Scott Summers

Scott Summers was the oldest son of Christopher and Katherine Anne Summers. A few years after his birth, Scott's parents had a second child, Alex. Christopher was a member of the United States Air Force and was training to be an astronaut. A plane enthusiast, Summers also owned vintage de Havilland Mosquito. When Scott was 10 years old, his father took the Mosquito for a flight over Alaska with his family. The plane was later attacked by a Shi'ar scout ship. Seeking to save their children, Katherine pushed Scott and Alex out of the plane with the only parachute on board. Unknown to either boy at the time, their parents were teleported aboard the alien ship as it blew up the Mosquito and left Earth. Scott and Alex were not as safe as their parents had hopped as their parachute soon caught fire. Although the burning chute lessened the fall. One account states that Scott's emerging mutant powers, force beams fire from his eyes, is what lessened the impact. Scott still struck his head causing brain damage that would affect him the rest of his life. The destruction of the Summers plane was witnessed by people who began a search party immediately. Scott's memories of what truly happened to his parents were confused thanks to the injuries he sustained in his fall and he was frequently plagued by nightmares of these lost memories. Reviving from the fall, Scott was plagued by headaches that were the first sign that he was a mutant. Scott and Alex were later found by government officials out searching for poachers and were rescued.

Scott later went into a coma as a result of his head injuries and was rushed to a hospital and under went immediate surgery. Authorities tried to find the next of kin, but being unable to find any, determined Scott and his brother Alex to be orphans. Scott and Alex drew the attention of mutant geneticist Mister Sinister who secretly operated an orphanage in Nebraska. He sent one of his administrators, Robyn Hanover to make arrangement to have the boys placed at the State Home for Foundlings (AKA Sunset Home for Foundlings), so that Sinister could secretly observe their mutant natures and conduct experiments. Scott was still plagued by headaches caused by his emerging mutant nature. In order to observe this, Sinister also disguised himself as another orphan named Nate to befriend Scott after Alex was adopted by a new family. With the headaches increasing, Sinister secretly worked to suppress Scott's emerging mutant powers and began experimenting with a means of repressing these uncontrollable powers. To further groom Scott to his liking, Sinister had another orphan named Toby bully both "Nate" and Scott. While Scott was in the infirmary being treated for injuries after a fight with Toby, Robyn Hanover decided to take personal interest in him and begin trying to learn more about Scott and his background. Learning this, Sinister tried to stop all further interest the Hanover woman had for his subject. Back in his guise of Mr. Anderson—the head of the orphanage—he warned Hanover to not too personally involved in the lives of the children. He then decided Toby's usefulness had come to an end and force him to commit suicide by jumping off the roof. Scott tried to stop him and failed, and his horror at being unable to save Toby left him more open to Ms. Hanover's attempts to get through to the boy, much to Sinister's chagrin.

Learning that Scott had a love of airplanes, Robyn introduced him to Colonel Richard Bogart and his wife Tricia. However Scott was initially frightened due to his traumatic memories of the plane crash that drastically changed his life. Despite this, and attempts by Nate to convince Scott to stay at the orphanage, the Bogarts became interested in adopting Scott. Seeking to stop this, Sinister had the Bogarts die in a plane crash. Sinister also had Robyn Hanover removed from the orphanage, her fate is unknown. One night while he slept, Scott was assisted through his nightmares by telepaths Charles Xavier and Jean Grey who helped him make peace with his dreams. Seeking to recruit Scott into his school for mutants Xavier was not ready to make first contact and left Scott to believe the encounter was only a dream. By this time Scott was 17 years old and his mutant powers returned at full force but he was unable to control them. Sinister continued to experiment on the boy, and discovered that ruby quartz could hold back his eye blasts. In order to provide a plausible application of these glasses, Sinister arranged for an optometrist to prescribe them to Scott to wear. As "Nate" Sinister then changed his role in Scott's life from friend to bully, stealing his glasses in a means of forcing Scott to become afraid of his uncontrollable powers.

Eventually, Scott ran way from the orphanage where he had spent most of his life. The accounts of why are varied and contradict each other. One account states that Scott ran away when he learned that the Bogart's had died and nobody was going to adopt him. Another states that Scott ran away when his mutant powers blasted a hole through the wall of the orphanage. Whatever the case may be while on the streets, Scott's optic blast accidentally wrecked a construction crane causing its payload to fall toward a crowd of by-standards. Scott saved their lives by blasting the danger away, but by this point anti-mutant hysteria was reaching a boiling point and an angry mob chase him away. This incident was caught on film as well as made national headlines. The reports got the attention of three different parties: Fred Duncan, head of the FBI's mutant task force, Professor Charles Xavier, who was now actively recruiting mutants into his School for Gifted Youngsters, and mutant criminal Jack Winters (AKA Jack O'Diamonds). It was Winters who managed to get to the boy, who after an altercation with the authorities was drawn to Jack's mental calls. Winters attempted to exploit Scott in order to access a cyclotron that would transform his body into living diamond. Xavier tracked the two rogue mutants there and engaged Winters in telepathic battle.  Xavier lost the first bout when he was seemingly buried alive allowing Jack to access the cyclotron and transform himself into pure diamond. Having survived, Xavier saved Scott from arriving security and convinced the boy to help him stop Winters. Now calling himself the Living Diamond, Winters attacked both Scott and Xavier. Unable to stop their foe on their own, Xavier guided Scott on how to operate the cyclotron bombarding Winters with too much energy causing him to implode. Taking Scott back to his school, Xavier built a ruby quartz visor for Scott to use to control his optic blasts and a uniform. Scott then became the first member of Xavier's X-Men a team of mutants sworn to create peaceful co-existence between humans and mutants. Another account states that Xavier instead found Scott on the streets and recruited him without an altercation with the Living Diamond.

The next mutant Charles Xavier actively sought out was young Robert Drake, who could control and manipulate ice. When Drake was arrested after freezing a bully in a block of ice, Xavier and Cyclops traveled to Fort Washington. Learning that Bobby was in jail and a lynch mob sought to hang him, Xavier sent Cyclops to rescue the boy. Bobby refused to go with Cyclops and the two eventually came to blows until the mob caught up with them. Xavier soon intervened, using his mental powers to erase everyone's memories of Bobby's ice powers and invited him to join the school. Bobby agreed, and he became the second X-Man, codenamed Iceman. Xavier next found discovered Warren Worthington III a mutant who had feathered wings, who already established a solo career as a costumed hero calling himself the Avenging Angel. Tracking Angel down, Xavier sent both Cyclops and Iceman to recruit him just after the Avenging Angel succeeded in recovering a stolen vial of a radioactive isotope. However the isotope had an effect on the Angel's mind and he battled the two X-Men. With the isotope reaching critical mass, Xavier successfully contacted Warren telepathically and convinced him to toss the isotope high in the air where it harmlessly exploded. His sanity restored, Warren also agreed to join the X-Men, re-christening himself as simply the Angel. Soon Charles began reading about Duffee, Illinois high school football star Henry McCoy whose enhanced agility and large hands and feet identified himself as a mutant. However, Hank's abilities also attracted the attention of the terrorist known as the Conquistador who sought to utilize those powers for his goals of conquering the world. The Conquistador then captured Hank and his parents before Xavier and his other students could reach him. Charles managed to track Hank when he was forced to break into a nuclear research facility to steal a newly invented solar power device. Xavier sent his X-Men to rescue Hank and his family from the Conquistador's lair. In two accounts the rescue was a success and the Conquistador was seemingly slain in the ensuing blast when the solar power device overloaded. However another account states that there was no explosion and the Conquistador apparently did not perish. Like the others, Hank agreed to transfer to Xavier's school and join the X-Men taking the code name Beast. As with Iceman, Xavier then used his mental powers to erase all knowledge of Hank's mutant powers from the people in town. With Jean Grey joining the group, Xavier's team of X-Men was complete. He began training them to hone their powers in his specially constructed Danger Room.

Now calling himself Professor X, Xavier was ready to reveal the X-Men to the world. Soon the threat of the mutant terrorist known as Magneto became very real and Xavier called upon his X-Men to prepare for their first battle against his one-time friend. Through Xavier's guidance, Cyclops and the X-Men succeeded in stopping Magneto from taking over the Cape Citadel missile base, forcing the master of magnetism to flee. Later, during an early training session Scott bested Iceman in combat. Bobby reciprocated by using his ice powers to play various pranks on Scott until he couldn't take it anymore and punched Bobby out. Due to his exemplary work in the field, Xavier selected Cyclops to act as the field leader for the team, despite Scott's fears that he was not worth due to the lack of control he had over his powers. Later when the mutant teleporter known as the Vanisher began stealing government secrets, Professor X offered the X-Men's aid to the government to stop him. Xavier himself defeated the Vanisher by using his mental powers to cut off his access to his powers, allowing the X-Men to easily capture him and his minions. Later when the Angel had another personality shift following exposure to radiation unleashed by a test by Stark Industries, Cyclops and the X-Men stood back to allow the armored hero Iron Man deal with the danger posed by the Angel until he reverted back to normal. Cyclops and his teammates later met the supremely powerful hero known as the Sentry, assisting him in defeating his foe the General who was attempting to steal nuclear weapons to launch against the nation of France.

About this time, Scott began to develop feelings for Jean Grey, but kept his feelings secret because he feared that his powers might someday harm her. It was about this time that Xavier soon located another mutant, the immovable Blob who was working as part of a carnival freak show and sent the X-Men to recruit him. However the X-Men soon learned the error of welcoming the Blob in with open arms when he turned out to be uninterested in joining the X-Men and later attacked the school. While the X-Men kept the Blob and his army of carnies at bay, Xavier completed a device that allowed him to wipe out all memory of the X-Men's headquarters and secret identities from the mind of the Blob and his cohorts. Later while in a training session the X-Men were briefly surprised by the sudden appearance of a medieval knight, but it soon disappeared. After more training, Magneto resurfaced, this time with his own team of mutants. This so-called Brotherhood of Evil Mutants conquered the South American nation of Santo Marco. Xavier soon deployed the X-Men who battled the Brotherhood, which also included Pietro and Wanda Maximoff who were now reluctant members of the Brotherhood as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. When the Brotherhood was forced to flee, Xavier threw himself at a booby trapped door to save his students from the blast, and led them to believe that he had lost his mental powers as a result. Cyclops stepped up and took a leadership role later when the X-Men were lured into a trap by Magneto and were taken aboard his Asteroid M headquarters. Under Scott's leadership, the X-Men managed to escape without the aid of Xavier. Charles later revealed to his students that he feigned his lost powers as a final test to see if his students could handle themselves without his aid. Soon Professor X was enthralled by the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker who then used Xavier to order the X-Men to attack their foes the Fantastic Four. Although the two teams were forced to fight each other, Xavier eventually broke free from the Puppet Master's control and exposed the entire ruse. The Puppet Master and the Thinker then fled before they could be captured by the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. Not long after this, Cyclops and the X-Men were chased by an anti-mutant mob. Cornered in a blind alley the mob started throwing rocks. One rock, thrown by photographer Philip Sheldon, struck Iceman in the head. Scott told his teammates that the bigoted mob were not worth it and they fled into the night.

Later, Cyclops and the X-Men found themselves pulled forward in time once again. This time by a would-be assassin named Sidestep who was hired to assassinate the group of British super-heroes known as Excalibur, a future off-shoot of the X-Men, on behalf of the Latverian monarch Doctor Doom. To this end, each member of the X-Men had their memories altered to fit the era in which they were placed and forced to do battle with a member of Excalibur. Scott was transported to the year 1777 during the American Colonial War where his mind was altered into believing that he was part of the colonial army. He was pitted against Captain Britain. The Captain easily defeated Cyclops and both were put into stasis until the battle was over. Ultimately the more experienced members of Excalibur defeated the X-Men. With Doom's plot ruined the original X-Men were restored to normal, had their memories of these events erased, and were returned to their own time. Back in their own time, the X-Men continued their training.

Scott Summers, who now had his powers under control again, lived on the sovereign nation-state of Krakoa for mutants, created by Professor X, Magneto, and Moira X. When Sabretooth got caught by the Fantastic Four, Cyclops came to claim him on grounds of amnesty but left him behind when Mr. Fantastic refused. Xavier and Magneto then tasked the X-Men with destroying the Mother Mold and preventing the creation of Nimrod. The X-Men (Archangel, M, Husk, Blue Area of the Mooned their goal, but the entire team was killed in the attack. Cyclops and Jean, the two remaining X-Men, tried to mount an escape, but they tragically failed when Dr. Gregor killed Scott in revenge for her husband's death. The team was later resurrected by a group of mutants known as “the Five” (Eva Bell, Proteus, Hope Summers, Elixir, and Goldballs). Merging their powers, the Five were able to transfer the deceased X-Men’s minds into cloned bodies. They were later proclaimed as the heroes of Krakoa. He moved in with the rest of his family, Jean Grey, and Wolverine in his estate on the moon: the Summers House.