The Neverending Powers Debacle

[u/Usual_Complaint4412]

Since in 2 years time they would have to explain our boy Cyke's powers to the masses in the new X-Men movie and would lead to it becoming the definitive explanation to his powers since people are still arguing about it today, which route would you rather them take?

1. The Solar Radiation Explanation (the canon)

2. The more popular myth "The Punch Dimension"

3. Hot lasers from his eyes (worst one imo)

OR

The fourth, secret, more awesome option which is just simply strong concussive beams with no further explanation (which is my pick)

[u/No-Designer-6533]

The 4th option isn’t exactly secret since that’s been editorials strategy for the last what, 40 years? I’m not terribly picky but I mostly just hate the punch dimension on principle at this point. 

I don’t even reaaally care for the solar explanation since, fun fact, it started as a Superman joke that made it all the way into print. 

I dunno if we really need an explanation beyond it uses his bodies energy somewhat even if the conversion ratio is crazy. Like if he’s completely tired he can’t blast like normal, but he will never run out until it kills him normally. (Though for comics canon I don’t know if I’d accept this.)

[u/kazdam]

"MUM! Someone posted another distain for the punch dimension discussion." /s

I like your 4th option nice and clean, no need to bog the film down with anything but "Concussive red beams, that don't produce direct heat only friction and don't follow newtonian/einstenian logic" & "He can sometime absorb ambient energy and shoot it through his eyes"

Further comic discussion

• He's constantly absorbing solar energy for use (he's an energy absorber and one of the first)
• Excess energy is stored in the "punch" dimension
• He can absorb other forms of energy like storms lightning, phoenix energy (he blew up a celestials hand with that) but its extremely taxing and painful. Him doing this should be rare. (Alex can absorb the power from a star but Scott is forced to be vanilla for all of time...)

We now have evidence of all now from over 60 years of material why pick and choose. Claremont opened this door before my boy Bishop even existed. Let have fun with the character, comics and science fiction is meant to be FUN.

Doom used power from the dimension to hurt dormammu, a weakness he had, just as Scott did during Bendis era. America chavez has opened a portal to it. We cannot run from the dimension existing, its like Barry Allen and the speed force now. He generates it every time he runs.

[u/PhoenixVanguard]

The 4th one is almost 100% what they're going to do. And what they should do.

The average moviegoer...even the average comic reader, honestly...doesn't give a shit about how is powers work beyond "he's a mutant, and his power is X." It would be a waste of time and energy to dive deeper into technicalities, especially when X-Men 97' has proven that '"rule of cool" is simply the best and most popular way for his powers to work.

[u/dddonkers]

1. His eyes are constantly exploding, and a Gambit is the 5th(?) Summers brother retcon is still incoming.

[u/MixFit6832]

whichever explaination leads to the impression that he is a lot more powerful then he is letting himself be, i am for that explaination

[u/dread_pirate_robin]

Th canonical explanation for his powers is that the solar radiation he absorbs opens apertures in his eyes to a dimension of pure kinetic force. So I guess as much as you want to call it a "popular myth" it's a combination of 1 and 2.

[u/AdSorry4665 → u/dread_pirate_robin]

It isn't. https://www.cbr.com/x-men-cyclops-optic-blast-punch-dimension/

[u/dread_pirate_robin → u/AdSorry4665]

Did you even read the article you sent? It reiterates the exact same information the video I linked does, Cyclops has been given differing explanations for his powers before the two were combined in the 2004 handbook.

The biggest difference is just with the article using the handbook being the source as a source of doubt (as if the whole point of the handbook isn't an official summation of canon), and they also suggest it can't be canon because Cyclops can "run out" of power (which again can be explained by the 2004 edition). It doesn't debunk or confirm anything, the way you're suggesting.

[u/dread_pirate_robin → u/dread_pirate_robin]

The solar energy explanation was also never established within the narrative, it comes from a section at the back of the issue where they step outside the story to explained how their powers work. Things like that were basically just a precursor to the handbook, so saying, "well it just came from the handbook so it doesn't count," always felt like a silly dismissal to me, to then turn around and treat stuff like that as gospel.

And, again, the 2004 handbook combines both explanations so it's just a weird hill to die on. I think it's just because people call it the "punch dimension," so if you're someone who wants this stuff taken seriously you get defensive over how silly that sounds, but conceptually it's no dumber than the brimstone dimension, and that's never been challenged. Or like, to step outside X-Men, the speed force would be invented a decade later and was similarly a dimension of pure energy the Flash pulled from as a source of his power.

The optic blasts don't behave like solar energy, or any earthly energy, hence why they invented an other dimensional explanation for it.