LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Fundamentally Misunderstands Cyclops’ Power
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes gave all of its miniaturized heroes special abilities to help solve puzzles, but this led to the game getting X-Men leader Cyclops' powers wrong. With well over 100 playable characters in the game, each with their own unique set of superpowers, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes understandably has to categorize heroes' powers into different groups to make them useful in solving the game's puzzles. Although this particular LEGO game adapted the Marvel franchise well, the grouping and simplification of each character's powers made them less unique. In the case of Cyclops specifically, the categorization completely changed the way that his mutant ability functions.
First introduced in 1963's The X-Men #1, Cyclops - aka Scott Summers - was the first mutant recruited by Professor Xavier and has often served as the team's Field Team Leader. His mutant ability creates a concussive blast that projects from his eyes. Due to a head injury Summers suffered as a child (after being ejected from an airplane), he is unable to control the optic blasts, causing them to project from his eyes at all times. In order to control this power, Cyclops must wear a ruby quartz visor or glasses at all times. Unfortunately, while LEGO Marvel is still a good game, it falls short by fundamentally misunderstanding how Cyclops' optic blasts actually work.
In Lego Marvel Super Heroes, developer TT Games classifies Cyclops as a heat character. Like the Human Torch and other heat-based characters, Cyclops can use his optic blasts to superheat and melt gold LEGO bricks, which can be used to clear a path or help solve various puzzles. In addition, Cyclops can use his blast to disintegrate enemies. The problem here is that Cyclops' optic blasts are actually a purely concussive force that don't generate heat, something that has been clarified in Marvel comics time and time again. The idea that Cyclops' power can be used to superheat or melt objects is a common misconception, often derived from people mistaking his power for Superman's heat vision. With LEGO Marvel Super Heroes' recent Nintendo Switch release, many players new to the game may be wondering how Cyclops could be reworked to better represent the character from the comics.
If LEGO Marvel Super Heroes wanted to rework Cyclops' optic blast to be more representative of his power in the comics, it would need to be based on the concussive force it emits and not heat based. While Superman can melt objects with the lasers that come from his eyes, Cyclops' blasts are more akin to being hit by a large, fast-moving object with considerable force, like a train. This means that his ability shouldn't be able to melt any form of LEGO bricks, but rather destroy them with the powerful force of his blasts, helping to distinguish him from characters with heat vision, such as Superman in the bad guy-themed LEGO DC Super-Villains. In LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, there are large, cracked LEGO objects that can only be destroyed by a powerful character (such as Hulk or The Thing). Giving Cyclops the ability to blast apart these objects would be far more in-line with his power in Marvel Comics.
Even with the inaccuracy in regard to how Cyclops' mutant power works, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is still one of the best games on the market in allowing X-Men fans to get their hands on their favorite mutant heroes. With a massive cast of playable X-Men heroes that mostly stay true to their comic book forms, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes may be one of the best games to feature Marvel's mutants, up there with X-Men Legends. While the following two Marvel-themed LEGO games (LEGO Marvel's Avengers and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2) didn't feature the X-Men, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is still an exciting game for mutant fans to return to.
Source: Screenrant
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