The upcoming X-Men Legends will revisit long-lost tales of Marvel's mutant heroes, starting with the "third Summers brother" Adam-X. According to writer Fabian Nicieza, this plot point was the result of a throwaway line.
"It was a cart before the horse actually," Nicieza told CBR. "I threw the 'brothers' line into Sinister's dialogue mostly for fun and to make him come across like the smart-ass that he was. Editor Bob Harras liked that, since he always liked mysteries he would never let us resolve, so I started to give it some more thought. I knew we were going to be introducing a slate of new characters in all the Annuals we were publishing that year, so I tied the two ideas together."
"I thought the presence of another brother had to tie into anything that happened to Christopher and Kate Summers during the time they had been kidnapped by the Shi'ar," Nicieza added. "I figured out a way to do all of it that would have been respectful to the continuity of the time and especially of Kate Summers. I could have considered a tawdry approach, but I didn't want to do that to a character who had been dismissed on-panel in a way that, as a reader, I had never been happy about.
Ultimately, Nicieza decided to tie together the Summers storyline and the Shi'ar based on Cyclops and Havok's parents being kidnapped by the alien race. "The approach I planned, I thought, was ultimately much sadder and more tragic for Adam, as I hope you'll see in the story," he said. However, when other media outlets including Wizard got word of Nicieza's plans, things spiraled out of control.
"I became a bit thrown off when the comic book media of the time, like Wizard, dubbed it 'the Third Summers brother,' and it took on a life of its own. I had always thought of it as simply 'the Third Brother,' because I knew that, technically, if the DNA was coming from Kate, he wasn't really a 'Summers,'" the writer concluded. "But it didn't matter, it became 'The Third Summers Brother' in the minds of everyone. And without the chance to actually tell the story, it was impossible to wrangle that horse back in the barn."
Adam-X, better known as X-Treme, is a Shi'ar/human hybrid with enhanced physical capabilities and the ability to ignite people's blood. He was last seen on Mojoworld, providing commentary for several of Mojo's shows.
Written by Fabian Nicieza and illustrated by Brett Booth, X-Men Legends #1 goes on sale in February 2021 from Marvel Comics.