User:Rich Farmbrough/temp82

{{Multiple issues|refimprove=February 2009|cleanup=February 2010}}

Cyclops
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The X-Men #1 (Sep. 1963)
Created by	Stan Lee Jack Kirby
In-story information
Alter ego	Scott Summers
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	X-Men X-Force X-Factor X-Terminators The Twelve
Notable aliases	Cyke, Slim, Slym Dayspring, Scotius Summerisle, Mutate #007, Eric the Red
Abilities	Optic energy beams, intuitive spatial geometry (related to power)

Cyclops (Scott Summers) is a fictional character, a superhero who is the field leader of the X-Men in the

. A mutant, Cyclops produces a powerful beam with great destructive power from his eyes referred to as an "optic blast". In uniform, he wears a unique ruby quartz battle visor with a lens which runs from eye-to-eye giving him a one-eyed appearance, hence the codename "Cyclops."

Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, he first appeared in The X-Men #1 September 1963. Originally dubbed Slim Summers, by X-Men #3 his name was changed to Scott and Slim was referred as a nickname. Scott is the first X-Man recruited by Charles Xavier and as one of the original five X-Men, Cyclops has had a large presence in X-Men-related comics since their inception.

Cyclops is typical of the archetypal hero in American popular culture as opposed to the tough anti-authority anti-heroes that emerged in American popular culture after the Vietnam War. Cyclops nature is that of the authority figure who follows a strict rules based code of chivalry like the Geneva Conventions or Bushido. He has also been featured in almost every adaptation of the team in other media. In practically every incarnation of the character, he has almost always been shown to be not only Charles Xavier's most loyal student, but also the one who most believes in his dream of mutant and human equality. Xavier is known to view Scott as one of his most, if not the most prized pupil. The relationship is not mentor to protege but akin to that of a father to son. Xavier hand picked Scott to lead his X-Men and to carry on his ideals.

He is the son of Corsair (Major Christopher Summers) of the Starjammers; the brother of Havok (Alex Summers) and Vulcan (Gabriel Summers); the father of Cable (Nathan Summers); and the widower of Madelyne Pryor and Jean Grey and a long time friend with Beast (Hank McCoy). In alternate realities, he has also been the father of Marvel Girl and Ruby Summers, and the biological parent to X-Man and Cable's clone Stryfe. From time to time Scott's loyalty to Xavier has cost him dearly. He has remained by Xavier's side and eventually moved out of Xavier's shadow as the singular leader of the X-Men.

He is played by James Marsden in the X-Men films. A young Cyclops appears in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, released in May 2009, played by Australian actor Tim Pocock. In 2006, IGN.com rated Cyclops #1 on their list of Top 25 X-Men from the past forty years. Wizard Magazine also ranked Cyclops the 106th best comic book character of all time, of their list of the Top 200 Comic Book Characters of All Time.

Publication history

Cyclops' first appearance is in X-Men #1 created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and he has been a mainstay character of the X-Men series. Summers remained a member of the team up through Uncanny X-Men #201 when he left the Uncanny X-Men title to be featured in the launch of a new series by Marvel. This new series, X-Factor, launched in 1986 and would star the original Uncanny X-Men team of Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, and Angel. Scott would stay with the X-Factor title through X-Factor #70. In October 1991, Summers returns to the X-Men to launch X-Men #1 (2nd series). This series would be the second of two X-Men titles and would feature Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, Psylocke, Rogue, and the Beast as Blue team. Cyclops has recently been featured in another title launch with the introduction of a new X-Men series Astonishing X-Men. Astonishing X-Men features Cyclops, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Colossus, Emma Frost, and the Beast as a team. Throughout this time Cyclops would continue to make appearances in Uncanny X-Men Marvel has also used Cyclops to launch variant series of X-Men titles most notably Ultimate X-Men and New X-Men.

Cyclops has appeared in limited series including Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix, Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix, X-Men: The Asgardian Wars, the second series of Astonishing X-Men, X-Men: The Search for Cyclops, his own self-titled series Cyclops, and X-Men Origins: Cyclops #1.

Cyclops' first appearance is in X-Men #1 created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. They would write the majority of the first issues in the series. In 1975, writer Chris Claremont starts his tenure on the series with Uncanny X-Men #94. He would go on to write for the title over the next 16 years until 1991 when Jim Lee takes over as the series artist. In 1991, writer Brian K. Vaughan would work on the self titled series Cyclops #1-4. In 2000, Joseph Harris would write the four issue run titled X-Men: The Search for Cyclops that deals with Cyclops' return after merging with Apocalypse in the events of the Twelve from Uncanny X-Men #377. In 2004, writer Joss Whedon would write a variant of the series Astonishing X-Men.

During Joss Whedon's run of Astonishing X-Men, Cyclops adopted a new attitude unfamiliar to most accustomed fans. After Emma's psychic intervention at the mansion, he temporarily lost his powers after owning up to his self-inflicted, traumatic past. This prompted an interview with Joss Whedon in Wizard magazine #182, when asked if Cyclops didn't have his powers any more, Whedon replied that "No, he doesn't have his powers. Well, he had a choice to either be completely out of control or bury them. He can't use them. That's pretty much it. But the thing that would be fun is that, with no powers, he's going to be the best that he's ever been. That's what the arc is about. [Cyclops has] been the team leader and the team washout in terms of popularity. He was defined by Jean so much, and I just think that this guy is so interesting in his struggle against mediocrity. Then, when it's all laid on the line, when you find out the thing that's been holding him back from being just a complete bad ass has been himself all his life, that he's been lying to everyone, including himself, about who he is-that should be freeing. The Scott we're going to see is going to be a little bit different. This guy is either completely out of control or in control of something we're not used to. I wanted him to be an unabashed tough guy. He is shooting people and turning very much into a leader. Not everyone is going to like it." Now, the X-Men leader has become more confident, outspoken, and audacious. This has had a significant effect on his leadership and his respect among fellow teammates, most notably Wolverine.

Fictional character biography

Cyclops' history has undergone various revisions, both minor and major. The central fixed element is the character's origin story. As a young boy, Scott Summers is orphaned after watching his parents die in a plane crash. Scott and his brother, Alex, are the only survivors. Their parents placed the two boys in the only available parachute and forced them to jump from the plane just prior to crashing. The boys become wards of the state and are separated. When Scott's powers manifest uncontrollably he runs away from the orphanage and wanders before being taken in as ward by Charles Xavier.

Youth

When Scott was a boy growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, his father, USAF Major Christopher Summers, took the family for a flight in their de Havilland Mosquito. It came under attack by an alien Shi'ar spaceship. As the plane went down in flames, Scott's parents fastened him and his younger brother Alex into a parachute and pushed them off the plane, hoping that they would survive.

In Cyclops' first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #1, he is already leading the X-Men under tutelage of Professor X. Later, Scott's origin is first presented in Uncanny X-Men #38-42 and later refined in Uncanny X-Men #144 and Uncanny X-Men #156. In 2010, Marvel released X-Men Origins: Cyclops #1 that describes the character's childhood through his joining the X-Men.

The early accounts in the X-Men comics use flashbacks to tell the origin story of Scott parachuting from his parents' plane. The flashbacks are often told from various narrative perspectives and place different emphasis on the events of this period. Scott's poor control over his power have been attributed to events in his childhood. In Uncanny X-Men #156, Scott's parachute caught fire and Scott struck his head upon landing. This caused brain damage to Scott which is responsible for his poor control over his optic blasts. Several origin stories do not feature the head injury account with X-Men Origins: Cyclops #1 being the most recent. The head injury account has also been retconned in Astonishing X-Men Vol. 2 as being due to a self-imposed mental block he made as a child to deal with the traumatic events of his life. With the help of Emma Frost, Scott is able to briefly bypass his own mental block and control his powers, though he reveals that his control is waning and temporary.

For a time Scott had prolonged amnesia about his childhood. Parts of his memory returned when he was unexpectedly attacked by the demon D'Spayre while on a leave of absence after Jean Grey's perceived first death. Scott spent most of his childhood in an orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska and was subjected to batteries of tests and experiments by the orphanage's owner, Mr. Milbury, an alias for the geneticist Mister Sinister, who also placed mental blocks on Scott.

Ancestry

In The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix limited series, both Scott and Jean were sent back in time to 19th century England by Madame Sanctity, a surviving member of the Askani sisterhood. In 1860, prior to the epilogue of the story, a young English orphan named Daniel (who was freed, one year ago, from the clutches of Nathaniel Essex by Scott and Jean) is shown arriving in New York Harbor from London. As a form of reverence toward the couple who recently showed him great kindness, when urged by his apparent guardian to adopt a new surname at the immigration station, Daniel chooses Summers. Although Scott does not make the familial connection between Daniel and himself, he suspects that his presence in this time (along with Jean's) did something else to affect the course of history, aside from stopping Mister Sinister and Apocalypse.

The X-Men

[[:File:Cyclopsclassic.png|thumb|left|150px|Cyclops projecting an optic blast. Art by Jack Kirby.]] When Scott is sixteen, he runs away from the orphanage, and while wandering the streets is taken in by Charles Xavier. On a trip to New York with his orphanage supervisor Scott walks across a construction site and his optic beam activates. The blast damages a metal crane causing it to fall towards an onlooking crowd. Scott thinks quickly unleashing a second blast that destroys the crane. The crowd thinks this is an act of violence, and forms a lynch mob. Scott hops onto a train and runs away. Wandering Scott encounters Jack O' Diamonds and battles the villain. Scott is found by Charles Xavier, who erases the crowd's memories. Xavier then asks Scott to join the X-Men, and he gladly accepts, as the first official member.

In the X-Men's first field mission, he battles Magneto. With the X-Men, he battles the Blob. He also becomes romantically attracted to Jean Grey. With the X-Men, he then clashes with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants for the first time. He soon becomes the team's field leader, a position he will traditionally hold over the years.

Cyclops has a relationship with Jean Grey during their time in the "original" X-Men. For a long time, he refuses to admit, even to himself, that he has feelings for her, afraid he would be hurt again or that his optic blasts would hurt her - or anyone else he cared about for that matter - and also because he feels he is no match for his wealthy teammate Warren Worthington III, a.k.a. Angel, who is at first also romantically interested in Jean. What Scott doesn't know is that Jean actually has a crush on him, but is too shy to make a move. Finally, on Bobby Drake's 16th birthday, they reveal their passion for each other and begin to date.

When the X-Men are defeated by Krakoa, Cyclops is the only member able to escape and return to Xavier. He helps train a new group of X-Men, which includes Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Banshee, Thunderbird, Sunfire and Wolverine to rescue the others. When the other original X-Men (Angel, Beast, Iceman, Jean Grey, and later additions Havok (his own brother Alex) and Polaris) decide to leave in light of the arrival of the new X-Men, Cyclops stays, feeling that he will never be able to lead a normal life because of the uncontrollable nature of his powers.

At first, Scott believes that his parents died in the plane accident and is unaware that they, in fact, had been captured and sold into slavery by the Shi'ar. As an adult member of the X-Men, Cyclops meets his father, now known as Corsair, leader of the Starjammers, a group of aliens opposing what they see as the tyranny of the Shi'ar empire. Jean learns of Corsair's identity but keeps it from Scott and several more years pass before he learns his father's true identity. He later comes into contact with his grandparents, who he learns are still alive and own a shipping company in Canada.

Cyclops privately questions his relationship with Jean after Jean dies trying to pilot a space shuttle through a solar flare, and then is reborn as Phoenix, feeling that this reborn Jean was not the same Jean he had loved. Yet when he thinks her dead for an extended period of time after a battle in the Savage Land, Scott is not able to mourn her, and believes this meant he didn't really love her anymore. He briefly dates Colleen Wing. However, when Scott and Jean are reunited on Muir Island to fight Proteus, he rediscovers his love for her, and they share a passionate kiss on the way home. A few days before Jean dies, Scott psychically proposes, and she accepts. After her death, he quits the X-Men, unsure of what to do anymore. He signs on as crew of a fishing boat, captained by Lee Forrester. After an adventure in which Lee's father is possessed by D'Spayre, and Cyclops and the Man-Thing must fight D'Spayre, Scott and Lee find themselves shipwrecked in the Bermuda Triangle, where they stumble upon Magneto's new base of operations.

Scott soon returns to the X-Men. He then discovers that Corsair is actually his father. Eventually, Scott marries Madelyne Pryor, a woman who bears a strong resemblance to Jean. Scott later battles Storm for undisputed leadership of the X-Men, and after being defeated he retires from the X-Men. Madelyne bears him a son, Nathan.

X-Factor and Inferno

Shortly after the birth of Nathan, it is revealed that Jean is not dead. The Phoenix is revealed to be a cosmic entity who had supplanted Jean, placing her in a healing pod at the bottom of Jamaica Bay, to be eventually revived by the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Cyclops leaves his wife and son and returns to Jean, although Warren moves in on the now single woman. Jean joins with Cyclops and the other original X-Men as X-Factor, who pose as mutant hunters but in reality are trying to help their genetic brethren. Meanwhile, Pryor goes on to be an assisting member of the X-Men, apparently sacrificing her life during the Fall of the Mutants with her teammates, although she was left with feelings of despair over the loss of Scott, who felt bad himself over the way he had handled the situation.

No longer married, Scott moves on. During an adventure, his teammate Warren, the Angel, loses his wings. Bitter, Angel is transformed by a villain the team recently encountered, immortal mutant Apocalypse, into Death, general of his Horsemen. Iceman manages to bring Warren back, who becomes Archangel.

The demons S'ym and N'astirh corrupt Madelyne's feelings of self-despair, transforming her into the Goblin Queen. Madelyne seeks revenge on Scott for leaving her. When it is revealed that she is a clone created by geneticist Mister Sinister, essentially for the purpose of becoming a brood mare, Madelyne can't take it any more and kills herself. Scott seemingly kills Sinister with an optic blast, and pursues a romance with Jean, reclaiming his son. Scott soon learns that Mister Sinister ran the orphanage in which Scott was raised, and battled Sinister over this.

Shortly after the X-Tinction Agenda, Scott reencounters Apocalypse, who infects Nathan with a techno-organic virus. Although Scott saves his son with the help of his fellow teammates and through the combined strength of Nathan, Jean, and himself defeats Apocalypse, he was unable to save his son from the fatal infection. Distraught, Scott sends his son into the future where he can be cured.

Next, Xavier's psionic enemy, Shadow King, returns to combat the X-Men and X-Factor. After his defeat, Cyclops and X-Factor rejoin the X-Men team, and Scott is named leader of a newly created "Blue Team".

Return to the X-Men

After Cyclops' return as field leader, much of the Blue team is kidnapped by Omega Red and the ninjas of The Hand. After the captured teammates' rescue, Mr. Sinister sends Caliban, a former X-Factor member, to kidnap Cyclops and Jean for Stryfe, a madman and rival to Cable, both time-lost mutants. Stryfe tells the two that he is Nathan, sent to the future and abandoned. In a fight, Cable and Stryfe apparently die. Afterwards, the team battles Omega Red again, and fellow teammate and telepath Psylocke tries to lure Cyclops into an affair behind Jean's back. Ultimately, however, Cyclops remains with Jean. Cable returns as well and reveals to Cyclops that he is the real Nathan Christopher Summers.

Second Marriage

Scott Summers and Jean Grey finally marry. During their honeymoon, they are brought into the future where they raise Cable for the first 12 years of his life during The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix miniseries. After helping Cable defeat the future version of Apocalypse, they are sent back to the past. At the request of Rachel Summers, Jean assumes the Phoenix identity. Mister Sinister, involved with the machinations of Apocalypse and Stryfe and still alive, tells Cyclops that there is another Summers brother, and leaves him wondering.

As Cyclops deals with the fact that his son is now old enough to be his father, the X-Men are forced to battle their mentor when Professor Xavier is transformed into the evil Onslaught as a result of mind-wiping Magneto. Although the X-Men defeat the evil entity and free Xavier, most of Earth's heroes are lost for a time. Xavier, who is left powerless after Onslaught's defeat, is arrested for his part, leaving Scott and Jean as leaders and co-headmasters of the school. However, the pair go into retirement following Operation: Zero Tolerance, in which Cyclops is gravely injured when a bomb is placed in his chest.

Merging with Evil

Scott and Jean return to the X-Men some time after at the request of Storm, when she grows concerned about the mental well-being of Professor X (who had returned sometime prior). Their return then leads to the events of The Twelve, in which Apocalypse locates twelve mutants which can power a machine to allow him to take the body of Nate Grey, the X-Man. In order to save Nate, Cyclops willingly merges with the villain Apocalypse. He is believed dead until Jean and Cable track him down to Egypt and separate him from Apocalypse, killing Apocalypse's spirit in the process.

New X-Men

Upon Cyclops' return to the X-Men following his possession, his personality has been altered as a result of being bonded with Apocalypse. This change causes a rift between him and Jean; he claims that Apocalypse made him question not only their relationship, but his life as a whole. He is instrumental in preventing the mutant Xorn's suicide and in recruiting the powerful mutant to the X-Men. The two establish a close friendship; similarly, repeated missions with Wolverine result in the growth of a tentative friendship between the two veteran X-Men.

When Jean begins to show signs of the Phoenix Force again, the distance between the two grows larger and Scott begins abstaining from sex with Jean for the five months. Jean attempts several times to confront Cyclops, but he continues to push her away, claiming that Apocalypse had changed him too much on the inside. Jean, confused by the change in their relationship, confides in Logan and the two kiss in the woods outside the school, but Logan walks away telling her that she should remain with Scott. Xavier leaves Earth while under the control of Cassandra Nova and Jean is left as Headmistress of the school. Her new responsibilities along with her growing powers, force Jean to put her attention elsewhere leaving Scott feeling ignored and his trauma from being possessed trivialized. Instead of attempting to reconcile with her, Scott turns to Emma Frost for consolation, feeling that he can talk to Emma about his problems. Their relationship ostensibly begins as a series of psychic therapy sessions, but Emma takes advantage of this situation to get closer to Scott. Under the guise of counseling him, she instigates a telepathic affair.

When Phoenix discovers the affair, Cyclops claims he and Emma shared only thoughts and thus had done nothing wrong. Meanwhile, Emma's snide and mocking jeers provoke a hurt and angry Jean to psychically confront her, using the full-power of the Phoenix Force to 'burn through lies'. She forces Emma to admit her true feelings for Scott, and to face her many failures, sins, and personal demons. Furious at both himself and Jean, Scott confronts Jean and demands that she read his mind; Jean finally complies, only to discover that Scott and Emma never engaged in any physical contact, though Emma had offered it. After confronting Jean with the truth, Scott leaves the Xavier Institute, and a short time later Emma is found shattered in her diamond form and believed killed.

Scott soon finds himself at the Hellfire Club which had been turned into a sleazy strip club and tries to get drunk, attempting to escape the responsibilities, expectations, and demands which he feels are unjustly placed on him by the X-Men. He then accompanies Wolverine and Fantomex to the government-created time-pocket called The World and then Asteroid M. During his time with Wolverine, Scott reveals that he feels his relationship with Jean is stagnant and that the two of them had not progressed romantically since their initial teenage romance. He also confesses that he feels that Jean is so concerned with the school and her new powers that the two no longer communicate like before and that he feels left behind due to Jean once again being connected to the Phoenix Force. When Scott finally returns to the X-Men, their new teammate Xorn (who was revealed to be Magneto, but was subsequently retconned as an imposter) attacks the X-Men. Having at last reached full Phoenix power, Jean confronts Xorn-Magneto and is killed in the process. As she is dying, Scott apologizes for hurting her, but Jean instead tells him that she understands and has never seen him more alive and urges him to live on.

Headmaster

Scott, however, is devastated by Jean's death, and considers 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 apocalyptic alternate future. To prevent this, a resurrected, future-version of Jean uses her powers as the White Phoenix of the Crown and telepathically nudged Cyclops into a real relationship with Emma, reaching out to him from this alternate future. Together, the pair rebuild the Xavier Institute as co-headmasters.

The new relationship between Emma and Scott leads 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 Summers in particular feels hurt and angry by her father's lack of remorse for the psychic affair that hurt Jean before her death and Emma's part in it, and takes on the last name of Grey in place of Summers. The other X-Men eventually come to accept the relationship and both Scott and Emma manage to reconcile with Rachel in their own ways, such as introducing Rachel to Jean's other family members.

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 positive light where mutant abilities are used for the good of people, Cyclops hand-picks a new team in Astonishing X-Men, which is subsequently used by Marvel as the chief representation of the X-Men. The team faces an alien named Ord of the Breakworld, who supplies Earth scientist Dr. Kavita Rao with a "cure" for mutation. The team subdue Ord, but not before learning that one of their own will be responsible for the destruction of Ord's homeworld in the coming year. Not long after, the X-Men's Danger Room becomes sentient, attacking the X-Men and seeking to ultimately kill Xavier. Calling itself "Danger," "she" reveals that Xavier knew she had been self-aware since Shi'ar technology was installed in the Danger Room years ago, but chose to ignore her, effectively inhumanely using her only to train his teams of X-Men. After her defeat on the island of Genosha, the X-Men abandoned Xavier in disgust, with Cyclops no longer welcoming Xavier's input at the School or with the team.

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

Astonishing X-Men

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 not from physical brain damage, but 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.

Scott admits that this theory is the truth, further admitting that he had 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. Later he manifests, and has full control over his optical blasts, although it was only temporary.

Deadly Genesis

Main article: X-Men: Deadly Genesis

After the events of House of M, nearly all mutants were left depowered, and Xavier was missing. A mysterious villain then 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 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 miniseries. 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.'

Civil War

Main article: Civil War (comics)

Cyclops, along with the other living original X-Men, declare neutrality on the subject of Civil War, reasoning that the X-Men sympathized too much with Captain America's side - who, like the X-Men, were persecuted for wanting to do the right thing - but believed that the mutant race had suffered too great a loss recently to take a side either way due to the recent depowerment of so many mutants. When Bishop leaves the team to join the Registration supporters and locate the escaped 198. In Civil War: X-Men #2, Cyclops under mind control of Johnny Dee helps the futuristic X-Man in recovering them. Cyclops is then manipulated into attacking Bishop which he does by overloading Bishop's power of energy absorption.

World War Hulk

Main article: World War Hulk

Cyclops is listed at IGN as a target on Hulk's "Hit List" of characters. He is seen fighting the Hulk in World War Hulk: X-Men #1 and in issue #2, he uses a full beam blast to stop the Hulk, refusing to let the Hulk take Professor Xavier regardless of his own feelings towards his mentor regarding the truth about Krakoa. While it peels off some of the Hulk's skin, he was able to walk towards Cyclops and clench his entire face, effectively containing the blast. After Hulk left when Mercury told him about the mutant race being near-extinct, Cyclops began to forgive Professor X while the wounded were being tended to.

Messiah Complex

Main article: X-Men: Messiah Complex

Cyclops leads a team to Alaska to find the new mutant detected by Cerebro. When the team arrives, they find nearly every child in the town killed, dead Marauders and Purifiers, and the baby gone. He sends a team consisting of Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Angel, and Colossus to find former Acolytes for information on the Marauders. He argues with Xavier, who complains about not telling him about his team. Scott tells Xavier it's not his X-Men anymore and that he can do what he wants. Scott also calls in X-Factor to help with the situation, asks Rictor to infiltrate the Purifiers, and asks Madrox and Layla Miller to go see Forge. Upon discovering that Cable has kidnapped the new born mutant, Cyclops orders the reforming of X-Force with Wolverine leading the team. Their first mission is to hunt down Cable and retrieve the baby. Cyclops later breaks all ties with Professor X and asks him to leave the mansion, as Xavier continues to question Cyclops' judgement. Later on, Cyclops is seen with his own team and X-Factor, to help out Wolverine against the Reavers and to capture the baby from Cable. Cable eludes the X-Men.

After finding the Marauders' hideout on Muir Island, Cyclops dispatches X-Force and Bishop to go there and retrieve the baby. During the final battle, Cyclops sends the New X-Men against the Marauders, believing that Sinister's forces will be caught off guard by unfamiliar opponents. The students prove to be effective. Cyclops then confronts Cable demanding the baby. Cable, with a gun pointed at his father, begs Cyclops to let him escape into the future with the baby, however Cable gives the child to Cyclops, after Xavier points out that the future of all mutantkind is at stake and Cyclops, as leader of the X-Men, speaks for mutantkind. Cyclops holds the baby and, realizing that the child deserves the chance to make its own destiny, gives her back to Cable. Cable teleports to the future just as Bishop fires a round at the child. The shot misses her and hits Xavier in the head. Cyclops strikes Bishop with an optic blast, and Cyclops declares the X-Men disbanded.

Manifest Destiny

During the interim period, Cyclops goes on a vacation with Emma to the Savage Land after refusing Tony Stark's request to have the X-Men as part of the Fifty State Initiative. There, they are contacted by Warren asking them for assistance in San Francisco. Scott and Emma are successful in rescuing not only Warren and the other X-Men, but also in rescuing San Francisco as a whole. As a result, the Mayor of the city offers to help the X-Men reestablish themselves in the city. After building a new headquarters, Cyclops sends word to all the world's mutants that San Francisco, which has welcomed the X-Men with open-arms, is now a safe haven for mutant-kind and that all are welcomed to join them. The X-Men's presence is widely approved of by San Francisco, including the police, who now hire the team to aid them in cases that might be out of their area.

Cyclops dispatches Wolverine to track down Mystique and revives X-Force as a clandestine black-ops team whose mission is to take down threats to mutankind that they cannot deal with while under the public eye. Cyclops places Wolverine in charge of the team and adamantly keeps X-Force's existence secret from the other X-Men, including Emma Frost (manifested as a psychic "black box" in his mind that Emma is unable to open), also demanding that X-Force remain unknown to the public. However, Cyclops utilizes other X-Men for parts of the groups mission, including Beast and the Stepford Cuckoos. The team is sometimes less careful, leaving blood-stained clothing around, piquing Emma's suspicions. The controversy of Cyclops' decisions as leader of the X-Men is further highlighted during the Skrull invasion of San Francisco when he readily utilizes biological warfare against the Skrulls by knowingly infecting them with an adapted version of the Mutant Legacy Virus created by Beast without first determining if there was also a cure.

In another controversial decision, Cyclops sends X-Force to track down the Leper Queen who is infecting mutants with a strain of the Legacy Virus to use their uncontrolled powers in attacks against humanity in order to stir up anti-mutant hysteria. While on the mission, Beast locates Cable in the future and Cyclops orders X-Force to abandon the current mission and prepare for transport to the future to assist Cable and the baby, Hope. Despite knowing that the Leper Queen has kidnapped and intends to kill Hellion, Surge, and Boom Boom, and despite the protests from both X-Force and Beast that a few more minutes is all that is needed to kill her and save the students, Cyclops makes the difficult decision to activate the time machine. Though Domino is only moments away from killing the Leper Queen, the team is transported to the future and the Leper Queen appears to shoot Boom Boom in the head, while Hellion and Surge are injected and sent to the United Nations building for another attack. Upon his return to the present Wolverine confronts Cyclops on the risks he took in making that decision.

Mutant/Anti-mutant rioting and the return of Madelyne Pryor

Footage of Cooperstown, Alaska from X-Men: Messiah Complex is eventually released to the media by Simon Trask, designed to deceive the public into believing that the destruction was caused by the newborn mutant messiah rather than the Purifiers. The footage, coupled with Trask's newly formed "Humanity Now! Coalition" pushing anti-mutant legislation, dubbed "Proposition X," aiming to control mutant reproduction, causes an increase in mutant hate crimes, causing Scott to open the X-Men's base to anyone seeking refuge. During this time, his growing secrecy concerning X-Force and Emma's suspicions that he is keeping something from her which begins creating a rift between himself and Emma. Taking advice from Storm that Scott's actions are always in the best interest of mutant-kind, Emma secretly agrees to participate in Norman Osborn's Cabal in her own attempt to insure the protection of the mutant population.

Scott encounters his dead ex-wife, Madelyne Pryor, again when she inexplicably returns as a psychic ghost, calling herself the Red Queen and with a newly assembled all-female team of mutants calling themselves the Sisterhood. Her team attacks the X-Men and Madelyne steals a lock of Jean's hair in Wolverine's possession, with the goal of using it to locate and inhabit Jean's body, allowing her to be reborn. Scott employs Domino to exhume Jean's grave and swap her body with another. Unaware of the switch and spurning Scott's attempt to reach out to her, Madelyne attempts to possess the body, but seemingly disintegrates into nothingness as no other body than Jean Grey's can house an entity of Madelyne's level of power.

Utopia

After the battle with Madelyne and the Sisterhood, Beast confronts Scott and Emma, stating that he is aware of both of their clandestine actions and that they will discuss them at length together or their secrets will tear the X-Men apart. In the limited crossover tie-in, Dark X-Men/Dark Avengers: Utopia, the growing unrest among the mutant population and calculated instigation from Trask and Humanity Now! leads to violent rioting from mutants against the anti-mutant coalition in San Francisco. Though supported by the mayor, Cyclops is largely viewed as the leader of the remaining mutant population by the media and he takes the brunt of negative media and public opinion, implicated as endorsing and sending the X-Men to lead the rioting. Trask capitalizes on the hysteria, portraying Humanity Now! as victims of oppression in order to push Proposition X. Norman Osborn utilizes the Dark Avengers to stop the riots and arrest Cyclops and his team of X-Men, calling in Emma to lead a new team of "Dark" X-Men. Emma agrees to lead the team, which will answer to Osborn, as the Black Queen. Marvel writer Matt Fraction indicated that Emma's alliance with Osborn will place Scott and Emma at odds with one another, providing "a profound schism." Cyclops travels to Osborn's base on Alcatraz Island to speak with him. Osborn tells Cyclops that they can end the riots and hysteria here right now but Cyclops interrupts him and orders him to surrender. A shocked Osborn asks what he means and Cyclops replies that Osborn needs to get the riots under control and then withdraw H.A.M.M.E.R. and the Dark Avengers and leave San Francisco to him and the X-Men. When Osborn refuses Cyclops leaves telling Osborn that he tried. After Cyclops leaves, Osborn tells Victoria Hand that when the time comes Osborn is going to kill Cyclops personally.

As Emma's Dark X-Men slowly get the city under control, Cyclops continues to form his plans to deal with the situation. Scott assigns his X-Men (such as Mirage, Domino, Mindee Cuckoo, and Psylocke) different tasks, as well as having another team observe Emma's team, as they deal with a group of bio-sentinels attacking San Francisco. When asked how they're expected to take out both the Dark X-Men and Dark Avengers, Scott retorts "Who said you're the squad that's supposed to stop the Avengers?"

Scott's plan finally comes together as he has Magik teleport X-Force into H.A.M.M.E.R's Alcatraz Island, where they take on the Dark X-Men and Avengers, while Magik teleports all the captured mutants to safety. X-Force is aided by Emma and Namor, who are revealed to be double-agents against Osborn. Immediately after, Scott has the X-Club resurrect Asteroid M which crashed into the Pacific Coast a few years prior. Cyclops then orders Magik and Pixie to teleport every X-Man and allied mutant to what he now calls 'Utopia'. During a press conference, Cyclops informs the world that they have left the United States and that they reject Norman Osborn and his methods.

Relationships

[[:File:ScottJeanWedding.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The wedding of Scott Summers and Jean Grey. X-Men #30, art by Andy Kubert.]]

Cyclops has had multiple serious relationships and is rarely written without a romantic female relationship. Cyclops's relationships are particularly complicated because of the many retcons involved in the publication history of the Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor characters.

In terms of publication time, Cyclops's longest relationship would be with Jean Grey, whom he would eventually marry but not before she would appear to tragically die protecting the X-Men. Grieving from this loss, Scott leaves to the Summer's family reunion where he meets and starts to pursue Madelyne Pryor. Scott would become obsessed with Madelyne's similarity to Jean. Madelyne would turn out to be a clone of Jean and would be made into a supervillain but not before Scott marries Madelyne and has a child with her. A love triangle would later be created when Jean is re-awakened from a coma and brought back to life by the Fantastic Four. These relationships would be resolved over the duration of Cyclops's appearance in the X-Factor series. His son would grow up to be the character Cable. Jean Grey and Scott would finally marry in X-Men #30.

When Cyclops married Jean Grey, he seemed to have reached a happy ending. Subsequently, Scott would become possessed by Apocalypse and the lingering effects from this would taint his relationship with Jean. This combined with Jean's returning Phoenix powers creates stress in their relationship. Confused Scott turns to Emma Frost, who takes advantage of Scott's emotional problems, which leads to a telepathic extramarital affair. When confronted by Jean, Scott claims that they shared "only thoughts" and that he had done nothing wrong; Jean, however, disagrees and demands that Emma explain herself, but Emma only jeers and insults her. Enraged, Jean unleashes the Phoenix power on Emma, rifling through her memories and forcing her to confront the truth about herself.

In the aftermath, Scott then leaves 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 in battle before it was revealed which woman he had picked. After Jean's death, Scott feels disillusioned with Xavier's dream, leaves the X-Men, and refuses Emma's offer to reopen the school. Had the school remained closed, this outcome would have led to an apocalyptic future. To avoid it, Jean, who was resurrected in this apocalyptic future, used her Phoenix Powers to absorb this future timeline into the White Hot Room. She then mentally pushed Scott past the guilt he felt over her death and made him accept Emma's offer of reopening the school with her.

The two have since been together, however not without problems, particularly in light of the recent "House of M" storyline in which Emma has alienated herself from many people by completely reformatting the school's workings and the events involving the Hellfire Club's return. As of the Divided We Stand stories, their relationship seems to be back on track. The relationship begins to deteriorate again with Cyclops keeping secrets about the actions of X-Force, and Emma not telling him of her agreement to join Norman Osborn's secret alliance known as the Cabal. However both had their secrets revealed to each other and their relationship seems to be back on track once again, apparently stronger than ever. Unfortunately, almost immediately after, their relationship hit a new road-bump. During a battle with Osborn's Dark Avengers, Emma absorbed a piece of the Void (a dark evil power) from the mind of Sentry. In order to keep the bit of evil contained, Emma has transformed permanently into her diamond form. While this keeps the evil power from accessing her enormous psionic capabilities, it shuts off Emma's emotions and empathy, causing her to become cold, rude, and snide towards all, even her boyfriend.

One striking feature about Cyclops's romantic relationship is the fact that he seems attracted to women with telepathic abilities and vice versa. He was married to both Jean Grey and her clone Madelyne Pryor, who both proved to have very strong telepathy. His latest girlfriend, Emma Frost, is a high-order telepath. Psylocke, another powerful psionic talent, once blatantly tried to seduce him,. Scott has been known, however, to date non-mutant women, in particular during the period in which he thought Jean Grey to be dead. He was known to date Colleen Wing, Lee Forrester, and finally Madelyne Pryor, who at the time was thought to be a powerless baseline human.

Powers and abilities

Cyclops has the power to emit beams of energy from his eyes described as an 'optic blast'. The beams have the appearance of red light (i.e., electromagnetic radiation in a red wavelength); however, they do not give off heat and instead deliver concussive force. The beams are tremendously powerful and can be used to rupture steel plates and pulverize rock.

In addition varying the beam width, height, and intensity, Cyclops has demonstrated a high degree of skill and accuracy in manipulating his optic blast. Cyclops is able to reflect the beam off hard and shiny surfaces. This feat also demonstrates his intuitive sense of spatial geometry between objects. The reflective qualities of the beams allows him to bounce the beam off many different surfaces in rapid succession. The effective range of his optic beam is approximately 2,000 ft. It has been observed to be focused tight enough to punch a pin hole through a coin, drill through the trunk of a log, and pierce the skin of the Blob. Cyclops has shown the power of his optic blast by blasting through the walls of a hardened building, tunneling through solid rock, and blowing the top off a mountain. Cyclops's force beams were measured by Iron Man to be almost 2 Gigawatts. Two Gigawatts is about half the peak power output of the Doel Nuclear Power Plant and when Cyclops released this much energy he exceeded his control over his optic beam. With Cyclops unable to shut off his optic beam, Leech came to his aid and negated his mutant power. Against other Marvel characters, Cyclops has been able to use his optic beam to knock Thor's Hammer from his hand. He is known to be able to overload Bishop's energy absorption power and is revealed to never have willingly used more than a small fraction of his full potential due to his anxiety regarding his optic blast.

Early accounts describe Cyclops' optic beams as the product of his body metabolizing sunlight and other ambient energy. This is similar to his brother Alex (alias Havok) who metabolizes cosmic radiation. This metabolized energy is then released in the form of the beam from his eyes. In some stories Cyclops depletes his body's energy reserves and needs to recharge through exposure to sunlight. When depleted Cyclops continued to emit the beams; however, its intensity was greatly diminished.

Modern accounts state that Cyclops' eyes contain inter-dimensional apertures, releasing powerful energies from another dimension into his own via the beams. These later accounts state that his body naturally metabolizes ambient energy that is used to open and focus the apertures in his eyes. The energy of the beam itself originates from this other dimension.

Cyclops' body is naturally immune to the beams' force. His mind projects a psionic field that envelops his body rendering it immune to his optic beam. Scott is also immune to the power of his brother Alex (Havok) who has the ability to emit waves of energy that heat the air into plasma. Likewise Havok has demonstrated immunity to Cyclop's optic beam. Scott has been shown as being able to absorb Storm's lightning bolt, although this act caused Cyclops a great deal of pain. The ruby quartz used in his battle visor has been said to be resonate with his body's psionic field. Scott has only a limited resistance to his brother Vulcan's powers.

For all Cyclops' skill in manipulating his optic beam, he is unable to completely shut it off. The optic beam continuously projects from his eyes which he must keep closed to prevent the destruction of objects within his field of view. Cyclops uses a pair of ruby quartz eye glasses developed by Professor X to contain the devastating rays. In his X-Men uniform he uses a ruby quartz battle visor in place of the glasses. His uniform has firing studs incorporated into his gloves and on the sides of the battle visor that control the visor's aperture. He has also been observed using casual sunglasses and contact lenses made from the same ruby quartz as his visor lens. Scott's poor control over his power is attributed to events in his childhood. His lack of control is initially described as being due to a head wound during his childhood, disabling his brain's ability to turn off his optic blasts. Later depictions explained that his lack of control is psychosomatic and due to the emotionally traumatic events of his childhood. This later explanation allowed Cyclops to finally control his optic blasts for a short time during a mission on the Breakworld, though at the conclusion of these events, he revealed that he was beginning to lose control again and reverted to using his visor and lenses.

Skills

Spatial Awareness: 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. Cyclops has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to cause his optic blasts 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. It is his sense of superhumanly enhanced spatial awareness that allows him to perform these feats as well. On two occasions Cyclops has been fast enough to blindly predict the position of Quicksilver and Northstar who were moving at superhuman speeds with enough accuracy to hit them with his optic blast.

Expert Pilot: 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.

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. According to Nick Fury's files, Scott's abilities are at their best in tense situations. Fury notes that the less time Cyclops has to think about a decision, the better that decision is.

Sebastian Shaw reflects on Cyclops's skill in taking advantage of the single flaw in the Hellfire Club's defense to reverse a dire situation for the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #134. In another issue, the X-Men are hypnotized into thinking Cyclops is the Dark Phoenix, they try to hunt him down. After thwarting Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Storm in quick succession, he flees to the Danger Room. Inside, he creates a jungle environment in which to hide from his fellow X-Men. They attempt to hunt him down, but he outwits them, defeating Shadowcat, Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, and Rogue, all the while suffering from broken ribs. In Uncanny X-Men #150, Cyclops organizes the X-Men to defeat Magneto at a time when the team is denied their mutant powers.

Master Martial Artist: 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 opponents as Wolverine and Ghost Rider.

During the 'Riot at Xavier's' storyline Cyclops faces off against Quentin Quire's Omega Gang and can be observed doing a cartwheel while firing his optic blast at Radian's leg. In a fight with the Horseman of Apocalypse named War, Cyclops executes an acrobatic flip off a statue in the graveyard while inverted in mid-air fires his optic blast into the mouth of the robotic mount.

Other versions

Main article: Alternate versions of Cyclops

In other media

Main article: Cyclops in other media

Bibliography

• The X-Men #1-93
• Giant Size X-Men #1
• The X-Men #94-138
• The Uncanny X-Men #150-175, 197-201, 316-342, 350-360, 374-376, 394, 492-present Annual Vol. 1 #3-18, '95-2001, Vol. 2 #1-2
• X-Men #1-71, 109-113, 181-191, 105-207, Annual Vol. 1 #1-3, '95-2001, Vol. 2 #1
• New X-Men #114-156
• Astonishing X-Men Vol. 2 #1-3
• Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 #1-present, Giant-Sized Astonishing X-Men 1
• X-Factor Vol. 1 #1-70, Annual #1-6
• Marvel Comics Presents Vol. 1 17-24
• Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #1-4
• Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix #1-4
• X-Men: The Search for Cyclops #1-4
• Cyclops #1-4
• X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong #1-5
• X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong #1-5
• World War Hulk: X-Men #1-3
• X-Men: Legacy #226-p, Annual #1
• X-Men Origins: Cyclops #1

External links

Cyclops (Scott Summers) at Marvel.com

• Cyclops UncannyXmen.net
• Cyclops ComicVine.com
• Cyclops MarvelDirectory.com
• The Summers Family Tree
• The Science of the X-Men: Cyclops