Scott Summers has had a complicated relationship with the X-Men despite his intense loyalty to the team and mutantkind. As Cyclops, he was part of the first class of X-Men and has been a key member of the team for decades. Cyclops was even the leader of the entire surviving mutant race following the Decimation by Scarlet Witch in House of M, and later created the mutant sanctuary known as Utopia.

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However, his dedication to his fellow mutants has also led to some dark moments in Scott Summers' fight for mutant equality. Today we are going to look at a few defining stories from the life of Scott Summers, who has led the X-Men from the school to the battlefield, lost his love and his life, and been reborn to continue his fight for the survival of mutantkind.

10 THE DARK PHOENIX SAGA

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Cyclops had been leading the second generation of the X-Men for a few years before the iconic "Dark Phoenix Saga," which saw the love of his life corrupted by the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force. Jean Grey's transformation into the Dark Phoenix would forever change the X-Men and the Marvel Universe.

The X-Men were forced to fight the alien Shi'ar in order to save Jean's life, and Cyclops truly showed his love and dedication to Jean Grey during the battle, despite its unfortunate outcome. Scott Summers and the rest of the X-Men weren't able to save Jean, and Cyclops' life would never be the same.

9 DUEL

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Cyclops eventually met and married a woman named Madelyne Pryor, and they had a child named Nathan Christopher Charles Summers. Maddie was the spitting image of Jean Grey, yet this didn't seem to disturb any of the X-Men. After Christopher (as he was called then) was born, Scott was faced with the difficult choice to remain with the X-Men or retire with his family.

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Cyclops' difficulties in choosing stemmed from his own indecision as well as the recent depowering of Storm, which he felt made her unfit to lead the X-Men. A challenge is made, and Cyclops and Storm fight for leadership of the X-Men. Scott's future was decided and he was about to become a family man, launching a new chapter in the life of the first X-Man.

8 X-FACTOR

Of course, things don't always go as planned. Despite writer Chris Claremont's desire to retire Scott in Alaska with his family, plans were underway to bring Jean Grey back to life, and create a new mutant team known as X-Factor. Following the rebirth of Jean Grey, Scott Summers leaves his family and reunites the original class of X-Men as X-Factor.

Cyclops was back in action and leading his former team of X-Men again with Jean Grey at his side, though his idyllic family life was shattered. Trouble was on the horizon, as the eternal mutant Apocalypse was introduced to battle X-Factor and begin a centuries-long feud with the Summers family.

7 INFERNO

The best stories always find a way to personally challenge the hero and force them to face themselves and with the Inferno event, Cyclops would be challenged in a big way by his decision to leave Maddie and Christopher for Jean and X-Factor. Madelyne Pryor's true origins would be revealed and she would put Cyclops, Jean, the X-Men, and even baby Christopher in jeopardy.

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Inferno would serve to not only confront Cyclops with his questionable choice to abandon his family but would also reveal the machinations of Mr. Sinister and his interest in Cyclops, which stretches back to Scott's youth. Cyclops' realization of Sinister's influence on his life (and blasting Sinister to pieces) would help him move past his troubles and become a better leader for the X-Men.

6 ENDGAME

Cyclops' experienced a number of powerful moments during his time with X-Factor that would continue to define his character, but it was in the final showdown between Apocalypse and X-Factor that his true mettle was tested. When it was revealed that Sinister planned to use baby Christopher as a weapon, Apocalypse infected the child with a techno-organic virus.

With Christopher near death, a visitor from the future arrives with the child's last hope, and Cyclops is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save his son's life. The war between Apocalypse and the Summers family will forever be affected by this decision, and Scott would agonize over whether or not he made the right choice for years.

5 ADVENTURES OF CYCLOPS AND PHOENIX

Cyclops and Phoenix would eventually marry and be once again visited by Sanctity, the visitor from the future who saved young Christopher, now going by Nathan. She would pull the consciousness of both Scott and Jean to the future to inhabit the bodies of mutants Redd and Slym, who would then raise Nathan in the future where he continued to fight the T/O virus.

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Cyclops' relationship with his son, who would grow up to become the militaristic mutant known as Cable and eventually return to the present day, was strained but loving, and the two of them worked together often as soldiers in the same war. Cyclops and Jean's time raising Nathan in the future as Redd and Slym helped make Cable the hero he is today.

4 NEW X-MEN

Grant Morrison's reboot of the X-Men franchise has a number of great moments for a lot of characters, including one of Magneto's worst acts and the second death of Jean Grey, which lasted for years. Unfortunately for Scott Summers, his time with the X-Men wasn't remembered for being great, but controversial.

One of Morrison's most interesting additions to the X-Men was former villain Emma Frost, who had been brought on by the team to help Scott recover from time spent merged with Apocalypse following "The Twelve" storyline. Over the course of Morrison's X-Men run, Scott and Emma would begin a psychic affair which would blossom into a serious relationship following the death of Jean Grey.

3 ASTONISHING X-MEN

Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men brought Cyclops back in charge of a team dedicated to reinforcing their superheroic image. Cyclops would be heavily featured throughout the entirety of Whedon's run, with everything from his new relationship with Emma to the origins of his inability to control his optic blasts explored in new ways.

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Cyclops is memorably forced to relive a traumatic moment from his childhood, where he learns he consciously chooses to lose the ability to control his optic blasts. Upon this realization, he is rendered powerless, and still sets about saving the X-Men and the rest of the world.

2 AVENGERS VS X-MEN

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The Phoenix would again bring turmoil to Scott Summers life by bringing the Avengers and the X-Men into conflict over the fate of young Hope Summers, a new host of the Phoenix. Cyclops launches the first strike against the Avengers after they landed on his mutant sanctuary of Utopia, kicking off a war that would divide loyalties across the superhuman community.

Unfortunately, Avengers vs. X-Men would see Scott become his own version of the Dark Phoenix, and with one more wrong decision, Cyclops would cross a line that would forever alter his status among the rest of mutantkind, and lead to his arrest by the Avengers.

1 UNCANNY X-MEN

Following Cyclops' dark turn with the Phoenix Force and his incarceration, he decides to take a more aggressive course of action to ensure the survival of the mutant race. He escapes from prison, joins with Magneto and forms a new group of X-Men, and becomes a public enemy.

This period of his life saw Cyclops deal with broken abilities and the added confusion of his past self transplanted through time. While Scott's actions were considered extreme, with his race at the point of extinction there were many mutants who felt that "Cyclops Was Right." Eventually, Cyclops would die and be reborn, giving his character another chance to make things safer for the mutant race.

NEXT: Even Marvel Admits Cyclops Shouldn't Have Been Killed