X-Men History: The 4 Most Important Eras for Cyclops

Listen up, people! Scott Summers is having a big moment in pop culture. With the recent wave of Avengers: Doomsday teaser trailers, we’re seeing the Fox movie mutants return. Cyclops, Professor X, Magneto, and select other mutants are officially in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. James Marsden will return to his role from the Fox Universe, classified now as Earth-10005.

But for those of us who have been rooting for mutantkind before the MCU, there’s a lot more to Cyclops than meets the eye. He’s a flawed leader who cares deeply and messes up immensely — but that’s why he’s such an enduring character. To prepare for Slim’s return to the big screen, here are four of his most noteworthy eras in the comics and beyond.

---

X-Quitter Era with Maddy

Who is Cyclops outside of the X-Men? Some would argue he’s a mutant who lacks direction when he’s not serving the team. After Jean Grey’s (first) death, Scott asks himself this pivotal question. For all of his youth and early adult years, he was the X-Men’s moral compass. Yet every compass has to be recalibrated from time to time.

Dealing with the death of the love of his life was monumentally difficult. And, like so many people do in real life, Scott moved on with someone eerily similar to Jean Grey — so similar, in fact, that she looked exactly like Jean. Why didn’t any of his friends or family bring this up to him? You try reasoning with someone in grief. On the other hand, Madelyne Pryor lifted Scott’s spirits to all-new heights, in and out of her plane.

For a while, these two were extremely happy together. They even had a son, Nathan Summers (later to be known as Cable). Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Madelyne turned out to be a Jean Grey clone created by Mister Sinister and she went mad with her own grief, turning into the Goblin Queen. Can’t say Cyclops doesn’t have a type…

---

Post-Schism Radicalized Scott

Why would this controversial era for Scott Summers be considered one of his best? Well, think of it as character evolution. Unlike Beast or Emma Frost, Cyclops has never developed a secondary mutation. However, as a leader of mutants, his role has shifted immensely over the years.

On the surface level, Cyclops might appear to be an uptight do-gooder. He prefers to play by the rules and, for most of his life, he believed wholeheartedly in Professor X’s dream. That unwavering belief earned him the title of team leader. But all that changed when Scarlet Witch decimated mutantkind.

M-Day Aftermath

M-Day, the name for when the vast majority of mutants lost their powers, is definitely a huge catalyst in Scott’s descent into near-villainy. But he had also recently lost his father, Corsair, as well as all faith in Charles Xavier. With too many betrayals from his telepathic mentor, and the loss of mutantkind all over the planet, Scott turned to more ruthless tactics to protect his people. He ordered Wolverine to kill Mystique, he assembled strike teams to murder mutant enemies, and even used biological warfare and torture to achieve his goals.

This version of Cyclops is a far cry from the young man who founded the X-Men. But it’s also a fascinating study in how a character can be pushed to their limits, develop in surprising ways, and gain endless layers of depth. While it’s not easy to see him turn his back on compassion, this radicalized era from Cyclops also ushered in the founding of Utopia and the X-Men taking down the Avengers. For every schism, there is a ruby-quartz lining.

---

Teen Champion

Cyclops has never been a hero who experiments with other teams. Wolverine, Rogue, Beast, and most recently Storm have fought with the Avengers. Iceman and Angel were part of the Defenders. Yet Scott has never seen eye to eye with the Avengers. His heart has always been firmly set upon his fellow mutants.

On the other hand, young time-displaced Cyclops is an entirely different story. When present-day Hank McCoy summons his teammates from the past to influence present-day Cyclops, X-Men chaos breaks loose. Understandably, these young teens aren’t as predictable as Beast might have hoped. In fact, Scott defects for a while and works with the Champions alongside Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales, Viv Vision, and Amadeus Cho.

Without his original teammates, we see a different side of Scott. He’s finally free to be a teenager rather than a child soldier reporting to Xavier. Sometimes he even makes jokes! His friendship with his teammates, especially with Kamala Khan, is really special to watch unfold.

---

’90s Animated Cyclops

Cue the yelling and screaming for Jean! As far as iterations of Cyclops go, the version from X-Men: The Animated Series is probably one of the most well-loved among X-fans. Who could resist the blue and gold with the classic red X?

Costume aside, this ’90s-era Scott Summers is also the character at his simplest, in the best ways possible. He’s a heroic leader who loves his teammates more than anything else in the world, a mutant who always does what’s right even when that’s difficult. More recently, this version of Cyclops had the opportunity to further evolve in X-Men ’97, the Disney+ show that expands on X-Men: TAS. In this new series, Cyclops continues his legacy of leadership while also grappling with the balance between human and mutant, husband and father, teammate and friend. His journey is nothing short of astonishing.

---

While these four versions of Cyclops are certainly among the most well-known and influential, there are still plenty of other choices throughout the Multiverse.

On Doctor Doom’s Battleworld, one Cyclops became wheelchair-bound just like Professor X. Elsewhere in Battleworld, Mister Sinister also controlled a Cyclops army called the Endless Summers. Visually, the Cyclops of the Age of Apocalypse timeline is especially striking with his scraggly beard and long hair. Recently, in the Age of Revelation, Cyclops faced immeasurable trauma at the hands of Doug Ramsey, once again turning him into a scarily ruthless version of himself.

Which version of the X-Men leader Cyclops is your favorite? Join the conversation with other Marvel fans over at Sideshow Social Network or in side.show/geekgroup, and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!