He's not nearly so prevalent in the films these days, but Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, was one of the starring mutants of the first X-Men film, released fourteen years ago this year. It's easy to see his appeal; he's one of the cooler members of the academy, always wearing his sunglasses, and able to project a deadly red beam from his eyes. But how many people would actually choose to have Cyclops's power? It's definitely more of a curse than a gift; Cyclops is a good example of a mutant with a seriously horrible defect, who manages to use this affliction for good. He keeps his sunglasses on permanently because of his poor control of his power; that's partly down to a head injury in his youth, but how exactly did Cyclops find out that glasses would hold back that beam, when he destroyed an entire crane with his optic force blasts? It was probably a really difficult road to becoming the Bono of X-Men; unless you enjoy wearing shades indoors, and unless you're friends with someone who can build you a fairly expensive, multi-purpose visor for your deadly eyeballs, you're pretty much damned to spending your whole youth barbecuing anything you look at.
