Are They Really From “the Punch Dimension”?

No, alas: Cyclops’ power does not involve opening eye-sized portals to another dimension, as you might have heard people joke.

This misconception actually does come from the comics themselves, however, or more specifically, the 1983 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. The first print of the anthology described Scott’s power as actually being that his eyes are apertures to another dimension where the laws of physics operate differently to our own—and particles from which interact with our reality with an overwhelming transfer of kinetic energy. However, this contradicts prior descriptions of Scott’s power, which as early as the original X-Men run in the ‘60s described Scott’s blasts as being powered by light energy from the sun. A few years later a new run of the handbook re-wrote this description to better align with the already-established idea that Scott constantly absorbs energy from other sources, however the original print of the Official Handbook and its erroneous explanation has occasionally been referenced in other material.

The idea, however, inspired by this error, was actually codified into Marvel continuity fairly recently—and not with Cyclops. As a nod to the infamous handbook mix-up, in the 2017 run of Ultimates by Al Ewing and Travel Foreman America Chavez used her own dimensional-gateway powers to briefly travel to an actual alternate dimension of concussive energy, and open up a gateway to use its energy as an offensive attack. Scott’s beams are very much from our own dimension, and pretty much always have been.