Poll of the Day > how long is cyclops' laser beam effective for

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've always wondered this
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HellHole_ posted...

I've always wondered this

What do you mean?

It isn't a laser beam it is a kinetic optic blast

How dare you
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forever.

He literally opens a portal to a universe comprised entirely of that energy.
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I just tried looking this up and my mind was filled with so much dumb nerd talk my brain nearly turned itself off.
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Until he shuts his eyes or closes his visor, although supposedly his optic blasts can get weaker from overuse.
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Zeus posted...

Until he shuts his eyes or closes his visor, although supposedly his optic blasts can get weaker from overuse.

New question. Why don't the blasts vaporize his eyelids when he closes his eyes???
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Zeus posted...

Until he shuts his eyes or closes his visor, although supposedly his optic blasts can get weaker from overuse.

i meant what the distance was that it essentially just becomes nothing

like take a laser pointer

there's a point where the beam just dissolves into nothing due to how weak it has become
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Blue_Thunder posted...

Zeus posted...

Until he shuts his eyes or closes his visor, although supposedly his optic blasts can get weaker from overuse.

New question. Why don't the blasts vaporize his eyelids when he closes his eyes???

they don't hurt his or his brother's body.
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It's almost like people don't know how to Google and learn this shit on their own in 30 seconds.
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SunWuKung420 posted...

It's almost like people don't know how to Google and learn this shit on their own in 30 seconds.

Stfu
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SunWuKung420 posted...

It's almost like people don't know how to Google and learn this shit on their own in 30 seconds.

Okay erik
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Mead posted...

SunWuKung420 posted...

It's almost like people don't know how to Google and learn this shit on their own in 30 seconds.

Okay erik

Nah. Erik would have been all angry.
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SunWuKung420 posted...

Mead posted...

SunWuKung420 posted...

It's almost like people don't know how to Google and learn this shit on their own in 30 seconds.

Okay erik

Nah. Erik would have been all angry.

Yeah your post wasn't the least bit crumpy
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it was crusty and crumpy
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SunWuKung420 posted...

It's almost like people don't know how to Google and learn this **** on their own in 30 seconds.

I come here for the human touch.
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Kimbos_Egg posted...

He literally opens a portal to a universe comprised entirely of that energy.

EYE PUNCHES FROM THE PUNCH DIMENSION!


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He literally has the worst mutant power. I'm not talking about power, effectiveness, etc. But if you were stuck with that power it would suck ROYALLY. If that ruby glasses couldn't be made he'd just be plain screwed for life and would basically have to live as a blind man.

In some versions of xmen he can get full control of his powers and not need the visor, or his ruby glasses
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fettster777 posted...

He literally has the worst mutant power. I'm not talking about power, effectiveness, etc. But if you were stuck with that power it would suck ROYALLY. If that ruby glasses couldn't be made he'd just be plain screwed for life and would basically have to live as a blind man.

thats not his power. he can't control it because of mental issues.

He actually had full control once, then the writers retconned it back. stupid.
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Kimbos_Egg posted...

thats not his power. he can't control it because of mental issues.

It's not "mental issues" as much as it is literal brain damage. He suffered an accident as a kid that damaged the part of his brain that controls it.

Of course, that shades into the argument of why, in a world full of dozens of people who can heal and regenerate damage in others, and where cybernetic implants exist (and where a mutant like Forge can pretty easily make them in about 20 minutes), no one ever thought to just FIX Cyclops so he can control it.

The real answer is because, like Rogue (who's had her powers fixed and then broken again at least a few times), writers fall back on the crutch of using the preexisting weaknesses and are too lazy to come up with new ways to challenge a character once those flaws are fixed. Status quo is god.


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Apparently I'm the only one who interpreted the question as meaning physical length, and not time length. Like do the lasers dissipate over a long enough distance without striking anything. Which I don't really know that answer.
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Golden Road posted...

Apparently I'm the only one who interpreted the question as meaning physical length

that is what i meant, too.

i want to know how long it goes for before it turns to nothing.
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helIy posted...

Golden Road posted...

Apparently I'm the only one who interpreted the question as meaning physical length

that is what i meant, too.

i want to know how long it goes for before it turns to nothing.

It can't travel past the end of the page
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Kimbos_Egg posted...

thats not his power. he can't control it because of mental issues.

It's not "mental issues" as much as it is literal brain damage. He suffered an accident as a kid that damaged the part of his brain that controls it.

Of course, that shades into the argument of why, in a world full of dozens of people who can heal and regenerate damage in others, and where cybernetic implants exist (and where a mutant like Forge can pretty easily make them in about 20 minutes), no one ever thought to just FIX Cyclops so he can control it.

The real answer is because, like Rogue (who's had her powers fixed and then broken again at least a few times), writers fall back on the crutch of using the preexisting weaknesses and are too lazy to come up with new ways to challenge a character once those flaws are fixed. Status quo is god.

no. like i said he got over it. it was his own mental block.

then the author changed it back again.
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Eye Punches from the Eye Punch Dimension.
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Kimbos_Egg posted...

no. like i said he got over it. it was his own mental block.

then the author changed it back again.

It's been canon for decades (since at least 1980) that Cyclops suffered brain damage after parachuting out of the plane with his brother when his parents were kidnapped by the Shi'ar. It's such a core part of his backstory that even the Ultimate universe version of the character has the same problem - traumatic brain damage while young prevents him from controlling his powers.

The time I'm assuming you're referring to is when Emma convinced him that it was just a psychological problem - but since she's a telepath and was inside his head at the time (while she herself was possessed by an evil psionic entity), there's a very distinct possibility that she was lying. The fact that he never has that control again afterward implies that either a) Emma just made him hallucinate having the control when he didn't, or b) she was actively using her power to suppress his (something we've seen telepaths do to him in the past). Since everything since has acted on the assumption that the brain damage IS the issue, it's kind of safe to assume that's still the status quo answer.

Basically, the only times in the comics when Cyclops has EVER been able to control his powers on his own almost always involves outside interference or the active healing of his brain (like in X-Men/Alpha Flight in the 80s). Ironically, almost every major example we've ever seen has involved someone connected to the Phoenix in some way.

On a meta level, that scene was written by Joss Whedon, who is kind of a terrible comic book writer, and who had a lot of elements of his run ignored or retconned by later writers (not as much as Austen or Morrison, but still). It's pretty safe to assume it in no way applies to the current state of affairs (doubly so since the Cyclops in that scene is effectively dead now anyway).

It HAS been implied at times both before and after that that the amount of power Cyclops can draw when firing blasts IS limited by mental blocks (either ones self-inflicted by his own doubt or ones deliberately applied to him by Mister Sinister as a child), so that definitely complicates matters, but it isn't really a case of "You can control it if you REALLY want to" for him.


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