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This article contains spoilers for X-Men Legends #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Brett Booth.
The X-Men‘s Cyclops and Havok have been reunited with their long-lost brother: Adam-X. All the way back in 1993, X-Men writer Fabian Nicieza hinted there may be another Summers brother. One scene in that series saw the twisted geneticist Mr. Sinister make a reference to Cyclops’ “brothers,” and swiftly claim it was just a slip of the tongue. Nicieza originally intended this third Summers sibling to be the character Adam-X, but the plot wound up dropped. It was picked up in 2006 by Ed Brubaker, who revealed another Summers brother, Vulcan.
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But 2019’s Powers of X #4 hinted that Marvel was about to revisit the idea, suggesting this long-neglected plot point was soon to be picked up again. That has become a reality in X-Men Legends #1, an issue that features the return of Fabian Nicieza himself in a story set during the ’90s. It sees Cyclops and Havok forced to team up with Adam-X when their grandparents are kidnapped by a Shi’ar cult.
X-Men Legends #1 officially confirms Adam-X is the younger brother of Cyclops and Havok. The three mutants only begin to realize they may be intimately connected when they learn their powers are unable to affect one another; that has always been a curious feature of the Summers brothers’ mutant abilities. Moments later, their father Corsair confirms the truth when he emerges from his starship the Starjammer.
The Summers family tree is already the craziest in comics, involving everything from alien abductions to time travel, complete with a few clones and alternate dimension doppelgängers thrown in for good measure. Given how convoluted it is already, it should be able to absorb the addition of Adam-X pretty easily, with the only real question being why he never got invited to any family meals. Presumably Nicieza’s story will explain that minor continuity wrinkle, perhaps by sending him on a quest into space or dropping him into a convenient time-storm.
It will, however, be fascinating to see if there are repercussions in the modern X-Men books. Although Adam-X briefly visited the mutant nation of Krakoa, he certainly never wound up staying with his family at the Summers House on the Moon, and he swiftly headed off into the Mojoverse. It’s possible that Cyclops and Havok will be reunited with Adam-X at some point going forward, and the new (extended) family dynamics will be X-plored in detail.
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