Cyclops (Marvel Comics)
| Cyclops | |
|---|---|
| File:Cyclopsjc.jpg Cyclops as he appears in Astonishing X-Men, by John Cassaday | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | X-Men #1 (1963) |
| Created by | Stan Lee Jack Kirby |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Scott Summers, occasionally nicknamed "Slim" |
| Team affiliations | X-Men, Xavier Institute For Higher Learning, X-Factor, The Twelve |
| Notable aliases | Apocalypse, Slim, Slym Dayspring, Eric the Red |
| Abilities | Continuous ocular energy beams, immunity to Havok's powers |
Cyclops (Scott Summers) is a Marvel Comics superhero, known 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 lead to his inhibited, meticulous character. These same qualities 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 X-Men. James Marsden plays him in the recent film series.
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 him 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 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.
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, culminating 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, Christopher Nathan 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 and retirement
Several years later, Scott Summers and Jean Grey married. 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 their return, she assumed the Phoenix identity. Sometime afterwards, Cyclops was unwillingly merged with the villain Apocalypse, but 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 drift to develop between Jean and himself, as he would claim that Apocolypse made him question their relationship. When Jean began to show signs of the Phoenix Force, Scott only further distanced himself from her. Instead of attempting to reconcile with his estranged-wife, Scott turned to Emma Frost, once known as the White Queen, a former villain who had reformed and joined the X-Men. Emma took advantage of this situation to get close to Scott. Under the guise of counseling him, she was able to instigate a telepathic affair.
When Phoenix discovered the affair, Cyclops attempted to deny he and Emma had done anything wrong by claiming that 'they were just thoughts'. The fact that Scott attempted to justify his actions, and Emma's snide jeers, drove Jean to psychically assault Emma. She forced Emma not only to admit her true feelings, but to also come to terms with her many failures and sins. Scott, who could not handle being confronted by his hurt wife, subsequently left the X-Men to mull over what was happening in his life. As he returned the sentient DNA known as John Sublime, had taken control of the original Xorn, who was also wearing the guise of Magneto, attacked the X-Men and killed Jean in the process (although she would later be resurrected by the Phoenix Force).
Due to the telepathic intervention of the Jean of an alternate future, in an attempt to prevent said future from coming to pass, Cyclops and Emma Frost are currently romantically involved. Several of their teammates are none too happy with this because they feel that Cyclops and Emma are insulting the memory of Jean Grey and the marriage she and Scott once shared.
Astonishing X-Men
They serve as co-headmasters of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Cyclops also tutors a squad at the institute named, 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, 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 X-Men: 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 imprompu 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" (how Emma Frost was able to root this out of his mind when more powerful telepaths who have had longer personal relationships with Scott, such as Charles Xavier and Jean Grey, were unable to, has yet to be explained). 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 are both Omega-class psi talents, and his current girlfriend is Emma Frost, 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.
It has been remarked that Cyclops is incapable of sharing true romance with women however, judging by the outcome of most of his relationships. When he married Madylne 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, who then seduced him into a telepathic affair. When Jean confronted Scott, he claimed that they did nothing wrong.
Much like what Scott did with Maddie's death, Scott immediately began a new relationship with Emma following Jean Grey's death (although Jean did 'push' Scott into it from 150 years in the future and would later return to life in the present). Since then Emma has supposedly 'replaced' Jean Grey as the love of Cyclops' life, though most fans expect this relationship, like all the others to come crashing down on their ears.
Powers and abilities
Cyclops is a mutant, possessing the power to project beams of pure concussive energy from his eyes. Contrary to common assumption, no heat is involved. Due to an injury suffered in his early years, these beams are always "on" and can only be blocked by either closing his eyes or by a barrier of "ruby quartz", of which his sunglasses and visor are made. The energy to power the beam is drawn from the rays of the sun; Cyclops' cells are constantly absorbing solar energy and transferring it to his eyes, which in turn project extra-dimensional non-Einsteinian particles as beams of force. The psionic field of Cyclops's mind is in tune with this energy, and as it 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, even the thin material of his eyelids is able to block his beams). Ruby quartz is resonant to his psionic field, hence it blocks his beams in a similar fashion. He can also absorb ambient energy from his environment, such as radiation or electricity; note, however, that such absorption is very minor and inefficent, and does not grant him any sort of immunity to radiation poisoning or electrocution.
The visor is designed to open the quartz shield to varying widths to allow his optic blasts to fire freely when Cyclops desires it. He originally had to manipulate controls on the visor itself for firings, but his costume was later equipped with controls in his gloves for convenience. In addition, the visor has a backup spring loaded shutter mechanism to shut the visor should the regular powered system fail. Certain accounts have intimated that certain versions of the visor are/were sensitive to the movement of Cyclops' eyelids, causing the quartz shield to open when he widens his eyes.
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 indestrucible adamantium hand when it came incontact with his eye.
Cyclops also possesses a superhuman sense of spatial awareness, which enables him to pull off often quite absurd trick shots with his optic blasts, such as ricocheting a single shot to destroy half-a-dozen separate targets. This sense also makes him a dynamite pool hustler and may be responsible for his ability to act almost normally with his eyes shut.
Skills
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. 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.
Ultimate Cyclops
In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Cyclops starts 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. It should be noted that in the mainstream Marvel universe, Cyclops is actually the elder Summers brother.
In the beginning arcs, he was portrayed similarly to the mainstream version, as a shy, aloof loner who cannot bring himself to ask his love Jean Grey out for a date. He was, however, tougher and more aggressive than his mainsteam counterpart, especially at a younger age. When Jean started an affair with Wolverine, he was so heartbroken that he defected to Magneto, although this is partly because Xavier sent the team on a mission where Beast almost died, but snapped out of it in time to warn Xavier that Magento was sending a fleet of reprogrammed Sentinels to Washington. 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.
When Jean dumped Wolverine and began a relationship with him, he and Logan had a violent brawl, and Professor X sent them on a joint mission to the Savage Land in an attempt to resolve the rivalry. Returning to their plane, Cyclops fell into a chasm and caught himself on a ledge. Wolverine reached down to grab him but then decided to let Cyclops 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 loyal to Magneto and searching the Savage Land for mutants who survived the destruction there during the first Ultimate X-Men arc. 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 tracked down Wolverine and made 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.
Since this incident, Cyclops has gained much self-confidence, is the unquestioned field leader of the X-Men and Professor X's right hand.
Appearances in other media
- Cyclops's appeared in several episodes of the animated television series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.
- In the feature film X-Men and its sequels X2 (2003) and X-Men: 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. Cyclops is (possibly)killed by Phoenix early in the third film of the franchise.
- In the TV animated series X-Men: The 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. 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; his teammates all look up to him, especially since he was Xavier's original recruit. After graduating from Bayville High, he has become an instructor at Xavier's Institute for Gifted Children and is currently romantically involved with his long time crush Jean Grey. He also shares a close big-brother/little brother relationship with Nightcrawler. In this series, Scott later learned that Alex is his brother, and they oftenly shared conversation by either telephone or actually meeting up with each other. The fate of their parents is unclear in this series, though.
- Cyclops is also included in games such as X-Men Mutant Academy, X-Men Mutant Academy 2, X-Men Next Dimension, X-Men Legends, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
External links
- MDP: Cyclops - Marvel Database Project
- UncannyXmen.net, Spotlight feature on Cyclops