In this series we spotlight comic book stories that are likely best left forgotten. Here is an archive of past installments.

About a month ago, I talked about one of my problems with the original idea behind X-Factor, that the original X-Men deciding to become mutant hunters and thus make mutants more of a feared minority was an oddly bad idea for them to think made sense. At the time, I mentioned that I would eventually do a follow-up on the other major problem from the early days of X-Factor, and here is that follow-up - how X-Factor was built, in part, on the idea that Cyclops would ditch his wife and newborn son at the first chance he got to hook up with his thought-to-be dead girlfriend, Jean Grey...

Scott Summers relationship with Madelyne Pryor was always an odd one. After Jean Grey seemingly died in X-Men #137, Scott Summers had a brief fling with Lee Forrester (who every X-Men character at one point has a fling with), which pretty much ended in Uncanny X-Men #168...



And then met Madelyne Pryor, who, of course, looked exactly like Jean Grey...



He and Maddie work fast, as he already tells her he is a mutant by Uncanny X-Men #170...



And then he looks past a rather major red flag in the next issue...



and they're married within seven issues of meeting each other...









That was pretty much the beginning of the end for the couple, as the problem with Cyclops is that he can't leave well enough alone. He feels that he owes a duty to the X-Men that is greater than what he owes his pregnant wife, which leads to Uncanny X-Men #201, where he tries to leave his wife and kid to lead the X-Men again.

It begins right after his wife gives birth (while he's gone, of course)...



(Look at how sad he looks! "Stupid baby")

We learn that Maddie has doubts about him...



Doubts that are confirmed when we learn that he has decided that he needs to leave them to become the leader of the X-Men even though the X-Men already HAD a leader.





So he LOSES the duel and look how sad he looks to be going back to his wife and kid!



But at least they're together again!

But then Jean Grey returned from the dead.

Go to the next page to see how poorly Scott handles THAT!

Scott finally left Maddie and his son for good in X-Factor #1 when he found out that his former girlfriend, Jean Grey, was no longer dead.

Even BEFORE he found out that she was alive, things weren't going well...





But then she turned up alive and Warren Worthington called his old friend, Scott, and in twelve hours he was already in New York City from Alaska...



So he moped a bit but his friends convinced him that it was all good...



So he joins X-Factor and leaves his wife and son in Alaska...



He finally gets around to calling her the next issue, but it's too late...



Notice that he doesn't tell Jean about his wife and kid either? Man, that was such a difficult aspect of the X-Factor series. Cyclops had to become SUCH a jerk for it all to work and it took the writers years to sort of kind of come up with an explanation for it all (and it basically meant making Maddie into a villainous clone of Jean Grey, so it was retroactively okay for Cyclops to leave her, dontcha know)

Maybe I'll do an Abandoned Love someday about the attempts to redeem Cyclops for what he did here and in Uncanny #201.

(NOTE: The scene of Maddie punching Scott is from Uncanny X-Men #174, where he accuses her of being he reinarnation of Jean Grey. Lady, why would you marry this dude?!)

If you have a suggestion for another comic book plot that is probably best forgotten, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com or at my new CBR e-mail, brianc@cbr.com