YMMV / Death of X

• Broken Base: Which side is the bad one?
  • On the one hand, people are torn about Cyclops telepathically broadcasting his thoughts to the ENTIRE world about the mists. Either it was an impressive strategic move, or a declaration of war that was going too far.
  • On the other hand, people are also torn about the Inhumans, especially since the best way to help the mutants is remove the mists, and they know that. Crystal and her group at least tried to use their mist.
• Designated Villain: Played with. Cyclops's stance is definitely sympathetic, and he is trying to save his people. However, he did immediately accuse the Inhumans of knowing what the mists are capable, is responsible for a violent riot, and making the claim that the mists are harmful to humans with no basis. Played straight in the end, given that it was never Cyclops, but a mental projection of Emma Frost. And the most weird part: All Cyclops did in the end was render the Terrigen Mist harmless towards mutants without making it hazardous towards Inhumans. And this is the big bad action people (falsely) vilify him for?
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: After Secret Wars (2015) and the eight month Time Skip, the X-Men comics having been vaguely mentioning the horrible thing Cyclops did that make mutants hated more than ever by humans. Even over on Champions (2016), Amadeus Cho refers to Cyclops as Hitler. So when this event concluded with the true reason why the status quo changed so much, the fans were unimpressed to say the least.
• He's Just Hiding: Seeing as Peter David brought back Jamie Madrox after killing him off with the Legacy Virus by saying that he has a few duplicates around, it's no surprise many fans are claiming this is the case even now even when the comic explicitly says that one of the Jamies dead is the original.
• Informed Wrongness: Apparently stopping the Terrigen cloud without asking for permission first makes Cyclops history's greatest monster (with one character explicitly comparing him to Hitler in another book).
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some readers have picked up the series just to see long absent X-characters such as the older Cyclops and Emma Frost.
• Memetic Mutation: 'Death of X' saw the resurgence "Cyclops was Right", and the birth of "Emma was Right", among X-men fans dissatisfied with the direction of the X-books, and Inhuman books, following Secret Wars.
• Misaimed Fandom: The destruction of the Terrigen Cloud and the creation of "Cyclops" was probably intended by Lemire and Soule as Emma's Moral Event Horizon but the X-Fandom was so fed up with the Inhumans at this point that it elevated them to the savior of mutantkind in the eyes of many.
• Moral Event Horizon: The main draw of the comic is what happened to Cyclops and what he did that apparently doomed mutant-kind. Then subverted. Not only are his actions far less monstrous then implied but the real Cyclops wasn't even alive when they were committed.
  • In fact, for many, this is seen as a Moral Event Horizon for the Inhumans, who have been increasingly becoming a Designated Hero faction since the All-New, All-Different Marvel relaunch, since its revealed they execute Cyclops (or think they did) after defending their clouds, in-spite of the lethal effects they have on mutants, and potentially others, especially as the cloud is not the only way for Inhumans to gain their powers (see Daisy Johnson), nor do they need their powers to live in the first place.
• Narm: We finally learn what it was that Cyclops did. What caused mutant hatred to reach an all time high. What caused all his friends to denounce him as a mass-murderer and a terrorist. What did he do? He gave the Inhumans some not entirely unearned bad PR and altered a Terrigen cloud to make it not deadly to mutants AND not deadly to humans and Inhumans with the only casualties being Alchemy and himself. And to top it all off it wasn't even the real Cyclops. Yeah, sending Magneto to stall the others and altering the cloud without consulting anyone was a dick move but the actual actions don't match the scope of the set-up at all.
• Nightmare Fuel: We get a lovely view of an entire field of Multiple Man dupes dead of M-Pox.
• Strawman Has a Point: Despite Cyclops once again being treated as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, there are readers who agree with his stance that the Inhumans should be held responsible for releasing a potentially deadly substance into the atmosphere. Even moreso after #4 where they manage to alter a cloud after taking an aggressive stance on it while 8 months later, Storm's attempt at a peaceful resolution has garnered no results.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The revelation that Cyclops was dead almost from the beginning and Emma holding him in her hands as he's dying. Say what you want about their relationship but it's clear how much Emma loves Scott.
  • Alchemy's Heroic Sacrifice. Obscure character or not, his agreeing to make a second attempt to stop the Terrigen cloud despite a broken arm, and his last words combine this with Moment of Awesome.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: As mentioned elsewhere on this page, The Reveal about what Cyclops did, an element hyped up all year, was wasted on something completely inoffensive compared to what we've been led to believe. What's most baffling is that, with the Emma Frost twist set up as early as the first issue, they could have easily had something horrible be done, and then have Cyclops absolved of guilt for it down the line if they wanted.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Both the X-Men and the Inhumans are unsympathetic jerks. Cyclops's group broadcast that the Terrigen mists harms humans and mutants despite the tremendous lack of evidence for the former, though he is right about the latter. Storm's group accused the Inhumans of deliberately harming mutants despite working with them in the past. The Inhumans seem too ill-tempered to properly handle the threat of the mists and seemingly put the cloud above mutant's lives.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Cyclops or rather; Emma was firmly cemented as this by #4. Despite Soule claiming in interviews that Emma was only acting out of misguided petty revenge many fans actually cheered when they managed to alter the cloud and thought they came off as far more reasonable than the Inhumans whose goal came off as far more selfish, valuing culture over lives especially after they flat-out execute Cyclops. The result is that the crazy woman ends up coming across as the most reasonable person in the entire story. Inhumans vs. X-Men ironically ends up driving this point further with the revelation that the Inhumans have lost control of the remaining Terrigen Cloud and it will eventually reach a point where earth will literally be uninhabitable for mutants. In other-words: Cyclops was right, again.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The Inhumans don't come off very well at all. The argument can be made that they just want make sure new Inhumans will emerge and continue their culture, but considering that they seem like they're valuing their culture over the lives of mutants, not giving regular humans a choice in wanting to be Inhumans, and an Inhuman (Black Bolt) is responsible for unleashing the cloud over Earth and then said Inhuman flat out murders Cyclops, it's is very hard for anyone to justify their actions. It also doesn't help that, within Inhuman culture itself, the exposure to Terrigen is always a coming-of-age ceremony within a small chamber... as in not a big cloud going everywhere, making the argument of defending culture itself problematic.