Cyclops once gave an incredibly cruel insult to Wolverine about Jean Gray that cut deep, showing nobody truly knows the X-Men hero better.
In their many years on the X-Men, Wolverine spirit Cyclops have been frenemies, as their love of Jean Gray has often put them in conflict. However, in X-Men: Schism from Marvel Comics, in the middle of a deadly conflict where the two heroes disagreed on how to handle a Sentinel, Scott Summers insulted Logan with a barb so cruel that it had to hurt the antihero. In the process, it showed how Cyclops knows Wolverine better than most mutants.
In the pages of Marvel Comics, Wolverine and Cyclops have always had a complicated relationship. Cyclops prides itself on being a leader who wants to be an active participant in protecting mutants and the X-Men. Cyclops can sometimes be cold and analytical, which is a stark contrast to Wolverine. Logan is a much more emotional hero who does not actively seek out being a decision-maker for the X-Men but is willing to put his body on the line to protect mutants. While Cyclops wants to be a teacher to young mutants, Wolverine begrudgingly does so, even if he’s proven to be an effective mentor. Their different philosophies in dealing with a powerful thread once led to an incredibly cruel insult from Cyclops that cut Wolverine to his core.
In X-Men: Schism # 4 by Jason Aaron, Alan Davis, Mark Farmer, Jason Keith, and Jared Fletcher, the X-Men’s former base of Utopia was under attack from a super-Sentinel created by the Hellfire Club’s former leader, Kade Kilgore. With the Sentinel miraculously constructing its body with nearby debris and buildings, Cyclops and a group of kid and teen X-Men end up being the last line of defense against the giant robot leveling Utopia. However, Wolverine did not see eye-to-eye with Scott, as he felt it was wrong to have kids fight against the mighty Sentinel, as he planted bombs around Utopia to force an evacuation. After Wolverine chided Cyclops for using kids as weapons, he insulted the clawed hero saying that Jean Gray “never loved you, you know,” and pushed things further, telling him, “you always frightened her.”
Wolverine’s reaction says it all, as he clenches his jaw and looks hurt by Cyclops’ words. He musters a response, asking Scott who Jean would be more afraid of in the situation. For Wolverine, Cyclops telling him that Jean was frightened by him has to feel devastating, as he often struggled to prove he’s a man, not an animal. Wolverine really tries his best to sideline his animalistic side, so Cyclops insulting him by saying Jean is frightened by him hits hardest at his anxieties about who he is.
The conflict between Cyclops and Wolverine showed the X-Men heroes are like brothers, as they know how to push each other’s buttons. In this case, Cyclops’ insult about Jean hurt Wolverine, as he knew exactly how to hurt his feelings by telling him she was afraid of him. Even Cyclopswho has battled Wolverine for Jean Grey’s affection over the years, must have felt bad about leveling such a hurtful insult at Wolverine.
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