Cyclops

Cyclops
Real Name	Scott Summers
First Appearance	X-Men #1 (September 1963)
Creators	Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
Team Affliations	X-Men (Leader), X-Force, X-Factor, X-Terminators, The Twelve (Not an official team, but a number of mutants destined to have an important influence on the future), Phoenix Five
Aliases	Captain Krakoa, Dark Phoenix, Erik the Red, Mutate #007, Phoenix, Slim, Slym Dayspring
Base of Operations	The Treehouse (currently), Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters (Formerly, former Weapon X base, formerly in Salem Centre, New York), San Francisco (formerly), Utopia (formerly)
Powers	Optic Blasts, Immunity to Brothers' Powers
Skills and Abilities	Heightened Spatial Awareness (from training), Gifted Leader and Strategist
Tools and Weapons	Ruby Quartz Visor

Cyclops (Scott Summers) is a mutant superhero in the Marvel Universe and long time leader of the X-Men. He is a founding member of the X-Men and X-Factor and is the X-Man most closely associated with the team's leadership.

Origin

An orphan who had received brain damage after a plane crash, Scott Summers was unable to control his mutant powers to project optic blasts from his eyes. He was soon invited by Charles Xavier to join his school and lead his team of mutants, the X-Men.

Biography

Childhood

Scott Summers is the eldest son of Christopher (a USAF Major) and Katherine Ann Summers and was born in Anchorage, Alaska. When his family was taking a flight to de Haviland Mosquito, they found themselves under attack from a spaceship from an intergalactic empire known as the Shi'ar. Worried for their lives, Katherine forced the boys to jump out with the only parachute, with the hard landing causing serious head trauma to young Scott. Once they were found by the authorities, the boys were separated with Alex being adopted and Scott, who was in a coma, spent a year in the hospital before waking.

After waking from his coma, Scott was placed in an orphanage called the State Home for Foundlings in Omaha, Nebraska that was secretly run by an insane geneticist named Mister Sinister (under the guys of the Mr. Milbury who took special notice of the young boy's genetic potential. Though he noticed that both Scott and his brother both were mutants, Mr. Sinister felt that Scott was the one with more potential and had Scott's brother Alex adopted so that he would become emotionally vulnerable to Sinister's manipulation. Scott was even provided with ruby quartz visors to control his powers given to him by "a specialist" (who, again, was Mr. Sinister in disguise).

Scott was eventually adopted by a man named Jack Winters as a teenager, though Scott was unaware that the man was in fact a mutant criminal named Jack O'Diamonds. Jack intended to use Scott's powers for his own criminal purposes and when Scott refused, he abused him, but Scott was eventually rescued by Professor Charles Xavier with the aid of FBI agent (and ally to Xavier) Fred Duncan. Xavier then recruited Scott to join his X-Men, a team of mutants working toward mutant/human equality. Since then, Scott became loyal to Xavier, who became his mentor.

X-Men

Scott enrolled in Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngster, where he immediately began his training with the X-Men. Scott was also given a pair of ruby quartz visors that would allow Scott to see without his optic blasts causing damage every time he opened his eyes. Soon, Scott, under the codename Cyclops, became the team's deputy leader and through training became a skilled tactician. Scott also found himself with a crush on fellow student Jean Grey, a powerful telepath and telekinetic, but his reserved demeanor made it difficult to admit his feelings to her and himself. He was also concerned that his powers had the capability of hurting her with his powers and felt inferior to teammate Angel, who was both attractive and wealthy.  However, Jean later revealed that she too had a crush on him and the two began to date. During their first mission they faced Magneto, a powerful mutant and former friend of Xavier, who had become a dangerous terrorist.  The X-Men fought Magneto and though he escaped, the team won their first battle.

Scott had a fear of his own lack of control, both in terms of his powers and his anger but despite this, Professor X believed him to be the most capable of the role of field leader and assigned him the duty.

Powers

Cyclops possesses the mutant power to absorb solar energy and convert it into photonic particles that he releases from his eyes as beams of destructive force, a power he calls his “optic blast”.

Due to a brain injury he sustained as a child, Cyclops cannot turn off his optic blasts. The concussive red energy is released the second he opens his eyes. A special transparent material called ruby quartz was used by Charles Xavier to make a visor for Cyclops that diffused his optic blasts into harmless light, allowing Cyclops to see. The visor’s lens is adjustable, allowing Cyclops to open the lens to fire his optic blasts, and can be focused to control the size of the blasts. When not in costume, Cyclops wears sunglasses or goggles made of ruby quartz.