It was known that Cyclops died during those months, but the exact circumstances were still unknown. Death of X #4 revealed that Cyclops went down in a blaze of glory, standing up to the Black Bolt and Medusa, the Inhuman king and queen, after neutralizing one of the Terrigen clouds.
Or did he? In a twist at the end of the issue, Emma Frost reveals to Cyclops' brother Havok that Cyclops has been dead longer than anyone expected. Scott Summers perished at first contact with the Terrigen Mists on Muir Island. Unwilling to let Cyclops' end be so undignified, Emma psychically projected Cyclops and puppeted him about to lead her campaign again the Inhumans and get the martyr's death she believes he deserved.
ComicBook.com spoke to Death of X co-writer Charles Soule via email about the series' surprising end.
James Johnson
ComicBook.com: That’s quite the twist at the end of Death of X #4. It feels like a Memento moment. How did you (and Jeff Lemire) come up with the twist? And how long ago was it conceived?
Charles Soule: It came in really early in the planning sessions. We were looking for a big idea to tie the whole series together, and that just hit really well with everyone right from the start. The idea that Emma does everything she does in the series as some sort of twisted tribute to Cyclops, trying to carry on his legacy in a way that he probably never would have endorsed… it makes this a story that’s about quite a bit more than just Inhumans and X-Men hitting each other, and that’s what ultimately makes (hopefully) worth reading. I’m really happy with it, honestly. Who knows how it will be received, but I think it’s a really interesting Emma/Scott story.
CB: Looking at where thing stand for the mutants now, with the school in literal Limbo and so many former and current X-Men trying to distance themselves from Cyclops’ actions, is Emma Frost satisfied with the results of her ruse? Would you call her ploy a success?
CS: I think so. Emma’s goal is to get rid of the Inhumans as revenge for what she believes they did to Cyclops, and having many mutants distrustful of Inhuman goals is helpful to her. It gives her the seeds of an army, and as we’ll see in Inhumans vs. X-Men, that’s what she needs. I wouldn’t say she’s happy about what happened to Cyclops, but she’s trying to make lemonade from the lemon she’s been handed. Terrible, poisonous lemonade.
Connor Morris
CB: It’s obvious that Havok should attend his brother’s funeral, but at the same time, it also feels like he may have been used as a cipher for the readers, voicing some of the fan theories about what “really” happened to Cyclops. How was that closing scene conceived, and why was Havok chosen for it?
CS: That was Jeff’s idea, and I think it’s great. Havok really should be at his brother’s funeral, and it was a perfect opportunity to lay out what Emma had done to someone who would probably be pretty sympathetic to her. After all, Havok’s pretty reactionary and intense in his own right.
CB: What can you tell me about what was going through the minds of Medusa and Black Bolt when they made their decision about Cyclops. Was there any doubt about their decision then, and is there any regret now?
CS: Yes and no. I think there can be regret on a personal level, but no hesitation at all in the minds of rulers who act on behalf of their people. That’s where Medusa and Black Bolt were. Cyclops had expressed his intention to do everything he could to destroy the second cloud, no matter how many mutants or Inhumans died on the way. He was also about to fire off his optic blast straight at them. It was a zero sum game for them – yes, he forced their hand, to a degree, but I think they’d say they made the right decision.
Matthew Moore
CB: Can you tell me anything about where Emma and Havok have been since Death of X’s conclusion, and how they may factor into Inhumans vs. X-Men?
CS: They’ve been busy. You’ll see what they’ve been up to soon enough.
CB: Similarly, Daisuke seemed like he’d had enough of life among other Inhumans. What does the future hold for him?
CS: Daisuke was the other part of Death of X I thought was really successful. He has a full arc – starting from someone who was so lonely that he was desperately hoping to become Inhuman just to get a new family, but who then would rather be alone than getting involved with the insane politics of the powered world once he gets a taste of how it really is. He’s someone who can be brought back at any time – after all, he’s got a hell of a power set, and you could see him being really useful to the Inhuman cause down the road.
CB: Why was it important to keep the truth about Cyclops’ death a secret until just before Inhumans vs. X-Men? Why wait until now rather than leading with it right after Secret Wars?
CS: It made for a better story? Speculation is part of superhero comics and has been for a long time. Honestly, I think it’s just part of the fun.
CB: How do the tone, style, and scale of Inhumans vs. X-Men compare to that Death of X?
CS: Inhumans vs. X-Men is bigger, touching on the entire Inhuman and X worlds – we get almost every faction in there, although there are still tons of characters we probably won’t be able to squeeze in. That’s what happens when you end up with two lines of heroes and villains with a zillion characters in the same book. We’ll do our best to get a lot of favorites in there, though, even some faces people haven’t seen for a long time.
Jace Martinez
CB: What’s the narrative relationship between Inhumans vs. X-Men and Death of X? Are they chapters of the same story, or is Death of X perhaps a prolog for things to come? Or do you see them as more or less standalone stories – or at least as “standalone” as a shared universe comic book can be?
CS: They’re each standalone, and designed to be read without the other – we drop plenty of clues in Inhumans vs. X-Men so people can understand what happened in Death of X if they didn’t read it, but man, Death of X is a great story, and it adds so much depth to Inhumans vs. X-Men. I’d really recommend people check it out if they can.
CB: Now that the truth about Death of X is out there, do you think fans will find something new by revisiting the Inhumans and X-Men comics that have taken place since then?
CS: I hope so! I’ve read all of that stuff as part of my own research for the book (and written a lot of it for the Inhuman side), and there’s just some great storytelling in there. Like anytime we do one of these, you’ll get more out of it the more you read. It’s really up to how far the readers want to go.
CB: Finally, once fans have scooped their jaws off the floor after reading Death of X #4, how would you tell them to prepare for Inhumans vs. X-Men? Obviously, you can’t say too much about the story just yet, but are there any last teases you’d like to leave fans with?
CS: Inhumans vs. X-Men is just huge – and we’re setting up some of our all-time favorite vs. battles between X-Men and Inhumans big and small. We’re working to make sure the book has a lot of awesome beats but also has that strong core conflict and story that these events need. I hope readers enjoy!
Charles Thompson
Soule has been garbage since he jumped to Marvel
Luis Carter
>It made for a better story? The audacity of these delusional fuckers.
Brayden Carter
I hope this fat fuck dies soon.
Henry Hill
Superman/Wonder Woman was really good, what happened to Soule??
Both hin and Aaron Kuder became shit in that book!
Hunter Reyes
Marvel editorial is what happened.
Justin Scott
DC -> Marvel is always a downgrade, user.
Caleb Green
>Cyclops had expressed his intention to do everything he could to destroy the second cloud, no matter how many mutants or Inhumans died on the way. BECAUSE IT WAS KILLING THEM
Grayson Miller
SCOTT WAS RIGHT
Elijah Barnes
Can Soule really be this frigging out if touch?
John Gonzalez
>Both hin and Aaron Kuder became shit in that book! What the fuck happened to Kuder? His art was so fucking good in Action Comics, how does it look so much worse in DOX?
Isn't Marvel known for having better art in general than DC? Did they just pair him with a really shitty inker/colorist?
Jordan Cook
''trying to carry on his legacy in a way that he probably never would have endorsed''
HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING GRAVE
Mason Campbell
Soule is the new Slott
Jace Williams
>CS: I think so. Emma’s goal is to get rid of the Inhumans as revenge for what she believes they did to Cyclops
In what way did the Inhumans and their fart cloud not kill Cyclops? How is this not their fault?
How was Emma wrong at all?
Ayden Morales
>trying to carry on his legacy in a way that he probably never would have endorsed Really? Cyclops would be proud.
Connor Ross
>that Cyclops has been dead longer than anyone expected I didn't. I called it immediately. By issue two even the blind were seeing it.
Thomas Lopez
some of us had hope in Havoklops
Adrian Rogers
This interview makes the book worse.
Henry Reed
>has been garbage since he jumped to Marvel It's the lack of editors in that publisher, user.
Brody Parker
> trying to carry on his legacy in a way that he probably never would have endorsed…
I'm pretty sure Scott would endorse stopping the literal death cloud from killing mutants and rendering the ones it left alive sterile, and doing so in a way that held no malice or vengeance against the Inhumans
Jackson Butler
I get it. Death of X is cry for help from Lemire and Soule. Marvel is pretty much mind fucking their corpses to write such shit.
William Bell
someone help them
Ryan Perry
Kek
Jaxson Price
>They’ve been busy. You’ll see what they’ve been up to soon enough. You'd think some kind of comic book about this would've been more interesting than two books about literally nothing for an entire year.
>It made for a better story? No. It just gave you permission to jump into far-removed status quo without putting any work in at first. Time-jumps are a marketing gimmick first and foremost. They allow you to build cheap mystery without any sort of forethought. This was no different.
Ryder Gray
>We’ll do our best to get a lot of favorites in there, though, even some faces people haven’t seen for a long time. Fan-favorite minor X-Men dies - check.
Nicholas Rodriguez
>Soule's and Lemire's writing died long ago after leaving DC. >Marvel is puppeting the rotten carcass of their careers for profit. Sounds likely.
Juan Sanchez
>Inhumans vs. X-Men is bigger, touching on the entire Inhuman and X worlds – we get almost every faction in there Morlocks are gonna get massacred again
Carter Gray
This strikes me as a more systemic problem than a Soule/Lemire caused one.
When's the last event where the outcome or the ones intended to be 'right' was completely tone deaf on the part of editorial and not how readers saw it?
Both Civil Wars. Schism. AvX. This.
Dylan Myers
But Cyclops actions were equal to Hitler.
>Dissipates a deadly toxic cloud to mutants, without harming inhumans and sacrificing a young mutant in the process.
Facepalm.
Gabriel Hughes
...
Ryan Kelly
Yeah, I can't really blame Soule and Lemire for this when this was a common trend with Marvel's other events. And obviously they can't point fingers at editorial even if they wanted to.
Grayson Turner
TO ME MY X-MEN
Isaiah Richardson
they have this weird out-of-touch notion that readers are meant to treat every scuffle as a super serious infraction.
if Emmaclops had killed a whole bunch of Inhumans in the process of stopping the cloud, it might make more sense, but as is it's no worse than Spider-Man and Daredevil having fisticuffs every third time they meet
Parker Cook
>Superman/Wonder Woman was really good No, it wasn't. >DUDE WHAT IF SUPERMAN AND WONDER WOMAN WENT CLUBBING LMAO Fuck that fat fuck. Fucking piece of shit.
Cooper Russell
It's the goddamn fucking Hero vs. Hero events. Everything was fucking fine for X-Men comics all the way from House of M to Second Coming. But then that's only half the truth since obviously, the core writers of the franchise changed after that.
Jeremiah Lewis
Has Soule written any good comics other than Swamp Thing?
Colton Nguyen
>People can't go dancing in their off time. The hell is wrong with you?
Isaac Sanders
>I didn't. I called it immediately. I'm pretty sure I saw people here on Sup Forums predicting that it was Emma playing Geppetto to Slim's Pinocchio as soon as the mini was ANNOUNCED.
Juan Sanchez
Red Lanterns was a hair's width above mediocre. Still not as amazing as some people were calling it at the time.
Ryan Sanders
TO ME, MY X-MEN
Justin Miller
>Schism
This felt better and had a bad guy pulling strings so at least you buy the conflict.
Nathaniel Rodriguez
To me, my X-Men
Fuck this gay earth. Seriously 2016 has been one of the worse years of all time for me.
Xavier Lee
Fuck off, Soule. I hope you die young.
Alexander Russell
>The hell is wrong with you? You shouldn't even bother replying to Not Muh fags, user.
Odds are he's a shipper who either wanted Lois/Clark or Diana/Bruce and this fucked with his headcanno; although there's always the off chance he's just enough of an autist to think that they don't have clubs in Kansas so Clark wouldn't know how to dance.
Kayden Martin
Jeff Parker is the only good writer Marvel have right now.
Jackson Foster
>t. John Oliver
Levi Hernandez
At least Trump won the election.
Brayden Lewis
TO ME MY X-MEN
Owen Miller
not after Jill Stein gets her recount he won't
Michael Edwards
Oh boy, Crybaby-in-chief is here. Maybe he can fix the drought in the west with his giant endless tears every time someone says something mean about him.
Wyatt Cook
>Superman/Wonder Woman was really good
No, it wasn't. It was awful. That's one of the biggest reasons why Superbro was put down like a dog.
Isaac Miller
Clubbing doesn't fit either characters, to be honest.
Either way the book was awful.
Logan Powell
>The hell is wrong with you?
There's some fags out there who thought superman was their dad growing up and can't imagine a Clark that's anywhere near "with it."
He has to be a frigging stay at home dad and worried about how high his grass is getting. He can't ever be anywhere in the middle of suberboy and super dad. It's an either or thing. That's why they got so mad about superbro.
I know this, you know this, but they don't. They also mask their own frustrations that their preconceived notions aren't being met 24/7 with buzzwords like "edgy." They're cancer.
Parker Ross
How does Soule and Marvel still think the Inhuman's fart cloud killing hundreds of mutants is a good thing? And that stopping said Holocaust Cloud is bad? How?
Cameron Walker
...
Isaac Gray
>Has Soule written any good comics other than Swamp Thing? He saved the rebooted Thunderbolts from being a complete waste of paper (although the constant shifts in art style and quality did him no favors); She-Hulk also seemed to be mostly hated due to the artist's fetish for giving everyone bug eyes.
But at this point he's on my "don't even bother" list along with Bendis, Slott, and Hopeless.
Nathan Morgan
>That's one of the biggest reasons why Superbro was put down like a dog.
He was put out to pasture because fags gotta have their super-old-man.
Grayson Ortiz
Why would a young Superman go clubbing?
He grew up as a farmer and his powers most make tight places with loud noises really uncomfortable to him.
Brody Reed
TO ME, MY X-MEN!
Brandon Jenkins
>Trump won the election He's not even in office and he's already crying about the cast of Hamilton not providing Pence with a fucking Safe Space, FFS!
James Brooks
No, it was because that relationship was awful, that made both characters to be terrible people, and the rest of his supporting cast wasn't much better other than Lana.
Jace Torres
Can Sup Forums please drop this bullshit headcanon "Hitlerclops" meme? Of course it doesn't fit with what Marvel's doing! DUH! Marvel didn't create that shit. Sup Forums did. It's just a troll meme asshats from Sup Forums kept pushing because they have a boner for racism and hate all the X-Men's LGBT metaphor stuff. THAT is why it doesn't make sense, because it's bullshit trolls made up to troll X-Men threads. How stupid do you all have to be to not get that?
Luke Reyes
>always the off chance he's just enough of an autist to think that they don't have clubs in Kansas so Clark wouldn't know how to dance.
>Why would a young Superman go clubbing? >He grew up as a farmer
Ryan Garcia
Current Year Man, no.... How can you betray your best friend?
Ethan Hughes
Tykeclops was literally compared to baby Hitler in the first issue of Champions. They compared Cyclops to Hitler by name.
Thomas Diaz
Marvel deserved to be killed.
Thomas Nguyen
Why would a Smallville boy with supersenses go clubbing?
There are tons of other places he can go to enjoy himself. Clubbing is the most unimaginative idea.
Wonder Woman, specially, was portrayed as a heavy-rock type of lady in her own book.
I'd rather see Supes and Wondy in a Metallica concert than in a club house. It would fit more with his old characterization and her new one.
Ryan Jenkins
Sorry, but did Pence pay to get lectured or did he pay to see a play?
Transactions don't really go along with "safe spaces". This is the equivalent of you going to McDonalds and the person behind the counter lecturing you over your academic career. You paid for fries, not idiocy.
Leo Jackson
>The idea that Emma does everything she does in the series as some sort of twisted tribute to Cyclops, trying to carry on his legacy in a way that he probably never would have endorsed >Cyclops: Emma, you fool! We need the Cloud to ensure the Mutant Race is finally extinct!!!! >These are the people running X-Men >These are the people running Marvel Where did the good times go?....
Hudson Carter
I know, you're meme'ing, but still made me want to reply/
Adrian Cook
>Cho-Hulk unironically compared Cyclops to Hitler >Cyclops was murdered by people who believe in genetic superiority and eugenics, for stopping their poison gas cloud that was wiping out an entire race of people
Blake Murphy
They have compared him to Hitler in interviews and in comic. They have described what he has done as a horrible unspeakable act
Isaac Barnes
am I wrong or not only Cyclops isnt Hitler, Emma allegorically saved 3 million jews?
Hunter Reyes
Hamilton is cancer anyway
Luke Peterson
>No, it was because that relationship was awful
The relationship was written to fail. The goal was to have a huge fall out even though they punked out at the end. It was also sabotaged at every single instance with ship teasing by writers who just had to toss in a few "Man, I sure would like to fuck Lois" bits into ever third issue which made Clark look like a huge dickhead.
They wrote SM/WW to debunk SM/WW. That's why you had Diana not ever really appreciate Clark's roots and come off like a huge bitch even though in every other continuity she knows the best place to find him is on the farm.
The relationship didn't make them terrible people. The writers turned them into terrible people to sink the relationship. There's a huge difference.
Aiden Roberts
>Clubbing is the most unimaginative idea.
Someone never spent any time as an attractive young man. Clubbing is fun as fuck.
Noah King
saved 3 million jews at the expense of 3 million yet-to-be-concieved nazis
Levi Ward
These people need to plan out things more before jumping into a status quo without explains the backstory.
Isaiah Moore
I will not be happy until all the Inhumans are dead. Their very existence is not acceptable.
Noah Reed
I mean, yeah we're all saying it in scattered ways, but to summarize.
How the fuck is Cyclops treated as literally Hitler for the last few years because of something he did right before dying, when it turns out he didn't do shit? To the point that he was called Hitler flat out in recent issue of Champions, that's his legacy.
How the fuck were the X-Men in the wrong for anything they did here? The Terrigan mists killed a fuck load of mutants, yet the Inhumans walked away as heroes here somehow. Scott trying to stop the cloud wouldn't be wrong.
Hell, anyone trying to stop the cloud after it killed dozens of mutants including Scott wouldn't be wrong. The Inhumans should have taken more shit for this. The inhumans should answer for that shit.
Why did Storm just settle things peacefully offscreen after all the deaths? Scott turned a death cloud into a non-death cloud, so Blackbolt "killed him" for it. None of this made sense.
What's stopping Alex from just telling everyone the truth, that Scott was dead for awhile and it was all an illusion?
Joshua Perry
Look, i'm not a shipper. Any pairing got potential if written right. You agree with my on that, right?
But the book was awful, though. We can give many reasons why, like you did right now, but the fact is that the characters were horrible in it. SM and WW were mostly bickering back and forth or complaining about each other behind their backs than anything else.
Dude, i've gone clubbing. I'm a rave kinda guy. But i just don't see Clark being into it.
Adam Wright
>as a horrible unspeakable act Where did he touch your cloud? Show it on the doll.
Mason Thompson
>The relationship didn't make them terrible people. The writers turned them into terrible people to sink the relationship. There's a huge difference.
Does it, though? Because the publisher traditionally only try to explore the whole "Gods above us" angle when it comes to the SM/WW couple. If that's all the publisher see in it then that's the only thing the relationship can offer.
Easton Williams
>CB: Now that the truth about Death of X is out there, do you think fans will find something new by revisiting the Inhumans and X-Men comics that have taken place since then? >CS: I hope so! I’ve read all of that stuff as part of my own research for the book (and written a lot of it for the Inhuman side), and there’s just some great storytelling in there. Like anytime we do one of these, you’ll get more out of it the more you read. It’s really up to how far the readers want to go.
If anything the previous issues with the context of Death of X make even less sense considering everyone's called Cyke Hitler when in reality HE DID NOTHING WRONG.
Evan Adams
To me, my X-men!
Christopher Fisher
This.
Here's what gets me: Cyclops was KILLED by the Farteaters' giant murder cloud- the cloud that THEY DON'T EVEN NEED. The Inhuman's murdered Cyclops, and tons of other mutants.
THEN, they stopped one of the Fart Clouds -which, again, the Inhumans will not die without but that kills and steralizes mutants- and Medusa and Black Bolt try and murder him.
AND the Inhumans have a stash of Terrigen crystals that that dude was hording.
The Inhumans are committing genocide and murder. They are worse than most supervillains. So why are we supposed to see what Cyclops did as wrong?
I swear to god I hope Apocalypse comes back or something and wipes the fucking Inhumans out. I don't want them sent to space. I want them extinct.
Leo Kelly
Farmers don't just do farm stuff 24/7 ya know
Jason Sullivan
>But the book was awful, though.
No doubt. My gripe is at the way it was handled and the book was a big part of that. I'm not mad about it because I'm a SM/WW shipper. I was mad because it was character assassination in the service of propping up one of the OTPs that they're so addicted to.
I expect different relationships after a reboot. Putting them with the same people is intellectually lazy and quite cowardly. It's also story poison cause you know which relationships are going to be treated fairly and which ones are going to get the SM/WW treatment. You aren't going to give anything a real chance if you know the writers aren't.
Elijah Gutierrez
They're trying to get rid of muties because muh rights so they're painting them as the bad guys so people won't feel too bad about seeing them go. Of course that would work better if X-men didn't have a looooooong established fanbase and if anyone cared about inhumans that aren't Kamala.
James Miller
To be honest, though, reboot or not, you just don't give Superman anyone other than Lois. Superman/Lois Lane is just too big and iconic now.
Any new relationship you might throw at him will only serve to prop the SM/LL romance up. That's what happened with Wonder Woman Pre-Nu52 and in Nu52. Wonder Woman comes off as the woman that is standing between Superman and the love of his life. That will happen with any established character or not you place him in a relationship with. You'll have Superman dating the new gal and still constantly thinking about how Lois might be doing and feeling lonely/jealous because Lois is not the one in his arms or Lois is with someone else.
Owen Long
if there was only one Inhumans book and it was just Black Bolt and Kamala having space adventures without any other Inhuman I don't think a single person would be upset
Owen Turner
>Slowly killing off all the X-men to replace them with alternate not as good versions of themselves
It sucks
Old Wolverine, young Cyclops, young Jean, etc.
Jeremiah Ward
I like how Soule had Black Bolt practically begging Medusa for permission to kill all those mutants, and then have him murder what he thinks is Cyke for, like...no reason. And apparently not even think twice about it.
As if it wasn't enough to shit all over him in the main Inhumans book.
Angel Lee
Hahahahaha >Jill Stein being relevant Ease up on the hallucinogens, or the right wing death squads will have to gas you
Asher Anderson
I don't get how people can be so incompetent as to think these events flow evenly. How the fuck is Marvel always so off-base? Every time they write hero vs. hero conflict it's awful
>Civil War: Ideal: Iron man and Cap are supposed to be ideological opposites Reality: Iron Man is an ass who hires super-villains and puts heroes in a Negative Zone prison. He is clearly the bad guy.
>AvX: Ideal: Avengers save the world from the X-Men's hubris. Cyclops is a villain. Reality: Cyclops was right, and shit went wrong because the Avengers decided to fuck with the Phoenix Force. Cyclops killed Xavier only under the influence of the Phoenix Force. Avengers and X-Men have been forgiven in the past for killing much more people.
>Civil War II: Ideal: Carol and Tony have equivalent viewpoints regarding using a clairvoyant Inhumans' powers. Reality: Carol is a moron and puts all of her trust in the plot device from Minority Report. Clear flaws to her rationale are shown but she keeps going with it. She comes off as an asshole, and even pro-Carol sites like the MAry Sue and Tumblr think she's an idiot.
>IvX: Ideal: Cyclops is Hitler Reality: Cyclops is gassed by people trying to make people fulfill their genetic destiny.
Anthony Cook
Havok presence made me think of something:
Where the fuck is Wasp? Havok kidnapped Wasp and she hasn't been seen since.
Is he keeping her locked up in some rape dungeon somewhere?