Minato Arisato said:
But gaining ultimate power isn't what made him do what he did. SOME people should probably give Cyclops the benefit of the doubt concerning how much of his actions were the Phoenix and how much of it his own but Cyclops himself ...
This is one of those topics that should not come up around me.
I know Tom Brevoort has said a particular thing recently, and he can say what he wants now, but until what he's saying these days about possession by the Phoenix coincides with what's on the pages of the comics, he's just stirring up crap among the fans when it comes to this stuff.
We've had Namor express to Hope Summers that he wasn't himself while possessed by the Phoenix ("AvX: Consequences"#4);
we had Emma express fear of what she may do and ask to be stopped even when she was still possessed, and later
state that the Phoenix Five couldn't control themselves ("Avengers vs. X-Men" #9 and "Uncanny X-Men," vol. 3 #3 respectively); Colossus was presented with his personality heavily distorted during the time of his possession,
his artistic nature amplified and distorted while
his pacifism was at war with the unchecked aggression the Phoenix was bringing out in him ("Avengers vs. X-Men" #9);
Cyclops has definitely denied (
more than once) being himself when he killed Xavier ("All-New X-Men" #10 and "Wolverine and the X-Men," vol. 1 #40), as well as
beg to be killed shortly after he actually did so during the brief moment that he was able to reassert control over himself ("Avengers vs. X-Men" #12); and, perhaps most importantly,
Rachel Grey -- the longest-running host for the Phoenix Force ever, as well as the planet's leading expert on it -- has said Scott wasn't in control of himself and that what happened wasn't as simple as "X did Y" ("Uncanny X-Men," vol. 3 #24).
Even during the war against the Phoenix Five,
Tony Stark asserted that no one had been able to control the Phoenix ("Avengers vs. X-Men" #12), and shortly before dying at Cyclops's hands,
Xavier himself said that "Scott and Emma are falling under the Phoenix's dark influence" ("Avengers vs. X-Men" #10). Hell,
even Iceman accepted that Scott wasn't acting under his own control when he killed Xavier ("Uncanny X-Men," vol. 3 #25), despite being one of the people who hated him the most because of it.
I've got to go with what's on the page, especially from Rachel.
Were the Phoenix Five like puppets? No. The Phoenix doesn't work like that. Still, having one's inhibitions lowered by an outside force amounts to not being entirely responsible for one's actions.
And speaking of what Brevoort has to say on this matter, let's check in with what some of the creators of "Avengers vs. X-Men" said while the series was still being published:
Jason Aaron outright said,
"The Phoenix Force changes you" and
that Scott was struggling to assert his will over the Phoenix rather than the other way around.
Meanwhile,
Brevoort himself previously compared what happened to the Phoenix Five gaining the Phoenix Force as being like someone shooting you up with cocaine against your will: "The dicey analogy that I've been using for that, which makes people uncomfortable [Laughs] is that it's like you're walking around, minding your own business, making the world a better place and suddenly somebody shoots you up with cocaine."
Brevoort also said (same source as previous), "The Phoenix Force is life energy. It's wild and it's fueled by emotion and passion and when you're hit with a sudden rush of it the tendency is for people's inhibitions to kind of go down and for more of who and what they are at the core to come out."
Next, Brevoort added (talking about Cyclops; again, same source), "So he's still himself, but he may not be as in control of himself as he would be if he was stone cold sober."
And Brevoort himself has said,
"the effect of having the Phoenix Force burning inside him may have impacted Namor's judgment."
He also said this:
"I think the experience of hosting the Phoenix is a heady one. Particularly given that neither of these characters was really cut out to do it in the first place. It wasn't like the Phoenix chose them to be a vessel for its power. It was an accident that happened and they've been struggling to make the best of it and turn it to good use.
The Phoenix has always been a fairly uncontrollable force. It is the flame. It is passion, life, and emotion, and the portion of its power that these characters have wielded has grown exponentially, not just once but three times. I think that has to have an effect, and after three times there may be a little addiction even to the process of that next hit like you say; of getting another jolt of Phoenix essence. So yes, by this point certainly, Scott and Emma are not playing with a full bag or[sic] marbles."
As well as this:
"At this point, the actions of all the Phoenix Five are a little bit suspect because they're all amped up on Fire and Life Incarnate. The fires of the Phoenix have transformed them into the purest and most unrestrained versions of themselves. Their true, quintessential natures tend to come out as the Phoenix just burns away the need for civility or circumspection. Namor is just being himself with the dial turned up to 11."
What he's saying now doesn't change what he said then, and what he said either then or now is ultimately still secondary to what was shown on the pages during "Avengers vs. X-Men," and what has been shown since.
