As the X-Men‘s most prominent leader, Cyclops has come a long way from his days as a skinny teen attending Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Scott Summers is often depicted as straight-laced and uptight, but his comics history is much richer. Cyclops has been a hero, a villain, and everything in between, from an absentee husband and father to a loving family man.
The evolution of Cyclops did not happen overnight. For years, he was the moralistic, strategically minded field leader for the X-Men. He was often used in X-Men stories to present a square counterpart to the cooler and more badass Wolverine. But in the 60 years since Cyclops first appeared, Marvel writers and artists have chipped away at this façade, creating a nuanced hero. In chronological order, here are the most significant moments in Cyclops’ history that define the character.
17 Scott Summers Loses Everything in a Plane Crash
As a young boy, Scott Summers’ life is changed forever when his parents are seemingly killed in a plane crash. He and his brother Alex survive when their mother gives them the only parachute and forces them off the plane. Scott hits his head upon landing, causing an injury that would later prevent him from being able to control his optic blasts. The Summers brothers are sent to an orphanage, where Alex is adopted and Scott is forced to grow up alone.
16 Cyclops Joins the X-Men
The exact history of Scott Summers joining the X-Men has changed over the years. Most accounts have his powers manifesting at the age of 16, whereupon he is chased by an angry mob after his optic blasts nearly destroy a construction site. He runs away and is later found by Charles Xavier, who provides him with the ruby quartz lenses that keep his dangerous optic blasts in check. After being taken in by Xavier, Scott becomes the first official member of the X-Men.
15 Cyclops Meets Jean Grey
The very first issue of X-Men by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee opens with Xavier having already recruited four members: Cyclops, Angel, Beast and Iceman. Their lives are forever changed when Jean Grey joins as the school’s first female student. Though all four boys vie for Jean’s attention, it is Scott who ultimately catches her eye. Thus begins a romance that would come to define both of their lives.
14 Jean Grey Dies
Over the years, Cyclops sees the original X-Men depart and new members come and go. And through it all his loving relationship with Jean Grey endures. However, when Jean becomes the host for the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix, her newfound powers overwhelm her. Becoming the villainous Dark Phoenix, Jean hungers for power and life, consuming a sun in the process and dooming an entire planet. This earns her a death sentence from the Shi’ar Empire, and although the X-Men fight to protect Jean in a trial by combat, in Uncanny X-Men #137 by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, she ultimately sacrifices herself in front of Scott to prevent the Dark Phoenix from manifesting again.
13 Cyclops Meets Madelyne Pryor
The loss of Jean devastates Scott, to the point that he leaves the X-Men and begins wandering the Earth in search of a purpose. His journeys take him to Alaska where he meets a pilot named Madelyne Pryor. Scott is shocked by Maddie’s resemblance to Jean and immediately falls in love with her, unaware that Madelyne Pryor is actually a clone of Jean created by Mister Sinister. They marry and give birth to a son named Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, who will one day grow up to become the mutant known as Cable.
12 Jean Grey Returns and Cyclops Abandons His Family
In Avengers #263 by Roger Stern and John Buscema, Jean Grey is discovered in a cocoon at the bottom of New York Harbor. It’s revealed that she was actually placed in suspended animation by the Phoenix, who impersonated her and carried out her terrible deeds as Dark Phoenix. She is revived, and upon hearing Jean is alive, Cyclops leaves his wife and infant son in X-Factor #1 by Bob Layton and Jackson Guice to be with his love. They reunite with the other original X-Men to form the heroic team X-Factor. But his abandonment of Madelyne and Nathan comes back to haunt him and the rest of the world during Inferno. Driven mad by Scott’s betrayal and manipulated by the demon N’astirh, Madelyne tries to invade New York City with an army of demons. She ultimately fails and kills herself in an unsuccessful attempt to take Jean with her.
11 Cyclops Sends His Son Into the Future to Become Cable
After Madelyne’s death, Jean absorbs her memories. Together she and Scott begin raising his son Nathan while also leading X-Factor. However, during a fight with Apocalypse in X-Factor #68 by Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee and Chris Claremont, Nathan is infected with a deadly techno-organic virus. His only hope comes in the form of Sister Askani, a warrior from the future devoted to fighting Apocalypse. She brings Nathan into the distant future to a world overrun by Apocalypse. He grows up as a revolutionary, only returning to the present day as a much older man and hardened warrior. Though Scott and Jean are also sent into the future at one point to raise Nathan for much of his childhood, it would be years before he realizes that the man known to him as Cable is actually his son. This has created a strained relationship between the two men that has endured for decades.
10 Scott and Jean Finally Marry
Despite the hardships they’ve faced over the years, it appears that Scott and Jean finally get their happy ending in X-Men #30 by Fabian Nicieza and Andy Kubert. This landmark issue sees the long-awaited wedding between the two mutant heroes, bringing together the entire mutant community in a celebration of their whirlwind romance. Scott even manages to temporarily patch things up with his son for the occasion. During their honeymoon they are sent to the future to raise Nathan, as seen in the limited series The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix by Scott Lobdell and Gene Ha Though more than a decade passes for them, they are eventually returned to the moment they left.
9 Cyclops Bonds with Apocalypse
Cyclops continues to lead the X-Men Blue Team until the events of 1999’s crossover, Apocalypse: The Twelve. This event sees Apocalypse gather together twelve Omega-level mutants in order to transfer his essence into Nate Grey, the son of Scott and Jean from an alternate timeline. Determined to keep this from happening, Cyclops interrupts the process and ends up merging with Apocalypse himself in X-Men #97 by Alan Davis and Terry Kavanaugh. He is believed dead until Jean and Cable manage to track him down and separate him from Apocalypse in X-Men: The Hunt for Cyclops by Joseph Harris and Tom Raney.
8 Emma Frost Disrupts the Summers-Grey Marriage
By the turn of the century, the X-Men franchise saw an overhaul, largely thanks to writer Grant Morrison’s run on the series New X-Men. As the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning goes public and opens its doors to hundreds of mutants, Scott and Jean’s marriage is on the rocks. Partially thanks to his experience merging with Apocalypse and partially because of Jean’s re-emerging connection to the Phoenix Force, they begin to drift apart. When Emma Frost takes up residency at the school and begins teaching, she and Scott begin a psychic affair. Jean finds out, and just as they are able to finally patch things up, Jean is killed once again in an attack by Xorn posing as Magneto.
7 Cyclops Takes Over as Head of Xavier’s School
With Jean Grey dead and Professor X leaving his school after Xorn’s attack, it falls to Cyclops to step up as the new head of the Xavier Institute. Alongside his new romantic partner Emma Frost, Scott becomes the de facto leader of the Earth’s mutants. Beginning in Astonishing X-Men #1 by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday, he returns the X-Men to their classic superhero roles, and proceeds to usher the X-Men through several tumultuous years. The Scarlet Witch eliminating most of the worlds’ mutants at the end of House of M is a real eye-opener for Cyclops, as he suddenly finds himself fighting to prevent the extinction of a species that’s been reduced from millions to just 198. These years see him relocate the X-Men to San Francisco and then the island base Utopia. A civil war between the mutants nearly breaks out after the discovery of Hope, the first new mutant to be born following Scarlet Witch’s decimation.
6 The Cyclops-Wolverine Schism Tears the X-Men Apart
Cyclops’ tenure as head of the X-Men sees him gradually become more disillusioned with Xavier’s dream of peaceful coexistence between man and mutant. This is exacerbated in X-Men: Deadly Genesis by Ed Brubaker and Trevor Hairsine, when he learns of another secret X-Men team that Xavier sent to their deaths, including Vulcan, who turned out to be Scott’s youngest brother. Whereas Cyclops once avoided killing enemies at all costs, he now begins accepting more violent methods. He forms a secret X-Force team specifically to carry out clandestine missions and assassinations. This comes to a head in X-Men: Schism #5 by Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert, when he and Wolverine clashed over how the young mutant students should be taught. Scott believes that they should be prepared to fight for their lives, while Wolverine doesn’t think children should be treated as soldiers in a war they didn’t sign up for. It all comes to a head when the two clash and nearly kill each other in a brutal fight. Their falling out splits the mutant community down the middle, with Wolverine leading a group back to the newly-christened Jean Grey School for Higher Learning in Westchester, while Cyclops remains on Utopia.
5 Avengers vs. X-Men
The Phoenix Force has been responsible for so much heartache in Scott’s life, but when it’s discovered that the Phoenix is heading towards Earth, he sees it as an opportunity. He believes that the mutants can harness the energy of the Phoenix and use it to protect themselves from a world that hates and fears them. The Avengers see it differently, and believe that the Phoenix is a threat to the entire world. Cyclops views this as a stance of aggression against mutants, and during a tense standoff with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes he attacks Captain America in Avengers vs. X-Men #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr. This kicks off a war between the X-Men and the Avengers. When the Phoenix Force does arrive on Earth, Cyclops manages to harness its power along with Emma, Colossus, Magik and Namor, and together they set about to remake the world in their image.
4 Cyclops Kills Professor X
Although the Phoenix Five manage to solve many of the world’s problems, their newfound power goes to Scott’s head. One by one, each of his allies are defeated and their powers are dispersed to the other members, until Cyclops is the last remaining Phoenix host. In a last desperate attempt to stop Scott, Professor Xavier tries to shut down his brain. Cyclops is overcome by all of his power. He becomes the Dark Phoenix and murders his mentor in cold blood. Thus, in the eyes of the superhero community, Cyclops goes from an honorable leader to a full-blown supervillain.
3 Cyclops: Mutant Revolutionary Leader
Eventually the Avengers and their allies manage to harness the power of the Phoenix away from Cyclops and defeat the fallen mutant. Maintaining that he is not responsible for his actions because of the Phoenix’s influence, Scott escapes from custody and goes on the run. Aligning himself with Magneto and Emma, Scott establishes himself as a true mutant revolutionary. Believing that mutants have to fight back against those who would wish them harm, he begins recruiting students for the New Charles Xavier School for the Gifted, which he operates out of an old Weapon X facility. While he maintains that he is fighting for his people, his new status puts him at odds with other X-Men, the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.
2 Cyclops Dies of the M-Pox
Before Marvel held the movie rights to the X-Men characters, the company tried to reduce the number of X-books it published, and increase the profile of the similar (yet less popular) Inhumans. Within the Marvel Universe, it was discovered that the Terrigen Mists that give Inhumans their powers are deadly to mutants. One of the first victims of the deadly “M-Pox” is Cyclops himself, who inhales the Terrigen and dies a quick but painful death in Death of X #4 by Charles Soule, Jeff Lemire, Aaron Kuder and Javier Garrón. Wanting Scott’s death to mean something, Emma uses her powers to convince the world that Cyclops led an attack against the Inhumans, and was killed in the process. In the eyes of most of the world, he becomes a terrorist, but for some mutants he is a martyr. He’s eventually resurrected, but for years the phrase “Cyclops Was Right” becomes a rallying cry for mutants around the world.
1 The Dawn of X Brings a New Era for Mutants (and for Cyclops)
The 2019 publication of House of X and Powers of X ushered in the Krakoan era of X-Men comics. As the world’s mutants gather together on one island nation, former villains are forgiven for their sins and everyone is given a chance to start over. Cyclops is able to turn over a new leaf, becoming Captain Commander of Krakoa before relaunching the mutants’ signature team, the X-Men. He also reconnects with his family and establishes the Summers House for his family on the moon. His rivalry with Wolverine over the affections of Jean Grey was resolved when the three entered into a polyamorous relationship. He has made some unpopular choices, such as revealing the mutants’ resurrection abilities to the world, but for the most part, Krakoa has signaled a new chapter in the life of the X-Men’s premier leader, Cyclops.
