Gabriel Summers, brother to Scott (Cyclops), and Alex (Havok), was torn from the womb of his dead mother after she was killed by the nefarious, DKen, emperor of the alien Shiar Empire. Seeing his worth as an ally, DKen accelerated Gabriels growth to adulthood and sent him to Earth as a minion of a Shiar agent. Gabriel, however, managed to escape, and came into contact with Professor Xavier, who identified him as a relation of Cyclops, and potential team member. When the core X-Men team were imprisoned on a sentient mutant island created by nuclear testing, Professor X sent a back-up crew, including Vulcan, on a rescue mission which went terribly wrong, appearing to kill all members save for Cyclops. Through the last ditch efforts of his teammates, however, Vulcan survived, vowing revenge on Xavier for sending he and his comrades to their deaths. Vulcan took his name from the Roman sun godan appropriate alias for someone capable of wielding vast accumulations of psionic power. Amongst the most powerful of mutants, at Omega Level, Vulcans powers of flight and the manipulation of energy into life giving, transformative, and offensive jolts, combined with his rage with Xavier, DKen, and his disloyal brothers, make him a particularly dangerous adversary.