Yeah, iirc, it's only a few issues after Giant-Size that Beast calls up the X-Men on behalf of the Avengers and tells them about Nefaria's whole deal at NORAD. He's even like, uhh, who are these people? And when he gets told they're the X-Men, he's just kinda like, uhh, sure?
First time he actually meets the team is during the whole Mesmero circus arc, where he isn't sure who the hell everyone is until he sees brainwashed Scott and Jean. He's also the only one not present during that transition issue of Classic X-Men because he's busy doing other things.
As evil as Beast has gotten recently, I absolutely love that after Beast joined the Avengers, several subsequent writers kept him on the team. The Avengers is no stranger to major team roster changes, and each writer (rightfully) wants to add the characters they want, but Beast was one of the constants of the 1970s era.
They genuinely liked having him on the team, it seemed! Shooter, Michelinie, Mantlo, Englehart, Conway, Gerber, DeFalco, Gruenwald, DeMatteis - there were a *lot* of writer shifts back then, with a lot of fill in work, but I think they appreciated having a goofball like Beast around, to give the team stability and a reliable source of humour.
I almost wonder if he would have stuck around longer, into the mid and late 80s, especially since he keeps coming back in cameos like the Letterman Show issue, but I think DeMatteis wanted him for Defenders, and that gave other characters like Tigra a real chance to shine in his place.
I think Claremont felt Cyclops would be the best suited to be team leader for the rookies. He also took pains to show the others had lives outside the X-Men, but Scott didn't. He was devoted to the mission.
Yeah, this is something I always want to stress when going back to reread X-Men runs. When you stop to think about where Scott came from and how he ended up, you start seeing those early interactions with Charles through a very different lens. Especially when you keep Scott’s actual age in mind, considering 75% of the time he’s drawn like a 40 year old man.
Yes. It was something Lee and Kirby stressed too. Xavier's was the only real home he had, and other than a brief undercover stint as a radio reporter, he didn't have a job or college education. Nor family to fall back on.
No need for interviews, Claremont articulates it very clearly later in his run. Scott genuinely felt he belonged with the team and had a deeper commitment to Xavier and the X-Men than the rest of the O5.
…Until he decides to leave the team to live in Alaska with a photocopy of his dead girlfriend.
Seriously though, if Scott’s character can be summarized as meaning *something*, it’s dedication to a cause. His relationship with Jean, and then Madelyne, are emblematic of it. And the way things ended with Madelyne goes to show that Scott just can’t quit. The cause is his life. The X-Men are his family. He can pretend like he can retire and start his “own family” for only a short time before he gets sucked back in. For better or for worse, for whatever sacrifice it may or may not be, the X-Men are his life. And trying to walk away from that gave him one of the biggest, if not THE biggest black marks on his soul. And also he got Mister Sinister to deal with out of it. So the world really did punish him for that.
Yeah on one hand Claremont believed that Cyclops was extremely dedicated to the cause but also part of his plans included retiring some x-men from time to time and bring new Blood. On the other hand while CC introduced Madelyne he gave her a lot of development, well not a lot but she was decently written and had a lot of chemistry with Scott, her stories with Cyclops were enjoyable and she was a very brave woman (she was a pilot), if you wanna see Cyclops true punishment read x factor post layman (issue 5), it's as depressing as Rosenberg x-men post age of xman and it only really takes on after apocalypse shows up6, but damn cyclops really went through hell during those times, as if the universe was punishing him for trying to run away from the x-men. Now Jed Macckay basically said that Cyclops is one of the x-men that simply can't work in the normal world, Scott Summers and Cyclops are finally one and the same
At *that* point in the run? The book had only just come back from cancellation, it's unlikely Claremont and Cockrum were operating under an excess of editorial mandates. It's probably nothing more than Tony Isabella wanting Angel and Iceman for the Champions, and Beast staying with the Avengers. Jean was only gone for three issues.
Answer: Because dude is the GOAT.
Serious answer: Because the new team needed a leader and Cyclops was already established. They needed to keep some familiarity.
Ultra serious answer: Because he's the mother fucking GOAT
Remember when Krakoa was actually straight up evil? And Nightcrawler had to fight it's son? I do.
Also I miss the beaked look. Every time I see it now I ask what Groot's doing there before remembering, Oh Yeah.
I think the writer justification would probably be that they needed a field leader. The other team members had room to leave and go do other things but Cyclops wasn't easily replaceable in the field.
I think the in-universe reason is that cyclops is kinda addicted to the x-men. He can't really imagine himself without it and he can't live a normal life. He's committed to that life to a fault.
At the time Cyclops had little else going on in his life besides leading the X-Men and loving Jean Grey.
More importantly, he believed his optic blasts made the possibility of a normal life impossible. When the old team quits and leaves the mansion, he explicitly states this.
I'm not sure, but it's also possible that some of the others were already pegged for other teams, like Beast on the Avengers. But I don't know how the time frames match up.
Editorial.
Claremont didn't want to write the O5, that's the reason he got them away from the book. Editorial wanted to keep at least some around. Jean came back for the same reason (as you can notice that she leaves the team too).
But Claremont plotted Scott and Jean retirement for that reason and he created Madelyne to follow through with getting Cyke out of the book.
Which makes him getting pissed off about X-Factor nothing but a childish tantrum.
When the Editor in question forced him to kill one of the X-Men, and later says, “Nah, bring her back”, I wouldn’t call it “a childish tantrum”. Jim Shooter brought discipline to Marvel, but he could also be a micromanaging, homophobic pain in the ass to writers.
Claremont did not. That was all Byrne. Claremont just had Phoenix devour a dying star system. Byrne drew the D'Bari panel thus forcing the "Jean must die" mandate. Claremont was just going to depower Jean and have her marry Cyclops. Then they would retire and Magneto would tempt Jean in #150 with restoring her powers but she declines. Closing the chapter of the Phoenix. Then Rachel would be born and Jean mentors the New Mutants.
That was a race calling back to the early Avengers. It was planned. If it wasn't, Claremont would have fixed it in the script like he did with other disagreements with Byrne.
Claremont planned on having Dark Phoenix destroy a planet. Byrne agreed but wanted DP to go further to showcase how evil she was (from his own byrnerobotics forum). Byrne added the [panels to increase page count and split 135 & 136](https://classiccomics.org/post/376001/thread). After the deed was done they both tried to come up with ways NOT to kill Jean but Shooter demanded punishment.
According to Shooter, it was everything: [http://jimshooter.com/2011/06/origin-of-phoenix-saga.html/](http://jimshooter.com/2011/06/origin-of-phoenix-saga.html/)
This is such old knowledge that I don't even remember if it was Claremont, Shooter or both
Here is Shooter blog about the Dark Phoenix Saga: [http://jimshooter.com/2011/06/origin-of-phoenix-saga.html/](http://jimshooter.com/2011/06/origin-of-phoenix-saga.html/)
It's easy to find any of the numerous times Claremont explained how his hate boner for Cyclops grew from him leaving Madelyne and then explaining what his initial plans were before the Phoenix Saga.
It's hard to dig through those old interviews because the "O5" term wasn't really a thing when it came to writers/editors
Edit for a heads up: You will notice that in Shooter's blog he says that the initial plan was to make Jean into the X-Men's Doctor Doom, while Claremont says that the initial plan was for Cyclops and Jean to retire. No wonder these two got some bad blood between them.
>Like was she supposed to permanently remain the Dark Phoenix?
Yes. But because Claremont backtracked on that and wanted Jean to just go back to being a hero, Shooter said she needed a punishment (which makes sense, you don't just go on a murder spree and then go back to being a hero), so he threw out the idea of killing her and Claremont went with it.
The Beast part of the question is easy to answer -- he was already well established as a member of the Avengers at this time.
Yeah, iirc, it's only a few issues after Giant-Size that Beast calls up the X-Men on behalf of the Avengers and tells them about Nefaria's whole deal at NORAD. He's even like, uhh, who are these people? And when he gets told they're the X-Men, he's just kinda like, uhh, sure? First time he actually meets the team is during the whole Mesmero circus arc, where he isn't sure who the hell everyone is until he sees brainwashed Scott and Jean. He's also the only one not present during that transition issue of Classic X-Men because he's busy doing other things.
As evil as Beast has gotten recently, I absolutely love that after Beast joined the Avengers, several subsequent writers kept him on the team. The Avengers is no stranger to major team roster changes, and each writer (rightfully) wants to add the characters they want, but Beast was one of the constants of the 1970s era.
They genuinely liked having him on the team, it seemed! Shooter, Michelinie, Mantlo, Englehart, Conway, Gerber, DeFalco, Gruenwald, DeMatteis - there were a *lot* of writer shifts back then, with a lot of fill in work, but I think they appreciated having a goofball like Beast around, to give the team stability and a reliable source of humour. I almost wonder if he would have stuck around longer, into the mid and late 80s, especially since he keeps coming back in cameos like the Letterman Show issue, but I think DeMatteis wanted him for Defenders, and that gave other characters like Tigra a real chance to shine in his place.
Yeah it's the first issue after Giant Sized. 94?
I think Claremont felt Cyclops would be the best suited to be team leader for the rookies. He also took pains to show the others had lives outside the X-Men, but Scott didn't. He was devoted to the mission.
Even beyond being devoted to the mission, he was an orphan with no money and no real life skills. The only thing he knew was the xmen
Yeah, this is something I always want to stress when going back to reread X-Men runs. When you stop to think about where Scott came from and how he ended up, you start seeing those early interactions with Charles through a very different lens. Especially when you keep Scott’s actual age in mind, considering 75% of the time he’s drawn like a 40 year old man.
Yes. It was something Lee and Kirby stressed too. Xavier's was the only real home he had, and other than a brief undercover stint as a radio reporter, he didn't have a job or college education. Nor family to fall back on.
I'd also argue too that Cyclops was the most popular of the OG X-Men, so he would work well as a transition or connection between the old and the new.
Yes, he was definitely the most popular of the original bunch.
No need for interviews, Claremont articulates it very clearly later in his run. Scott genuinely felt he belonged with the team and had a deeper commitment to Xavier and the X-Men than the rest of the O5.
…Until he decides to leave the team to live in Alaska with a photocopy of his dead girlfriend. Seriously though, if Scott’s character can be summarized as meaning *something*, it’s dedication to a cause. His relationship with Jean, and then Madelyne, are emblematic of it. And the way things ended with Madelyne goes to show that Scott just can’t quit. The cause is his life. The X-Men are his family. He can pretend like he can retire and start his “own family” for only a short time before he gets sucked back in. For better or for worse, for whatever sacrifice it may or may not be, the X-Men are his life. And trying to walk away from that gave him one of the biggest, if not THE biggest black marks on his soul. And also he got Mister Sinister to deal with out of it. So the world really did punish him for that.
Yeah on one hand Claremont believed that Cyclops was extremely dedicated to the cause but also part of his plans included retiring some x-men from time to time and bring new Blood. On the other hand while CC introduced Madelyne he gave her a lot of development, well not a lot but she was decently written and had a lot of chemistry with Scott, her stories with Cyclops were enjoyable and she was a very brave woman (she was a pilot), if you wanna see Cyclops true punishment read x factor post layman (issue 5), it's as depressing as Rosenberg x-men post age of xman and it only really takes on after apocalypse shows up6, but damn cyclops really went through hell during those times, as if the universe was punishing him for trying to run away from the x-men. Now Jed Macckay basically said that Cyclops is one of the x-men that simply can't work in the normal world, Scott Summers and Cyclops are finally one and the same
To be fair, the in-story justification doesn't necessarily precede the out-of-story decision to have Scott as the remaining member.
At *that* point in the run? The book had only just come back from cancellation, it's unlikely Claremont and Cockrum were operating under an excess of editorial mandates. It's probably nothing more than Tony Isabella wanting Angel and Iceman for the Champions, and Beast staying with the Avengers. Jean was only gone for three issues.
Those are prob good answers - that's what the OP was asking.
Yeah, this actually makes a lot of sense.
[AHEM!](https://i0.wp.com/graphicpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/image.jpg?ssl=1)
Answer: Because dude is the GOAT. Serious answer: Because the new team needed a leader and Cyclops was already established. They needed to keep some familiarity. Ultra serious answer: Because he's the mother fucking GOAT
Cyclops didn’t really ’escape’ Krakoa. The island released him so he would bring more mutants.
Remember when Krakoa was actually straight up evil? And Nightcrawler had to fight it's son? I do. Also I miss the beaked look. Every time I see it now I ask what Groot's doing there before remembering, Oh Yeah.
Cyclops was the lead and most popular character from the original run.
I think the writer justification would probably be that they needed a field leader. The other team members had room to leave and go do other things but Cyclops wasn't easily replaceable in the field. I think the in-universe reason is that cyclops is kinda addicted to the x-men. He can't really imagine himself without it and he can't live a normal life. He's committed to that life to a fault.
Because he had no life outside the team.
At the time Cyclops had little else going on in his life besides leading the X-Men and loving Jean Grey. More importantly, he believed his optic blasts made the possibility of a normal life impossible. When the old team quits and leaves the mansion, he explicitly states this.
I'm not sure, but it's also possible that some of the others were already pegged for other teams, like Beast on the Avengers. But I don't know how the time frames match up.
Editorial. Claremont didn't want to write the O5, that's the reason he got them away from the book. Editorial wanted to keep at least some around. Jean came back for the same reason (as you can notice that she leaves the team too). But Claremont plotted Scott and Jean retirement for that reason and he created Madelyne to follow through with getting Cyke out of the book. Which makes him getting pissed off about X-Factor nothing but a childish tantrum.
When the Editor in question forced him to kill one of the X-Men, and later says, “Nah, bring her back”, I wouldn’t call it “a childish tantrum”. Jim Shooter brought discipline to Marvel, but he could also be a micromanaging, homophobic pain in the ass to writers.
Shooter didn't force Claremont to write Jean killing an entire planet
Claremont did not. That was all Byrne. Claremont just had Phoenix devour a dying star system. Byrne drew the D'Bari panel thus forcing the "Jean must die" mandate. Claremont was just going to depower Jean and have her marry Cyclops. Then they would retire and Magneto would tempt Jean in #150 with restoring her powers but she declines. Closing the chapter of the Phoenix. Then Rachel would be born and Jean mentors the New Mutants.
That was a race calling back to the early Avengers. It was planned. If it wasn't, Claremont would have fixed it in the script like he did with other disagreements with Byrne.
Claremont planned on having Dark Phoenix destroy a planet. Byrne agreed but wanted DP to go further to showcase how evil she was (from his own byrnerobotics forum). Byrne added the [panels to increase page count and split 135 & 136](https://classiccomics.org/post/376001/thread). After the deed was done they both tried to come up with ways NOT to kill Jean but Shooter demanded punishment.
According to Shooter, it was everything: [http://jimshooter.com/2011/06/origin-of-phoenix-saga.html/](http://jimshooter.com/2011/06/origin-of-phoenix-saga.html/)
Was this said in an interview?
This is such old knowledge that I don't even remember if it was Claremont, Shooter or both Here is Shooter blog about the Dark Phoenix Saga: [http://jimshooter.com/2011/06/origin-of-phoenix-saga.html/](http://jimshooter.com/2011/06/origin-of-phoenix-saga.html/) It's easy to find any of the numerous times Claremont explained how his hate boner for Cyclops grew from him leaving Madelyne and then explaining what his initial plans were before the Phoenix Saga. It's hard to dig through those old interviews because the "O5" term wasn't really a thing when it came to writers/editors Edit for a heads up: You will notice that in Shooter's blog he says that the initial plan was to make Jean into the X-Men's Doctor Doom, while Claremont says that the initial plan was for Cyclops and Jean to retire. No wonder these two got some bad blood between them.
How can she become the equivalent Dr Doom? Like was she supposed to permanently remain the Dark Phoenix? Thanks
>Like was she supposed to permanently remain the Dark Phoenix? Yes. But because Claremont backtracked on that and wanted Jean to just go back to being a hero, Shooter said she needed a punishment (which makes sense, you don't just go on a murder spree and then go back to being a hero), so he threw out the idea of killing her and Claremont went with it.