NO PRISONERS #3: THE THIRD SUMMERS BROTHER

[Jim Lemoine]

by Robert Weinberg

The Third Summers Brother

When I was offered the opportunity to write Cable for Marvel approximately four years ago, I accepted the assignment with great pleasure. Despite having only written a few comic book scripts during my career, I had been a comic book fan and collector for over forty years and was especially fond of the X-Men. Being given the chance to write one of the X-books was a dream come true. And, to top things off, Cable had always been one of my favorite characters.

Now, when I was hired by Marvel, I made it clear to Mark Powers, my editor and editor of the entire X-Men line, that I considered Cable a long-term project and that I intended to keep writing the series for the foreseeable future. With Apocalypse killed and the Twelve story-line finally completed, Cable needed a new direction and a new purpose in life. I was determined to clear up old plots that had never been resolved. Along with fleshing out his history, I wanted to establish that Cable had a greater purpose in life than just fighting Apocalypse and Stryfe. To accomplish both these aims, I studied Cable’s adventures, reading every issue of his own comic, his origin in New Mutants, and any other comic in my Marvel collection dealing with his life. I didn’t abandon continuity and past history. Instead of ignoring Cable’s complex life and continuity, I used it. I came up with a four-year master plan that would take Cable in new directions and hopefully establish him as one of the most powerful and most interesting characters in the Marvel Universe.

Tying this immense story together was an ongoing narrative involving two incredible powerful prime movers, beings of extraordinary power I dubbed the Lords of Probability and Possibility. Aiding them were three shape-changing sisters who liked Macbeth. These Sisters were the ones who declared that Nathan Summers was a nexus of the multiverse, the infinite number of alternate worlds that made up all reality. While popularized in science fiction and fantasy circles by Michael Moorcock in his Elric novels, the actual multiverse concept came from real science, the Many-Worlds Theory Interpretation Quantum Mechanics as developed by Hugh Everett III in 1957.

Unfortunately, my run on Cable was cut short after 18 months, and near the end of the run, I had to rewrite some scripts to fit into the narrower demands of the new editorial policy at Marvel. After I was replaced, my successors abandoned all of Cable’s wonderful and complex continuity and transformed him into a mercenary with a clouded past and uncertain future. The powers that be felt the more gritty Cable would sell better than my version. He didn’t and the comic was canceled.

Now, I’m not writing this column to second-guess the powers that be, so please don’t write posts for or against their decision to change Cable’s focus. Instead, I merely want to share with long-time Cable and X-Men fans one of the theories I dreamt up to solve a dangling plot line involving the X-Men, the Summers family, and Cable in particular. It’s where I was headed when my four- year plan was terminated. You might not agree with the concept, so feel free to argue about it all you want in the forum that follows. In my not-so-humble opinion, it would have made a fun, though possibly quite controversial, addition to Cable’s convoluted history. As the title of this column proclaims, here is my solution to the identity of the third Summers brother.

If you’re a long time X-Men fan, you know the problem. Years ago, Mr. Sinister hinted that there might have been three, not two Summers brothers. (In X-Men #23, Sinister makes mention to Scott of “you and your brothers.”) We knew of two – Scott, the mutant called Cyclops; and Alex, the mutant known as Havok, who starred for several years in the original (non-TV show) Mutant X comic. Scott was always one of the most powerful X-Men and Havok, who shot bolts of plasma at his enemies, was equally deadly. Many readers felt that Sinister’s hint somehow referred to Gambit, whose childhood was shadowed in mystery and who seemed to owe Sinister a powerful debt. Since Sinister had run the orphanage where Scott grew up, he seemed like a strong candidate to further mess with the Summers DNA. Sinister always was quite clear that he felt the merging of the Jean Gray/Scott Summers genetic codes would produce a super-powerful mutant. And he was determined to find a way to make that happen.

If you read my run of Cable, you know that Jean’s mutant powers were due in part to her being a direct descendant of the Dark Mother, a centuries-old mutant whose DNA had been reshaped by the radiation of a strange meteor from space. She inherited much of her mutant power, which was later enhanced by her mental encounter with the Phoenix Force. It was during the time that everyone thought Jean was dead that Mr. Sinister managed to complete the Summers/Gray genetic jigsaw by having Scott marry Madelyne Pryor, Jean’s clone. Their child, a product of the Summers and Gray DNA lines, was Nathan Dayspring Summers, the young boy who would grow up to be Cable.

Now, we know the source of Jean (and Maddy’s) incredible mutant powers, the Dark Mother. What about Scott’s and Alex’s powers? Their father was Christopher Summers, who later became known as Corsair. He was not known to possess any mutant powers. Their mother, Katherine Summers, also had no mutant powers.

The Summers family was split apart when an aircraft being flown by Christopher crashed into a flying saucer from the Shi’ar empire. Scott and Alex parachuted to safety and thought their parents dead. The two boys were raised as orphans. Christopher was thrown into the Shi’ar slave pens (slave labor used by a galaxy-wide space empire? Pretty ridiculous). He later escaped and became one of the Starjammers. Katherine became a member of the harem of D’Ken, the mad Shi’ar emperor. One popular theory has Katherine giving birth to D’Ken’s son, who became known as Adam X, before she died in captivity.

The Adam X theory has never been officially confirmed and is based on stories never told and oddball coincidences. Jean Gray feels an emotional attachment to Adam X when she encounters him in Alaska. Since Adam X at best is the half-brother of her husband, raised on another planet, one wonders at the validity of Jean’s empathy.

While Katherine can’t be entirely dismissed as the source of the X-gene inherited by Scott and Alex, Marvel history suggests the source is more likely Christopher. The main evidence pointing at Christopher’s side of the family is that Mr. Sinister has been interested in the Summers’ DNA for more than a century. According to The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, when Scott Summers and Jean Gray fought Mr. Sinister in the 19th century, an orphan named Daniel took the name Summers in admiration of the two time travelers. The Summers connection with Sinister’s first appearance is too much of a coincidence to be ignored. But, at the same time, with Daniel being an orphan who never knew his parents, the Summers genetic map comes to a dead-end. Or does it?

Like many others who have examined the Summers’ family tree, I believe there is a third Summers brother. One who fits perfectly into the jigsaw puzzle that makes up Cable’s life and times, and at the same time, solves many of the mysteries of the Marvel Universe.

I believe that before Christopher Summers married Katherine he had a love affair with another woman (not yet identified) in the Marvel Universe. She may or not have been a powerful mutant. I suspect she was. In any case, Christopher, an Air Force officer, left her before she discovered she was pregnant… and for reasons not known, she never informed him she was going to have his son. His first child.

Then, in typical Marvel melodramatic style, shortly after this nameless woman gave birth to this incredibly powerful mutant child, the boy was taken from her. Stolen by a mysterious figure from the far future, a being who used a time machine to complete his master plan. Not only did this time-traveler kidnap Christopher Summers’ first child, but the traveler then took the baby back into the past and left him there. The time traveler abandoned the baby, who knew neither his father nor mother, on the burning sands of Egypt with only a name. He was called The First One, because the baby was the First Summers’ child, and the most powerful. Or as he became known in the language of those who found him and raised him, En Sabah Nur, the mutant known as Apocalypse.

I’m not going to explain all the details of my theory, as that would take away the fun of debating the validity of my conclusion. But, I do want to present some evidence in defense of my claim.

His name? Surely no one reading Marvel Comics ever believed that Apocalypse was the first mutant? He may have been one of the first powerful mutants, but the first one? Never. Evolution is based on the theory of survival of the fittest. Modern man is the result of thousands of mutations over a hundred thousand years. Claiming someone in early Egyptian times was the first mutant is not only bad science, it’s just ridiculous.

If my theory is true, then Apocalypse would be Cable’s uncle. They would share the same DNA. Why did Apocalypse infect the baby Nathan Summers with the techno-organic virus? To kill him? Nonsense. If Apocalypse wanted to kill the baby, he would have just done so. Infecting his nephew forced Nathan to survive – to prove that even as a child he was strong enough to survive. And, in doing so, Apocalypse was also creating a powerful body, with tremendous mutant powers, for him to someday possess when his own body gave out. What better replacement for a body than one that shares the same basic DNA code?

Need more proof? Apocalypse woke from cryogenic sleep when Nathan was born. Telepathic cries being heard by a relative make a lot more sense than Apocalypse being jolted awake by the birth of a powerful mutant, considering how many powerful mutants inhabit the Marvel Universe. If that was really the case, Apocalypse would have been thawing out every few months in the mid-20th century.

Apocalypse, when first found, was supposedly an orphan, abandoned by his tribe. But we never once saw any evidence of this tribe or learned anything about his supposed family.

When the Twelve gathered, Apocalypse wanted to take over the body of X-Man, genetically identical to Cable. As mentioned before, what better host body than a DNA match? Still, while that didn’t happen, Apocalypse had little problem taking over the person who pushed X-Man out of the way – Scott Summers. In my theory, the First One’s brother. A man possessing matching DNA.

Moreover, since we know Apocalypse posed as a God more than once during his lifetime, it seems quite likely he may have fathered children. Who in turn had children, and so on, until one of his descendents could have been in London at the time of The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix. So, it would be quite possible that the X-gene that developed in the Summers family came from Apocalypse, who inherited it from his own descendents, in a closed-circle time loop. An anomaly in four dimensions, sure to attract the attention of the Lords of Probability and Possibility to Earth, where their servants would encounter Cable, a nexus of time and space... and result in the beginning of my story line featuring the three sisters.

Who stole the First Summers child and took him back to ancient Egypt? Could it have been Apocalypse, returned from the future, guaranteeing he would grow up in the past? Or might it have been Stryfe, for the same reason? Or maybe some other time traveler (there sure are enough of them in the Marvel universe) for reasons still to be explained? I know what I think, but that’s for another column someday.

There it is: my theory of the third Summers brother. Exactly as I had planned it four years ago but never had a chance to see in print. Consider it an alternate version of Marvel history, for your amusement and entertainment. Something to think about over the holiday season.

Merry Christmas
&
Happy Holidays
From
Bob Weinberg

---

Robert Weinberg has written a whole heck of a lot of books (including several critically acclaimed comics), and won a host of literary awards and accolades. He's currently finishing up his latest project, The Science of Supervillains.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and are not reflective of ComiX-Fan or its other staff in general.

[SmashedPumpkin]

Dear lord,

I'm just thinking of how much that would have shaken the foundation of the Marvel Universe. Interesting. I'm still trying to find flaws in it though... haah

Honestly though, why not Gambit?

[Anya]

Just when you thought the Summers' family couldn't get any more convuluted. Very interesting idea.

[Patrick James]

This seriously begs to be made into a what-if...

Bob, I like your logic.

[Sivvius]

That would have been so awesome...

[Justice Daye]

Yowza! It's a cool theory and would make some kind of sense, but time travel stories, in general, give me headaches. I'd still love it though. Apocalypse as Cyke and Alex's brother would be cool. But, i want to know who the mysterious benefactor of all this is.

I always thought Sinny was lying about "brothers." He meant sister and he meant Rogue.

[Steven Paul]

Cool column Just happy you didn't say Gambit

[Cypher]

Couldn't you just... make Marvel give you an all-new Cable series now? That story is so cool I will even pretend I didn't read it here first, as long as you make it happen!

[BoomBot]

Damn, that is a very interesting and enjoyable theory. I don't think I'd prefer it that way but still good none the less.

As for a couple of other points, I've thought that both parents can contribute to the genetic make-up. So, the mother and father both could have dormant mutant genes and not necessarily only one parent has the gene. Also, I believe that the parents isn't really a powerful mutant, just a human with that dormant gene.

Also, I've always thought Apocalypse is the first mutant. Why not? Someone had to be the first "mutant".

Really, at this point, **** the 3rd Summers brother; though, I've never really cared. Supposedly, Austen is going to be resolving this subplot and with Apocalypse supposedly coming back, seems like it'll happen.

[Justice Daye]

Originally posted by Omar A. Safi
Also, I've always thought Apocalypse is the first mutant. Why not? Someone had to be the first "mutant".

Supposedly, Austen is going to be resolving this subplot and with Apocalypse supposedly coming back, seems like it'll happen.

Well, Selene and Namor are both supposed to be older than Poccy, so who knows if he's the first.
And Austen's story was cancelled, besides he leaving's before he'd get to do it.

[russbrett77]

Holy crap.

That's certainly an intereting theory you've got there, Bob.

I like it.

But, I find it easier to believe that Adam X is the third brother. Remember, Sinister says "brothers." He does not specify Summers. Adam X, as the son of Kate and D'Ken, makes perfect sense (particularly when coupled with X-Men #27, 34, I really don't remember which, which was a solo issue about Adam rescuing Phillip Summers (Christopher Summers' father) from a plane crash). Ochams razor, you know.

There is one flaw in your theory though (at least, I think it's a flaw).

Scott and Alex are immune to their own powers, as well as each others. This is why Scott can block his optic blasts with his eyelids and hands, and he and Alex can zap each other all day and not get hurt (see X-Tinction Agenda).

It would follow that a third brother would be likewise immune. Apocalypse was shown to be destroyed by Cyclops' optic blasts at the end of X-Factor (#61, 69? The one in which baby Nathan was taken to the future). And I'm sure there are other examples of Apocalypse being hurt be either Cyclops or Alex.

[Justice Daye]

Originally posted by russbrett77
There is one flaw in your theory though (at least, I think it's a flaw).

Scott and Alex are immune to their own powers, as well as each others. This is why Scott can block his optic blasts with his eyelids and hands, and he and Alex can zap each other all day and not get hurt (see X-Tinction Agenda).

It would follow that a third brother would be likewise immune. Apocalypse was shown to be destroyed by Cyclops' optic blasts at the end of X-Factor (#61, 69? The one in which baby Nathan was taken to the future). And I'm sure there are other examples of Apocalypse being hurt be either Cyclops or Alex.

That is a flaw, but that could be explained by Poccy constant manipulation of his body. Remember, he a crusty old man in a suit of armor. Besides his original body is long dead. I wonder what his powers without the armor are, though.

[Toga]

I love it, it continutes the confusing woes of the summers family and in true marvel fashion makes ppl scratch their while asking for more!!

[Patrick James]

Originally posted by russbrett77

There is one flaw in your theory though (at least, I think it's a flaw).

Scott and Alex are immune to their own powers, as well as each others. This is why Scott can block his optic blasts with his eyelids and hands, and he and Alex can zap each other all day and not get hurt (see X-Tinction Agenda).

It would follow that a third brother would be likewise immune. Apocalypse was shown to be destroyed by Cyclops' optic blasts at the end of X-Factor (#61, 69? The one in which baby Nathan was taken to the future). And I'm sure there are other examples of Apocalypse being hurt be either Cyclops or Alex.

Now, perhaps, being that the genetic make-up for Apocalypse, given Bob's origin, involves a different mother, he wouldn't be totally immune like a pure sibling would be. But here I am speculating...

[NicholasRogue]

Very interesting theory. I don't know if I buy into the whole time travel thing, but then again its not the first time that situation would have been used. Well I for one who didn't read Cable found your little history of Jean with the Dark Mother chronology very intriguing, might have to pick up some of those issues.

[Threespot]

Not even pure siblings are immune; case in point the Maximoff twins ability to use thier powers on each other.


But my god! Just think of the ramifications if he had time to bring the 4 yr story arc to fruit........

[barthufo]

Great idea! It saddens me to see that there aren't many other creators who think outside the perpetual box when dealing with the X-characters, but Bob Weinberg is one of them. I wonder what it would take to get Bob Weinberg back on Cable. When he was ousted out a couple of years ago, I couldn't believe that Marvel would kick off someone who was getting very good praise for their stories. Its not like Marvel has done that before (HA). But seriously, it seems like Joey Q is the kind of guy who would recognize good stories and at least give them a shot (Tsunami). I wonder if Bob (I hope its ok to call you Bob) would go back to Cable if he was offered it? I wonder if a petition would jitter Joey Q? I probably sound really dumb, but I just got my fix of Bob Weinberg doing my fave character (Cable) and I miss that fix. I need more!!! Well, I guess its always good to have hope! You can never have too much hope!

[basher]

Interesting... I like the idea. Does auston know your plan? He was planning on settling the whole summer brothers thing, and the bring back apoc... coincidence? I wonder....

[Daniel J Ciccaglione]

Ok I like this story idea, it gives a big twist in Marvel U, it really does shake things up a bit.

[Arachne]

:O That has to been the most out there idea on the third Summers' brother I have heard. I personally think it's Gambit and not Adam X. If Adam X is half alien born in outer space, how would Sinster know about him? IT makes more sense for it to be Remy since Sinster has played such a big part in both Remy's and Scott's life.

Here's my theory- I think Remy and Scott are twins. Not idential, but think about it this way, they are roughly the same age (Marvel hasn't said how old anybody really is), same height, there is a two pound weight difference, both have red eyes (the X-Men encyclopedia lists both their eye color as red), same hair. Many people think that fraternal twins means that they look nothing alike, but many do share similar characteristics. So while Scott and Remy don't look exactly alike, there is alot of similar characteristics.

So why hasn't Scott heard of him having a twin brother? Think about this. What if the doctor who delivered the twins was one Dr. Essex? Oh sorry Mr and Mrs. Summers one of your baby's was stillborn. Then he sends the Summers home with baby Scott and keeps baby Remy, only to leave in on the streets of New Orleans, with plans to study both boys to see how their mutant powers devolped. Back at the Summers home, they go on with their lives recovering from the death of one child and raising the surviving child.

While Essex could never expected the Shi'ir attack on the Summers family, he did keep Scott under his watchful eye, sending Alex away to a foster family. Not only that, isn't weird that if the Summers genes are so important, why has Sinster paid more attention to Gambit through the years than he has Alex? And on the topic of Gambit, isn't lucky has was able to survive as a small child on the streets, and isn't it lucky that he meet Jean-Luc? SOrry, but nothing involving Sinster is luck. I think he directed Remy's life, maybe protecting him as a child until he arranged for Jean-Luc and Remy to meet.

The last evidence is their mutant powers. Both have energy based powers, Scott's having the continual emission of force beams from his eyes, and Remy's ability to kineticlly charge objects. But the important thing is neither can control their powers. Sinister had to alter Remy so he could control the amount of energy that he charged objects with. Remy naturally had no ability to control his energy. Now what if Scott naturally had no ability to control his force beams. It's always been thought that Scott can't control it because of the brain damage he got from the plane crash. Now what if they are actually twin brothers and neither had the genetic ability to properly regulate their powers. Remember that Alex couldn't control his powers either. And Nate Grey's powers were so great that his body would give out by the time he turned 21. Maybe their is a genetic flaw in the Summers family line that doesn't let them control their powers correctly, adding more evidence to the idea that Remy Lebeau is really Remy Summers.

[Foenix]

Head...hurts...

But I think I like the idea.

I certainly would have been interested to see it, and see how it played out over the course of things.

However, the Summers tree is bloody complex enough.

J

[Dragon]

Ah my head hurts now..did we finally figure out the answer, my brain hurts to much to tell

[Kevin Sutton]

Well that sure would have been some crazy fun wouldn't it?

[Dylan McKay]

Woah, if anyone needed a reason why you got the job writing comic and many of us just want to, there's the answer...

I like it, it also works that Apocalypse knew that he'd be asleep until he got an heir, so he needed an agent that could get him an heir. So that's the real reason he created Sinister. And in the end his master plan for enternal life and eternal world domination were ruined by a small and simple mistake. He underestimated the resolve and ability of Dr. Nathaniel Essex.

[Jordan T. Maxwell]

hmm...i like it. I don't know how you'd play it out in a story, but i'd love to find out. I mean, the revelation and the concept are big and good enough, but you'd still need a solid narrative to deliver it AND not just have it be a delivery system for the idea itself. Not that i'm doubting you could.

Also remember...Sinister never specifies that it's a Summers or how many there are. It's been pretty well implied that Adam X is related to them maternally, but this does not discount either Gambit, Apocalypse or anyone else from being related to the Summers brothers (they should have their own sketch show. )