{"id":430934,"date":"2026-01-26T14:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T14:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430934\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T14:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T14:43:15","slug":"x-men-monday-327-alex-paknadel-talks-cyclops-aipt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430934\/","title":{"rendered":"X-Men Monday #327 – Alex Paknadel Talks ‘Cyclops’ \u2022 AIPT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome, X-Fans, to another uncanny edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT<\/a>!<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Every X-Men character is somebody\u2019s favorite. Mine\u2019s Cyclops. But as I don\u2019t own the rights to Scott Summers \u2014 and he\u2019s existed longer than I\u2019ve been alive \u2014 all I can do is hope his creative caretakers do him justice, with the understanding of how much he means to readers like me. Since Marvel announced<\/a> that writer Alex Paknadel<\/a> and artist Roge\u0302 Anto\u0302nio would be producing a new Cyclops<\/a> limited series, I\u2019ve had no reason to worry.<\/p>\n

Why? Well, as Alex has been making the comic book press rounds to promote Cyclops, it\u2019s abundantly clear he understands what makes Scott one of Marvel\u2019s most compelling characters. And Alex seems driven to tell a very specific story, with Cyclops-like determination. Get out of his way and let this man unleash an optic blast of concussive creativity!<\/p>\n

But enough from me. Alex has returned to X-Men Monday, ahead of Cyclops #1<\/a>\u2018s release on February 11, 2026, to discuss his take on the character, his relationships, and more. Let\u2019s see what he has to say.<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

AIPT: Welcome back to X-Men Monday, Alex! Since Cyclops was announced at New York Comic Con 2025, you \u2014 and several of your creator friends on social media \u2014 have spoken about what you have in store for Scott Summers. As a founding member of the White Noise Studio, clearly, you\u2019re a writer who sees value in workshopping ideas with peers to receive feedback. But I\u2019m curious how that changes when some of the writers you\u2019re chatting with are current or past Cyclops writers, like Jed MacKay<\/a> and Matthew Rosenberg<\/a>. Were there any nuggets of wisdom that informed your own take on Scott (a character you had also written<\/a> not so long ago)? Or maybe even reaffirmed your opinions?<\/p>\n

Alex Paknadel: Well, Matthew Rosenberg is the reason why this story crossed my friend and Editor Darren Shan\u2019s desk in the first place. I\u2019d been offered the Sentinels<\/a> gig, and I was strolling through Central Park with Matt and telling him my idea for this very stripped-out survival horror with Cyclops, where he was basically deprived of his powers. Matt basically ordered me to pitch it cold, which I was very uncomfortable doing because I\u2019m really not that guy, but he threatened me with social exclusion and I relented.<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics and ComicBook.com<\/p>\n

I\u2019m so glad I did because it gained traction almost immediately \u2014 not least, I believe, because our fearless leader, Tom Brevoort<\/a>, is a big Cyclops fan and my take more or less mirrored his own. Once it was greenlit, however, I coordinated very closely with my good pal Jed MacKay to make sure my Scott was his Scott and vice versa. Our takes were broadly similar from the jump, I think, but one nugget Jed gave me that I\u2019ve kept with me throughout is that Scott is really mutantkind\u2019s King David. That burden of holding a people together against impossible odds really stuck with me, and gave me a greater appreciation for Scott\u2019s stoicism in the face of literally infinite responsibility.<\/p>\n

AIPT: On a related note, Scott\u2019s been with the X-Men since the very beginning, way back in 1963. As a result, we\u2019ve watched him evolve from a teenage deputy leader too afraid to tell his crush how he feels about her, to a husband and father, the vessel for Apocalypse, the savior of the mutant race, a vessel again for the Phoenix, a controversial revolutionary, the Captain Commander of Krakoa, and so much more. Basically, Slim Summers is a pretty complex guy. As a writer, do the many eras of Scott Summers make it challenging to zero in on what makes him tick, or do you see a clear throughline?<\/p>\n

Alex: I absolutely see a clear throughline, and it\u2019s always duty. I think he\u2019s often spoken of as this fixed point around which all this crazy stuff revolves, but if you really look, he\u2019s far more malleable than he initially appears. Since the book was announced, I\u2019ve had the extraordinary privilege of having fans share their favorite Cyclops eras with me, and sometimes \u2014 candidly \u2014 it can get pretty passionate. But here\u2019s the thing: they\u2019re all Scott. Every era is Scott, and I see no contradiction in any of it. The expression never changes and the eyes remain unreadable, but I think Scott simply becomes what he thinks his people need him to be at any given moment.<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

Sometimes that\u2019s a bureaucrat and sometimes that\u2019s a revolutionary, but it\u2019s always underpinned by a profound sense of duty to mutantkind. Sometimes he gets it wrong because he\u2019s a human being, but that\u2019s a different conversation.<\/p>\n

AIPT: This week\u2019s first X-Fan question comes from Rift, who wants to know what sort of mindset we can expect Scott to be in. Considering how confusing the situation must be, he has to be in a rough place. What can you share?<\/p>\n

Alex: Scott\u2019s in a very beautiful place geographically and absolute hell mentally. He\u2019s being hunted in the wilderness without his visor and with no means of contacting his team, which means he\u2019s going to have to lean on some very old survival skills \u2014 the same skills he had to use in the orphanage and when he and Alex bailed out of their parents\u2019 plane as kids. His first instinct is going to be to restore order and find a way to resolve the situation neatly. Unfortunately for him \u2014 and fortunately for readers, I hope \u2014 that won\u2019t be possible. Chaos ensues.<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

AIPT: X-Fan Reese, a long-time Cyclops fan, says Scott is so often defined by his role as the X-Men\u2019s leader, so we rarely see his private, human side. This is a side many fans have loved seeing through his dynamic with Illyana<\/a> on various X-Men teams. How consciously did you make room for that side of him here \u2014 especially with him essentially operating as a lone wolf with only a teenage mutant at his side?<\/p>\n

Alex: Well, that\u2019s a tricky one. The first thing you\u2019re going to see is Scott attempting to be all business because that\u2019s the only strategy he understands for getting through gnarly situations. If anything, he\u2019s more walled off, more stolid. But we know it\u2019s a mask, right? It\u2019s a game face, and like any game face, it can only be sustained for so long. So yes, we\u2019re going to see his human side in this book, but I think it\u2019s probably wilder and more aggressive than folks are expecting.<\/p>\n

AIPT: Speaking of that teenage mutant, I don\u2019t believe you\u2019ve shared too much about her yet. X-Fan Jason would like to learn more about Scott\u2019s relationship with this character. Can we expect to see Cyclops mentoring this young mutant?<\/p>\n

Alex: Well, her name is Mei (no relation to Maystorm), and she\u2019s lost in the wilderness with Scott for reasons that will become apparent as the story unfolds. It\u2019s a kind of inverted Lone Wolf and Cub dynamic because Scott can\u2019t see, so she has to be his eyes to an extent. I love her as a character, but she was introduced out of necessity because I thought Scott needed a foil for this story \u2014 someone to really draw out the themes. I didn\u2019t want the story to be particularly interior because that\u2019s the classic Wolverine move, and in a lot of ways, Scott\u2019s inscrutability is what keeps him interesting.<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

Accordingly, I needed a foil for him because otherwise there would have been huge silent sequences in the book where Scott\u2019s just thinking and plotting. I would absolutely be down for a book like that, don\u2019t get me wrong, but it\u2019d be an awfully quick read.<\/p>\n

In terms of Scott being a mentor, I\u2019ll go this far: He TRIES to be a mentor to this young mutant, but maybe he has more to learn from her than she does from him. How\u2019s that?<\/p>\n

AIPT: Sounds like a dynamic I can\u2019t wait to read! On to another dynamic \u2014 the solicitation for Cyclops #3<\/a> mentions the new Reaver Tearjerker. What can we expect from Cyclops\u2019 cyborg adversary?<\/p>\n

Alex: Tearjerker is one of a team of all-new Reavers built by Donald Pierce to help him oversee this project up north. Unlike the original Reavers, these aren\u2019t mercs or professional soldiers; they\u2019re dumb kids radicalized during the Krakoa era.<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics and ComicBook.com<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not supposed to elicit a great deal of sympathy, don\u2019t get me wrong, but the thing that interested me about them was the fact that these are young adults who have been so brainwashed by hate that they\u2019ve thrown away their own bodies \u2014 their biological reality as human beings \u2014 in service to this messed-up cause. I\u2019ve also added another dynamic that makes them internally competitive, so in a way, I\u2019ve set them up as everything the X-Men aren\u2019t. They\u2019re pretty despicable and incredibly dangerous, but there\u2019s also something profoundly pathetic about them, too.<\/p>\n

AIPT: I look forward to Scott and Mei teaching them a valuable lesson. Now, X-Fans Dan Sail, Elly, Jes, Nema, and Vick all wonder what role, if any, Scott\u2019s wife Jean Grey might play in the story. And as I\u2019m sure you can\u2019t say much there, I have a backup question: In the conclusion to your first X-Men: From the Ashes Infinity Comic arc<\/a>, Scott admits to Jean that she\u2019s \u201cAgeless. Eternal. Aflame.\u201d and \u201cjust part of something bigger\u201d than him. Tom Brevoort\u2019s \u201cgrand unifying theory\u201d<\/a> aside, what do you think it is that keeps these two so devoted to one another?<\/p>\n

Alex: Jean is pretty absent from the story, as are the other X-Men. The whole purpose of the story is to take away Scott\u2019s support system and show you who he is \u2014 or could be \u2014 without it. That\u2019s no slight on any other character \u2014 especially Jean \u2014 but just as the Phoenix<\/a> book was largely about Jean getting some space to figure herself out, this is almost the same. The big difference, of course, is that in Scott\u2019s case, the personal odyssey is involuntary.<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

As to what keeps Jean and Scott together \u2014 and I will say this as a fan of both Emma Frost and Madelyne Pryor, incidentally \u2014 I think it\u2019s the inevitability of loss. Jean is the perpetual Eurydice to Scott\u2019s Orpheus. Every time he thinks they\u2019re on solid ground, he loses her all over again. Nothing in Scott\u2019s life is permanent, but Jean\u2019s presence is kind of hyper-contingent, right? He has to share her with these enormous quasi-Lovecraftian cosmic forces, so sometimes she\u2019s dead and sometimes she\u2019s an elemental force of creation and destruction, and so on. The net result of all that, I believe, is that he cherishes every second with her because he knows it won\u2019t last. He\u2019s a minor footnote in an epic story spanning eons and galaxies, and they both know it, so when they\u2019re together, they make it count.<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

AIPT: Semi-related \u2014 X-Fan Kat Penn notices that psychics seem drawn to Scott Summers. You have Charles Xavier as a mentor, Jean, Emma, and Betsy Braddock all attracted to Scott, and, currently, Psylocke and Kid Omega are following his lead in X-Men<\/a>. Why do you think that is?<\/p>\n

Alex: Great question. I honestly think it\u2019s because he\u2019s inscrutable, right? Logan had parts of himself he couldn\u2019t access because he\u2019d been prevented from doing so; Scott has parts of himself he WON\u2019T access because he chooses not to. We\u2019ve seen his black bug room, and it\u2019s not pretty. For most psychics, everyone around them is an open book. Scott is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. You can immediately see how someone that buttoned down and complex would be irresistibly compelling to someone who can read minds.<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

AIPT: You\u2019ve mentioned<\/a> that Scott reminds you of your father, given both men\u2019s stoic approach to tackling whatever problems come their way. But what\u2019s your opinion of Scott Summers as a dad himself?<\/p>\n

Alex: This is a great and terrifying question, and like everything else in Scott Summers\u2019 life, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a simple answer. I know accounts of Scott\u2019s time in the Essex Home for Foundlings vary, but I think I\u2019ve seen enough to conclude that he had parental responsibility thrust upon him almost from the moment his parents disappeared. Having been, for all intents and purposes, orphaned, he then had to become a father of sorts to Alex, which is where things start getting really knotty and tragic.<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

He and Madelyne then have Nathan, and then we have the catastrophic fallout of Jean\u2019s return, which was so brilliantly handled by Louise Simonson<\/a> and Chris Claremont<\/a>. In addition, you have the timeline-displaced Rachel Summers, who, of course, will go on to found the Askani and save Nathan from the techno-organic virus ravaging his body by spiriting him away to the future, where he will become Cable. Then you have all the iterations of Nathan, so X-Man<\/a>, Stryfe, young Cable<\/a>, and so on. Then there\u2019s Hope, who is kinda-sorta-ish Jean\u2019s biological child<\/a>, but also Cable\u2019s stepdaughter, making Scott both her stepfather-ish *and* her kinda-sorta-ish step-grandfather.<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

It\u2019s super messy, and our guy has undoubtedly made some pretty huge mistakes. However, without excusing anything, let\u2019s take a beat and consider the fact that this guy is canonically not even 30 and he has an entire household of grown-up kids who can and do age up, down and sideways \u2014 or get switched out with dimensional doppelgangers \u2014 at a moment\u2019s notice. The poor guy does the best he can, but the ground is shifting beneath his feet constantly. Plus, this is the guy who\u2019s been told from a young age that he pretty much has to be father to an entire evolutionary branch of humanity. Can we really blame him for being overwhelmed at times?<\/p>\n

AIPT: [Laughs] I don\u2019t know, some X-Fans can be pretty unforgiving. Finally, I wanted to wrap up with a simple, non-controversial question everybody feels 100% aligned on \u2014 and you just touched on! X-Fan Emmett Jackson wants to know how old Cyclops is. You just said under 30\u2026 but what\u2019s your real take?<\/p>\n

Alex: My take is the official take, which is that he\u2019s somewhat nebulously under 30. It became a slight issue when I was writing my From the Ashes Beast story<\/a> for the lovely Phillip Sevy<\/a>. I assumed he was 30, because of course, Hank \u2014 the post-Krakoa Hank \u2014 should be a tad younger, which he is.<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

Anyway, I inadvertently opened a very small Pandora\u2019s box by having Hank give him a little bit of stick over his age. I then got a very polite note back informing me that Mr. Summers is, in fact, a proverbial spring chicken himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AIPT: Then that is the final statement on Scott\u2019s age, and no one shall ever debate it again \u2014 especially on the internet after reading your answer!\u00a0<\/p>\n

But on that epic note \u2014 Alex, thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday!<\/p>\n

Remember, X-Fans, Cyclops #1 goes on sale February 11, 2026. Below, you can read the issue\u2019s eXclusive lettered preview, eXtra early, courtesy of our friends at Marvel!<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

\"X-Men<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Marvel Comics<\/p>\n

Yeah, I wish I could keep reading, too. Looks awesome.<\/p>\n

Until next time, X-Fans, stay eXceptional!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome, X-Fans, to another uncanny edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT! Every X-Men character is somebody\u2019s favorite. Mine\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":["post-430934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}