Third Summers brother

X Men storyline

The third Summers brother is a plot point in X Men comic books regarding the family of the superhero Cyclops, alias Scott Summers. The plot point was first referenced by writer Fabian Nicieza in X Men vol. 2 #23 (1993), published by Marvel Comics. In that issue the villain Mister Sinister has a conversation with X Men member Cyclops and casually mentions Cyclops' "brothers." Cyclops notes that it is odd to talk about his brothers in the plural, since as far as he knows he has just one brother (Alex Summers, also known as Havok). However, the dialogue does not mention three, implying there could be several brothers still in existence. While Sinister himself immediately claimed that it was just a common mistake of his the speculation about the mysterious third Summers brother ran rampant among fandom for many years. The question "Is there a third Summers brother?" lingered for years and is one of the most important questions of the main Marvel continuity, along with "Who is Nightcrawler's mother?" and "What is Wolverine's origin?". Gambit (due to his energy abilities) and Adam X were both believed to be one of the missing brothers at some point. Marvel revealed a third Summers brother, known as Vulcan, in the 2006 miniseries X Men: Deadly Genesis. A series released in 2021 returns to this story and reveals Adam X as another Summers brother.

Beginning with X Men #39, Adam X the X Treme was intended to be the additional brother to Cyclops once mentioned cryptically by Mister Sinister. Sinister mentioned that he did not want Cyclops or "[his] brothers" to succumb to the Legacy Virus, but the plans for this were dropped when Fabian Nicieza left Marvel's various X Titles in 1995. He was supposed to be the son of D'Ken and Katherine Anne Summers, the mother of mutant Cyclops, Havok, and (as subsequently revealed) Vulcan, who had been captured by the Shi'ar. While this origin was never confirmed in the comics themselves, Adam is half human, and Katherine was the only (known) human woman in Shi'ar space at the time. X Men #39 (December 1994) featured a story about Adam discovering Philip Summers (father of Christopher Summers and grandfather of Cyclops and Havok) in the Alaskan wilderness and feeling an unusual connection to the old man. Nicieza left the X Men office in 1995, and many of his plots were taken in new directions. With the emergence of the comic series X Treme X Men in 2001, the reappearance of the character X Treme was made even more unlikely, due to the likelihood of confusion. In the third issue of that 1995 series, Nicieza revealed the secret origin of Adam X (that he was indeed the illegitimate offspring of D'Ken and Kate Summers) but this plot point has also never been mentioned since.

During his run on Cable, author Robert Weinberg planned for Apocalypse to have been the third Summers brother all along, but Weinberg left the book before he could go along with his plan.

The 2006 series X Men: Deadly Genesis established that a third Summers brother did indeed exist and was the previously unknown character Vulcan. The series sales was not good at the beginning. During an interview with IGN, the editor Nick Lowe declares that the information about the presence of the third Summers brother in the story was revealed to increase the sales. It is not yet known whether Mister Sinister was even aware of Vulcan's existence, particularly since at the time he spoke to Cyclops about having more than one brother, Vulcan was believed to have been dead for several years with no evidence to the contrary. As such, the link between Vulcan and Mister Sinister's statement is still speculative. It is also pointed out by fans that Mister Sinister's comment meant there was at least a third brother, he did not specify a number and therefore other brothers might also exist. In any case, the current version of the story could negate the scenario of Adam X being the son of D'Ken and Katherine Summers, as she was already pregnant when they met, and died before Adam X was born, though this could be excused by the possibility that Adam X is a test tube baby, and it has been shown that in vitro fertilization and ectogenesis are common Shi'ar practices.