The X-Men’s recent relocation to the remote island of Krakoa came with more than its fair share of changes. Beyond helping establish a mutant nation, the X-Men teamed up with some of their oldest enemies to form the Quiet Council, the island's ruling body, and other heroes even banded together to reform X-Force as a black ops espionage team.
Other longstanding X-Men came together to serve as a seafaring team of mutant pirates called the Marauders. Comprised primarily of former and current members of the various X-Men teams, the Marauders took on the dual mission of importing Krakoan medicine to other nations and smuggling mutants from hostile territories to sanctuary on Krakoa.
Assembled under Kate “Kitty” Pryde, the majority of the Marauders have little sea-faring experience, even if an impossibly advanced ship and the presence of elemental mutants like Storm and Iceman experience on the high seas a moot point. Still, the Marauders somehow managed to overlook a mutant who counts both pirating and nautical experience alongside his many other skills: Cyclops.
As the most well-known leader of the X-Men, it’s fairly easy to disqualify him as the swashbuckling type, especially since he maintains a brooding demeanor and takes his responsibilities as a leader very seriously.
However, it should not be forgotten that Cyclops has the nature of a pirate in his blood. after all, his father is Christopher Summers, who leads a group of space pirates called the Starjammers as Corsair.
Although Cyclops’ interaction with Corsair was initially limited due to his father’s space-faring lifestyle, the younger, time-displaced iteration of the X-Men leader left his team for a time in order to cruise the spaceways with the father who he had believed to be dead. During the course of their time together in Greg Rucka, John Layman, Russell Dauterman and Javier Garron's 2014 Cyclops solo series, the younger Cyclops learned that he had the ways of the pirate imprinted into his DNA, and for a time took to a life of outsmarting bounty hunters, sword fighting and stealing alien ships. And when that version of Cyclops went back to his place in time, the adult Cyclops retained his memories of his intergalactic adolescence.
However, that wasn’t the only time Scott Summers showed a love for the life asea.
After the events of “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” Cyclops believed Jean Grey, the love of his life, to be dead. Needing an opportunity to properly grieve his loss, Cyclops took a leave of absence from the team and ended working alongside Captain Lee Forrester on her fishing ship, The Arcadia. Scott is then seen working alongside the other shipmates and shows that he knows a thing or two about the business of being a sailor. He embraces his new life at sea and eventually lets down his guard long enough to pursue a brief romantic relationship with Forrester before the two wound up shipwrecked on an island in the Bermuda Triangle.
Perhaps the most telling sign of Cyclops' true passion exists within the alternate reality depicted in Mutant X. In that alternate reality series, Scott was kidnapped along with his parents by the alien Shi’ar and was never introduced into the lives of the X-Men. While his brother Havok took his place as the leader of the superhero team back on Earth, Cyclops ended up becoming the leader of the Starjammers, leading a crew that included versions of the Silver Surfer, Nova and Binary, who were all stripped of the cosmic powers granted to them by Galactus.
Oddly enough, this version of Cyclops is nothing at all like the brooding, solemn leader of the X-Men who constantly overthinks situations and blames himself for everything that goes wrong with his team. The Cyclops of this world smiles and has more of a happy-go-lucky attitude like he’s having the time of his life.
Although Cyclops’ responsibilities as the leader of the X-Men and a Great Captain of Krakoa cannot be denied, it stands to reason that he has been denying himself a life on the briny deep for the benefit of his team. The stoic leader of the X-men seems to be happier when he’s enjoying life as a seafaring (or space-faring) pirate, and the Marauders overlooked an opportunity to grant their greatest leader the opportunity to escape the burdens of leadership to live a life he probably still dreams about having.