Warning: minor spoilers for X-Men #4!
The Doctor Strange villain Nightmare takes advantage of his death to invade the mutant team's New York base, reveling in their bad dreams.
To accompany the horror-themed issue, the cover from Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia turns Scott into the Headless Horseman, a murky grey night lit up by the gleam of his optic blasts, filtered through his iconic ruby quartz visor even as he holds his head aloft in one hand. It's a striking, dynamic image (shared below), but it's not the only composition Larraz tried out.
As shared by X-Men's leader has become.
Though only four issues into its newest volume, X-Men (from Gerry Duggan, Pepe Larraz, and Javier Pina) has been a true gem so far, as Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Synch, Sunfire, Polaris, Wolverine, and Rogue attempt to embody a traditional idea of heroism, giving the mutant race public superheroes in an era that has otherwise been preoccupied with the logistics and dangers of maintaining the new mutant nation of Krakoa. Cyclops in particular has taken to his new role, adopting a more carefree attitude and even joking around as he helps save the day. After years of mutantkind's fate being continually on his shoulders, fans are enjoying seeing Scott revel in saving the day, and this sense of freedom is a little more apparent in Larraz's final cover, which adopts an active pose, tending more towards a cool visual than the spooky rejected sketch.
Pepe Larraz is an exciting artist even at the worst of times, but in a tableau that doesn't demand any wider context other than to look cool for Halloween, his eye for pose and detail really shines, while Marte Gracia's colors remain some of the strongest work in the industry. A lot of X-Men comics past have treated Scott as an inveterate stick in the mud; a constant straight man tolerating more zany allies, or the voice of authority for Wolverine to buck against. X-Men #4 is from Gerry Duggan, Javier Pina, Erick Arciniega, and Clayton Cowles - with an awesome cover from Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia - and continues to walk the commendable tightrope of allowing Cyclops to act like a true superhero without ignoring the layers of characterization so many comic creators have built up over the years.
Source: Pepe Larraz
