Editing Cyclops (Marvel Comics) (section)

=== Youth ===
When Scott was a young boy, his father, [[United States Air Force|USAF]] Major [[Corsair (comics)|Christopher Summers]], took the family for a flight in their [[de Havilland Mosquito]] from his grandparents' home in [[Anchorage, Alaska|Anchorage]], [[Alaska]], when it came under attack by an alien [[Shi'ar]] spaceship. As the plane went down in flames, Scott's parents fastened him and his younger brother Alex into a parachute and pushed them off the plane, hoping that they would survive.<ref name="Classic X-Men #15">''Classic X-Men'' #15</ref>

In Cyclops's first appearance in ''The X-Men'' #1, he is already leading the X-Men under tutelage of [[Professor X]]. Later, Scott's origin is first presented in ''The Uncanny X-Men'' #38–42 and later refined in ''The Uncanny X-Men'' #144 and ''The Uncanny X-Men'' #156. In 2010, Marvel released ''[[X-Men Origins]]: Cyclops'' #1 that describes the character's childhood through his joining the X-Men.

The early accounts in the X-Men comics use flashbacks to tell the origin story of Scott parachuting from his parents' plane.  The flashbacks are often told from various narrative perspectives and place different emphasis on the events of this period.  Scott's poor control over his power have been attributed to events in his childhood. In ''The Uncanny X-Men'' #156, Scott's parachute caught fire and Scott struck his head upon landing. This caused brain damage to Scott which is responsible for his poor control over his optic blasts.<ref name="Uncanny X-Men #156">''The Uncanny X-Men'' #156</ref>  Several origin stories do not feature the head injury account with ''X-Men Origins: Cyclops'' #1 being the most recent.<ref name="Classic X-Men #15"/><ref>''X-Men Origins: Cyclops #1''</ref><ref name="Uncanny X-Men #144">''The Uncanny X-Men'' #144</ref> The head injury account has also been [[retroactive continuity|retconned]] in ''Astonishing X-Men'' vol. 3 as being due to a self-imposed mental block he made as a child to deal with the traumatic events of his life.<ref>''Astonishing X-Men'' vol. 3 #14</ref> With the help of Emma Frost, Scott is able to briefly bypass his own mental block and control his powers,<ref>''Astonishing X-Men'' vol. 3 #18</ref> though he reveals that his control is waning and temporary.<ref>''Giant Sized Astonishing X-Men'' #1</ref>

For a time, Scott had prolonged amnesia about his childhood. Parts of his memory returned when he was unexpectedly attacked by the demon [[D'Spayre]] while on a leave of absence after Jean Grey's perceived first death.<ref name="Uncanny X-Men #144"/> Scott spent most of his childhood at the State Home for the Foundlings in [[Omaha, Nebraska]] and was subjected to batteries of tests and experiments by the orphanage's owner, Mr. Milbury, an alias for the geneticist [[Mister Sinister]], who also placed mental blocks on Scott.<ref>revealed in ''Classic X-Men'' #41–42</ref>