X-Men: Cyclops & Phoenix: In the clutches of Apocalypse!

The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix (Collected Editions) #Tie-In

by Paul Mantell

Catapulted two thousand years into the future during their honeymoon, Scott Summers and Jane Grey find themselves in a land ruled by the evil Apocalypse and are reunited with Scott's son, Nathan Christopher. Original.

Genres: X Men, Superheroes, Marvel, Fiction

157 pages, Paperback

First published October 24, 1995

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a prose adaptation for younger readers of the iconic 1990's comics story-line that sees Scott and Jean whisked away from their honeymoon to a couple of thousand years into the future by daughter Rachel to safeguard son Nathan (who'll become Cable) from Apocalypse. Alternate timelines and psychic powers are involved... It's a compleX plot, but pretty clearly and simply summarized in this short version. Excelsior!

[Cpt Skyhawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a book for kids! Read it for fun at the suggestion of a friend.

Having never read many comic books as a kid, I'm surprised by how much... "family drama" is in this kind of stuff? Like, this book is about a honeymoon gone wrong. How 10 year old boys related to this is beyond me.

[J.B. Mathias · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this book. I don't really find the premise interesting, I think it's a strange story to choose for a novelization. It's very hard to follow and on top of being lost I don't know who most of the characters are. I feel like I need to read at least a hundred X Men comics to catch up to know what's going on in this book. It's like part X Men part Terminator and part The Mummy but neither element is done well. It's very poorly written, it's written like someone just copied it mostly from a comic and didn't stop to think that without pictures there needs to be a lot more description and narration. For most of the book I have no idea who characters are, what they look like or what the setting is, scenes change so rapidly that places explode and are gone forever before I even realized the place existed.

It was also misleading to title the book after Cyclops and Phoenix, neither was really in the story, their minds are simply transported to the future where they inhabit other bodies for a while, and they even go by other names and hide the fact that they are even mutants. It's like a Batman book where he never puts the batsuit on and is just Bruce Wayne the whole time. For that matter Apocalypse is barely in the book either, the character the book follows the msot is an Apocalypse lackey named Ch'Vayre that I've never even heard of before. It's boring and confusing, definitely not a pick up and read book.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scott Summers and his wife Jean are enjoying their honeymoon when they are dragged 2000 years into the future by their daughter from an alternate timeline, Rachel. She needs them to help raise Nathan, Scott's son from an evil clone of Jean, who had been kidnapped by one of Rachel's disciples to protect him from the ageless mutant Apocalypse, and to stop him from completing the genocide of the human race. Their best bet of doing so involves Stryfe, the evil clone made of Nathan before he was infected with Apocalypse's techno-organic virus. Scott and Jean stay with Nathan for ten years, never revealing who they are.

If this seems needlessly convoluted and angst-driven, well, welcome to the world of 1990s X-Men comics.

By the end of the story, Scott, Jean, and Nathan team up to kill Apocalypse, stopping his genocide of the human race, and then our two heroes are sent back to their/our time, where they learn that only two hours have passed since their disappearance into the future. Which ties everything up in a nice little package that ensures they can never speak of these events again, and don't have to worry about any pesky "character development".

[C. J. Scurria · Rating 3 out of 5]

As Cyclops and Jean Grey enjoy their honeymoon, they are whisked away into a world thousands of years into the future. Unsure of their new surroundings they will find relatives that need saving to keep the world from Apocalypse's rule... as they make decisions that will decide the fate of the world.

This was very entertaining though it is definitely missing the full effect of a comic book (it is a story with comic book characters from the X-men in paperback form). The relationships make it great to read especially between Scott and Jean Grey. This book I would recommend to people have a love for imagination though they might have to excuse almost confusing flash-forwards every few chapters or so.

[Michael P. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Forgettable novelization of an X-Men story. For hardcore fans and students of adaptation only.

[Timothy McNeil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure if putting in novel form better exposes or hides the ridiculousness of the story.