Cyclops: Retribution

Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #17–24

by Bob Harras, Don McGregor, Fabian Nicieza

Cyclops, the fearless leader of X-Factor, along with his former X-Men teammate Banshee and the Morlock outcast Callisto set out on a globetrotting quest to stop the mechanical monster Master Mold from releasing the Retribution Virus on an unsuspecting world population.

Collects Marvel Comics Presents (1988-1995 1st Series) #17-24.

Genres: X Men, Comics

64 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1989

About the author

Robert "Bob" Harras (born January 11, 1959) is an American comics writer and editor, who was editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics from 1995 to 2000 and currently serves as editor-in-chief of DC Comics.

Reviews

[Jameson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic gets a lot of hate but it holds up surprisingly well and I appreciate it more each time I read it. The art is colorful and dynamic, the story makes sense, it plays well with continuity, and our hero gets a chance to shine solo. Well, mostly solo. Because Banshee has a good showing too. This is what these kinds of Marvel Comics Presents stories should have been. That they weren’t maybe is what makes this story look good in comparison. Honestly, the majority of MCP is trash.

Comics fandom is very much a hive mind and the hive mind hates this book. Probably because it was written by Bob Harras*. But the script is definitely serviceable and there’s no denying that the early Ron Lim art crackles with energy.

At this point in time he’d been through a hell of a lot. So it’s just plain FUN to see Cyclops competently drawn in a competent story optically-blasting his way to a happy ending.

Maybe best for Cyclops fans only, who knows. 3.5 rounded up.

*Harras is the x-editor “universally” loathed for mandating a back-to-basics approach to X-Men, forcing Chris Claremont off the title. Whether that did more harm than good, immediately and in the long-term, is debatable.

[Matthew Ledrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this could have been okay, had it been allowed some room to breathe. This gift of MCP was that many authors could tell many stories with a variety of characters. The curse of MCP was that they often only had 8 pages to do so, so the story is always on fast forward.

Rhane meets a clan of wolf-people like her who seduce her into their clan so that they can have new gene-stock. She likes them, then finds out their plans, and runs. And presumably, although this takes place on the small island of Muir Island, this entire civilization is never heard from again.

I'm giving this two stars, because this was an interesting idea. Given a full issue or multiple issues of New Mutants, Flaxman could have done something great with this. 2/5 stars.