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Comic Book / The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix

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The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix is a 1994 four-issue miniseries written by Scott Lobdell focusing the X-Men characters Jean Grey and Scott Summers shortly after their marriage.

While on their honeymoon, Jean and Scott's minds are suddenly psychically pulled thousands of years into the post-apocalyptic future by Rachel Summers, a version of their alternate-timeline daughter who was split from the main version after getting caught in a Timey-Wimey Ball. Rachel has brought them to the future to protect young Nathan Summers, Scott's son with Madelyne Pryor (Jean's clone), who was previously sent to the future to be cured of the techno-organic virus and will one day become the hero Cable. In this future, the world has be conquered by Apocalypse, who enforces mutant supremacy and persecutes humans and anyone else who resists his rule. Jean and Scott's job is to raise young Nathan and overthrow Apocalypse.

The miniseries was followed up by two sequels, Askani'son and The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix.


This series contains examples of

  • Bad Future: This timeline has Apocalypse ruling the world.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Twelve years after pulling her parents into the future, Rachel is dead and Jean and Scott are once again separated from Nathan, who must grow up in a war against Apocalypse's supporters and wait decades to see his parents again. However, the figurehead has been defeated, Jean and Scott were given the chance to raise Nathan for his first twelve years, and the latter promises his son that he will never be alone.
  • Calling Parents by Their Name: Even at the age of five Nathan calls his parents "Redd" and "Slym" (their made-up names). In fairness, he believes they're just his foster parents.
  • Closest Thing We Got: Since their bodies could not survive time travel, Jean and Scott live in bodies cloned from their descendants (as close of a match as possible) and retain their powers to a lesser degree.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The second issue starts with a man traveling to the city of his birth while his wife rides a donkey with their son, the prophesied savior. Doubles as a Biblical Motif.
  • Evil Twin: Stryfe to Nathan. He was cloned from him as a baby and raised as Apocalypse's heir.
  • Foregone Conclusion: It's not a big leap for the reader to assume sooner or later Jean and Scott will be returned to the past before Nate gets too old.
  • Foreshadowing: In Uncanny X-Men #310 (shortly before the miniseries' publication) Cable mentions being raised by foster parents in the future. He eventually realizes they were in fact his biological parents as well.
  • Future Badass: Young Nathan Dayspring is destined to one day become Cable and free the world from genetic oppression.
  • Sickly Child Grew Up Strong: Nate's body is heavily infected with the techno-organic virus, which gradually turns organic material into technology and can only be kept in check with telekinesis. However, we know that Nate will one day become the hardened veteran Cable, though he keeps the Badass Transplants.
  • Take Up My Sword: In the end, a dying Rachel requests that Jean continue calling herself Phoenix in her memory.
  • Timey-Wimey Ball: Due to time shenanigans, the Rachel in this series was split from the younger version residing in the present. This Rachel has aged to an elderly woman and is now known as "Mother Askani".

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