Cyclops' plan?

[salinea]

2 pages from Uncanny X-Men #11 & 3 pages from AvsX #3



HEY I MADE THAT JOKE. SORT OF.



There's your "solid, unqualified win", Cap.



Here Tony makes one of those "you're starting to sound like me" speech that Magneto has been giving Scott a lot lately.











Scott plays dirty.

I like it.

Comments

[espanolbot]

Y'know, if Scott attempted integration instead of isolation, and didn't repeatedly attempt to weaponise children we might be able to take him more seriously as a potential hero in this storyline.

Wanting to turn a teenage girl into a person of mass destruction to bully the world into complying with a list of demands seems like more of a Dr Doom plot than a heroic one. Though this was also the guy whose response to finding a girl programmed into being a murderer by a government programme that has repeatedly targetted his people was "Whelp, she's be a good addition to my covert death squad!".

There's being determined to protect your people in the face of repeated attempts to kill them, and then there's viewing children as being expendable on the road to your goals.

The ends justifies the means GENERALLY isn't a philosophy associated with the good guys, Scott. If it was, then the methods that Stark used to try and keep the general public safe during and after the Civil War wouldn't have been as contested as they were.

[icon_uk]

If the people who kept building Sentinels by the hundred would sort of stop doing that too, and the assorted mutant hate groups stopped doing that too, in their efforts to wipe out a population of less than 500, I could see Cyclops as being more unreasonable than I think he is.

Based on their previous dealings with Phoenix, Jean and Rachel in particular, assuming that the Phoenix host WOULD be a weapon of mass destruction is a major assumption.

[atom_punk]

The Phoenix did get subverted by the Hellfire Club and kill an entire alien civilization which qualifies as a WMD I think.

I can understand people saying that the Phoenix was generally a force for good but that kind of loses weight when the "one bad thing" it did was killing billions of innocents.

[icon_uk]

The Phoenix was indeed corrupted by the Hellfire Club (though it's not like the Avengers are free and clear of mind-controlled mayhem front either), but on another occasion it saved the entire Universe from destruction by mending the M'kraan Crystal.

Rachel (and then Jean herself) operated as the Phoenix for years with no significant damage done and are probably a better exemplar of what the Phoenix can be than anything else.

[atom_punk]

Still the past does not determine the future and from what we're being told, the Phoenix has apparently changed into a hostile entity.

I honestly don't know what to say about this crossover because how out of character everyone is being. I'm sensing imminent fuster-cluck and cringing preemptively as I watch this go down.

[icon_uk]

Right there with you.... And as I've said before, I'm so glad the New Mutants are well out of this, since they're having fun with Lil Loki and the Hel-Puppy!

[terrykun]

Lil Loki and the Hel-Puppy!

Sounds like a Harvey comic. (:

[espanolbot]

It's a cyclical problem, that's the thing.

[salinea]

... except Cyke doesn't want to turn Hope into a person of mass destruction, he wants to turn her into a person of mass repowering. He wants more mutants. He has everyone else on his Extinction team to do the intimidate the world into not oppressing them anymore. (Well, okay, Hope's on that team too, but I figure that's because Hope insisted on fighting more than because Cyke wanted to use her.)

[espanolbot]

Kind of an assumption on their part isn't it? Has she caused any kind of repowering previously, or is Scott just assuming because of her power levels?

[salinea]

oh yes. Blind faith. That's why they call her a messiah. That's why Wolverine call them a cult.

Then again, she did cause some kind of repowering. We call them the 5 Lights.

[espanolbot]

Ahhh, so they're assuming that the Phoenix will powerboost Hope to make her re-empower all the remaining mutants at once?

If I were in a position of power in the Marvel universe, I'd try to compromise by allowing Hope and the Phoenix to merge, only off-world with a failsafe in case their "blind faith" ends up killing the world instead. And if she's not a means for reempowering and just another PMD... then get Reed Richards or someone to rig the spacestation the merge occurs on to fall into a black hole or something, just to be safe.

[salinea]

They haven't actually said exactly what they expect, but, yeah, that's what I gather they think will happen.

Not a bad plan. Too bad both team were busy holding their Idiot ball.

[schala_kid]

I think Steve suggests that to Scott in AvsX #1, take her off-world and have the Phoenix merge with her there (The Secret Avengers have a space station, it makes sense).

But then Scott gets angry and Steve gets stupid and Scott gets stupid too and then everyone just starts beating the shit out of each other and you know the rest.

[terrykun]

I think any plan that started with "Let us take Hope and--" was going to set Scott off at that point.

[lascoden]

Is it really "blind faith" if you have good solid evidence? I would say seven ignited mutations with just a trickle of Phoenix power should count.

[schala_kid]

Question

In the case that Hope harnesses the power of the Phoenix and controls it and powers up a lot of mutants....

Will she also have control over them like she did with the 5 lights? (Is Scott aware that she can control them? BTW?)

[batman]

Scott definitely knows that she can control the five Lights - it was one of the tools that Hope used to basically bully him into backing off and leaving him alone towards the last arc. She's demonstrated some influencing ability over currently empowered pre-existing mutants as well, so it's entirely probable that any she repowers will also fall under this category.

It's a little frightening when you think about it.

[batman]

the last arc of Gen Hope, I mean. WORDS ARE HARD.

[schala_kid]

Yeah that is scary, imagine if she ever decides she doesn't like someone or something and all those mutants under her command.

Oh man I can kind of see where Bishop is coming from, even though I am not that into the whole killing Hope thing.

[batman]

Yeah, i'm not keen on the whole "let's kill a teenaged girl" thing either. It's a really grubby situation the mutants are in at the moment: their messiah is a psychologically damaged teenaged girl who can impose her will onto others whether they like it or not, and really neither faction has bothered to give the X-Kids any kind of psychological support. If Hope snaps under all this, responsibility rests pretty squarely at the adults who really should have been managing this a ton better.

[salinea]

How would I know?

Scott seems to be aware, he doesn't seem to care a lot.