"Seeing Clearly"
Writer: Devin Grayson
Artwork by: Udon Studios
Month Published: December 2001
Takes Place: Before "Strategy X"
Synopsis/Review: This comic starts
out in Anchorage, Alaska, in the local hospital. Two guys are rushing a
patient (Scott Summers) to the emergency room, and Scott has bandages over
his eyes. Scott keeps pleading to make the pain stop as the guys rush the
Mutant up to a doctor up ahead. The two guys wheeling up the cart Scott's
on tell the doctor the situation- how this is a local kid from the orphanage,
and how he keeps complaining his eyes are burning. The doctor lifts up
the bandages, despite Scott's protests, and... BOOM! I'm sure you know
the rest.
Later on, Xavier is
with the director of the hospital, and he hands the director a check to
more than cover the costs to repair the damage. Xavier wants to speak with
the boy, and the director points him towards the room where he's being
kept- and no one's been in there for some time, as they're all deathly
afraid of him. Before Xavier can leave, the director tells him that Scott
was the sole survivor of a plane crash- his parents and younger brother
are both dead, and he had been placed in the local orphanage several years
ago.
Xavier goes into the
room and meets Scott in his hospital bed. Getting straight to the point,
Xavier tells Scott about the new school he's trying to create in New York.
Scott's more than happy to listen to Xavier- and he's thrilled to have
someone who will except him after... this.
Later on that day, one
of the doctors are examining a block of ruby quartz, as Xavier explains
that he has analyzed Scott's condition with Cerebro, and this material
will allow Scott to see without releasing his concussive eye blasts. The
doctor agrees to make a visor out of it, after some... ahem... prodding
from Wolverine to actually get near to the boy.
The next morning, Scott
tries on the visor, and to the hospital staff's relief, it works. So, the
next step is to take Scott home, and after signing Scott out (and Scott
thanking the secretary profusely for the trouble), he takes him to the
Blackbird, where Storm and Logan welcome him to the team. Scott's really
reluctant to get in a plane (after the plane crash, he definitely has a
fear of flying), and he starts backing away. After a little mental prodding
from Xavier, Scott agrees to give flying another chance, saying "he can't
avoid flying forever". Once they're on the Blackbird, Xavier complements
Scott on his bravery in overcoming his fears, and this makes Scott smile
a little.
Later, after they've
arrived at the Institute, Xavier shows Scott his room and costume, and
Scott's almost giddy with excitement. Scott thanks the Prof profusely,
but Xavier tells him not to thank him just yet...
Later on that day, Scott
and Logan are driving along the coast of Bayville (and Logan is driving
what will later become Scott's car, which I found odd...), and Scott keeps
talking about how cool it must be to be an X-Man. Logan finally not-so-politely
tells the kid to shut up, and tells him that this isn't going to be a walk
in the park- Scott needs to realize that humans aren't going to want anything
to do with him anymore.
At about this time,
they pass the Bayville Bank, and Logan tells Scott to stay away from that
place at all costs. Why? "Because you're a certified do-gooder now, and
every time a do-gooder goes into a bank it gets robbed, okay?" (At which
point I practically fell out of bed laughing.) And sure, enough, Logan
spots some muggers hijacking a parked Armored Security money carrier outside
the bank. Logan's originally going to handle it by himself, but Scott insists
on coming along too, and they quickly take off their outer "civilian" clothes
to show their costumes underneath. The two hijackers, of course, are no
match for Cyclops and Wolverine, but before they can dispatch the second
thug, he grabs a nearby (pretty stupid, gawking) little girl with huuuge
eyes and uses her as a hostage. Before he can react, though, Wolverine
slashes off his gun, and Scott blasts him away from the girl. Cyclops makes
sure the girl is alright, but her (rather unobservant) parents now run
up to her and yank her away from Scott's grip. Some other nearby people
join in, and keep yelling at Scott to get away from their girl, you freak
show. All you Mutants should be quarantined, or something. Scott tells
them that he's sorry if he scared them, and no one's been hurt, so let's
just call it a day, okay? One of them men responds by slugging him and
asking the mom if her girl is alright. Cyclops, stunned, sadly walks off.
On the ride home, Logan
asks Scott if he's doing alright, and Scott responds that it's no big deal,
they were just a little freaked. (Although- and it's hard to tell, as it's
just printed words, remember- it seemed to be said a little half-heartedly.)
Scott says that they just have to believe that it'll get better. And when
Wolverine asks, "What if it doesn't?", then Scott just responds that they'll
just have to never stop trying.
Later that night, Logan
is telling Xavier how he was wrong about the kid- he's alright. Scott has
overheard the whole conversation, though, and steps in- and Logan says
that if Scott lets it go to his head, then he'll knock it right back out.
Scott and Xavier have a little talk about how Xavier had actually manipulated
the hospital staff earlier into being nice to Scott, but Scott doesn't
really think it was a big deal. Xavier says that he just thought Scott
might be embittered by the experience if people were trying to shun him,
but Scott says nah. Xavier apologizes for the incident- but he asks if
there is anything that rattles Scott? Scott replies that no, not really,
nothing he's encountered yet...
However, we cut then
to a scene in Connecticut, where a wife urgently wakes up her husband and
rushes him to her daughter's room, telling him that "it's happening again-
only this time, it's worse"! In the room is Jean, telling her parents to
please, make the pain inside her head stop, as objects float all around
the room...
Art Comments: I really liked the cover art on this one. It shows Cyclops trying to stop the outflow of power from his eyes with his hands and yelling at the pain, and... well, let's just say it looks cool. As for the rest of the comic... pretty much nothing to say about the art that I haven't already said in the review of comic #1. Although they make Cyclops look a bit... younger... in the comics. It's kind of hard to explain, but he just does... And Wolverine was even more obscenely muscular in a couple of panels. Ick.
Last Words: A decent followup to the first comic, and it gives us some nice background into Cyclops' past (which really hasn't been revealed much in the cartoon, beyond the death of his parents and the plane crash). However, it became apparent to me with this comic that the writer of this series doesn't follow the cartoon very closely (which I think is a BIG no-no if you're WRITING a comic series based on it). It's expressed VERY clearly that the Mutants have not been made public knowledge at this time in the cartoon, whereas in this comic, the public apparently already knows about Mutants. BIG inconsistency, there. Other than that, it was fine- especially that part where Wolverine mentioned to Cyclops to never go near the bank, that cracked me up...
Overall Rating: 7/10 Good