, as there’s no other explanation for why the Celestial removing his immunity would cause the gory consequences it does. Despite often being overlooked in movie adaptations, Cyclops is a fan-favorite comic hero, and the X-Men‘s new era has seen him truly come into his own, making it particularly fascinating to get some more insight into how exactly his iconic powers work.
