Cyclops Finally Beats the 1 Mutant Immune to His Powers, Proving His Tactical Genius

Warning: contains spoilers for X-Factor #8Oh brother, my brother! Marvel's beloved X-Men franchise has featured tumultuous and dramatic familial relationships for decades, perfectly exemplified in the tense connection between brothers Scott and Alex Summers. The heroes Cyclops and Havok are immune to each other's energy-empowered mutant abilities, but that doesn't stop Scott from easily defeating his younger brother Alex in the pages of X-Factor #8.

It was established decades ago that many mutant siblings in the Marvel Universe are immune to each other's abilities, like Emma Frost with her sisters and Banshee with Black Tom, alongside Cyclops and Havok.

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X-Factor #8, from writer Mark Russell with artists Bob Quinn and Jesus Aburtov, is part five of the 8-part X-Manhunt crossover, which sees Havok attempting to rescue an escaped Charles Xavier from the X-Men, before Cyclops uses his brilliant tactical mind to defeat his younger brother, almost instantaneously.

Related X-Men's Cyclops Just DESTROYED His Brother with 1 Sentence X-Men's new status quo is turning Cyclops and his brother Havok into enemies, as their very different teams are set on an explosive collision course.

Cyclops Can Defeat Anyone If He Has Enough Time To Prepare

Havok will never be immune to Scott's tactical mind

Cyclops and Havok's relationship is tragic in many ways, separated as children after a horrifying plane accident that seemingly killed both their parents. Raised separately in orphanages in foster homes, manipulated along the way by the machinations of eugenicist Mister Sinister, the brothers finally found each other again in Uncanny X-Men #54, which marked the beginning of their long-running sibling rivalry. The Summers' brothers' immunity to each other's powers has fluctuated over the years, at one point canonically showing that the brothers could "metabolize" the other's energy, and other times just showing that they are simply unable to harm one another.

Related Sorry, Captain America. Cyclops Is the Best Tactician Over at Marvel Cyclops has been a leader of the X-Men for decades now, with his tactical mind in battle proving he can stand toe-to-toe with even Captain America.

Alex and Scott often neutralize each other in battles, even though technically Havok's abilities have higher power potential and he is able to control his powers much better than Cyclops. However, Cyclops has trained in hand-to-hand combat for years and years, as well as studying tactical strategies, making him one of the most advanced tacticians in the Marvel Universe. Since the brother's powers don't work on each other, they are often forced into fist fights or battles using the environment, which almost always ends with Scott finding a way to defeat his powerful younger brother. In X-Factor #8, after defeating Frenzy with a single optic blast, Cyclops uses his mutant ability to blind Havok with a blast into the dirt, before punching his brother and then using his power to collapse some rocks on Alex, knocking him out.

Alex And Scott's Relationship May Never Be Truly Mended

They will always love each other, but they rarely like each other

Scott and Alex have fought many times over the years, both in the mainline Earth-616 universe as well as other realities, such as the dystopian world of Age of Apocalypse. In fact, one of Alex's most villainous and brutal variants appeared in AoA where he worked as a violent enforcer of En Sabah Nur's oppressive laws. Even in this reality, where Havok never held back when fighting Scott, Alex was not able to defeat his older brother. The two most famous Summers brothers (ignoring Vulcan, of course) have one of the most tumultuous familial relationships in Marvel history, and this latest fight certainly won't help their brotherly bond.

Scott Summers has had his optic eye blasts disabled many times over the years, and has always found a way around these barriers, managing to defeat his opponents using his ingenuity and strategic skill. Alex recently left the newest iteration of X-Factor, finding himself unable to go to war against his love Polaris. It would be a really special, and unexpected, thing to see Havok join Scott's X-Men team and actually learn some skills beyond "BOOM!"

X-Men Movie(s) X-Men (2000), X2, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants , Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) First Film X-Men (2000) Expand

Cyclops and Havok's "sibling rivalry" has never been much of a competition, with Scott consistently made into a trusted and respected leader in the mutant community, while Alex continues to make... many questionable decisions. In times of battle readiness, no matter how powerful Havok's cosmic energy abilities may be, it is his brother X-Men trained tactical mind that will always give him the edge over his younger brother, again and again.

X-Factor #8 from Marvel Comics is available now in stores.