---
title: "Some thoughts on Cyclops: Seeing Red – Kapow Comics"
description: "Since we have this website, and capitalism is making social media even worse than it used to be, I figured I’d use the digital space to get some writing done,…"
url: "https://www.kapow-comics.co.uk/2026/11/14/some-thoughts-on-cyclops-seeing-red/"
updated: "2026-11-14T09:05:48+00:00"
---

# Some thoughts on Cyclops: Seeing Red

Since we have this website, and capitalism is making social media even worse than it used to be, I figured I’d use the digital space to get some writing done, maybe even give folks an extra reason to come on over and check out what we do. This is my first attempt, and it’s just gonna be thoughts on something I’ve read recently, the new Cyclops books by Alex Paknadel.

Not only is this a book I’ve been looking forward to for a while, it was a great read knowing I was going to write about it, because it very quickly set its stall when it comes to its politics, and I really do enjoy using comic books to talk about politics! Some of you might be about ready to browse away right now, believing how you do that art and politics shouldn’t mix. If that’s the case, thanks for sticking ‘round as long as you did, but I’m good with you moving on.

Much rather that than trying to convince me you’re correct. All art is political. If you disagree with that, I’m going to make some assumptions, the first being that you benefit so much from the status quo that anything that threatens that you see as “political” and a threat to yourself, and I have no time to have that conversation. You might just be monumentally naïve, as a second option, but what’s far more likely is that you are very political yourself but enjoy using the dog whistle to silence any voice that you might disagree with, so again, there’s the door. Bye.

Anyone left might be wondering why this book about Cyclops might have me thinking so much about politics. Fair. The X-Men books have often been used to discuss some very specific political thoughts, and although they are still relevant to the racial struggles that happen in the US and beyond, recent writers have also understood that today’s struggles facing queer, and in particular, the trans community have historical context with the same struggles, and as such, are worth bringing into the same struggles that presented by the narrative.

That was a very long sentence. The very first line of this new book is, “Oh, stop complaining. You mutants are constantly forcing change on **us**…” and if that doesn’t let you know that Paknadel understands the struggles facing the queer community, and the language used by those who want to stamp it, I don’t know how much clearer he could be!

it sets up one of the main driving narratives for the book pretty effectively, by also being about the way in with TERFs and their ilk see themselves. This is a book about how fragile right wingers absolutely love to see themselves as victims. Sometimes of big, multilayered conspiracies designed to destroy their very heritage, but also on a personal level, by anything that challenges their perceived supremacy.

Throughout the run of Seeing Red, we see these weak people looking for any target they can use to justify their hatred, and although that’s very true to real life fascists, there is a wonderful moment that captures exactly how it effects these idiots who want to blame mutants for everything! They have shed so much of their body in the hopes of replacing themselves with technology strong enough to give them even a chance against someone like Scott Summers. Cyclops calls them out on this, stating the belief that they put themselves through hellish pain to justify even more their hatred for mutants.

it’s a lovely bit of work to take a well understood bit of psychology that is always on display in far right circles, and give it an in universe example that shows just how far these morons are willing to go.

Alex also has a lot of fun with the self-destructive nature of those who believe only the strong will survive, and that the weak deserve what they have coming, with multiple examples of the Reavers stripping each other of parts in an effort to be the strongest, to be the favourite of Daddy Pierce, because fascism is such a damned submissive ideology at heart. They don’t care if this causes pain to people who they should be united with in the struggle and are even happy to kill each other to prove their worthiness. In an almost 100% real sense, they are truly eating themselves…

Apart from all fascism bashing, there’s other wonderful moments that show the issues in a militaristic mindset, with Summers spending most of the run thinking of himself as a soldier and expecting everyone else on his side of the struggle to act as such too. I’m no fan of the military myself, but I can’t say I’m all in on being anti soldier.

I understand just how much time, effort, and money goes into the propaganda required to make sure enough people are not only willing to die all over the world in armed conflicts, but eager for it. How often we villainise anyone who speaks out against the military industrial conflict and invent so many new ways to silence them.

What the leaders of our world want are people numbed to the idea that it’s wrong to want to kill other humans. They also require the threat of homelessness and poverty that capital so effectively creates, and I think it’s naïve to say that every person who puts on a uniform to fight for their country is a bad person who wants an excuse to murder people. Sure, bad people exist, but the same effort that goes into convincing people it’s fine to be a soldier, also does everything it can to cover for war crimes.

Scott is a leader of a revolutionary movement though, and although that does require armed conflict and violence, the idea that everyone should step up and be willing to kill is a military way of thinking, and he spends the series gradually realising that just because someone can fight, and that they would be great at it, is not a reason that they should. His final line about him being a soldier, so they don’t have to be, is a bit on the nose, and still sounds a bit close to the idea that soldiers should exist at all, but like I say, he’s fighting for marginalised people, and that does require violence.

Apart from all the story, and what it can tell us about the real world, it is also a comic book, which means it is a visual medium. Here however my level of praise does drop down a smidge. It’s far from a bad looking comic book and is different enough from the usually very rote Marvel in house style to appeal to me, but I did find the usual Marvel colouring to be just a bit flat.

Not throughout, as there are wonderful, large and bold moments where superpowers and the natural world are on full display, and the colours are vibrant and leap from the page to kick you in the retinas, but there’s a few too many times when I found myself wishing for better depth to the shading, and less washouts in the background. This is an old complaint of mine about Marvel books though, so I really wouldn’t let it bother you, as most people seem very happy with how their books look.

I’d say the only chance you’ve got of not enjoying this book is if you’re one of the people who tapped out back in paragraph two of this blog post…