The X-Men are one of the most complex teams in comics. To begin with, they aren’t like a team like the Avengers or the Fantastic Four. Those two teams protect the world from threats and get all the credit and love. The X-Men save the universe as well, but they also have to deal with threats to mutantkind from everyone around them, including the very heroes who usually protect the world. They have to worry about what the people think of their actions; every move can make mutants look like the bad guy. However, things don’t get any easier when you get into the weeds of X-Men continuity.
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The X-Men have an amazing history, but it’s also one of the most confusing in comics. That’s what happens when you have time-traveling mutants, massive retcons, and cosmic forces focusing on the mutant corner of the world. However, all of these things wouldn’t have the same sting without one character: Cyclops. He’s the X-Men’s greatest leader, and has developed relationships with many different characters over the years. If you look at the twists and turns of X-Men history, you’ll find him in the middle of the most confusing parts. There have been rumors the Marvel Cinematic Universe was going to focus on him, and that could be a thornier issue than most people imagine.
Cyclops and His Family Have Tangled X-Men Continuity Into a Cat’s Cradle
Cyclops is the epicenter of the X-Men in a lot of ways, beyond being the leader. To begin with, he’s married to Jean Grey, who is known for dying and coming back, and having her history with the Phoenix Force changed whenever Marvel gets a hair in its eye. There’s his previous marriage to Madelyne Pryor, which produced Nathan Summers, who would become Cable (and that’s before we get into X-Man, an alternate reality of Cable with Jean Grey as his mother, not Madelyne). Nathan was sent to the future to cure a techno-organic virus was was given and was taken to the future by Mother Askani, who is known in the present as Rachel Summers.
Rachel is a whole can of worms. She’s the daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey from the “Days of Future Past” universe, who came back in time to the present from another universe (the “DoFP” future has been both the canon future and its own universe at differing times), and joined the X-Men as the new Phoenix. So, without his alternate universe daughter, Cyclops’s son would have died, and X-Force, one of the most popular mutant teams of the ’90s, wouldn’t have existed. Wait, there’s more.
Havok isn’t the only Summers brother. Scott and Alex lost their parents when the plane the family was flying was attacked by the Shi’Ar. The brothers bailed with the only parachute, and their parents were taken prisoner by the aliens. Their mother Katherine was pregnant, and the unborn child was pulled from her womb. The baby’s growth was accelerated, and he was enslaved, eventually gaining Omega-level energy powers. He’d escape, join Moira MacTaggert on Muir Island, and joined a secret team of X-Men.
It was a secret because they failed, and Xavier erased them from everyone else’s minds. This is just the way the Summers’ family rolls. Also, don’t think that Scott is the only Summers with alternate universe kids; Havok has them too, and got with Madelyne Pryor more than once. Then there’s Scott’s grandaughter, Hope. Hope Summers is technically a Summers, but not how you think; her father is Jean Grey, who went back in time and used the Phoenix Force to impregnate her mother so Hope could help save Krakoa. Cyclops is the best of the best, but his extended family is one of the most complex in comics.
Cyclops Is Ground Zero of the Weirdest Parts of X-Men History
Cyclops brings a lot of great things to the X-Men. His optic blasts have proven to be a devastating weapon. He’s helped trained everyone, and molded them into amazing combatants who are masters of teamwork. He’s a keen strategist, and proved to be a great leader of the mutant race. He’s become an iconic superhero, and has been a part of the coolest stories in the history of comics. He also sits in the center of a web of tangled continuity that makes the X-Men’s comics’ most confusing team.
If you look at the most confounding points in X-Men history, there’s always a Summers somewhere close by, someone who’s only around because of their relationship to Scott. It’ll be interesting to see how the MCU uses the hero. X-Men: The Animated Series/X-Men ’97 embraced the weirdness of Scott’s personal continuity; it’s become a huge part of who he is as a character and what he brings to the team. With Marvel Studios seemingly ready to go all-in on him, maybe we’ll get some of the kind of temporal, confusing hijinks the character is best known for on the big screen.
What you think about Cyclops’s place in X-Men history? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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