Marvel's X-Men comics are about to reveal the truth about the mysterious "third Summers brother," a character teased to Cyclops back in the '90s. Cyclops has always stood at the center of the X-Men franchise, frequently leading different incarnations of the team, and his younger brother Havok has often felt as though he stood in Scott's shadow.
Back in X-Men #23, writer Fabian Nicieza teased there may well be a third Summers brother, with the twisted geneticist Mr. Sinister claiming he wanted to protect Cyclops and his "brothers." Nicieza actually planned the third Summers brother to be a mutant called Adam-X, and he began setting that up in X-Men #39, when Adam-X met Cyclops' grandparents in Alaska. The setup was forgotten, and the plot was abandoned until 2006's Deadly Genesis miniseries, when Ed Brubaker revealed the third Summers brother was actually Vulcan. But 2019's Powers of X #4 subtly teased another Summers brother, suggesting this long-neglected plot point would eventually be picked up again.
That has now been confirmed, with Marvel announcing a new series to begin in February 2019, X-Men Legends. According to Marvel, this will see "legendary X-writers return to classic eras of the mutant super heroes in all-new, in-continuity stories set during their groundbreaking runs." Fabian Nicieza will kick off the series with a special saga of Cyclops and Havok that will solve one of the greatest X-Men mysteries of all time: Adam-X and his mysterious connection to the Summers bloodline. In an official press release, Nicieza observes:
It’s incredibly exciting to finally tell the story of the infamous 'third' Summers brother. Twenty-five years in the making, to see the truth about Adam-X revealed – and drawn so magnificently by Brett Booth – is one of the most surreal experiences of my career! Getting the opportunity to tell this tale while kicking off the new X-Men Legends series is x-tremely x-citing!
Adam-X is often criticized as being the ultimate '90s superhero, clad in leather with superfluous jagged edges to his costume, and with a somewhat dark superpower; he can cause a person's blood to burn, essentially triggering spontaneous combustion. Some stories suggested he first needed to oxygenate the blood by shedding it, explaining why he tended to use his trademark blades to slash at an enemy before setting them ablaze. It's little surprise Adam-X has generally been forgotten by X-Men writers, but this story seems likely to make him a whole lot more important to the mutant mythos, especially with the wider Summers family recently united on Krakoa.
X-Men Legends will no doubt be an exciting prospect for long-term X-Men readers. In addition to Fabian Nicieza, Marvel has already confirmed other celebrated writers including Chris Claremont, Louise Simonson, Larry Hama, and Peter David. No doubt this will allow Marvel to write some of Jonathan Hickman's recent retcons into the history of the X-Men, while also celebrating the stories that led them to this point.
Source: Marvel Comics