Cyclops (comics)

Cyclops (Scott Summers) is a Marvel Comics superhero, as the field leader of the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, he first appeared in X-Men #1 (September 1963).

A mutant, Cyclops produces powerful "optic blasts" from his eyes, forcing him to wear specialized glasses at all times and a specialized visor in combat. His powers may have led to his inhibited, meticulous character. These same qualities, however, make him an ideal field leader for the X-Men and even teammates such as Wolverine, who has deemed him an 'overgrown Boy Scout', admire his leadership skills.

One of the original X-Men, Cyclops has had a large presence in X-Men-related comics since their inception. He has been featured in almost every animation and video game adaptation of the team. James Marsden plays him in the recent film series.

Fictional character biography

Character history

Origin

When Scott was a boy growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, United States, his father, USAF Major Christopher Summers, took the family for a flight in their airplane. It came under attack by an alien Shi'ar spaceship. As the plane went down in flames, Scott's parents fastened he and his younger brother Alex into a parachute and pushed them off the plane, in hopes that they would survive. Unfortunately, the parachute caught fire and Scott struck his head upon landing. This caused brain damage to Scott, which is supposedly responsible for his inability to control his optic blasts, as well as prolonged amnesia about his childhood.

Scott spent most of his childhood in an orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska and subjected to batteries of tests and experiments by the orphanage's owner, Mr. Milbury, an alias for the geneticist Mister Sinister.

The X-Men

When he was sixteen, he was found by Charles Xavier and became one of his students and the first official X-Man. He soon graduated to become the team's field leader, a position he would traditionally hold over the years. When the other original X-Men, Angel, Beast, Iceman, Jean Grey, and later additions Havok (his own brother) and Polaris decided to leave in light of the arrival of the new X-Men, which included Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Wolverine, Cyclops stayed, feeling that he would never be able to lead a normal life because of the uncontrollable nature of his powers.

Cyclops had long believed that his parents had died in the plane accident. In fact, they had been captured and sold into slavery by the Shi'ar. As an adult member of the X-Men, Cyclops met his father, now known as Corsair, leader of the Starjammers, a group of aliens opposing what they saw as the tyranny of the Shi'ar empire. Several more years passed before the two learned of each other's true identities. He later came into contact with his grandparents, who are still alive and own a shipping company in Canada.

Cyclops had an on-again/off-again relationship with Jean Grey during their time in the X-Men, and when he refused to leave with the other senior members, feeling that the X-Men was the only place he truly belonged, she was deeply upset. For a long time he actually couldn't work up the nerve to tell Jean how he felt about her, fearing that his optic blasts would hurt her - or anyone else he cared about for that matter - and also because he felt he was no match for his wealthy team-mate Warren Worthington III, AKA: Angel, who was also romantically interested in Jean. What Scott didn't know was that Jean actually had a crush on him, but she was too shy to make a move. This culminated in her tragic "death" as she tried to pilot a space shuttle through a solar flare, her rebirth as Phoenix and her suicide on the Moon. Cyclops left the X-Men for a while after this, drifting for several months until reunited with the team against Magneto. Not long after, Cyclops met Madelyne Pryor, an uncanny double of Jean Grey and they married. Cyclops and Madelyne had a son, Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, who was later sent into a future timeline to become the cyborg Cable.

X-Factor and Inferno

However, the original Marvel Girl was not dead. The Phoenix identity turned out to be a cosmic entity who had supplanted her, placing her in a healing pod at the bottom of Jamaica Bay, to be eventually revived by the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Cyclops left his wife and son and returned to Jean. She joined with Cyclops and the other original X-Men as X-Factor.

The demons S'ym and N'astirh corruputed Madelyne's feelings of self-despair, transforming her into the Goblin Queen. Madelyne sought revenge on Cyclops for leaving her. When it was revealed that she was a clone created by Mr. Sinister, essentially for the purpose of becoming a brood mare, Madelyne couldn't take it anymore and killed herself. Scott then went on to pursue a romance with Jean.

Marriage

Several years later, Scott Summers and Jean Grey finally married in front of all their friends and family. During their honeymoon, they were brought into the future where they raised Cable for the first 12 years of his life during the Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix miniseries. After helping Cable defeat Apocalypse, they were sent back to the past and under the request of Rachel Summers, Jean assumed the Phoenix identity.

Sometime after their return, the X-Men were forced to battle their mentor when Professor Xavier was transformed into the evil Onslaught. Although the X-Men defeated the evil entity and freed Xavier, the damage had been done and most of Earth's heroes were lost for a time. Xavier, who was left powerless after Onslaught's defeat was arrested for his part, leaving Scott and Jean as leaders and co-headmasters of the school. However, the pair went into retirement following a battle against Operation: Zero Tolerance, in which Cyclops was gravely injured.

Merging with Evil

They returned to the X-Men some time after at the request of Storm, when she grew concerned about the mental wellbeing of Professor X (who had returned sometime prior). Their return then led to the events of the The Twelve in which Apocalypse located twelve mutants in which would power a machine to allow him to take the body of Nate Grey, The X-Man. In order to save Nate, Cyclops was willingly merged with the villain Apocalypse. He was believed lost for the better part of a year, until Jean and Cable tracked him down and separated them, apparently killing Apocalypse in the process.

Return to the (New) X-Men

Upon Cyclops' return to the X-Men following his possession, there was a rather drastic change in his personality. This change caused a rift to develop between Jean and himself, as he would claim that Apocalypse made him question not only their relationship, but his life as a whole. He was instrumental in preventing the mutant Xorn's suicide and in recruiting the powerful mutant to the X-men. Surprisingly the two established a close friendship, an event almost unprecedented in Cyclops' personal history; similarly, repeated missions with Wolverine resulted in the growth of a tentative friendship between the two veteran X-Men.

When Jean began to show signs of the Phoenix Force again, the distance between the two grew larger and Scott began what others would dub his "celibacy kick." For her part Jean refused to interact with him telepathically (despite his repeated requests that she do so) and it was intimated by other characters that she had secretly grown contemptuous of him, disgusted by what she perceived as his "weakness." Instead of attempting to reconcile with his estranged-wife, Scott turned to Emma Frost, a former villain who had reformed and joined the X-Men. Their relationship ostensibly began as a series of psychic therapy sessions, but Emma took advantage of this situation to get closer to Scott. Under the guise of counseling him, she was able to instigate a telepathic affair. When Phoenix discovered the affair, Cyclops made the claim that they had shared only thoughts and thus he had done nothing wrong. Meanwhile Emma's snide jeers led Jean to psychically confront her; she forced Emma to admit her true feelings for Scott, and also come to terms with her many failures, sins and personal demons. Furious, Scott once again confronted Jean and demanded that she read his mind; Jean finally complied, only to discover that Scott and Emma had never actually engaged in any physical contact. Confused by this turn of events, Jean insisted to herself that their thinking about having an affair was equivalent to their actually having had one. Scott however had grown sick of the entire ordeal and subsequently left the X-Men to mull over what was happening to his life. He wandered the country for a while, patronizing the Hellfire Club, keeping company with Wolverine and Fantomex, and generally trying to escape the responsibilities, expectations and demands he felt were unjustly placed on him by the X-Men. During his time with Wolverine it was revealed that he felt his relationship with Jean had stagnated and that the two of them had not progressed romantically since their initial teenage romance. He also confessed that he felt Jean refused to listen to him, and that his attraction to Emma had been due in large part to her more accepting nature. When he finally returned to the X-Men, the sentient DNA known as John Sublime had taken control of the original Xorn who, under the guise of Magneto, attacked the X-Men. Having at last reached full Phoenix power, Jean confronted the Faux-Magneto and was killed in the process. Before she died, she urged Cyclops to live on.

Scott however felt devastated by the death of his wife, and considered leaving the X-Men once more. It was revealed in the "Here Comes Tomorrow" storyline that, had he done so, it would have led to an apocolyptic future. To prevent this, a resurrected, future-version of Jean used her powers as the White Phoenix of the Crown and telepathically nudged Cyclops into a real relationship with Emma. Together the pair rebuilt the Xavier Institute as Co-Headmasters.

The new relationship between Emma and Scott has led to problems between them and the rest of the X-Men, all of whom believe that the pair are doing Jean's memory a disservice. Rachel Grey in particular has felt hurt and angry by her father's lack of remorse for hurting Jean before her death.

Astonishing X-Men

Cyclops also tutors a squad at the institute called The Corsairs, named after Cyclops’ father. The team consists of Dryad, Quill, Specter and the three remaining Stepford Cuckoos.

Deciding that the X-Men need to play more of a role in emergency rescue and aid, and thus garner attention on mutants in a more postive light where mutant abilities are used for the good of people, Cyclops has handpicked a team in order to get out into the world more. This team recently faced an alien named Ord of the Breakworld. The team subdued Ord, but not before learning that one of their own will be responsible for the destruction of Ord's homeworld in the coming year, leaving the X-Men divided.

Recently, in the series Deadly Genesis, a mysterious villain attacked and easily defeated several members of the team, including Cyclops and his alternate-reality daughter, Rachel. The two were captured and taken to an undisclosed location, which Cyclops vaguely remembered visiting in the past. Eventually managing to free themselves, Cyclops and Rachel attempted to escape, only to run into their captor (revealed to be named Vulcan), who informed Cyclops that he was the X-Man's younger brother. A powerless Professor Xavier confirmed this information in the final book of the mini-series. This new information has left Cyclops resentful towards his mentor and has gone so far as to demand that Xavier leave the school as it is no longer 'his'.

In Astonishing X-Men #14, during an impromptu telepathic "therapy session", Emma Frost presented Cyclops with the possibility that his lack of control over his optic blasts actually stems from a sort of mental block that the young Scott imposed upon himself after the combined traumas of the loss of his parents, separation from his brother, and shocking manifestation of his powers; this is seen as a coping mechanism, giving Scott something to focus on and try to maintain some sort of control over at a time when events completely out of his control had effectively shattered the life he had led up to that point.

Surprisingly, Scott seems to admit that this theory is the truth of the matter, further admitting that he had even blocked making this decision out of his memory, to preserve the fallacy in his own mind and prevent others from discovering his "secret". The issue ends with Scott apparently in a catatonic state, with his eyes uncovered and displaying their natural shade of brown, with no evidence of his powers manifesting.

Relationships

Although being type-cast as the sensible, stiff loner, Cyclops has had many serious relationships. Unfortunately, most if not all of them have ended poorly. One striking feature is the fact that he seems irresistible to women with telepathic abilities. He was married to both Jean Grey and her clone Madelyne Pryor, who both proved to have omega-class telepathy and telekenesis; his latest girlfriend, Emma Frost, is a telepath as well. Psylocke, another psi talent, once blatantly tried to seduce him, although this could have been due to the subtle influences of the ninja assassin Revanche's personality that were still in her mind at the time.

He has also dated non-mutant women. Cyclops (during a time in which he thought Jean was dead) went on a date with Colleen Wing and then he briefly dated Lee Forrester prior to meeting Madelyne Pryor.

When he married Madelyne Pryor, Scott had thought he had found a replacement for Jean. Over time however, he realized that while Maddie looked like Jean, it was not her emotionally. Scott then began to emotionally distance himself, while fixating unheathily on Jean. Scott would later leave Maddie, upon hearing of Jean's return.

When Cyclops married Jean Grey, fans assumed that Cyclops had reached a happy ending. However, following his brief period possessed by Apocalypse, Cyclops returned to the X-Men, feeling that his long-time love/obsession with Jean was a lie. Using Jean's expanding mental powers as an excuse, Cyclops began having sexual therapy sessions with Emma Frost, and that led to a telepathic affair between the two. When Jean confronted Scott, he made the claim that it had only been thoughts which they shared and thus he had done nothing wrong. Scott then left the X-Men for a time to understand his own conflicting feelings. He returned to tell Emma that he had made a decision between her and Jean, but Jean was killed by Magneto before it was revealed which woman he had picked. A dying Jean told Scott that she understood and urged him to live. It was later revealed in "Phoenix Endsong" that Scott had picked Emma over Jean.

Following Jean's death Scott considered leaving the X-Men, having been disillusioned with Xavier's dream. This outcome would have led to an apocalyptic future. To avoid it, Jean, using her Phoenix Powers, pushed Scott past the guilt he felt over her death. Scott then accepted Emma's offer of reopening the school with her. The two have since been together, however there have been some problems with their relationship, particularly in light of the recent House of M storyline and the events involving the Hellfire Club's return.

Other versions of Cyclops

Age of Apocalypse

In this storyline, Scott is a villain who fights against the X-Men. The favorite son of Mr. Sinister, who has adopted him and his brother Alex. This creates a great deal of friction between the brothers. Unbeknownst to them, Mr. Sinister plans to use Scott's DNA coupled with that of Jean Grey's to create a mutant, Nate Grey, who he can use to oppose Apocalypse.

Scott operates a breeding pen for Mr. Sinister, yet he has some reservations about the work he does for his adoptive father. For a period of time, Scott held Jean Grey captive in his pen, and began to become attached to her. When Weapon X came to liberate Jean, Scott fought back. In the fight, Weapon X lost his hand, and Scott lost one of his eyes. The two have been enemies since.

In the meantime, Scott increasingly found himself questioning his adoptive father's work, and starts releasing prisoners. This does not go unnoticed by his brother Alex who still harbours jealousy towards him over their adoptive father's attention. Eventually, Jean is re-captured, this time by Alex. When Scott enlists to help her fight back, Alex kills them both.

X-Men Fairy Tales

Cyclops appears as the main character in the first of a four-part X-Men Fairy Tales limited series. This issue is based around the Japanese fairy tale of Momotaro, only with Cyclops being the boy born out of the peach. He is named Hitome, which roughly means vision in Japanese. However, his optic blasts come from only one eye, and are stopped by the pit of the peach he was born from.

Until he is around the age when he joined the X-Men in the regular comics, he lives with the old couple who found the large peach, working as a woodcutter, using his blasts to cut down trees instead of an axe.

When an old monk (Professor X) comes running through the woods, chased by thieves, Hitome comes to his aid. The old monk tells a tale of how he is gathering a group of special people like Hitome in order to rescue the Emperor's daughter (Jean Grey), from a group of demons (The Brotherhood of Mutants: Magneto, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Toad).

Along the way, Hitome and the monk gather a team of comrades, some by Hitome's cunning, others by his offers of friendship.

Ultimate universe

Ultimate Cyclops (Scott Summers) is a fictional superhero in the comic book Ultimate Universe of Marvel Comics. He is, like many characters in the Ultimate imprint, a reimagination of the original Marvel Universe version of the character of Cyclops. Created by Mark Millar, he first appeared in Ultimate X-Men #1 in 2001.

In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Scott is introduced as the Boy Scoutish field leader of the X-Men. His parents died in a plane crash, and he is estranged from his older brother Alex, to whom he did not speak since joining the X-Men years before. Before becoming part of Xavier's dream, Scott dated a young woman named Lorna Dane.

Joining Magneto

Scott proved to be shy, so much in fact, he was unable to ask his crush Jean Grey on a date. When Jean started to date Wolverine, Scott was so heartbroken he left the X-Men and joined Magneto. During his time with Magneto, repeated referrences were made to a nascent attraction between Cyclops and Magneto's daughter, the Scarlet Witch; Magneto considered Scott a potential heir and urged him to pursue a relationship with her. However, Scott came to his senses soon enough to warn Xavier of Magneto's plan to destroy Washington, D.C. with a fleet of reprogrammed Sentinels. It was later revealed that Cyclops and Xavier had planned to send Cyclops to infiltrate Magneto's group and that Jean and Wolverine's affair simply provided a convenient excuse for Scott's departure.

X-Man Again

When Jean dumped Wolverine and finally began a relationship with Cyclops, Logan violently attacked Scott. Their fight ended, the two were sent by Xavier on a joint mission to the Savage Land in an attempt to resolve their rivalry. Returning to their plane, Scott fell into a chasm and caught himself on a ledge. Wolverine reached down to grab him but then decided to allow Scott to drop. Cyclops survived but was severely injured and was unable to stand as he lay at the bottom. He survived by eating insects and anything else he could reach until he was found by a rescue group sent by Magneto in search of Savage Land mutants who survived ealier destruction. The group did not realize Cyclops' true identity and they took him to Magneto's hidden citadel, where his injuries were treated. Cyclops recovered in time to contact the X-Men, direct them to the citadel, and defeat Magneto once again. Soon after, Cyclops blasted Wolverine to the ground with a violent optic blast and kicked him off the team. Shortly thereafter, Cyclops took the moral high ground and tracked Wolverine, making it clear that he and his teammates thought Wolverine's best chance for redemption was with the X-Men; Wolverine then returned to the team.

Trivia

Cyclops is worried about Marvel Girl’s lack of control over her growing powers, much like Scott is with Jean in the second X-Men film.
Cyclops is estranged from his elder brother Alex. After Scott joined Xavier’s, they never talked to each other again until recently. Now, however, he is disappointed once more as Alex chose to leave with Emma Frost rather than stay with the X-Men.
Scott’s first relationship was with Lorna Dane, Alex’s current flame.

Powers and abilities

Cyclops is an "alpha-level" mutant, capable of projecting powerful beams of concussive force from his eyes. The beams derive their power from sunlight; Cyclops's cells are constantly absorbing solar energy and transferring it to his eyes, which in turn serve as apertures which project extra-dimensional non-Einsteinian particles in beam form (In some stories, this means that his powers do not work when he is separated from the sunlight). Contrary to popular misconception, Summers's optic blasts do not project heat (like lasers), rather, the beam generates pressure which can pummel and subsequently, if desired, destroy objects. It was through this use of his power that Summers ensured the survival of himself and his brother when their parachute failed, by softening the ground beneath them.

Suffering a head injury in this unorthodox landing, Summers was left unable to consciously control his powers - his optic beams are now constantly "on," and will project indefinitely when his eyes are open. However, as Scott's psionic field is in tune with the energy of his beams, and as this field envelops his body, he is immune to the harmful effects of his own powers, causing the beams to dissipate harmlessly if they should come into contact with his body. Hence he is able to block the beams simply by closing his eyes, with even the thin material of his eyelids being able to block his beams. To allow him to function in day-to-day life, Scott wears a set of eyeglasses made of ruby quartz, a material which is resonant to his psionic field, and hence blocks his beams in a similar fashion. In combat, Cyclops uses a specialized ruby quartz visor (built with a single, long lens, hence Summers' alias "Cyclops") housing adjustable apertures that allow him to control of the size and intensity of the beams.

The maximum force of Cyclops' optic blasts are unknown but a common example is that he can "punch holes through mountains" and rupture a half-inch thick carbon steel plate. During a particular battle, Scott says that he hit Cain Marko (aka the Juggernaut) with enough power to split a small planet, though he may have been indulging in hyperbole. However in the AOA story-line Cyclops was able to destroy Wolverine's nearly indestructible adamantium hand when it came incontact with his eye.

Emma Frost has stated that Summers can't control his power due to a combination of factors including the loss of his parents, being separated from his brother, and later having head injuries; the outcome to this revelation has not yet been resolved.

Skills

Cyclops seems to possess an uncanny sense of "trigonometry", in this sense used to describe his observation of objects around himself, and the angles found between surfaces of these objects. With this ability, Cyclops has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to fire his optic blasts in such a way as to cause them to ricochet and/or reflect off those objects in a trajectory to his liking. This is commonly called a "banked shot" when applied to this talent. Cyclops has been observed causing beams to reflect from over a dozen surfaces in the course of one blast, and still hit his intended target accurately.

Cyclops is an expert pilot of fixed-wing aircraft, a skill he appears to have inherited from his father. It has also been implied that his trigonometric sense improves his abilities in the air.

A master strategist and tactician, Cyclops has spent most of his superhero career as the leader of either the X-Men or X-Factor and has developed exceptional leadership skills. It is notable that regardless of their general attitude towards him, all of the X-Men tend to obey his orders in battle - because they know that he's usually right. Further evidence of this is seen during the House of M storyline where the gathered heroes accept Cyclops as the field leader, again without argument. His talents at leadership are also underscored in that Emma Frost has alluded to the fact that Charles Xavier only made Cyclops a team leader as an anchor for which Scott could gain some sort of stability in his life. Citing that Scott was not the type of natural leader that others like Captain America are, and his defeat to a non-powered Storm for leadership of the X-Men, Emma does affirm that despite his challenges, Cyclops has proven to be an excellent leader. During his twelve years raising Cable in the distant future, Cyclops and Phoenix, under the alias' of Slym and Redd Dayspring, helped organize a resistance to Apocalypse's rule, with Cyclops/Slym becoming one of the leaders of the Clan Rebellion.

Cyclops also has extensive training in martial arts and unarmed combat, holding black belts in judo and aikido. His level of skill is sufficient to defeat six normal men with his eyes closed and he has in the past held his own against such dangerous enemies as Wolverine and Ghost Rider.

Cyclops in other media

Cyclops's appeared in several episodes of the animated television series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. He appears in the episodes, "The Origin of Iceman", " A Firestar is Born", "The Education of a Superhero" and "The X-Men Adventure". George Dicenzo provided Cyclops's voice in "The X-Men Adventure" while Neil Ross provided Cyclops's voice in " A Firestar is Born" .

Cyclops appeared in the Pryde of the X-Men animated pilot. Michael Bell provided Cyclops's voice.
In the X-Men animated series, Cyclops was voiced by Norm Spencer. In this version, Scott was the established team leader and was in a relationship with Jean Grey from the beginning of the series, acting more or less as his mainstream counterpart would. Throughout the series, Scott also discovered that his father was the space-pirate Corsair. During a battle with the government team known as X-Factor, Scott had to fight his brother Alex, aka Havok. Though neither of the two seemed aware that they were brothers of each other, even though their powers had no effect on each other, as was also often the case in the comics. When the series ended, Scott and Alex never had the chance to discover they are related.

In a later animated series, X-Men Evolution, Cyclops was voiced by Kirby Morrow. Here, Scott Summers is the X-Men's field leader. In contrast to his mainstream version, this version of Scott is a confident and self-assured leader with a much more extroverted personality; his teammates all look up to him, especially since he was Xavier's original recruit; Rogue even appears to have a crush on him. He has a slightly rockier, almost love/hate relationship with Jean Grey in this version for a time, although they later admitted their feelings after Scott was separated from the X-Men, lacking his glasses, and was discovered by Jean during a battle with Mystique. After graduating from Bayville High, he has become an instructor at Xavier's Institute for Gifted Children and is currently romantically involved with Jean. He also shares a close big-brother/little brother relationship with Nightcrawler. In this series, Scott later learned that Alex, his brother, was still alive, and they often shared conversation by either telephone or actually meeting up with each other, although Alex declined full-time X-men membership. The fate of their parents is unclear in this series, though.

In the feature film X-Men and its sequels X2 (2003) and The Last Stand (2006), Cyclops is portrayed by James Marsden. Although an important figure and leader in the films, his role seems to be overshadowed in favor of Wolverine, especially in X2. Cyclops had little screentime in The Last Stand due to Marsden's filming of Superman Returns. Early in the film, Cyclops encounters the resurrected Jean Grey who - lacking complete control over the Phoenix - apparently kills him although his fate is not clearly established in the film.

Cyclops is also included in games such as X-Men Mutant Apocalypse, X-Men Mutant Academy, X-Men Mutant Academy 2, X-Men Next Dimension, X-Men Legends, Rise of Apocalypse and the Marvel vs. Capcom series.

External links

Cyclops_(Scott_Summers) - Marvel Database Project
UncannyXmen.net, Spotlight feature on Cyclops

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