I like how Sikes.... is a complete hard ass in this one. it may gain him some fans and respect... no offense Scott fans...but for me this will do good to erase the "superman" syndrome behind his character...
the role reversal with Logan.. just might turn the previous.. Wolvie fans who are tired of this recent upheaval...to his side
That's "Cyke" or "Cyke's", I guess.
Actually, I thought that one of the best things X-MEN EVOLUTION did was remove that "Superman" Syndrome to him. True, he was good hearted and grew into a leader, but he still remembered to be a normal teenager. He blasted his radio, sometimes shirked responsibility, got in some wisecracks (even during a training simulation) and made quite a few mistakes that he needed others to mop up. Everyone loves his showdown with Juggernaut in "STUFF OF HEROES", but they forget that after knocking Cain over, the man walked over, grabbed Scott's head and his bravery would have gotten him killed had Rogue not saved the day. It wasn't the only time, either. Scott would even acknowledge that he wasn't perfect, but being reliable and infallible are not the same things. Evolution, if it did anything right, made Scott Summers an actual person.
Of course, on that show, I thought it went downhill for him once they had to have him obligatorily hook up with Jean; most of his better character moments were with Rogue.
In W&TXM, I see the roles of Wolverine and Cyclops being reversed; Wolverine as the leader and Cyclops as the grizzled loner. The problem is that for all his overexposure and flaws, Wolverine is a character who can handle multiple roles. He can be a member of a team, or a solo hero. He can be a rebellious loner or a veteran (albeit cynical) team player. This show has him being leader of a team, and in the comics he even did that, briefly. The other X-Men usually can't handle that sort of flexibility (or haven't been allowed to, some may argue), and this helps prepetuate cycles or leads to Wolverine shipping. He is overexposed because he is a good character in theory. You can easily tell a range of stories with him. With Colossus or Cyclops, you can't.
Joss Whedon in AXM made a point in one issue was that unlike some "leader" types, to Cyclops, the role was handed to him. Whedon quietly suggested that he never earned it and without it, he was nothing; just another token guy with a point-and-shoot power. Granted, this was written an arc before Whedon essentially inserted the X-Men into a FIREFLY plot, but I digress. The question will be what sort of dynamic Cyclops has. It already seems awkward enough for Xavier to proclaim that Wolverine is "the destined leader", which to me seems self-serving. If they maintain a sort of conflict, not unlike, say, some of the philosophical differences between Superman and Batman, then it could work. If Cyclops quickly "sees that Logan is a good leader", then he would simply become another random X-Man and that won't work.
The challenge here is that this situation places both characters in roles that are not their ideal. As the de-facto, "destined" and perfect leader, Wolverine loses some edge as a rebel type. You can't be a rebel and a leader. Otherwise you can't give orders. I sincerely doubt anyone besides the always-*****y Emma Frost are going to seriously question the idea of Wolverine of all people leading a team. He's the Fonzie of the X-Men at this point, Mr. Cool. Cyclops is being pushed into a role, at least post-Jean's death, of being a bitter, grizzly loner; he has a trenchcoat so he MUST be edgy.
The problem with that role is that it has never, ever, EVER worked for him. X-MEN 3 tried it very briefly, and it was a disaster on every single level.
My point is, this is the sort of shift that will either be done skillfully and we'll marvel at it, or it will be underwhelming and we will see it as a waste of time or potential; there will be no middle-ground. Some people love that sort of "risk taking" storytelling; I often don't because 8 times out of 10, it falls on it's ass in comics.
I'm attempting to reserve myself to the mindset of this series that the X-Men merely exist to give Wolverine supporting characters that an audience would recognize (unlike, say, the dudes in Madripoor) and that this is following the movie mindset, produced in a bankrupt Marvel mode, where Wolverine is the be-all of the X-Universe, the fruit of it's labor and without him the rest is meaningless. I can forgive the movies for this route as in 1999, when production on the first X-MEN really began, there was no guarantee of commercial success so it seemed a no-brainer to base it around the one character from X-Men most of the general audiences knew and liked. But we're 8 years removed and I like to pretend that the X-Men has tried to move on since that philosophy. But, seeing as we've recently had 7 Wolverine comics in one month from Marvel, maybe it hasn't. When I was a kid, the idea that Wolverine charged ahead and the X-Men were behind him was great; now it isn't as appealing. But, all the episodes of Season 1 are in the can and soon to be DL'd across the internet from across the pond, so we'll get to see how this all pans out.
Frankly, if this series is only half as good as SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, then it will still be watchable.
