Avengers: Doomsday Finally Gives Us The Cyclops We’ve Been Waiting For
What did you expect, black latex?
When it comes to comic book casting, it doesn’t get much better than the stars of Fox’s X-Men films. Actors like James Marsden and Rebecca Romijn have become synonymous with members of the mutant superteam, even if their appearances in the 2000s-era films only scratched the surface of their potential. Fortunately, these X-Men are getting another chance to make good on 20 years of missed opportunities.
With Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel’s most popular mutants are heading into a new cinematic universe, where they’ll team up with the mightiest heroes of Earth-616 against the threat of Doctor Doom. Though the wait for this crossover has barely begun, Marvel is wisely using this time to tease its most epic movie yet. Four teasers will debut ahead of Avatar: Fire & Ash in theaters, with the third trailer giving us our first look at the X-Men in the MCU. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen return as Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto, but the most exciting preview comes with the return of Marsden’s Cyclops, who’s finally clad in a comic-accurate costume.
By the time Doomsday hits theaters this December, it will have been 20 years since we last saw Marsden truly in action as Cyclops. He did return in 2014’s Days of Future Past, but only for a brief cameo designed to reverse his disappointing disposal in X-Men: The Last Stand. The X-Men films never knew what to do with Cyclops; he mostly served as a narrative foil to Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, and an obstacle to Wolverine’s forbidden romance with Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). It’s safe to say that directors Anthony and Joe Russo have learned from Fox’s mistakes, because this version of Cyclops is at the center of the action in the Doomsday teaser.
Though his return here is brief, it’s memorable: the teaser ends with Cyclops ripping off his protective visor to unleash a massive optic blast, the biggest we’ve seen him attempt. As he’s surrounded by Sentinels — the kaiju-sized robots programmed to destroy all mutants — such a choice makes sense. After years of quietly smoldering on the sidelines, we finally get to see Cyclops as he’s always been in the comics: a warrior and leader. If his sky-tearing optic blast wasn’t enough evidence of a new, improved Cyclops, there’s also his costume, a clear tribute to the blue-and-gold he sports on the page. This may not be the Cyclops we know from the original Fox films, who was partial to black leather jackets and all-latex onesies, but we might be getting something better: a Cyclops that finally delivers on Marsden’s potential.
