Monday, October 05, 2015

Countdown to Halloween: Jack Kirby's Monsters! Night Five: Cyclops was right

And now, because you demanded it (note: no one has actually demanded this), the first appearance and origin of that popular Jack Kirby character: Scott "Slim"* Summers, the X-Man known as Cyclops!


Cover of Tales of Suspense #10 (July 1960), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Steve Ditko, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek

See Scott Summers as Cyclops, demonstrating his uncanny mutant power of throwin' big-ass rocks and sinking the Dejah Thoris II, the canonical pleasure yacht of Dr. Peter Corbeau, creator of Starcore!**


Splash page from "I Brought the Mighty Cyclops Back to Life" in Tales of Suspense #10 (July 1960), plot by Stan Lee (?), script by Larry Lieber (?), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek

Thrill as Scott Summers is rescued from the suspended animation he's been placed in by Mister Sinister, who hung around orphanages grooming young boys in such a creepy way*** it's surprising he isn't mentioned in the same disdainful breath as Jimmy Savile, Gary Glitter, and Dave Lee Travers.


Witness Cyclops defeated by the mighty Ulysses Bloodstone, monster hunter of the Marvel Universe, who threw salt into his eye!


Gasp in astonishment as Cyclops peers through his patented ruby quartz crystal glasses which he must wear at all times lest his mighty optic beams, both his blessing and his curse, might destroy Wolverine and Jean Grey, who appear in shades of red and pink to him, because of the aforementioned ruby quartz crystal glasses!


Shiver in your seat as Cyclops attacks FBI agent Amos "Fred" Duncan, the X-Men's first government liaison**** and also the only X-character who has never received his own four-issue limited series!


Shake, rattle, and roll as Scott Summers, fiercely jealous of the secret relationship of Wolverine and Jean Grey, traps them in a cave so they can't go down for a date to Salem Center's favorite hang-out spot, Harry's Hideway!*****


Congest (congest?) as X-Man Bobby Drake, the chill-factorin' mutant called Iceman, traps Cyclops in a massive frozen tomb from which he will never be seen again, at least until the snowball-laden debut of Chad Bowers and Chris Sims' new series X-Men: Winter of '92!******


Cyclops!

*Scott's nickname "Slim" is Marvel canon.
**This is completely Marvel Universe canon.
***This is also Marvel Universe canon. Creepy, but canon.
****Canon!
*****Curiously enough, also completely true Marvel canon.
******Might be canon if we wish hard enough.


2 comments:

Blam said...

(a) This was brilliant.
(b) Duncan totally deserved to fall through the ice too.

Captain Blog said...

Can't believe no one caught that the Cyclops hollered,"My eyes..." when blinded.
Thought he only had one eye(s)!