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 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.
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 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 & 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 with Jean
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 aiding Cable defeat Apocoylpse, 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.
Biggest mistake...
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 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.
Returned
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 Apocolypse 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.
Love life ?
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 latest 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.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, who then seduced him into a telepathic affair. When Jean confronted Scott, he made the claim that it had only been thoughts which they shared and thus he did nothing wrong. Scott then left the X-Men for a time to understand his own conflicting feelings. However he was not given the proper chance to reconcile with Jean, as she was killed by a faux Magneto. However, before she died, Jean urged Scott to live.Later Scott considered leaving the X-Men, finding life without Jean too unbearable. This outcome would have led to an apocalyptic future; to avoid it, Jean, using her Phoenix Powers, manipulated Scott into falling in love with Emma Frost. The two have since been together, however there have been considerable problems with their relationship, particularly in light of the recent House of M storyline and the events involving the Hellfire Club's return.
