Cyclops #1

Writer: Greg Rucka
Art by: Russell Dauterman (art) & Chris Sotomayor (colors)

Spinning out of ‘The Trial of Jean Grey’, young Cyclops leaves the X-Men and joins his father Corsair and the Starjammers. After a seemingly regular encounter with a space ship, Corsair devises the perfect method for quality father-son time: intergalactic sight seeing. Greg Rucka delivers a perfectly executed first issue for a character that has never before had his own on-going series.

Rucka has been on my radar for some time as a creator I wanted to check out. Emerald City Comicon gave me a chance to look up some of his work like “Lazarus”, but I found it too violent for my taste. So when I heard about him writing this book, it definitely intrigued me. Cyclops is my favorite Marvel character so I was going to pick up the book regardless. Still, repeatedly hearing positive comments about Rucka inflated my excitement. As an added bonus, the variant cover by Greg Lands is very, very impressive. A month and fifteen bucks later and I couldn’t be any happier with this book.

From start to finish, the story moves with a clear objective: getting Cyclops and his father to spend time together. As we’re introduced to Cyclops (in case the reader happens to not know who he is) we also find out something that might have motivated him to want to spend more time with his father. Essentially this is Cyclops dealing with the fact that he doesn’t like the man he grows up to be. Instead, he finds out that he wants to grow up to be more like his father, who he believed to be dead. Meanwhile Corsair was trying to figure out how he was going to be a father. I’m somewhat of a sap when it comes to father-son stories so it didn’t take long for me to get pulled in. Rucka did such an amazing job writing the interactions between the two. Not only does their bonding feel genuine, it’s backdropped by some equally wonderful scenes. The Starjammers blend into the story in a way that made me want to see more of them. That can also be said about how this book ended, I was all smiles but I wanted more.

Equally as impressive as the Greg Land variant cover is the interior art by Russell Dauterman and colors by Chris Sotomayor. Every page is stunningly beautiful, emotional and thrilling. Together, the two perfectly execute setting the right tone for each scene. Everything from the facial expressions to the colors used on the page is pure gold. It’s like All-New X-Men with some added edge. To me, this signifies some bumps along the wild adventure through space that Cyclops and Corsair are embarking. The smiling father and son on the final page made me confident that Dauterman and Sotomayor won’t disappoint.

By now there should be no doubt about how much I enjoyed this book. It was everything I hoped it to be with a few surprises. I should point out that the amazing cover art and fact that this book was my first variant purchase may have influenced my enjoyment of this book. However I do stand by the points I made in this review that it’s truly a wonderfully executed work of art. Rucka, Dauterman and Sotomayor hooked me. If the upcoming books remain this good, Cyclops could be on its way to being my favorite comic of the year.

Review Score: 7 (of 7)