Warning! Spoilers for X-Men #21!

For as long as Marvel’s X-Men have been around, their leader and benefactor, Charles Xavier, better known as Professor X, has believed in a dream where mutants can live and thrive peacefully and without conflict in a world that no longer fears their existence. And now one of his original students, the optically challenged hero known as Cyclops, has officially declared it dead, but for the best reason imaginable.

Touched on in the Hellfire Gala-related issue of X-Men by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta, Russell Dauterman, Lucas Werneck & Sara Pichelli, the idea of Professor X’s mutant dream officially being declared dead is a huge twist for a species that has long strived for equality in a world that offers anything but. Luckily, fans and mutants alike can breathe a sigh of relief because if Cyclops has anything to say about it, Xavier’s dream just got a big upgrade that ensures the survival of an idea that has evolved into something much bigger than any single man could possibly contain on his own.

Related: X-Men Theory: Charles Xavier Is Demon-Possessed

Revealed in a monologue given by Cyclops at the tail end of the fashionably epic party dubbed the Hellfire Gala, Cyclops muses over his past as a founding member and leader of the X-Men, as well as the idea of what Xavier’s dream truly means to him. Referring to Xavier and all the good that he’s done for himself and other mutants around the world, Cyclops says, “I loved him for it. And because I loved him – because I believed in him…and, in a way, worshipped him – I claimed the things that he had faith in as my own. He called it his dream. It was a good one,” Cyke tells fans point-blank what he and many others have thought about the man that kick-started a revolution.

Cyclops talks about Xavier's dream

Going on to say that while it was indeed a great dream to strive towards, the world is “a destroyer of things you believe in” and in regards to Xavier himself, it was “foolish to…deify him” considering “we’re all flawed and imperfect.” With these words, Cyclops concisely gets across the idea that Professor X isn’t always the man he endeavored to be, but that the validity of his dream has given birth to a new version of that same dream that can work on levels never previously thought possible.

Finally admitting that X’s dreams “are no more valid than anyone else’s. Including mine,” and that he loves the “…idea of that. The promise of it,” Cyclops reveals the reason for the death of Professor X’s vision is because it’s now become everyone’s dream. And since the future stability and success of mutantkind needs to come from all mutants’ combined dreams as a people – not just a single man leading a team with a wildly cool name – the evolution of what Xavier first started has finally begun.

So while it’s at long last been confirmed that Professor X’s mutant dream is dead, Cyclops is quick to point out that his vision for the X-Men and mutant-kind itself isn’t actually gone, just transformed into something else that envisions a future where all mutants can work together to achieve something previously thought impossible. Xavier’s dream is dead; long live Xavier’s dream!

Next: Why X-Men's Professor X No Longer Needs a Wheelchair in the Comics