The X-Office’s most brutal, gritty title has fired off its second issue. Cyclops #2 is written by Alex Paknadel and drawn by Roge Antonio, with colors supplied by Fer Sifuentes-Sujo. After a strong start last month, where Cyclops finds his Quinjet shot out of the sky and set upon by Reavers, Cyclops #2 focuses on the characters in the middle of the action and sets up a dynamic, exciting situation.
When we last checked in on Cyclops, he was wounded in the middle of the Canadian wilderness. His visor had been broken, and the accidental beam he released was spotted by several people. Among them, Reavers. Led by Donald Pierce, Alex Paknadel has reimagined the cybernetic warriors, casting them in a more brutal, bloody lens. More crudely put together, with terrible, contorted bodies, these warriors of hate are painful to look at, but deal enough misery onto others that a reader’s empathy will be limited.
New Characters and New Dynamics
As Cyclops #2 shows, the Reavers are not the only ones to have spotted Cyclops’ beams. He is pulled from the wreckage of his accident by Mei, a mutant who has been enslaved by the Reavers to dig in a mine alongside many others. Mei is spunky and tough in conversation, not easily awed or impressed by Cyclops or his sense of cool, analytical detachment. Cyclops, for his part, must confront an issue he faced in the first issue: a mutant who doesn’t follow orders well. And unlike Magik and Quinten Quire, Mei is no X-Man, not trained, and not deferential to his authority. The character adds an intriguing complication to Cyclops’ survival efforts, providing equal parts helping hand and pressure.
Paknadel’s re-imagined Reavers also play a key role in this issue. The interplay and feuding among these young, horribly misguided radicals are cruel and gritty; the culture of the Reavers is toxic and ruthless. There is no helping peers and fellows, nor are there true allies among them. There are only followers, keen to impress their leader, Pierce. Tearjerker and Endzone’s brutal feuding shows what sets these warriors of hate apart from the X-Men: where the X-Men and even all mutants have a sense of community and allyship, the Reavers seek only to gain an edge over the others.
Cyclops #2 sets up more than it delivers, but it is an effective setup. Mei and Tearjerker are more fully rounded as characters, and dynamics are established here that feel important and crucial to the story’s development.
Rough But Exciting Art
Roge Antonio and Fer Sifuentes-Sujo are the artistic duo for this issue. Antonio’s work occasionally looks a bit rough and rushed, but he conveys the comic’s brutal, hard tone quite well. The designs of the Reavers are suitably gnarly, but there can be a lack of detail on some of the faces that doesn’t quite flatter the story. Sifuentes-Sujo’s colors help maintain visual consistency with the work on X-Men, but they look too smudged at times to really sell the story’s grit. There are times when Cyclops’ eyes bathe the scene in red, which looks quite visually attractive.
Ultimately, Cyclops #2 is a well-paced read that balances character introductions and new dynamics being forged with action and plot progression. Paknadel sets a gritty tone for the series, and while the art stumbles in some places, the issue sets up for even better things to come.
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Cyclops #2
Cyclops #2 is a well-paced read that balances character introductions and new dynamics being forged with action and plot progression. Paknadel sets a gritty tone for the series, and while the art stumbles in some places, the issue sets up for even better things to come.
