Cyclops #12

By John Layman, Javier Garron and Chris Sotomayor

The Black Vortex saga is rolling right along as we hit part ten of this intergalactic cross over. Cyclops #12 gives us his internal monologue as he rots in a prison waiting for a rescue that never happens. With this potentially being the last issue in the series, John Layman has to be certain to send it out with a bang.

Being able to write other characters well can always be a bit of a challenge, but John Layman has proven that he has the ability to write guest stars very well. We get to see the close bond that Scott and Bobby share as they wait to be rescued from an alien prison. Layman also shows us glimpses of who teen Scott could become as he makes a few hard choices in this book. The way the group gets out of their cell is also pretty clever as Layman comes up with an original way for the jailbreak. If there is a gripe with the issue, it’s that it pretty much plays catch-up to the rest of the event and we are taken out of all the other things that are going on.

The pencils this issue are handled by Javier Garron with colors by Chris Sotomayor. The art this issue is pretty good, but it resembles an animated X-men show. The characters just seem to have this feel to them where they could be from the X-Men cartoon from the 90’s. Having said that, there are some very good panels here, such as the full-page spread of Corsair breaking the kids out of jail or Teen Cyclops thinking about Dark Phoenix Cyclops. Garron’s pencils are very clean and crisp, which make it easy to look at on the page. There are no oddball panels that are tough to determine what you’re looking at. The colors by Chris Sotomayor are always excellent. He gives the pencils a bright and almost liquid feel to the book.

As a series finale, John Layman turned in a pretty fun book. His work on this series has really shaped Teen Scott and will help him continue to grow moving forward. The pencils and colors were fine as well and they brought Layman’s script to life. Cyclops was a fun ride while it lasted and the entire team deserves a pat on the back for making it an enjoyable book.