What X-MEN’s Cyclops Actually Shoots From His Eyes

Cyclops, one of the founding five members of the first class of X-Men, does NOT fire lasers from his eyes as many believe. This point has been a source of confusion to many comics readers and professional comics writers. Even Stan Lee, who co-created the character with Jack Kirby in 1963, occasionally depicted Cyclops’ powers incorrectly.

When Cyclops first appeared in The X-Men #1, his powers were described as an “energy ray,” which he demonstrated by breaking up a fight between teammates Hank “Beast” McCoy and Bobby “Iceman” Drake. The concussive blasts were able to forcibly plant Beast several inches into the reinforced wall of the school gymnasium and made short work of the wall of ice which Iceman formed to protect himself. Yet one issue later, in The X-Men #2, Cyclops was shown using his powers to melt the ice off of Angel’s wings after he and Iceman got into an argument.

This began a pattern of Marvel Comics’ own writers forgetting the true nature of Cyclops’ powers and depicting him as having laser eyes or heat vision, like Superman. This happened in spite of it being noted continually by long-running X-Men writers like Chris Claremont that Cyclops’ beams were made up of pure concussive force and did not generate any form of heat, even as a byproduct of friction. For every scene that depicted Cyclops showing his fine control of his powers by using them as a knife to cut a birthday cake, there was an instance of him using his powers to light the candles.

This frequent error even found its way into the X-Men movies. In Age Of Apocalypse, for instance, a young Scott Summers accidentally destroyed Professor Xavier’s favorite tree while testing his powers. While the tree was shown to have been split in two vertically by the uncontrolled blast, it was also shown to have sprouted visible flames and was smoking as the two halves fell apart.

Another point of confusion regarding Cyclops’ powers is just how the energy for his eye-beams is generated. Some stories have said that Scott Summers, much like Superman, absorbs solar energy and channels it into his optic blasts. Other stories have said that Cyclops’ eyes are portals to a dimension of infinite energy, which is continually released into our universe whenever he opens his eyes. This last point prompted physics professor Jim Kakalios (author of The Physics of Superheroes) to declare Cyclops the most impossible of all the X-Men. Apart from the issues of anything generating infinite energy, Kakalios noted that Cyclops must have developed superhumanly strong neck muscles as a secondary mutation, despite his slight frame.

Without that adaptation, Cyclops would have snapped his own neck with the recoil of his first optic blast and died instantly. You’ve got to love comic books.

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1835 Articles Published)

Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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