Marvel is finally clearing up the complicated Summers family tree in their current X-Men comics. Let's face it, when someone becomes a superhero they don't exactly wind up living an ordinary life. Superheroic activities tend to bleed into civilian identities, even when heroes try to keep their activities a secret. But problems are generally compounded when a character serves as part of a team, which only ever serves to confuse things.
Case in point: the X-Mens' Cyclops. Scott Summers' private life is insanely complicated. Over the years, he's discovered his father was still alive but operating in a distant galaxy as a space pirate (it happens), married a clone of his late girlfriend before abandoning her when the real deal was resurrected and even had the misfortune of being forced to send his infant son into the distant future. That last personal crisis actually turned out okay, as Scott and his new wife Jean had their consciousnesses transported into that same timeline in order to bring the boy up anyway. The Summers family tree really is the messiest in comics.
But Marvel appears to be trying to clear it up. The publisher has recently launched a series called X-Men Legends in which classic writers are invited to return to tell in-continuity stories that tie up various loose ends. Amusingly, though, it's becoming clear most of this is focused on the Summers family. The first arc resolved the messy "third Summers brother" teased back in the '90s, the second is about baby Nathan Christopher Summers, and the third appears to be centered on Scott's brother Alex (a.k.a. Havok).
On the face of it, it's no surprise the Summers family tree has become so ridiculously convoluted. Cyclops and the rest of his family have been explored in comics since 1963, which means there's been plenty of time for various writers to play around with their continuity. In fact, by now it's probably reasonable to say that causing problems for the Summers family has become a traditional X-Men plot. Naturally, that means there are plenty of loose ends to be tied up, particularly from the early '90s when the so-called X-Office became something of a mess after a bunch of writers and artists left to found Image Comics. Things only got worse in 1996 and 1997, when Marvel faced bankruptcy and changed editorial direction more frequently than the X-Men change costumes.
But it is, nonetheless, hilarious to realize that the Summers family tree is so messed up that it necessitates the launch of an entire series dedicated to tying up all these loose ends. It's testimony both the longevity of the X-Men franchise and, frankly, to the fact that comic writers haven't always followed through on their ideas.
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