This article contains spoilers for Champions #3, by Eve Ewing and Simone Di Meo.
Cyclops may be the X-Men‘s greatest leader, but he’ll always be one of the Champions at heart. The Champions are essentially Marvel’s version of the Teen Titans, a group of teenage superheroes – many of them legacy heroes, like Miles Morales’ Spider-Man and Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel – who believe they have the power to change the world. The first generation of Champions even had a member of the X-Men among their number, a time-lost version of the young Cyclops.
It’s been quite a while since Cyclops served among the Champions, but he’s proved himself a loyal ally. He dropped everything during the epic War of the Realms event when he heard the Champions were in need, actually abandoning his fellow X-Men and surprising Ms. Marvel by rallying the beleaguered Champions against a horde of mystical enemies. But now things are darker than ever before for the Champions; a new law has been passed in the United States requiring teenage superheroes to register with the government. A handful of heroes have objected to this law, led by Kamala Khan herself, and they’re on the run.
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But fortunately, they will always have a friend in Cyclops. In Champions #3, the government’s agents – an army of soldiers who represent an agency called CRADLE – have the last few Champions surrounded. The Champions prepare to make what they clearly expect to be their last stand, but it is interrupted by a powerful optic blast. Cyclops has been brought into play, contacted by the mutant Champion named Dust, and he has come to save his old friends. Ever one for giving a speech, Cyclops delivers one that promises a major diplomatic incident if CRADLE doesn’t back off. “By order of the sovereign nation of Krakoa,” he declares, “I grant asylum to these individuals. They are refugees in their own homeland, fugitives from an unjust law. So unless you want a war with the mutants… I suggest you let them come with me.“
It’s a wonderful scene, certain to delight X-Men fans. In truth, Cyclops was better with the Champions than he has ever been with the X-Men, and it’s thrilling to see a legacy of his time with the young superhero group. What’s more, Eve Ewing understands Cyclops better than many X-Men writers; she gets that he is supposed to be a charismatic figure with a larger-than-life presence, someone who steps in and changes the entire dynamic of a situation just by being there. Simone Di Meo perfectly captures this, with the Champions shown reacting to him, clearly emboldened by his arrival, suddenly confident they can not only survive, but triumph. Truly Cyclops is the X-Men’s greatest leader.
What’s more, Cyclops understands this crisis on an intuitive level. When he returned to his own time, it was one where the US government was proposing a Mutant Registration Act for the first time, and he has spent most of his life fighting against these unjust laws. Little wonder he can’t help but come to the Champions‘ help when he learns they’re in need.
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