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Marvel's original plan was for Cyclops to gain power over his eyes and lose the visor in the future, but the creators said "we're not doing that"

Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman were pitched an idea to ditch Cyclops's most iconic feature for the future-set X-Men: Age of Revelation . And despite coming from the X-Men's line editor, Tom Brevoort, they ignored it

News by Grant DeArmitt, Staff Writer

Published on Thu Apr 02 2026

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Across decades of Marvel's X-Men comics, Scott Summers AKA Cyclops has earned a reputation as being the one mutant who will reliably follow the plan. But that doesn't mean that the folks bringing you Cyclops stories have to. In fact, as we recently learned, the Marvel Comics creators behind the X-Men line flat-out ignore notes from their editors. Or at least, Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman do.

That's what we got from a recent interview Stegman did with comics YouTubers Paneloids, in which the X-Men artist was discussing the 2025 Age of Revelation event that featured Cyclops as a central character. Apparently, Stegman's editor (and current captain of the X-Men line) Tom Brevoort had a big idea for ol' Slim.

"I'll tell you a funny story about Cyclops's design," Stegman said, "Me and Jed [MacKay] were on a panel with [Brevoort] and somebody was asking about the Cyclops design or whatever. And he said, 'Actually, my initial thought that I pitched to Ryan and Jed was: it would be the future and he has control of his eyes, his powers, so he doesn't need the visor anymore.' and they never said a word."

Backing up for a sec here. In case you weren't keeping up with the Age of Revelation event as it was happening, the plot did take place in a dangerous future setting, and did indeed feature a radically redesigned Cyclops. But as Stegman says, that design wasn't so radical as to get rid of his iconic visor.

"'They just ignored me,'" says Stegman, still recounting what Brevoort said, ""And put a visor on him, like an even bigger visor.' And I was like, 'That did happen; I forgot about that.' I forgot how Jed and I, privately, were like, 'We're not doing that.'"

To clarify here, Stegman tells this story while laughing, so that combined with the fact that both Stegman and MacKay are still on the X-Men book makes me feel like Brevoort didn't take too much offense at the pair ignoring his suggestion. Still, one does have to wonder how Scott Summers himself would feel if his own orders were just forgotten about like that.

The collected X-Men: Age of Revelation is available for preorder wherever you get your comics now.

To me, my X-Men fans. Want more about Marvel's mutants? You don't need Cerebro to find what you should read next... we made a list!

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Grant DeArmitt: Grant DeArmitt (he/him) likes horror, comics, and the unholy union of the two. In the past, and despite their better judgment, he has written for Nightmare on Film Street and Newsarama. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Kingsley, and corgi, Legs.