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Characters / Marvel Comics: Cyclops
aka: Cyclops

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Scott Summers / Cyclops

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/house_of_x_vol_1_1_character_decades_variant_textless.jpg
Click here to see him as Erik the Red
Click here to see him as Captain Krakoa

Notable Aliases: Slim, Slym Dayspring, Eric the Red, Mutate #007, Phoenix, Dark Phoenix, Captain Krakoa

Nationality: American, Krakoan

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men #1 (September, 1963)

Joined In: X-Men #43 (April, 1968) note 

"Because a leader knows, it's not so hard to die for your people. It's hard to order your people to die for you. And leading with certainty into an uncertain future doesn't require sight. It requires vision. It requires holding on. And no matter what happens, never letting go."

The very first X-Man and deputy leader of the X-Men turned General of Mutantkind. He first appeared in The X-Men #1 (September 1963), created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby.

Leader of the X-Men and Xavier's top student, Scott Summers is skilled at strategy and managing people, but fails at most attempts at personal interaction. The years of pressure in being an example for other mutants and a combat field leader have wound him up into a tight-assed, stuffed shirt: this brings him into conflict with just about any other mutant who doesn't have standards as high as Cyclops, which is nearly all of them. His powers are energy beams that shoot out of his eyes, which are strong enough to level mountains, and uncontrollable unless filtered with ruby quartz; it's implied that his inability to control his powers has subconsciously driven him to have control and order in every other facet of his life.

Post-House of M, 98% of all mutants lost their powers. With his race near extinction, Cyclops came to the conclusion that Xavier's vision was no longer going to cut it. Survival was the new primary objective. This saw Cyclops transition from the Field Leader and "Headmaster" of the X-Men, to the General of Mutants.

After personal differences and disagreements on how to deal with the oncoming threat of the Phoenix spiraled out of control and resulted in the death of Xavier and the return of the X-Gene, Cyclops was held responsible for the mess and imprisoned, now considered a Fallen Hero and a terrorist by his former allies. Plagued by guilt, he originally planned to let himself be killed in prison so that at least he could go down as a martyr until he realized that the new mutants arising after this are going to be hounded and hunted. Escaping with the help of his former Extinction Team, Cyclops founded a new Xavier school using the former site of Weapon X and began work on protecting the new mutants, despite being hated and feared.

As well as that, under the claim of trying to save Scott from himself, Beast went back in time and brought the original five X-Men to the present, Scott among them. Teen Scott was originally disgusted by what he was told of his adult self until he came to realize that a lot of it isn't quite the truth and, with the rest of the team, jumped ship to join him after they find out they can't return to their home timeline.

At the beginning of Death of X, Scott is killed by the M-Pox sickness, but Emma Frost, in a mental breakdown, makes everyone believe he was murdered by Black Bolt in order to avenge Scott's death, effectively furthering a conflict between Inhumans and Mutants. In the meantime, Teen Scott and the rest of Original Five are working as a team based on Madripoor, overseen by Magneto of all people. The original Cyclops returned in Extermination (2018), two (or three) years after his death, and returned to the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men (2018), where he also reunited with a returned Wolverine — the two are stated to be the last X-Men and will rebuild the legacy of the team.

Following the 2019 relaunch of the X-franchise in X-Men (2019), his traditional role as the linchpin and Standardised Leader of the X-Men has been taken to its logical extreme. Unlike the other X-books, which feature a core cast of characters, each issue of the X-Men follows a different eclectic team of mutant powerhouses, with Scott as the only consistent member.

Other than being a staple of the franchise, Cyclops has starred and co-starred in several series. Teen Cyclops even had his own solo series.

Portrayed by James Marsden in the original trilogy of the X-Men Film Series, by Tim Pocock as a teenaged Scott in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and by Tye Sheridan as a younger Scott in X-Men: Apocalypse.

Cyclops has appeared in the following works:

    open/close all folders 

    Notable Comics 
  • X-Men Origins: Cyclops (2010)
  • Cyclops (2014)

    Other Comics 

    Major storylines 

    Anime 

    Live-Action Films 

    Western Animation 

    Video Games 

Cyclops provides examples of the following tropes:

    A-H 
  • '90s Anti-Hero:
    • Cyclops had his personality largely unchanged, but despite having been nicknamed "Slim" his whole life suddenly developed a chest that pro wrestlers would find intimidating.
    • His personality has changed later though. During Grant Morrison's New X-Men and especially after he became pretty much Nineties Anti-Hero despite the fact that it started in 2003.
  • Abusive Parents:
    • While he was not biologically Scott's father and instead a foster father (and an illegal one at that), Jack Winters treated him as more of a weapon than a child and physically abused him.
    • To a lesser extent, Charles Xavier's treatment of him drifts into this, too, being emotionally distant (and at times abusive), placing multiple hard jobs on him from the age of 21 (and also killing his previous foster father at 17, though Xavier did try multiple times to get Jack to surrender), erasing his memories more than once, and repeatedly vacillating between giving Scott command of the X-Men and then either backseat driving or swooping in because his Control Freak tendencies have kicked in, until Scott finally got sick of him and chucked him out after the revelations of Deadly Genesis. Some people might argue his treatment was worse than Jack's thanks to all of the messing around in Scott's brain, and that when Scott killed him Avengers vs. X-Men, he had it coming.
  • The Ace: Scott is a great strategist, excellent leader and is the one who is willing to make the decisions for the best of his team and race (mutant kind). All in all, Scott is good at what he does. Even Magneto bowed to him due to respect.
  • Action Hero: Duh. Scott is an X-Men, the leader of the X-Men to be exact. His role is defined by action.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Cyclops, while a boy scout in general, definitely fits the 'troubled aloof stoic' bad boy criteria, and is the first to point out he's dangerous to be around. Even before his recent descent into Anti-Hero badassery, he's had a steady stream of women pursuing him, including Jean Grey, Madelyne Pryor, Psylocke, and Emma Frost.
  • Alliterative Name: Scott "Slim" Summers. Given that the "C" in "Cyclops" is also pronounced as an S he's highly associated with sibilants.
  • Aloof Big Brother: To Alex (Havok) and Gabriel (Vulcan). Averted in his first meeting with Gabriel as Scott is entirely nice and friendly to him and completely breaks down at his apparent death. Then Xavier completely erases any memory of Vulcan's existence from his memory because he wasn't getting over it quickly enough for him.
  • Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Generally subverted, Scott tends not to fare well in parallel universes, typically ending up evil or dead or evil and dead or just shunted aside to allow a more marketable character the spotlight. You can play a drinking game reading the original run of Exiles: sip your drink every time he appears without dialogue, take a shot every time somebody else is the leader of the X-Men, take two every time he dies. You’ll be blind drunk by the time Hyperion shows up.
  • Anti-Hero: Originally Classical Anti-Hero or Knight in Sour Armor, but recently briefly drifted to Unscrupulous Hero or Guile Hero when assembling X-Force, although he later reconsidered. Seems to have settled at Crazy-Prepared badass under Warren Ellis and others.
  • Arch-Enemy: Mr. Sinister.
  • Artistic License – Physics: Scott's Eye Beams, which have had competing explanations over the years. Originally lasers and later "force blasts", the explanation for why Scott's body didn't suffer any recoil when unleashing that much force became that the blasts originated from a "non-Einsteinian" dimension or universe. Explanations as to how Scott can make his blasts reflect off of walls like lasers off of mirrors or how he can use them to cushion his body when falling (that is, recoil suddenly being a thing when useful) tend to be ignored.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Wolverine may not always like him personally, but as Joss Whedon reminded us, there's a very good reason Scott's the one in charge.
  • Awesome by Analysis:
    • He's able to get around relying on the smallest sensory details, similar to Daredevil, when missing his glasses. He's also able to remember every action he makes after losing his glasses so to retrace his steps and retrieve them, while in the middle of a brawl.
    • According to Emma Frost in an issue of Brubaker's Uncanny X-Men, Scott is always analyzing everything and everyone in the vicinity, and how he'd fight them. Including two dinosaurs he's looking at in that very moment. It's one of the reasons she loves him.
  • Back from the Dead: He's returned from the dead twice:
    • In Phoenix Resurrection, he was temporarily resurrected (and then promptly killed off) as an attempt by the Phoenix to get Jean to bond with it again.
    • Then in Extermination (2018) at the end of the story. After the original five X-Men return to the past, setting them back to normal, it's revealed that the original Cyclops is back from the dead. Retaining the memories of his time-displaced teenage self.
  • Badass Boast: Often makes statements to this effect to his enemies, with the threats usually being implied and the confidence with which he says them making them that much more frightening.
  • Badass Family: His entire family, including his father Chris (Corsair), his brothers Alex (Havok) and Gabriel (Vulcan), his two wives Madelyne Pryor and Jean Grey, his children Nathan (Cable), Rachel Summers (the second Phoenix/Marvel Girl) and Nate (X-Man) and his adopted granddaughter the mutant messiah Hope Summers. This could also extend to Scott's other relatives.
  • Barbarian Long Hair: In Age of Apocalypse he sported long hair, with bangs. While long hair is not a problem, the haircut in front of his face was. It was there to hide his missing eye.
  • Batman Grabs a Gun: He usually doesn't resort to lethal force unless you push him really, really far. Donald Pierce◊ learned this the hard way◊.
  • Being Good Sucks: Poor Scott has sacrificed pretty much any chance of a normal or happy life for the greater good of the X-Men and Mutants as a whole and is always the one who has to make difficult choices that he knows everyone will hate him for and he will hate himself even more over, pushing him to the brink of despair more than once.
  • Berserk Button: Harm an innocent Mutant. He dares ya.
  • Betty and Veronica: Scott was Jean's Betty to Angel and Wolverine's Veronicas. Later had Madelyne as Betty and Jean as Veronica. Later had Jean as Betty and Emma as Veronica.
    • For a short while, Psylocke was a Veronica herself, though this was apparently a side-effect of her "Freaky Friday" Flip (she said it was the other woman's personality pushing her to flirt).
  • Big Bad: When the Phoenix Force had taken control of Scott, he became a deadly and dangerous being.
  • Big Brother Instinct: He and Havok fight a fair amount, but Scott still treats him this way. Vulcan, not so much until Hickman's run.
  • Big Brother Mentor: To Iceman and some of the younger X-Men as well.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Too many times to count in X-Men history. And if War of the Realms and Outlawed are any indicator it seems Cyclops pulling this for Champions may become a recurring thing as well.
  • Big Good: To his team and sympathizers. Before Schism, he was this to all of mutantkind.
  • Big "NO!": Has one after Warpath's death.
  • Blessed with Suck: Scott's powers ought to be as controllable as any other energy blaster, but he suffered a concussion in his youth (his parents had pushed him out of a plane when they were attacked by the Shi'ar), which somehow lead to his inability to shut off his powers after they emerged.
  • Blindfolded Vision: Scott has edged into this on occasion, usually after losing his visor in circumstances where "blast everything in sight" is not a viable option. Notable examples include the occasion when he beat up six men with his eyes shut... while counting every step he took so he could find his way back to his fallen glasses, and his first confrontation with Cassandra Nova.
  • Blind Weapon Master: Cyclops of the X-Men has two options when he loses his glasses: Keep his eyes open and kill everything in sight, or keep them shut and beat the living hell out of his opponents while counting his footsteps so he can find his way back to where his glasses landed.
  • Blind Without Them: Scott is seen as a special case. Though technically able to see without his ruby-quartz glasses, he cannot turn off the concussive beams that continually shoot from his eyes. He is thus forced to keep his eyes shut in order to keep from destroying everything around him. He can therefore be said to be "voluntarily blind" in the same way that the Inhuman's Black Bolt (whose voice is a similarly uncontrollable sonic weapon) is often said to be "voluntarily mute". They are contained because his body is immune to his own power: The beams which flow from his eyes flow right back in to his eyelids with no loss of energy.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Emma Frost (White Queen), Elisabeth Braddock (Psylocke) and Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor were four well-known telepaths that were linked to Scott, but he only had serious relationships with Jean, Madelyne and Emma. Psylocke flirted shamelessly for a time, but it ended rather quickly.
  • Blown Across the Room: Cyclops' eye beams knock bad guys back, but not Cyclops himself. It's one of the ways he's immune to his own power.
  • Boring, but Practical: In the early days of the comic, there were a lot of villains who could either resist or reflect his optic beams, so Cyclops usually had to resort to blasting the ground beneath them so they would lose their balance.
  • Break the Cutie: Let's see: Parents die at a young age, sent to an Orphanage of Fear, has his younger brother taken away from him, almost kills several people when his power activates, taken in by an abusive criminal who he is forced to kill, his girlfriend dies, then he meets a woman who looks just like his girlfriend, he marries her, then his girlfriend comes back from the dead, he leaves his first wife who then tries to cause hell on earth in revenge and then she dies, his second wife is distancing herself from him after he is possessed by Apocalypse and is haunted by the darker sides of himself. He is only able to confide in Emma Frost about the darker sides of himself as she has them too.
    • Then when he seems to have found happiness with with Emma, Cassandra Nova manipulates her mind so she turns on the team. Scott knows this is not the real Emma and eventually she is freed from Nova's control. Then he gets tortured by an alien after suffocating in space (part of his grand plan), then his people that he has been trying to protect and whose rights he has been fighting for gets decimated, then his son and adopted granddaughter who might save everyone go missing in the timestream, then someone drops the Phoenix on him, then his girlfriend cheats on him which she had done before but this time she tells him, while they are both high on the Phoenix and getting invaded by his former friends, and then he kills his father figure, which causes him to have an emotional breakdown and start a school that is more or less a terrorist cell, then he is faced with his younger self and the younger version of his wife at the exact age when he first fell in love with her and she despises him, then a few weeks later she hits on him, then he gives up the school and goes on to die from M-pox. After that his legacy somehow becomes "guy who is worse than Hitler and started a war with the Inhumans".
  • Broken Ace: He's the leader of the X-Men and the leader of the mutant race, but oh boy, has Scott ever endured so much pain, chaos and tragedy throughout the course of his life. Underneath that stoic facade is most definitely an emotionally broken and fragile man.
  • Broken Bird: He's honestly more of a male version of this than Troubled, but Cute.
  • Broken Pedestal: With Charles. To call their relationship fractured would be a huge understatement as Scott sees him as a father figure but has been regularly disillusioned by seeing how ruthless Charles can be when he believes it's for the greater good with Scott not exempt from such treatment either. Pretty much any time the pedestal gets rebuilt, it's only a matter of time before it crumbles into a million pieces again.
  • Brought Down to Badass: Has shown multiple times that he does not depend on his powers to win.
  • Brought To You By The Letter "X": He wears a X-button on his costume like all of the other X-Men members.
  • Byronic Hero: As of lately, Scott is becoming more of this. He is serious, stoic and has a dark, tragic past.
  • Cain and Abel: Kind of. Havok is occasionally evil and more usually just pissed off. Vulcan is a more obvious example, though not everyone accepts him as canon.
  • Call-Back: Once Cyclops had absorbed Emma's share of the Phoenix Force, he goes into the "I AM PHOENIX" gloating similar to Jean Grey during the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix sagas.
    • After the apparent death of Professor X, he throws in with his ex and a number of former teammates to keep mutants safe and teach them how to command their powers while maintaining tactical/philosophical opposition to the people running his old alma mater. The original concept of X-Factor or his post-Avengers vs. X-Men status quo?
  • Cannot Spit It Out:
    • A non-romantic variant. In the very first issue of X-Men Unlimited, it was revealed that Cyclops was so courteous to Professor X he literally cannot call him "Charles". He'll call him "Professor" or "Xavier" or "Professor Xavier", but he'll never call him "Charles".
    • A problem at the start of X-Factor was Scott hesitating to mention the somewhat significant detail of Madelyne. Jean thought his mooning was because of Phoenix. It didn't help that when Scott tried to tell her, he kept getting interrupted.
  • The Captain: Scott has always been seen as the captain of the X-Men. Now, not only is he the captain of the X-Men team, but he is also seen as the captain of the entire mutant race.
  • Captain Patriotic: After apparently dying in public, he reluctantly takes up a new moniker to keep mutant resurrection a “state secret. Thus he becomes Captain Krakoa, Krakoa’s answer to Captain America.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: Throws himself out of an alien spaceship, thousands of metres in the air, while falling he meets Iceman, who informs him of how much of a risky move that was, Scott's response? "Not really. I knew you'd be there. Hit the gas".
  • The Chains of Commanding: Is well aware of this, as per the page quote.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Not strength or speed or any such thing, Scott's ridiculous trick shots, the ones that rebound off multiple walls and around corners to hit the enemy in the back? Training.
    • Though sometimes it's said to be a part of his power-set, refined by training.
  • The Charmer: Scott has a lot of charisma and therefore ends up attracting many members of the opposite sex.
    • He's unfortunately unable to maintain relationships with the ones he attracts though; Scott may attract the ladies easily but man, does he have a bad track record with women.
  • The Chessmaster: He's the current page image, and as you might imagine, they don't call him "The General of the Mutants" for nothing. The Curse of the Mutants story arc exemplifies this beautifully. Post-House of M, this has become one of Scott's most defining characteristics. It ultimately ends up become deconstructed because his teammates, most notably Wolverine and Beast, end up resenting Scott for treating them like chess pieces.
  • Chick Magnet: Telepaths in particular can't keep their hands off him.
  • Child Soldiers: Scott went from being orphaned in a traumatic military action (Shi'ar) to being trained to lead a secret army, all before becoming an adult. His recent treatment of the remaining mutants (especially minors) drifts into this trope as well. Recent X-Men author Kieron Gillen even cited this characteristic as his central motivation for the character.
    • His entire mentality is that of a soldier. He was raised to be a soldier, looks at life from a soldier's perspective, and acts like a military man at all times. In First Class, he even admits that had it not been for his power being uncontrollable, he would have likely enlisted once he was old enough. It's notable that his father was an air force pilot, and in the Film Universe, Alex was in a military prison when Xavier found him. It runs in the family.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: When he’s forced to become Captain Krakoa, he uses a suit made by Forge and Jumbo Carnation with Krakoan Tech in lieu of his mutant powers.
  • Cock Fight: With Wolverine over Jean Grey.
  • Color Blind Confusion: It's not brought up often, but Cyclops is effectively color blind as a result of the ruby quartz visor that's used to keep his eye beams from destroying everything tinting everything a shade of red. How he's able to fly the Blackbird isn't explicitly stated, though it's likely the controls have been calibrated so he can see them.
  • Conflict Ball: With Captain America in AvX. The fighting started when Captain America turned up on Utopia and told Cyclops that, regardless of the X-Men's opposition, the Avengers were going to take Hope off-world in the event she couldn't control the Phoenix Force. Cyclops responded by optic blasting Captain America off Utopia, and prompting him to call in the rest of the Avengers to start fighting. The entire mess would've been avoided if the two leaders of the superhero and mutant communities had actually talked things over like adults.
    • Though admittedly, Scott did kind of have reason to be suspicious of Cap, since a) he was gambling everything on Hope being able to control the Phoenix and restart Mutantkind, b) Cap was getting his information on the Phoenix from Wolverine, who even the other Avengers (notably Spider-Man, who pointedly followed Wolverine for that exact reason) suspected was going to try and kill Hope before she could become the Phoenix - which is exactly what he tried to do as soon as he got the chance, c) Cap invaded Utopia, a sovereign nation with a SHIELD battalion that has no jurisdiction there and the Avengers and immediately responds with authority (which he does not have) for Scott to surrender Hope into his custody or suffer the consequences. After all that and all the stress he was going through, can anyone blame him for violently resisting such a blatant and ridiculous threat ?
  • Containment Clothing: His special shades that contain his optic blasts.
  • Contrived Coincidence: How his time displaced younger self learns the truth about his "regular aged" self.
  • Control Freak: Deconstructed, since being a control freak makes him an effective leader and strategist, it's also the main reason he doesn't get along with his teammates outside of a combat setting (especially Logan). It's been made clear that because his powers are uncontrollable, Cyclops compensates by attempting to have total control over every other aspect of his life.
  • Cool Shades: A lot of times, if he has to wear red shades all the time, they might as well be stylish ones on his off-time.
  • Crazy-Prepared:
    • Should his team ever go rogue, Cyke has ways of dealing with them.
    • Possibly best demonstrated during Uncanny X-Men's Fear Itself tie-in. Faced with an even-more-unstoppable-than-usual Juggernaut, Cyclops tries one plan, which doesn't work, and is asked "time for plan B?" Cyclop's response? "That would assume I only have twenty-six plans."
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Cyke with Wolverine. Wolverine ends up being the one who is curb-stomped.
  • Cyclops: Scott's superhero alter ego name. He's named Cyclops because of his large visor spanning his head. (Underneath the visor, he's actually got two eyes, though. Getting a look at them can be rather dangerous, however.)
    • Cyclops did have one eye in the Age of Apocalypse timeline, since Weapon X gouged out his left eye. Cyke blasted off Logan's left hand in retaliation.
  • Dandere: Scott in the beginning was known to be extremely reserved and shy.
  • Dark Messiah: Magneto, of all people, considers him the most shining example of a mutant savior. And technically, he was right: following AvX, Cyclops' actions did bring mutants back from the brink of extinction.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: A pretty long and horrible one, as noted elsewhere in the page.
  • Dead All Along: In Death of X it is revealed Cyclops died very early on, and the "Cyclops" we've been following throughout most of the story is merely a psychic illusion created by Emma Frost. Which explains a lot of why he is taller, younger-looking, and less sure of what he is going to say than before.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He's not known to do it as much as other X-Characters, but if the situation is getting on his nerves, he'll pop off a smart-ass comment. Especially in Joss Whedon's hands, and in stories set/written before his descent into full-on leadership.
  • Death Seeker: During AvX Consequences, Scott reveals that he's willing to die now that he's officially lost everything. He gets past it, though.
  • Deconstructed Character Archetype: He's a fearless rebel leader who's been trained his whole life to fight for mutantkind. If you read that as 'fanatical Child Soldier terrorist,' congratulations! You now understand his character arc.
  • Delayed Ripple Effect: When his past self was brought to the present, Scott had no recollection of such event in his youth. It was only after past Scott was brought back to his own time than present Scott woke up with all memories of this adventure.
  • Depending on the Writer: Similar to Artistic License – Physics listed above, writers can't seem to agree on just how Scott's blasts affect things. Sometimes they function like a force beam should (push through objects), while other times they function like a pulverizing blast.
  • Determinator: It most cases, Scott isn't the type of person to just give up, especially when it's something that is important or life and death.
  • Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Scott's good at these, really good. He's played Norman Osborn, the Vampire Nation, Dracula (who he used in his plan to take down the vampire nation) and multiple commanders of invading alien races with no trouble whatsoever. He's even good enough to give Captain America, the master strategist in the Marvel Universe, the run-around during Avengers vs X-Men.
  • Disability Superpower: Scott must always wear a special visor or pair of glasses to contain his optic blasts. When these devices are removed, he keeps his eyes shut, rendering him blind. Due to an important instance of this, he has since learned how to fight blind by using his hearing to pinpoint opponents and simply always scrutinizing his surroundings to know the lay of the land. One side story shows that he also counts his steps and memorizes which way he turns so that he can retrace his path and find his eyewear.
    • Even with the visor/glasses, he's still colorblind, only able to see in shades of red. It's possible he shouldn't be able to pilot an aircraft such as the Blackbird, but there are custom control panels that have indicators based on number of lights, rather than color. Presumably, the Blackbird has one of them.
    • Bonus points for the reason he can't control his optic blasts: at a young age he was in an accident and suffered severe head trauma, but fortunately there wasn't any damage to any "important" parts of the brain. This was before he developed the ability to obliterate everything in sight.
  • Disappeared Dad: His father, Chris, wasn't in his life growing up. Instead, Scott has always seen Professor X as a father figure throughout his life.
  • Dissonant Serenity: The entire building is exploding, there are giant killer robots all around, he's lost his glasses... and Cyclops is calmly walking towards the villain, warning her that if he hears her breathe wrong, he'll open his eyes.
  • Doom Magnet: Scott has been through so many bad things throughout his life, that it is endless. See Trauma Conga Line.
    • When Jean wouldn't take his PTSD seriously in New X-Men, he asks Emma for help. He confides in Emma about his struggles with said darker parts of himself and begins to grow closer to her.
      Emma (lying on a bed in Jean's Phoenix uniform): So, anyway… I am song and fire and life incarnate… but the truth is, no matter how hard I try, I can't help playing with fire. How about you, darling?
      Scott (frowning, taking off his jacket): Sure, Jean. Why not?
  • The Dreaded: During Gillen's run, he wanted him as his team to be this, because he knows mutants will never be accepted so he might as well scare the racists from assaulting them.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: A common nickname for Scott is Slim, dating back to the first issue of the comic.
  • Enemy Mine: When they hated his guts, he found himself forced to team up with Captain America, Wolverine, and the rest of his former allies quite a lot.
  • Energy Absorption: Early X-Men issues imply that Scott's body absorbs solar energy that powers up his optic blasts, the same way his brother Alex absorbs cosmic radiation. Cyclops and Havok are also immune to each other's power beams. Scott also has some degree of absorbing energy from his opponent's attacks like solar power, but is not invulnerable to the pain of them
  • Extradimensional Power Source: Other explanations for his powers as described above is that his eyes are an aperture into a non-Newtonian dimension of exotic photons that interact with foreign matter as pure force. Eventually this became blended in the explanation that his body metabolizes solar energy to maintain said aperture in his eyes.
  • Eye Beams: With Power Incontinence, resulting in Sunglasses at Night.
  • Father to His Men: While not played up by some writers, especially ones who don't write him well at all, Cyclops tends to have a very good relationship with the younger X-Men, primarily because he treats them like adults while still nurturing them. Notably, he has a relationship with Pixie that's not too unlike that of Wolverine and his many young female sidekicks.
  • Fiction Isn't Fair: Post-Avengers vs. X-Men, a number of writers, particularly Brian Michael Bendis, would acknowledge the fan sentiment that he was being persecuted for things that most Marvel heroes would be (and have been) Easily Forgiven for, complete with having the more idealistic O5 X-Men side with him over Wolverine and allowing Cyclops to make fairly well reasoned arguments for himself. He would still be treated like garbage by the majority of superheroes though, making it an example of this trope.
  • Fights Like a Normal: Since his power causes way too much collateral damage for most situations, Scott tends to rely on his extensive skill in hand to hand combat, showing particular skill in Boxing, Karate, Judo and Aikido.
  • Four-Star Badass: As Captain Commander he’s the military leader of the new mutant homeland of Krakoa.
  • Friend to All Children: As an adult, he generally tends to get on better with teenaged heroes better than he does with people his own age.
  • Future Me Scares Me: Downplayed as Scott's past self was much less terrified by present Scott's turn to extremism, even if they ultimately couldn't find an agreement. It is however implied that getting past Scott's memories via Delayed Ripple Effect and seeing himself from that perspective is what lead Scott to his Heel Realization as much as his death and resurrection.
  • Genius Bruiser: Scott is leader of the X-Men not just for his powers but his brains. He is an outstanding tactician, on par with Captain America, a great and charismatic leader, very knowledgeable about physics and mathematics due to his powers and a very sly and cunning manipulator when he needs to be. And when he has to, he can go toe to toe with even Wolverine in a straight fight.
  • Generation Xerox: Subverted with Cyclops and Surge in that they're not related in any way. Other than that however, Surge is effectively a younger Cyclops, complete with crippling self doubt and a power that needs to be kept in check by an external device (in this case, her gauntlets). Her relationship with X-23 is also starting to mirror that between Scott and Logan, right down to the love triangle.
  • Genre Blindness: Pointed out to him by Jamie Madrox when the latter and his team visited Utopia. It was Jamie's contention that humanity at large feared mutants because they could not tell good mutants from evil ones. Scott insisted that was ridiculous, just as Magneto, Emma Frost and Namor came into the room to greet Jamie.
  • Glass Cannon: He may be able to melt a mountain if he wants to, but he's still just as fragile as any other human.
  • The Glasses Come Off: Given that the glasses used to hold back his Eye Beams, taking them all the way off usually meant something was gonna get broke in a hurry.
    • Cyke's visor, and shades as Scott Summers, are used to control the shape and strength of the blast even when he's actively using his powers. You don't fully understand until you see him take them off all the way and open his eyes fully. When that happens, "something" isn't gonna get broke - everything will get broke. For this reason, it's a weapon of last resort. However, if you absolutely have to get a Sentinel off your lawn, it'll get vaporized.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: When a villain (or Wolverine) is really getting on Cyclops' nerves, a glow can be seen through/around his shades or visor. As his Eye Beams are always on, this probably indicates that their blast is becoming far more intense.
  • Godzilla Threshold: As noted elsewhere, any time he willingly takes off his glasses or visor. As they're his Power Limiter, and even the limited opening of the visor is an incredibly destructive power, Scott is understandably very reticent to let loose to that degree. If he's going without eyewear intentionally, things have gone extremely badly already.
  • Good is Not Nice: It's not that he's a mean person, but he's very serious and finds it hard to relax. Considering his childhood, it's no surprise. However, he's not above fighting dirty when the situation calls.
  • Grand Theft Me: Was possessed by Apocalypse at one point, but he got better. During Avengers versus X-Men, he was taken over by the Phoenix. Bad things happened. Also attempted by The Void, but Cyke simply repressed the entity inside his mind.
  • Grey-and-Gray Morality: Scott is rather extreme in his leadership and often makes controversial decisions on behalf of the team and the mutant race, but he only does so to preserve the mutant race and also, to protect the well-being of his team. Scott admits that he doesn't take killing lightly, but that sometimes, tough and controversial decisions need to be made in order to achieve things.
  • Guile Hero: He's willing to resort to manipulating others in order to achieve his endgame. Although there are some who will disapprove of his actions or decisions, Scott does what he feels is best for his team and for mutant kind, even if the decisions he makes are unpopular.
    • Solidified in Curse of the Mutants. To add some context, Utopia was surrounded by Vampires, fighting on every side and platform. Jubilee and Wolverine have both been turned, and the latter is standing only a few feet away, ready to cut his head off and turn the rest of the X-Men. Cyke's response? Pulling out a control to reactivate Wolverine's Healing Factor, turning him back. That's right, Scott discovered he was immune to vampirism and that the vampires wanted to turn him, so he deactivated his Healing Factor and allowed him to be turned, just so he could turn him back right when they were relying on him to lead their forces. The vampires, still in shock, are promptly slaughtered. Meanwhile, Scott's earlier plan, to bring back Dracula and have him take back the vampire horde, appeared to have failed and was forgotten...only for it to turnout Dracula had been tracking down Xarus all this time, and after curbstomping his son and taking back his place, Cyke warns him that he could kill him with the push of a button. Dracula claims that he knows he's bluffing, but still lets them leave in peace. In short, do NOT threaten the safety of Cyclops' people, and when he says that he will slaughter you, he means it.
  • Handicapped Badass: The simplest way to stop Cyclops from using his powers is to take away his visor, meaning that he's usually fighting blind as well as lacking his powers (though if you push him too far during this, depending on the situation he may decide to open his eyes anyway...).
  • Hazy-Feel Turn: Was his murdering the Professor while possessed by The Phoenix in Avengers vs. X-Men his invokedMoral Event Horizon? Frankly, the writers can't seem to make up their mind about it. Depending on the Writer Scott ranges from Reformed, but Rejected Atoner who's going about his own way of carrying on Xavier's legacy to a blame shifter who refuses to face up to his crimes. Either way, post AvX-storylines has seen him as being an outlaw.
  • Heartbroken Badass: In regards to his love life and his tragic life.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Mutants are nearly all gone and there's an evil sentient robot out to destroy them all. Cyclops responds by assembling a black-ops unit to ensure that any threat they face that can't be beaten the traditional way is taken care of, and moving the X-Men into a more paramilitary setting. However, he specifically did so with the plan of these being temporary measures until mutants are at a safe number again and no longer relying solely on his intervention to survive.
    • However and this is somewhat ignored, as well as taking more action to ensure the safety of the remaining mutants, he did considerable amounts of work for human-mutant relations, such as accepting help from non-mutant sources, working closely with San Francisco's mayor to bring peace, and hired a PR agent to help turn public opinion on untrusted individuals such as Magneto around.
  • Heel Realisation: Basically has this after his resurrection by young Cable; looking back on his actions prior to his death, he realises that his focus on mutants over humans basically made him as bad as his enemies, leaving him resolved to correct that and restore the X-Men legacy.
  • The Hero: Self-identifies as this and tried for as long as he could to live up to that.
  • Hero Antagonist: He is this himself and he sees the Avengers and the Fantastic Four as his, as he even urges his supporters not to hate them.
    • Big Good: After Xavier stepped down from this role, Scott took it up until AvX.
  • Heroic BSoD:
    • The opening issue of X-Factor is not great for Cyke. With his marriage already on the rocks, he goes to New York to see if it really is Jean back from the dead, which it is, but Scott's so disillusioned he walks off, and spends the next several days wandering New York in a haze.
    • Cyclops, in Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run, has a severe one of these when A mind controlled (by Cass Nova) Emma Frost reveals to him that his inability to control his powers is the result of a complex he developed about self-control as teenager, rather than a brain injury resulting from a concussion, as he had previously believed. He spends an issue or two in a completely catatonic state, his powers not functioning. He soon recovers enough to move around and lead the team (perhaps even more effectively than usual, with his self-control issues out of the way) and later surprises everyone by revealing (with a point blank blast in the face of his interrogator) that his powers still work, and that he now has full control over them. At the end of the arc, this control fades as the "clarity" he got from Emma's intervention wears off. See Status Quo Is God.
    • He seems to be prone to hitting these when he fails to stop people being hurt. Even prior to joining the X-Men. When he was 12 years old he hit one because he couldn't stop another orphan jumping off of the roof of the orphanage. Seriously.
  • Heroic Build: In some artists depictions, Scott is drawn much more muscular than others.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: Has been described as hating himself so much that he can't imagine anyone else not hating him.
    Cyclops: I thought you said you couldn't read minds.
  • Hero Insurance: Cyclops always advises the team to avoid collateral damage (ie, no throwing random cars at bad guys), or at least cut a check to affected parties afterwards, since a mere diversionary tactic could mean years of debt for a civilian.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: After AVX, also crossing with Reformed, but Rejected. He's not a bad guy by any means, and all he's concerned with now is protecting the new mutants from those who wish to harm them. He's yet to kill anyone doing so, and wants nothing more but to bury the hatchet with his former team and allies so they can work together to honor Xavier's memory. However, the fact that 'those who wish to harm them' often includes trigger-happy police officers who he's forced to fight to deal with them, along with many of his former team having personal grievances that clouds their judgement (and soils other people's perceptions of him when they tell others about it), he's became SHIELD's number one priority. Subverted though, as the public in general are actually rather supportive of him and see him as a freedom fighter opposing a corrupt institution, while its the superhero community who hate him.
    • After Secret Wars (2015), he became this posthumously. Details were sparse other than "he went crazy and died doing something terrible" until Death of X. There, it was revealed that the bad publicity wasn't even his fault at all. He was one of the first mutants to die from M-Pox, and everything that "he" did afterward was a psychic projection created by a grief-stricken Emma Frost.
    • His younger self tries to rectify this, all the while believing that sassing Blackbolt is a completely legit cause of death.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Angel, he's close to Beast and Iceman too (or at least was) but Angel is the one consistently portrayed as his best friend. Also had something like this that majorly overlapped with Vitriolic Best Buds with Wolverine.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Yes, teenage Scott, it's a brilliant idea to go and live with a man who you randomly met in a forest while completely blind, oh wait, it wasn't. Given how his teen self, upon arriving to the future, ended up trusting Mystique, he definitely had a problem with this. He grows out of it, obviously.
  • Hunk: Scott is depicted as an attractive, well-built, all-American, heroic superhero. He's tall, muscular and brawny with good looks.

    I-Z 
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: Cyclops's glasses/goggles don't just let him control his powers, they also limit them. If he's willing to take his visor off for even a few seconds, you're in trouble.
    • In Astonishing X-Men, Cyclops had his powers psychically de-activated by Nova-controlled Emma Frost and had been captured and tortured by an alien warlord. When he finally tells the warlord that the X-Men's secret weapon "Leviathan", was completely fictional (thus throwing out any reason to keep him alive), he starts laughing. The warlord attacks him, demanding to know what else he's been lying about. Cue the eye beams.
    • Another instance of this is in the first volume of Ultimate X Men. Cyclops is being restrained by a Sentinel because it has figured out that he operates his optic blasts by pressing a button on the side of his visor. Scott then reveals that he can also do it by snapping his fingers.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Ever since M-Day, Scott's been put in charge of the remaining mutants, and he's had to adapt to that. If he doesn't do everything within his power, no matter how questionable, every mutant will die. To his credit, however, he also took a more proactive approach to building relations between humans and mutants, and was working closely with the Mayor of San Francisco to ensure peace between mutants and the people of San Fran, including hiring a PR agent to help ensure the X-Men look heroic.
  • Immune to Mind Control: Cyclops was raised by the most powerful telepath in the world, married a second telepath (trained by the first and who surpassed him), and dated a third telepath after his wife died. Almost all of his time-travelling/reality-jumping children are even more powerful telepaths than all of the above. He's also has been possessed by several quasi-demonic evil entities on numerous occasions. As a result, he has built up amazing psychic blocks and resistance over years of training, to the point where he was able to take in a shard of The Void and lock it in a room in his mind, where it has yet to be heard from again. He was also able to keep a leash on the Phoenix Force for a surprisingly long time until The Avengers forced him to go full-on Dark Phoenix.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Cyclops can hit six fast-moving targets, some of them behind him, with a single shot. It's explained that part of his mutation is incredible spatial reasoning and intuition, allowing him to pull off stunts like this. It also makes him really good at pool.
  • In Spite of a Nail: His inability to control his optic blasts is canonically due to Childhood Brain Damage (or possibly a psychological block) caused by jumping out of his parent’s plane. However, his Power Incontinence and the visor are such iconic traits of him that he still has them in Alternate Universes where he didn’t, or couldn’t possibly have suffered a similar accident.
  • Inhuman Eye Concealers: Wears either sunglasses with ruby-quartz lenses or an adjustable visor to contain the uncontrollable energy blasts his eyes project.
  • Interdimensional Travel Device: The Askani (led by Rachel Summers), in a sense, since they helped Scott and Jean raise their "son" Nathan Summers to prevent Apocalypse's reign in the future.
  • Interrupted Cooldown Hug: In The Dark Phoenix Saga. Near the climax, Scott is talking Dark Phoenix down, trying to appeal to Jean's better nature with The Power of Love, with her face getting noticeably less inhuman and softer... until Professor Xavier mind-blasts her from behind, and she returns to full-fledged psychosis.
    • This turns out to be just the way to calm the Phoenix. Scott does it to Jean in Phoenix: Endsong. Wanda does it to Hope in AvX. Xavier tries to do it to Scott in AvX, but goes about it in the wrong way (i.e. he tries to force Scott into submission. Scott came by his control issues honestly).
  • Intergenerational Friendship: With the founding members of the Champions, due to his time-displaced teenage self being a member of that team and Scott getting his memories of that time with Delayed Ripple Effect once teen Scott return to his place in time. As a result, adult Scott considers them his friends despite being something like twice their age.
  • Ironic Nickname: Scott is nicknamed Slim by Wolverine possibly because he is slim built (especially during the old days when Scott was more lean and wiry in appearance; Scott became more muscular later on.)
  • Jerkass Has a Point: While a number of X-Men, and others, have found his personally grating at best, they follow him because everything he does is for a sound tactical reason - and as far as tacticians go, he's arguably the single best in the Marvel Universe (certainly, he runs rings around Captain America, otherwise the gold-standard).
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Scott is highly capable of displaying not so nice behaviour towards others. However, his heart is ultimately in the right place. Scott has his moments when he's not the nicest guy in the world and reacts very poorly when his teammates get hurt (even with ones that are far higher on the Jerkass scale than him), proving that he does care after all.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: His character development has largely consisted of him growing more cynical, not without reason. Mostly being let down by people he trusted. Among other things, he was tricked into cheating on his wife, was cheated on by his phoenix-crazed girlfriend, and his father figure kept his little brother's existence from him. Oh, and his people were on the verge of extinction.
  • The Law of Power Proportionate to Effort: Invoked. He has Eye Beams with the power to destroy mountains that appear whenever he opens his eyes. Using this power is based on a gesture (opening his eyes), but to stop that from becoming broken, he not only has Power Incontinence, but two different energy sources for these beams are introduced to provide limits.
    • One energy source says that Cyclops absorbs sunlight and metabolizes it. Therefore, using his stored up energy fatigues him very quickly, which explains why he always looks as if he's straining to use his abilities.
    • The other energy source says that his energy comes from "a non-Euclidean dimension of limitless energy", and that his eyes are portals to this dimension. The energy passing through his body causes him a great deal of stress, and that also explains why he seems to visibly struggle to use his powers.
  • The Leader: Scott is the leader of the Original X-Men team.
    • Scott mostly used to be a type II, but in recent years has been a mix of types I and IV. He has plans for everything and he is an icon of mutant militarism.
    • More than just the original team, Scott is, with the possible exception of Captain America, the most capable team leader in the Marvel 616 Universe, and probably more closely associated with team leadership than anyone in Marvel or DC comics.
      • This is demonstrated in House of M when the heroes who have received their memory back (including several non-X-Men) all turn to Scott for orders.
  • Literally Shattered Lives: What Scott did to the abusive criminal mentioned earlier in the page when he tried to make him kill a security guard, at the age of about 16.
  • The Lost Lenore:
    • Jean, during her dead periods. He quite simply never gets over her, to the chagrin of Maddy Pryor and Emma Frost alike.
    • In Death of X, he is this trope to Emma. Most of what she does in that storyline is motivated by the shock of his death (and the Terrigen Mists threatening to wipe out mutantkind...again).
  • Love Interest: To many different women, but his main love interests are Jean Grey and Emma Frost.
  • Love Triangle: Scott has been in a few love triangles, but the main ones are between himself, Jean, and Wolverine, and himself, Jean and Madelyne, and himself, Jean and Emma.
  • Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: One of the better known examples - "Only my ruby-quartz visor can contain my optic blasts!"
  • Messiah Creep/Dark Messiah: After House of M, Cyclops took it upon himself to be the guardian for all the remaining mutants. Eventually this grew into Cyclops doing whatever it took to protect mutant kind. This all comes to a head in AvX, where once he's possessed by the Phoenix, his dedication to making the world safe for mutants causes him to develop A God Am I-like behavior, and repeated attacks by the Avengers drive him off the wall.
  • Mental Affair: With Emma. Jean catches them in the act, but later (post-mortem) comes to realize that they love each other and that she should let them be for the sake of the universe and his own happiness.
  • Mind Link Mates: Scott had a form of this with his wife Jean Grey, while their marriage was happy and blissful, of course. It was established by Jean during the Dark Phoenix Saga, which is the version of her that may or may not have been the Phoenix thinking it was her.
    • Had a form of this with Emma Frost.
  • More Hero than Thou: With Wolverine. This was a constant in their dynamic.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Scott is a physically attractive male and he has attributes and appeal that magnetize the opposite sex. In later issues, he'll often find a reason to be topless to show the scars Wolverine left, to the point of once having half his costume burned off.
  • Mundane Utility: Do not ever challenge him at pool. As noted, he has an incredible grasp of spatial geometry. Also, as lampshaded by Jean in an early issue of the original comic's run, he apparently can use his eyebeams to cut a cake.
  • Neck Lift/Neck Snap: Courtesy of Doctor Doom in Secret Wars (2015) #4..
  • Nerves of Steel: Scott rarely shows any emotion, weakness or vulnerability. He pushes his emotions aside in order to achieve his goals.
  • Noble Male, Roguish Male: Scott is the Noble to Wolverine's Roguish.
  • No Social Skills: Scott is known to be shy, reserved and stoic. He is actually pretty good at reading people, but doesnt know how to handle it except in a straightforward manner.
  • Not So Stoic: When on the job, Scott is entirely business. Out of the mask, he is actually capable of displaying human emotion.
  • The Oath-Breaker: Married Madelyne Pryor, fathered a child with her, and then ditched them the minute Jean Grey came back from the dead. (During Inferno, Mr. Sinister claims to have psychically manipulated Cyclops into that betrayal, but even Chris Claremont, the guy who wrote that story, considers it a blemish on Cyclops' character.)
    • It's worth noting that he went to find out if Jean was actually alive, then came back to find Maddy and their son, then found the ruins of their home after the Marauders had got through with it (Madelyne's dormant powers having emerged to help her fight them off), and he only shacked up with Jean until after he was certain Madelyne was dead.
  • Oh, Crap!: Cyclops has one after optic blasting Captain America off Utopia, only for the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier to decloak above him, with the Avengers assembled.
  • One-Way Visor: Cyclops wears one of these with his costume.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After he chokes on Terrigen mist he becomes slightly less eloquent and more dramatic. If you read AvX:Consequences, you'll know that's not how he does suicidal.
  • Papa Wolf:
    • To Cable and Nate Grey (he ended up merged with Apocalypse while Taking the Bullet for the latter, and was quite willing to take on SHIELD and the Avengers for him). Slightly less so with Rachel, mostly because by the time he actually knows that she's his daughter she can more than look after herself, but it's still there - he tasked every resource Utopia had to bringing her home at the slightest whiff she might be in trouble.
    • Also to Mutantkind as a whole, especially since Marvel NOW. Harm just one of his kind, and he'll track you down.
    • And the Champions.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: When he opens his eyes while not wearing shades or a visor... it's not pretty to put it mildly.
  • Phlebotinum Battery: Cyclops' red optic blasts are charged by solar power. In a pinch they can be charged by Storm's lightning (which turns them white) but it is not at all pleasant for him.
    • This goes back-and-forth. It's also established that Cyclops's eyes are a portal to a non-Euclidean dimension of pure energy, and that he has limitless amounts of energy to tap into when he opens them, so long as his body withstands it. This has also been combined with the aforementioned solar power in some stories.
  • Pinball Projectile: Cyclops' optic blasts have a habit of doing this.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Cyclops with Captain America. See Conflict Ball for more info.
  • Power Incontinence: Cyclops, without his trademark visor he wears as part of his costume, or a pair of ruby quartz glasses out of costume, would be firing his Eye Beams 24/7. (In fact, he is firing them 24/7, they're just being blocked.)
    • This limitation was said to be a mental block, and was fixed by Emma Frost for a short while. After that he either decides that he is better off with the mental block, or whatever she did with his brain wore off.
    • Used to be from having hit his head in the accident that killed his parents.
    • There was a throwaway scene in one of the comics shortly after Wolverine lost his Adamantium (and briefly regressed to a neanderthallic state) where Cyclops hit his head in some kind of rune-covered pit, and a caption stated, "A subtle change is worked in an area of his brain damaged so long ago", so it's possible both explanations are correct.
    • After the events of AvX, the visor can't block his eyebeams anymore. The only thing that can are his own eyelids.
  • Power Limiter: Cyclops' goggles, which keep his uncontrollable Eye Beams under wraps. If he takes his glasses off completely and opens his eyes fully he can hold off even the Juggernaut (for a little while, anyway) and once atomized a Sentinel. The bad news is that it means destroying everything else in the area too, so he doesn't do it often.
  • Power of the Sun: Cyclops stores solar power to use his optic blasts. In the 90's cartoon, he was once Brought Down to Normal by a foe who just kept him indoors long enough for him to drain his reserves.
  • Primary-Color Champion: Habitually dresses in yellow and blue, with a bright red visor over his eyes.
  • Promotion to Parent:
    • He didn't have to raise his younger brother, but it's been acknowledged that Havok wouldn't be so dependent on him (nor Cyclops so eager to save him from himself) if their parents hadn't been abducted by aliens. Since Havok has sometimes resented being in his brother's shadow and Cyclops is not very emotionally expressive at the best of times (it is perhaps telling that all his successful relationships have been with women who can read his mind), this has led to friction.
    • Following Xavier stepping down, he basically becomes this to the entire Mutant race. However, as its been revealed Xavier did some questionable things behind the scenes, it's showed that Cyclops has done the same, only difference being that now we see first hand as he does them.
  • Pure Energy: Scott releases blasts of "pure concussive force" from his eyes.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: Attempted to be invoked by Cyclops, as at the end of the day the effects of M-Day have been undone and ties between the mutant and superhero communities have been strengthened. Captain America counters this in a What the Hell, Hero? moment.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: If the apps on his computer are to believed he plays Hello Kitty games and also owns a Captain America teddy bear.◊ As for the real men part, despite his Memetic Loser status, he can beat up several people with his eyes shut, and can match Wolverine in a bare-knuckle brawl.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: When he is able to control his power without ruby quartz.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Scott is the Blue to Wolverine's Red.
  • Relative Error: Some readers, upon first reading X-Men: Deadly Genesis, assumed that the Marvel Girl depicted therein was Cyclops's new girlfriend instead of his daughter. This also happened canonically to Cyclops and Havok in an issue of X-Factor.
  • Required Secondary Powers: Scott needs to wear a visor or he'll blast everything in front of him whenever he has his eyes open.
    • Also, Newton's third law means that Scott needs abnormally strong neck muscles or his neck will get broken by the recoil. Although it's implied that any force coming directly from his blasts is absorbed by his body.
    • He's immune to his own beams so he doesn't end up shooting through his eyelids.
  • The Rival/Shadow Archetype: With Wolverine. In damn near every medium expect the two to be polar opposites in terms of characterization. In more recent years, the two have actually reversed roles, with Cyclops now being the Well-Intentioned Extremist, even though he's right most of the time.
  • Say My Name: As Jean dies, Scott and Jean call each other's names.
  • Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Nathaniel Essex is Scott's childhood bully in the Nebraskan orphanage. Chris Claremont had the idea for this bully to become Mister Sinister, one of Scott's greatest arch-nemeses. Since Claremont's departure from Marvel, it turned up to be the orphanage's headmaster is the actual Sinister.
  • Shirtless Scene: Scott has plenty of times when he's without a shirt. In fact, if he encounters fire in a fight, it will burn the top half of his costume off.
  • Shrinking Violet: A male version as a teenager. His self esteem is still definitely not the highest. He is confident enough about things like decisions and strategies, but feels unloveable.
  • Single-Power Superheroes: Probably the most known example in comics.
  • The Smart Guy: Scott is quick, smart, and intelligent. He is good at strategizing.
    • Depending on the Writer, he either has an innate knowledge of trigonometry from his powers or he is a mathematical genius whose skill comes from training.
  • Sociopathic Hero: Kind of. To some, Scott is definitely falling into this territory as of lately. His decisions are rather extreme in nature. He doesn't seem to show an overwhelming amount of guilt or remorse for his extreme actions. Hell, Scott doesn't seem to show all that much emotion at all lately.
  • Soldier Versus Warrior: Very much on the soldier side, in contrast to Wolverine, who is firmly in the warrior camp.
  • The Spock: After taking on the reins as the leader, Cyclops becomes the cold and calculating variant. Wolverine and Beast typically played The McCoy to counter balance it. One thing that contributed to the schism was that there was no longer a Jean Grey or Professor Xavier to play the middle man.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: In the last couple of years, some writers have found they just cannot get enough of this guy, to the point where he overshadows everyone else on the team. A refreshing change from the usual spotlight hog, but still not likely what the fanbase had in mind.
  • Standardized Leader: The Other Wiki has noted that if Cyclops is in the field, he is The Captain, regardless of whose party it was before he arrived. The only exception to this rule is Captain America, and even then.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Arguably, Scott's relationship with Jean classifies as this. They have faced endless tragedy and something always manages to tear the two apart. But as is also noted, they always find their way back together again.
  • Status Quo Is God: A very dark and deconstructed one, Cyke will NEVER be able to gain control over his power, no matter what, any time he finally does is met with a downer ending with him losing it again. He once gained it in the X-Men First Class two parter "Catalyst", but was forced to give it up to because it was now godlike level of power.
  • Stepford Snarker: He is cold and often sarcastic. He is also broken, probably beyond repair. He has been known to hide his hurt in situations behind sarcasm.
  • Still the Leader: Storm challenged Cyclops to personal combat to determine who would lead the team, partly to force him to focus on his wife instead of bearing the responsibility of the X-Men. Storm won and took charge while Cyclops retired to lead a civilian life. However, he's always been in overall command since he rejoined the X-Men several years later. Technically, Storm outranked him for the better part of 20 years, until Xavier made Cyke and Emma Frost the co-headmasters while he was away for some time. He later went on to become the leader of the entirety of mutantkind for a while.
  • The Stoic: Scott is always calm and composed; he doesn't show any emotion, well, not most of time at least.
  • The Strategist: During Fear Itself, he noted that he was going to Plan 2. When asked why he didn't call it Plan B, he replied, "That would imply I only have twenty-six plans."
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Of all the Summers kids, he looks the most like Corsair. In fact, before he learned who the man was, when the X-Men were having a prolonged stay in the Savage Land, Scott saw his reflection in a pond and noted with his sudden amount of stubble he looked very like Corsair... until his train of thought was interrupted.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Can be sweet and understanding. Can be strict and cynical. There is no in-between.
  • Sunglasses at Night: For a long time because he couldn't control his powers.
  • Super Hero: Like all of his fellow X-Men.
  • Tall, Dark, and Handsome: 6'3", brunet and attractive. Yep.
  • Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Can also be very snarky when he wants to be.
  • Tangled Family Tree: Formerly trope namer. Just as an example, you might have to go through a couple Elseworlds to do it, but you could make a case that Scott is Galactus's father-in-law.
  • The Extremist Was Right: Where do you think Cyclops was right comes from? In the end, he was entirely right about the Phoenix not intending to destroy the Earth (originally) and Hope being the harbinger of Mutantkind's rebirth. That doesn't mean however that he is fine with every hard descision he made.
  • Token Good Teammate: Scott is this of The Elite Mutant Force who serve as Co-Dragons to Sinister.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass:
    • Way back when, Scott was utterly stiff on the job, but capable of if not relaxing then at least acting like a normal person, even cracking the occasional joke (comparing Nightcrawler to Chewbacca when the subject of seeing Star Wars came up). Several decades of trauma later... not so much.
    • After Messiah Complex, is more callous and more ruthless than before. Honestly, it's like the universe is telling him to be a jerk or let mutants die off horribly. Still yet, every time he does do something truly questionable, he'll admit it's wrong and apologise eventually. He may have used X-23 as a weapon, but she was completely there of her own free will, and he promised to never ask her to do that again when it was over.
    • Subverted at the time of the Krakoan Age where a small handful of his heroic aspects have been restored.
  • Totalitarian Utilitarian: Subverted. Scott isn't a villain, but fits more of the antihero archetype. However, Scott often resorts to going to extremes and making tough decisions to preserve the life of the mutant race. He always wants the best possible for the mutants and wants the mutant race to be respected, not feared. In order for Scott to achieve his goals for the greater good of his race, he has had to resort to some morally questionable decisions and actions.
  • Tragic Hero: His wife keeps dying, as she acknowledges with her dying words. His relationship with Emma failed and he died before they could get back together. His friends want nothing to do with him. He wound up accidentally killing his father figure, and everyone acts as though he did it on purpose. Things have been looking up with Hickman's run, though - he's living with his entire family bar Nate Grey, he's looking on the bright side again, and has generally got his mojo back.
  • Trauma Conga Line: See Doom Magnet. The amount of chaos that Scott has gone through is absolutely endless.
  • True Love Is Boring: No matter what, Scott and Jean are not allowed to have happy life. Or Scott and Madelyne. Or Scott and Emma. Or Scott—fuck it. Just Scott.
  • Underwear of Power: His former costume◊. It's not even needed to have very sharp eyes to notice there's a bulge on it.
  • Unknown Relative: Due to their Tangled Family Tree, neither him nor his brothers are aware that they're all actually the great-great-grandsons of the centuries-old villainess called Black Womb (Amanda Mueller), which makes them also related to another shady figure called Fontanelle, who has mostly had dealings with Gambit, and is none other than their great-grandaunt, which is quite a feat given that she's older than their deceased grandparents!
  • Unlucky Everydude: Cyclops is not unattractive – physically. His Sugar and Ice personality can make him off-putting to certain women – women who aren't telepathic, that is, including female students who develop crushes on him. Telepaths can see through his act and know what he's really like. Wolverine chews him out for not seeing how his mysterious facade drives women crazy trying to crack his shell. He sarcastically acknowledges that he is good-looking, but fails to understand the psychological component to his attractiveness. That or he realizes it is better for him not to know.
  • Unscrupulous Hero: Scott's intentions may be heroic, but Scott is not afraid to make the tough decisions which can be considered less than heroic, honorable or noble. He's also not afraid to straight up kill you if you pose a threat to the entire race of mutants.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: Literally for while, given the name of the mutant enclave he was running. Expanded globally during the time he and some of his teammates were vessels for the Phoenix Force. Also, the simple fact that he was willing to put his faith in the Phoenix providing salvation for mutantkind, despite the fact that it had previously and was currently destroying inhabited worlds. On the other hand, he did turn out to be right about that...
  • Villainesses Want Heroes:
    • Emma Frost, a former villain with a history of being a victim of sexual and domestic abuse, fell in love with Scott because he was the first and only man to treat her with love. She really did love him and would do anything for him. Scott truly loved her too.
    • In the Age of X reality, Frenzy and Scott were lovers. Once things are set back to normal she tries approaching him, but Scott's still in a relationship with Emma and lets her down. It does start Joanna's Heel–Face Turn, though, and later stories make clear she's never actually gotten over him.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: He and Wolverine have an intense and often bitter rivalry but it's been repeatedly shown that underneath it, the two have a strong respect for one another.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Wants to secure a safe future for mutants and is ready to do things he wouldn't have done in the past for it.
  • What Beautiful Eyes!: Whenever he loses his powers, it's shown that his eyes are big, brown and make him look incredibly vulnerable. Several members of the fandom think his eyes are his most attractive feature, which is cruelly ironic.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: He assembled a black ops/wetwork team, over the objections of the homicidal Anti-Hero he orders to lead it, and hides it from the X-Men at large because the "X-Men do not kill." Later Wolverine calls him out on his willingness to allow children to fight on the front lines (though in his defense, that's not that much different then how the X-Men have been since they were first formed. Logan's comments were also made with X-23 in mind, who he was trying to help find a normal life of not being a Living Weapon).
    • This is pretty much how Scott reacts when ever somebody tells him he's acting like Magneto.
    • Taken to extreme lengths with everyone's reaction to finding out Scott assembled the X-Force, a black ops team with the most dangerous mutants to go and kill the X-Men's most deadly enemies who could possibly eradicate the last of the mutants. What they (and sadly some fans) fail to notice is that that is exactly what has prevented every last mutant on earth from being eradicated. Note that the second that Bastion and the Purifiers are defeated, Scott disbands the team since they won't be up against anyone as dangerous as them in the meantime. Then Wolverine puts it back together anyway.
  • When He Smiles: When Scott smiles his adorkability levels go through the roof.
  • Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: After Cyclops kills Xavier as the Dark Phoenix, he breaks down crying and blames Captain America and the Avengers for it.
  • Willfully Weak: Cyclops could take down or kill everyone below the power level of Thor, the Hulk, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, etc. just by taking off his visor. He doesn't, mostly because he's afraid of letting his full power out and losing control.
  • Will They or Won't They?: Since 1963, Scott Summers and Jean Grey live in a constant cycle where they're unsure whether a relationship is a good idea or they should stay just friends, they get together, live happy for a while until one of them dies temporarily or something makes them break up, and the cycle begins anew. In All-New X-Men, their time-displaced teenager counterparts (nicknamed Tyke and Jeen by fans) are stuck in the "unresolved sexual tension" phase due to this... then resolve it... then go back in time and undo it. As of Hickman's run, they're back together.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: When Scott is possessed by the Dark Phoenix, he goes completely dark side and insane. It should be noted that this took a lot of Avengers related provocation, and the cumulative stress of preventing mutantkind going extinct.
  • You Remind Me of X:
    • After Cyclops says that Phoenix could be used to "put the world back on track", Magneto points that Cyclops is starting to sound like him.
    • It turns out this is a Berserk Button for Cyclops when this happens one too many times. For a while, people have been saying this to him when he gets particularly protective of mutant kind, and this bit is essentially him spitting back. But, Scott was Phoenix powered and as such insane, he replies that the difference is "he's winning".
  • You Wouldn't Hit a Guy with Glasses: Some drunkards try to pick a fight with (civilian-dressed) Cyclops. He says the stock phrase, so one of them takes off his glasses.

    Time-Displaced Cyclops 

Cyclops/Scott Summers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scott_summers_earth_616.png

The field leader of the X-Men, Cyclops is shocked to discover that in the future he is destined to kill the man he viewed as a father, and it was Scott in particular whom Beast was targeting with his plan to bring the O5 forward in time. The young Scott now finds himself burdened and judged by the actions of his adult self.

  • The Ace: This is the past version of Scott Summers. The guy who led the entire mutant race after M-Day, the 'General of the Mutants', who easily Out-Gambitted Norman Osborn during Dark Reign, and was so impressive a leader that both Magneto and freaking Namor unhesitatingly pledged him their allegiance and followed his orders (which, since Magneto is renowned for not listening to anybody and Namor is renowned for not listening to anyone but Captain America himself, is one hell of an achievement). Not to mention his extremely powerful and accurate concussive force beams that shoot out of his eyes.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Sometimes despairs of his dad's stroking of his own ego.
  • Chick Magnet: Something that he still has in common with his older self. He's caught the eye of a space pirate's daughter, X-23, Bloodstorm, and of course, Jean Grey.
  • Evil Feels Good: He's troubled by this when he joins his father in space. At one point he's forced to pose as a ruthless pirate to stay alive and keep his father alive, but he starts to find himself enjoying the pirate lifestyle. His father tries to assure him it's normal, but he still feels uncomfortable about it.
  • Eye Beams: Like his future self, he can shoot energy beams from his eyes.
  • Future Me Scares Me: Zigzagged. At first, he has a strong dislike of his adult self, but slowly he learns that what he was told about him isn't quite true and learns to respect his future self. By the time of volume 2, however, Scott outright despises his older self, considering him a monster and a supervillain over whatever it is that Cyclops did. Then he learns his older self didn't do anything, but he died from M-Pox and Scott doesn't hate himself or his adult self anymore.
  • Guile Hero: Proves to be an effective one when he goes solo; though given the situations he ends up in, he'd need to be one.
  • Hormone-Addled Teenager: He fantasizes about hooking up with Laura and the Stepford Cuckoos. He also finds Hepzibah, his dad's girlfriend, uncomfortably attractive. And then, there's Jean.
  • The Leader: At first. Eventually, he cedes this position to Jean, though he retains a number of the characteristics.
  • Platonic Life-Partners:
    • Develops into this with Laura, something helped by the fact that they think in very similar ways, about threat analysis in particular, and occasionally have trouble emoting.
    • Even more so, he becomes this with Kamala Kahn aka Ms. Marvel when he joins the Champions. Being that his older self is falsely beloved to have died committing war crimes against the Inhumans and Kamala is an Inhuman herself, it speaks volumes that they developed such a close bond. Once he returns to the past and adult Scott gets his memories, it becomes an Intergenerational Friendship.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Perpetually with Jean. It's mutual but complicated due to finding they ended up together but their relationship got ruined.
And never forget, Cyclops was right!

 
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Optic Blast

Cyclops's mutant power allows him to fire beams of concentrated energy from his eyes.

Example of:
Eye Beams

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Optic Blast

Cyclops's mutant power allows him to fire beams of concentrated energy from his eyes.

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