Cyclops’ New Romance Brings Back an Iconic 90s Love Interest

Warning: contains spoilers for Dead X-Men #3As the newly revived X-Men travel through Moira’s past lives in Dead X-Men #3, the intrepid heroes encounter a fascinating timeline with a fresh X-Men team, led by the powerful Psylocke. Taking place during Moira’s inspiring 5th life, the Dead X-Men’s adventure to the land of “Faraway” reveals that in this timeline, Psylocke is married to Cyclops, bringing back a controversial and surprising romance from 90’s X-Men comics.

The Dead X-Men – comprised of Prodigy, Frenzy, Jubilee, Cannonball, and Dazzler with Askani as their support – are traveling through Moira’s past lives in an attempt to get to her first life and stop the evil Cyborg Moira from ruining Xavier’s plans.

Dead X-Men #3, from Steve Foxe and Bernard Chang, sees the reality-hopping, time-traveling heroes sent to various past lives of Moira by the chronoskimming Askani, which is where they stumble on this variant X-Men team. While being attacked by Cyclops, it is revealed to Prodigy that Scott and Betsy are married, a major shock to the young hero who is used to seeing Scott with either Jean or Emma.

Dead X-Men #3 (2024)
Release Date:	March 13th, 2024
Writers:	Steve Foxe
Artists:	Bernard Chang, Javier Pina, Lynne Yoshii, David Baldeón, Frank Martin
Cover Artist:	Lucas Werneck
Variant Covers:	Mark Brooks, Rian Gonzalez
FAR, FARAWAY! Rachel Summers recruited the Dead X-Men for a seemingly impossible mission…and now they’re about to discover the REAL reason behind their task. As the walls of reality start to bend, will anyone survive the revelation?!

Dead X-Men Brings Back Scott And Betsy’s Weird 90s Flirtation

Dead X-Men #3 is a fascinating glimpse into a world that could have been, where Scott Summers and Betsy Braddock are happily married… or as happily married as you can be while in a horrific war against Sentinels. Many fans thought that Cyclops and Psylocke’s flirtation, and kiss, were extremely out of character for both heroes, and in many ways, it is even weirder to see Scott and Betsy being intimate now since Betsy is famously in a relationship with Scott’s daughter Rachel Summers.

Scott Summers has had a long list of lovers and romances over his 60 years of publication history, like Madelyne Pryor and Lee Forrester, but he is primarily known for his long-time romances with both Jean Grey and Emma Frost. The 90s were a fascinating era for the X-Men, perhaps their peak popularity in popular culture, with Chris Claremont and Jim Lee’s iconic 1991 X-Men #1 still ranking as the best-selling comic in history. During this time Cyclops and Jean Grey’s relationship was under immense strain, which is where the seductive Betsy Braddock came in.

Psylocke Was One Of Cyclops’ Strangest Romances

Throughout several issues Betsy intensely flirted with Scott, encouraging him to think about other romantic avenues besides Jean and not-so-subtly hinting they should engage in an affair. Eventually, in X-Men #20 Psylocke goes so far as to outright kiss Cyclops, who eventually pushes her away and tells her this affair cannot happen. This kiss leads to a major fight between Betsy and Jean, which ends with Betsy stabbing Jean in the head with her psychic blade, knocking her unconscious. Betsy’s romantic interest with Scott seemed to fade after that point, and the two have never been particularly close or flirtatious since.

The Dead X-Men are going to need to team up with the X-Men from Moira’s 5th life to battle against the evil Cyborg Moira, so hopefully next issue will see some more moments between Cyclops and his wife Psylocke. It will be strange for many fans to see Scott and Betsy in an intimate relationship, but their romance actually has decades worth of precedent, after their strange flirtation that happened in the early 1990s.

Dead X-Men #3 from Marvel Comics is available now in stores.