There’s trouble in paradise as reality catches up with Scott Summers’s idyllic roadtrip through the cosmos with his 80s rocker space pirate dad, as Greg Rucka and Russell Dauterman continue the most surprisingly fun title of the year.
Written by Greg Rucka
Illustrated by Russell Dauterman• Q: What’s the problem with stealing a Badoon ship?
• A: It’s a Badoon ship.
• Corsair and Cyclops experience engine trouble, shipwreck, and have the nice father-son chat they’ve both been avoiding, as Rucka & Dauterman continue the smash hit of 2014!
When the idea of a Cyclops focused ongoing series came up, I may have turned up my nose at it a little bit. Not because I dislike the character (he combines two of my favourite tropes: the boyscout leader and the tragic figure who will do anything for the greater good, becoming something like a cross between Superman and Walter White), but because I didn’t quite get how that would work. How do you turn a man now most famous for killing his father figure and becoming a revolutionary terrorist into the main character of a solo series? Then Marvel pulled out the rug from under me and made me realise that you do it by making the series about the kid version of that character who has been pulled out of time and is desperately trying not to become that man — and then they went ahead and got one of my favourite writers, Greg Rucka, to bring it to life, proving that Marvel knows exactly what to do to manipulate me into buying more books.
Now, I have a bit of a personal rule when it comes to buying a solo series: I have to have an in-story reason to care about the book by the third issue of I’ll likely give up on it. Thankfully “Cyclops” seems to have known that, as Rucka and Dauterman have taken the idea of Cyclops and Corsair having the most perfect father/son bonding roadtrip and flipped it on it’s head. For this issue, there’s no running from space pirates or assassins or getting caught up in intergalactic messes; it’s simply a look at the tensions between the two of them as certain secrets come to the fore. This is why Greg Rucka being the writer of “Cyclops” was an exciting prospect as he has already taken the pre-conceived notion that this title would focus on the bonding and adventures had by father and son, and instead has given us a very emotional, rather serious look at an absent father doing his best to make it up to his son.
This isn’t your usual Greg Rucka book. For one, it’s not centered around a female character that seems designed to show the rest of the comics industry that women can be the forefront of interesting story. Instead, “Cyclops” is a coming-of-age story of a young boy. It just so happens that the coming-of-age story is a deliberate attempt for him not to become a murdering revolutionary and for him to reunite with space pirate dad in space, and for a book built on that level of the fantastic, Rucka’s writing is incredibly smart and takes ideas of conflict present in any road trip story and just wraps it in a nice bow of sci-fi: What happens when their car breaks down? They have to crash land on a nearby planet and wait for a rescue ship. What happens when Scott realizes his dad has been hiding something from him? He confronts him over it only to realize what he though were drugs is actually a life-saving nano-serum. It’s a book built on very simple ideas that the reader can connect to, allowing for a deeper emotional connection to the situation the characters have found themselves in; it’s just framed as a sci-fi.
What that leads to is a very emotional issue that cuts right to the heart of why Scott is even on the trip and the problems he is running from. Thanks to Rucka’s incredibly smart and emotive writing, this is perhaps the best version of this book that this book could be.
Continued belowHowever, it has to be said that Rucka’s writing alone would only make this book half as good as it is without Russell Dauterman’s artwork. While Rucka provides the simple notions of the script, hiding brilliant emotion behind a veil of sci-fi, Dauterman dives deep into the otherwordliness of the setting. Dauterman’s linework is incredibly clean, almost tangibly soft, creating an almost cartoon-like realism that mimics the juggling of grounded, emotional stories with fantastic sci-fi settings of the script. Combining that with Chris Sotomayor’s bright, vibrant hues that bring out the pure sci-fi landscapes of Dauterman’s artwork, contrasting warm-coloured skies and dirt with cool-coloured fauna, it becomes a book that is simply gorgeous to look at.
Dauterman also very impressively plays with the layout of each page. While there is no grand action sequence of Cyclops and Corsair facing off against mercenaries and assassins, the issue does open up with a spectacular spaceship crash that allows Dauterman to stretch his layout muscles. Opening with a double page splash of Scott sitting, feet on the dash, watching the stars, Dauterman establishes the tranquility of space before rocking that notion as a hull breach knocks even the panels of their kilter, shrinking each panel as they travel down the page to mimic the feeling of the spaceship descending away from us. He then creates the crescendo of the sequence with a book-ended double page splash with numerous, skewed panels across both pages to create the hectic feeling of the crash. Topping it off, he fills each panel with exquisite, almost Mobeius-like detail of the world they are crashing into and the parts of the ship’s hull being ripped to pieces. It’s a short sequence built to introduce the isolation that allows for Scott and his dad’s Big Talk later in the issue, but it definitely shows Dauterman’s strengths as an artist.
This is a third issue that shows that “Cyclops” knows where it is going and it’s to a place much more emotional than you would have thought. Greg Rucka was a perfect choice for this book; as a writer, he takes very grounded conflicts that push the characters together and then apart to allow buried conflicts to come to the fore as he makes the father/son bond between Christopher and Scott feel incredibly real. Then, pairing him with Russell Dauterman, the book becomes a gorgeous, out-of-this-world look at alien vistas and unreal landscapes all brought together by the vibrant colours of Chris Sotomayor. This is a book I was genuinely not expecting to be as good as it is and I am glad that I was wrong; this is a fun comic book from two creators that seem to be having genuine fun making it.
Enjoy the ride while you can.
Final Verdict: 9.1 – No, seriously, it’s that fun. Even if you haven’t read #1 or #2, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.
