10 Facts You Might Not Know About 'X-Men: Apocalypse's Cyclops!

His real name is Scott Summers, and he's going to be one of the new recruits who take a stand in X-Men: Apocalypse! But just who is the mutant known as Cyclops?

1. In the comics, Cyclops was Xavier's first recruit!

Newsflash to anyone who's only watched the movies: the films are seriously inaccurate when it comes to the X-Men timeline. In reality, although #Xavier trained Jean for some time before recruiting Cyclops, Scott is viewed as the first X-Man. From the very beginning, Xavier saw the potential for Cyclops to become a leader, and it was only an astounding eight issues before Xavier headed off on a mission of his own and left Cyclops in charge of the school!

2. He was brought up in an orphanage run by a supervillain!

Cyclops's history has gradually been revealed as the years have gone by, and it's about as crazy and convoluted as anything superheroic. As a child, he and his family were flying in an aircraft when they were attacked by an alien race known as the Shi'ar. Although his parents were captured by the aliens, Cyclops and his brother Havok were parachuted to safety.

Cyclops wound up being brought up in an orphanage that was secretly run by a villain named Mister Sinister. Sinister had long been obsessed with the Summers bloodline, which he believed held the potential to unlock the future of human evolution; ironically he believed this because, way back in Victorian England, he'd crossed paths with a time-traveling Cyclops and #JeanGrey!

To this day, nobody knows the extent of Sinister's influence upon Cyclops. Most disturbing of all is the fact that Cyclops named his son 'Nathan' - Sinister's real name is 'Nathaniel Essex'...

3. Cyclops's optic blasts are powered by solar energy!

The original X-Men comics swiftly established that Cyclops's powers are derived from solar energy. His body somehow metabolizes the power of the sun, and channels it into his eyes. As the years have passed, the reservoir of power he can draw upon has only seemed to increase.

A popular myth among X-Men fans is that Cyclops's eyes somehow tap into the energy of another dimension. This was an idea proposed by the so-called 'Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe,' but, in spite of its name, the handbook is fan-written. Unless and until there's a reference in canon, the original description of his power is accurate.

4. Cyclops's lack of control over his powers may be psychological

It's a matter of legend that Cyclops has to wear ruby quartz to control his powers. For decades, the accepted reason was that he suffered brain damage during the alien attack that spirited his parents away. Then came Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run in the early 2000s. Whedon had Cyclops taunted by his lover Emma Frost, and she revealed that he has a lot more psychological problems than we'd realized. She was actually able to leave him powerless for a time, but when his powers returned he was only able to retain control for a brief while.

5. Cyclops has two brothers - one of whom is a maniac!

This is another case where the films and comics are in dramatic disagreement - in the comics, Havok is Cyclops's younger brother, whereas in the movies Havok made his début in X-Men: First Class! In the 1990s comics, rumors began to circulate that there was a third Summers brother, and it was only when Ed Brubaker penned the Deadly Genesis miniseries that we learned who that third brother was.

Cyclops's mother had given birth to another child when in the distant Shi'ar galaxy, and that infant had been brought back to Earth. A tremendously powerful energy-manipulator, this mutant had called himself Vulcan, and even briefly served as an X-Man - before apparently dying! In a shocking twist, Xavier had actually erased all memory of this X-Men team, including Cyclops's brother. Needless to say, when Vulcan came back, he wasn't happy.

Vulcan swiftly established himself as a cosmic-level threat, actually taking over leadership of the Shi'ar Empire and plunging an entire Galaxy into all-out war!

6. Cyclops's son is older than him!

Cyclops has a complicated history when it comes to his love-life – never more so than with his first wife, Madelyne Pryor, who turned out to be a clone of Jean Grey! The two had a child, Nathan, but as a baby Nathan was infected with a techno-organic virus. In the most haunting decision of his life, Cyclops chose to let his son be taken into the far-future to be healed, not knowing whether he'd ever see him again.

He did; in fact, for the last few months the X-Men had been butting heads with a new figure on the block, the time-traveling soldier Cable. It was eventually revealed that Cable had been Cyclops's son all along!

In a typical comic book twist, Cyclops actually got to bring his son up after all. Shortly after he married Jean Grey, he and Jean were plucked into a dystopian future and got to be the parents they'd always longed to be.

7. Cyclops seems to be uniquely attractive to telepaths!

I mentioned that Cyclops has a complicated history when it comes to his love-life? That's an understatement – and, weirdly, he seems to be particularly attractive to telepaths. Cyclops's first love was Jean Grey, but after she was briefly believed dead, he fell in love with Jean's clone, Madelyne. Needless to say, that didn't go well (when Jean returned, there was literally hell to pay - Madelyne connected to a demon dimension!). In the 1990s, the rekindled relationship between Scott and Jean was briefly tested by the telepathic Psylocke, who attempted to seduce him. It didn't work; instead, Scott and Jean married.

That marriage began to crumble, particularly when Cyclops made the mistake of going to telepath Emma Frost for relationship advice. That led to a psychic affair, which Jean promptly uncovered. It all got rather bizarre, as Jean died; but in a distant future timeline, she was resurrected to discover Cyclops needed to be with Emma. She used her powers to manipulate events in the past, ensuring Cyclops and Emma became a couple after her death, and preventing that particular dystopian future from ever coming to pass.

Yeah, comics can be crazy.

8. Cyclops was once possessed by Apocalypse!

During 'The Twelve' plot-line, Apocalypse attempted to harness the power of twelve tremendously powerful mutants - but the plan went wrong, and Apocalypse wound up with his essence carried within the body of Cyclops! Cyclops was willing to kill himself to defeat #Apocalypse, but that turned out not to work, and he was soon resurrected.

9. Cyclops is currently viewed as a hate figure in the comics!

In the current Marvel Universe, Cyclops's name is reviled. He became controversial in the mutant community when he relocated them to a separatist island, Utopia; he briefly possessed the #PhoenixForce, and, as the power began to corrupt him, he actually killed Charles Xavier.

Still, matters only seem to have gotten worse for Cyclops. In the aftermath of Marvel's 'Secret Wars' event, the comics have done an eight-month time-jump. During that eight-month time-jump, Cyclops apparently declared war on the Inhumans, and somehow kicked off a global hatred for mutants. Marvel are yet to reveal the details, but are enjoying taunting us with our lack of knowledge in pretty much every issue of Extraordinary X-Men.

10. A young version of Cyclops has been brought to the present day!

With the present day Cyclops walking a dangerous road, Beast chose to confront him with the only one he might listen to - his past self! Unfortunately for Beast, his idea of bringing the X-Men of the past into the present kind of broke the time/space continuum, and they're unable to go back to their own time.

Now, the Cyclops of yesterday lives in today's Marvel Universe, trying to build a new future for himself as a member of the All-New X-Men.

'X-Men: Apocalypse' hits theaters May 26, 2016.