It’s very rare we get peak Dad Cyclops, but when we do, you can rest assured Gerry Duggan is close by.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, when baby Nathan Christopher Charles Dayspring Askani’Son Summers was just a baby floating around in a telekinetic bubble, he was nothing more than a macguffin to be imperiled to fuel Cyclops’ character growth and give him stakes. Kidnapped by demons, implanted with a techno-organic virus by Apocalypse, sent to the future to be raised as a warrior.
But for a brief, shining moment on Krakoa — largely due to Duggan and Phil Noto — Scott Summers got to raise a teenage version of his son, taking him on adventures, getting him out of scrapes and rewarding himself for good parenting with delicious Philadelphia cheesesteaks.
(Oh no, not the ComicsXF bullpen pining for Krakoa again. Couldn’t be.)
But all good things come to an end, and teenage Cable eventually, inevitably returned to his own time, trading places with the adult Cable we all know and love because he was on the cartoon.
Still, we loved seeing Cyclops happy, being the father he never had to the son he only kind of got to raise through wonky time-travel shenanigans.
At least he’ll always have that cheesesteak.
Wait, that’s not how food works.
Check out our exclusive preview of What If…? Uncanny X-Men #1, out next week, and keep scrolling for the basic deets.
W: Gerry Duggan | A: Jan Bazaldua | CA: Lucas Werneck
WHAT IF…CYCLOPS HAD STAYED WITH MADELYNE PRYOR? Imagine a world where Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen, had survived the Inferno. What would have happened if Cyclops had saved her soul? What would have happened if he and Maddie had raised their son, Nathan Summers? What would that world look like? And why would that be the most terrible thing to happen to mutantdom and Earth itself?
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Buy What If…? Uncanny X-Men #1 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom. Follow him @danielpgrote.bsky.social.
