Cyclops, The Least Loved Most Popular Member of the X-men

**Mike** (0:17)
Few years ago, I was a guest on a Tears of a Clown episode where we ranked the X-Men.
And for some reason, and against my will, Cyclops was not given S-tier. In fact, he was mocked, ridiculed, and when his picture came up-

**Holden** (0:37)
I'm Cyclops.

**Mike** (0:40)
Jake and or Holden were both at the same time said, Oh, this fucking guy. Yes, that is right. And today is all about Cyclops in a story, in a, in a, in a, what is considered a civil rights, African-American parallel. He is the whitest guy. And what is considered a gay rights metaphor, he is the ultimate straight man.
He is a punching bag for many, many people. And today he is going to get his due. And, and if I have one mission, this is not a trial or anything, but if I have one goal by the end of this episode, you both will say he deserves to be an S TRX man.

**Jake Young** (1:28)
I don't know.

**Mike** (1:29)
My goal.

**Jake Young** (1:29)
You said he's a punching bag and his eyes are literally a gateway to the punching bag dimension. If I'm not mistaken.

**Mike** (1:37)
All right, Sean, baby. Okay, there's the whole thing about him that his eyes come from the punch dimension was in one Marvel A to Z history of Marvel Universe thing. It's been retconned.

**Jake Young** (1:50)
Not in Marvel Rivals.

**Mike** (1:52)
Yeah, cause that's, well, they make it for people like you.

**Jake Young** (1:55)
But discerning consumers and men of taste, I agree.

**Holden** (1:59)
Well, with a lot of horniness too.

**Jake Young** (2:01)
Listen, we're not talking about the skins I own anymore. That's a different episode.

**Mike** (2:06)
But yeah, we are talking today about Scott, Slim Summers.

**Jake Young** (2:11)
I was hoping we'd acknowledge Slim Summers cause that's his original name.

**Mike** (2:15)
Yeah, which doesn't make sense once Jim Lee started destroying him.

**Jake Young** (2:21)
Brick shit house Summers doesn't have the same ring to it.

**Mike** (2:24)
And Pouch Summers doesn't either.
But yeah, man, this is a celebration of Cyclops. We are going to go through his history.
We are going to analyze him. I do definitely want your thoughts in a sec. The gush or not the gush.
But to me, and I said this on our Tears of a Clown, when I think of the X-men, I think of Cyclops. He to me is the X-men more than any other character, except maybe Storm who has fought him out for that position, which we will talk about today. But what are your guys' thoughts on Cyclops?

**Holden** (3:06)
Sure, yeah. I mean, I think we were all hugely into X-men at such a prime of its time in the 90s with the hologram covers, the X-men TV show, which obviously we have X-men 97 season two, if you're listening to this, when it dropped out and being pretty fantastic.
So, for me, I was never a Leonardo guy. I was a Michaelangelo guy. I was never a Cyclops guy. I was a Wolverine guy.

**Mike** (3:39)
You're not holding your snake eyes.

**Holden** (3:40)
Yeah, exactly.

**Jake Young** (3:41)
You are the most Wolverine guy.

**Holden** (3:44)
Which is hilarious, because I'm definitely not nearly as big of a fan as Mike Lawrence is. But yeah, I like a pizza party. I don't want to tell people.

**Mike** (3:52)
Oh, we'd have Cyclops Lawrence. If my debate skills were better, I'd have Cyclops.

**Holden** (4:01)
Not Scott. We could have named the kid Scott, and we were going to name Cyclops.

**Mike** (4:06)
Yes, Cyclops Mauricio Lawrence.

**Holden** (4:11)
But yeah, I mean, to me, Cyclops, what I loved about it, all right, so Mike gave us this reading list. We got to really get into the nitty gritty of stories and scenes where Cyclops really shines. But in my memory of Cyclops is really more, it's always him with everybody else. You know, he looks really cool alongside, you know, because I even had that awesome, one of those awesome posters on my wall with all of them in mid battle and it all happening, you know, and it, you know, but it was never like on his own or never like really focused on him.
Like, I feel like he was always a utility in, like you can't have Wolverine without Cyclops in my opinion, you know? I think it's, I think they're-

**Mike** (4:54)
Well, I'd say the sales of many solo books would say-

**Jake Young** (4:57)
No, if anything, Wolverine is the guy who can carry a poster on his own.

**Holden** (5:00)
Right, right. I guess what I mean is like-