A hero published by
Marvel Comics.
Cyclops was created by
Stan Lee and
Jack Kirby and first appeared in
Uncanny X-Men #1
in 1963.
Scott Summers was the eldest son of Christopher Summers, a major
in the U.S. Air Force, and his wife Katherine. The Summers and their
two sons Scott and Alex were in a small plane flying back from
vacation, when their craft was attacked by a scout ship of the
Sh'iar empire. The parents were taken captive, but not before
Katherine was able to strap the only parachute onto Scott and push
him, holding his younger brother from the plane. The chute was
damaged during the decent and Scott took the brunt of the impact
to protect young Alex. Scott suffered a head injury as a result that
caused some brain damage that would not be apparent until later in
life.
The two Summers brothers were put into an orphanage for a time.
It has been revealed years later that during their time in the
orphanage, the Summers brothers came to the attention of Dr.
Nathaniel Essex, a master in genetics and mutant himself, who goes
by the name of Mister Sinister. During this time, Essex performed
various experiments on mutant children, including Alex whose
ability to absorb cosmic radiation was linked with another mutant
known as Ahmet Abdol. The Summers brothers were split up about
this time, and Scott stayed at the orphanage for many years.
Eventually, Scott's mutant ability to project beams of force from
his eyes manifested, but due to the brain injury he had suffered
years before he had no ability to control the power. Through the
help of mutant leader, Charles Xavier, Scott was fitted with
a pair of ruby quartz glasses that contained the beams and allowed
Scott to carry on a relatively normal life, although he constantly
has to remain vigilant less his eye beams get loose and injure someone.
Xavier brought Summers to his home in Westchester, New York, and
Scott became the first student to be trained by Xavier to use his
powers and employ them for good. Over time, other students were
brought in and these students became known as the X-Men. Although
initially Xavier would lead them telepathically while in the field,
eventually Scott (who went by the code name Cyclops) rose to be
the natural field leader. During this time, Cyclops and the rest of the original team of X-Men encountered, Scott's younger brother Alex, whose mutant power manifested itself as the ability to absorb cosmic radiation and project it in a powerful blast of energy. Alex began using the name Havok as a codename and worked off and on with the X-Men, but it would be many years before he became a full member of the team.
The first group of X-Men became lifelong friends and romance bloomed
between Scott and fellow student Jean Grey, who was called Marvel
Girl. Although they went through the natural ups and downs of
relationships (especially ones that involve putting on spandex, and
fighting people called things like the Blob and Unus the Untouchable),
the two always had deep feelings for each other.
Then, the original X-Men were defeated and captured by Krakoa, the
Living Island with only Cyclops escaping. He returned to Xavier,
who gathered a new group of mutants to aid in finding is original group of
students. The new group of mutants accompanied Cyclops, back to
Krakoa and with the help of both the new and old groups, the mutants
defeated Krakoa. Most of the original group of X-Men decided
to move on, with the exception of Cyclops, who stayed on as
leader of the X-Men while the new group learned to act as a team.
Years later, while in space battling the menace that threatened the existence of the universe, the X-Men encountered a group of space privateers named the Starjammers. The Starjammers were lead by a human who called himself Corsair. During their time together, it was revealed that Corsair was actually Christopher Summers, the father of Cyclops. The elder Summers had survived over the years, but chose not to return to Earth, believing that his two sons had been killed during the
battle with Sh'iar scout ship. It would be a number of
years before Cyclops and his father would learn each other's identity and be reunited.
Cyclops acted as team leader for many years, until Jean Grey was
seemingly killed after becoming the immensely powerful Phoenix.
Summers traveled for a while, but eventually came back to the
X-Men. During this time, Summers met a woman named Madelyne
Pryor, a pilot and a double to Summers former love Jean Grey.
The two fell in love and were married, eventually having a son
named Nathan Christopher. They were happy for a time, but it was
not to last.
It was discovered that Jean Grey had not been killed, but had
been replaced by the Phoenix entity. She was discovered alive
and Summers left his wife and child to sort out his feelings about
Grey's return. He and his fellow original X-Men banded together
to help mutants by posing as a mutant hunting group called X-Factor.
They sought to help mutants who had been discovered by offering
them shelter and teaching them to use their powers under the guise of
hunting them down for profit. It was a difficult time for Summers
as his wife and child disappeared and he struggled with his feelings
for Marvel Girl.
Eventually, during the Inferno event, it was revealed that Pryor
was actually a clone of Jean Grey and she sold herself over
to demonic powers in an attempt to get revenge on Cyclops and
Marvel Girl. The resulting battles left Madelyne Pryor dead
and Scott Summers reunited with his son and the woman he loved.
Tragedy struck Scott Summers again soon after. His son Nathan was
infected with a techno-organic virus by the villain Apocalypse,
who realized that he would grow to be a powerful opponent. Summers
was forced to give his son to a member of the Clan Askani who were
from 2000 years in the future. The Clan believed that Nathan
was the key to Apocalypse's defeat and that they could help to cure
him. So, Cyclops allowed his son to be taken into the future with
no real hope of seeing him again.
Soon after this, Cyclops and the rest of the members of X-Factor
returned to the X-Men and Cyclops shared leadership of the
team with Storm. They fought a number of menaces including
Magneto, Onslaught, and Bastion. Scott Summers and Jean
Grey eventually married and were able to spend a number of years
in the future raising Nathan, who later traveled back in time to
be the hero known as Cable.
Apocalypse appeared and captured the Twelve, twelve mutants who
would help him achieve great power. He planned to use this power
to transfer his mind into the body of Nate Grey, the X-Man,
who was actually Nathan Summers from an alternate timeline. During
the battle, Cyclops attempted to prevent the transfer of Apocalypse's
mind into Grey's body only to have it transferred into his instead.
The result was that for a time Apocalypse and Cyclops inhabited
the same body, but since Summers has regained his body and
serves as a leader in the X-Men to this day.
When the adventures of the X-Men were portrayed on the big
screen, the character of Cyclops was played by actor
James Marsden.