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Robert Wood is a writer and editor based out of Cheshire, England. He is the author of 'The False Elephant: and 99 Other Unreasonably Short Stories' - 100 stories, each told in exactly 100 words.
Rob got into comics via Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man and the UK anthology 'The Mighty World of Marvel,' which was running Frank Miller's Daredevil, Classic Hulk and Contest of Champions II.
Prior to journalism, he worked in copywriting and copyedited for Oxford University Press. He is on X as @PinchTwigs and Instagram as roobwoodjourno.
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The X-Men boast some truly intimidating heroes among their ranks, but there's only one who Cyclops is genuinely worried to go up against. And while you may assume it's his old rival Wolverine, you'd be wrong...
Cyclops Admits Psylocke Is X-Men's Most Dangerous Fighter
In this week's X-Men #23 - from Jed MacKay, Tony Daniel, Mark Morales, Fernando Sifuentes and Clayton Cowles - Cyclops switches bodies with his future self, who is on a mission to kill Doug Ramsey's Revelation.
The older Cyclops has had a decade to plan his attack, and is confident he can best Hulk-level powerhouse Juggernaut, Sorcerer Supreme-level mystic Magik, and Omega-level telepath Quentin Quire. It's only when going up against telekinetic ninja Psylocke that Scott admits, "You were the one I worried about the most."
Cyclops isn't saying that only Psylocke could beat him. Rather, that after a decade of planning exactly how to attack, Psylocke is the only one whose moves he doesn't feel he can 100% predict and account for. Scott knows that even a decade of planning can't guarantee he'll outfight Kwannon.
Ultimately, it's only thanks to Beast - who Cyclops believed would likewise be possessed by his future self - that his attack is stopped, and Doug escapes, altering the dark timeline that fans recently saw in the Age of Revelation event.
Cyclops Knows That Powers Don't Make the Hero
In the recent X-Men #17, Cyclops explained why he's so often led the X-Men despite his powers being relatively weak - he's always the man with a plan. Scott explained "I set up the battlefield like a pool table," and that's exactly how he approaches getting past the X-Men to try and kill Doug.
However, while a good plan is enough to get past Juggernaut and Magik for a few key moments, Scott knows that Psylocke's ninja training alongside the Hand makes her far more reactive. Everyone else is predictable for the first few moments, but Psylocke is too skilled for that.
When Cyclops revealed his latest X-Men team, fans couldn't figure out why he recruited both Quentin Quire and Psylocke, given their similar psionic powers. However, Cyclops is a smart enough leader to look beyond a person's mutant powers and assess all their abilities, explaining why he has so much respect for X-Men's mutant ninja as the one opponent equal to his brilliant tactical mind.
X-Men #23 is available now from Marvel Comics.
First Film X-Men (2000)
TV Show(s) X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-Men '97 (2024)
Video Game(s) X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), X2: Wolverine's Revenge (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994)
Character(s) Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Phoenix, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Morph, Nightcrawler, Havok, Banshee, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Cable, X-23
Comic Release Date 213035,212968
English (US) ·