DANIEL SUMMERS
Real Name: Daniel "Danny" Summers (last name legally changed)
Identity/Class: Human (19th century); British citizen
Occupation: Unrevealed
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Rebecca Essex, Martha and other "freaks", Oscar Summers, X-Men (Cyclops/Scott Summers, Jean Grey)
Enemies: Apocalypse (En Sabah Nur), Marauders, Mister Sinister (Nathaniel Essex)
Known Relatives: Oscar Summers (adopted father), extended Summers family (descendants);
possibly Amanda Mueller (ex-wife), unidentified son, parents (deceased)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Manhattan, New York;
formerly London, Great Britain (Place of Birth)
First Appearance: The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#1 (June, 1996)
Powers/Abilities: Daniel Summers possessed no known superhuman abilities. Strong-willed and quick-witted, Daniel nevertheless lost his ability to speak after watching his parents get murdered. Daniel's genetic structure might have been altered during his time as a test subject of Nathaniel Essex (see comments).
Height: 4'11" (by approximation)
Weight: 110 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
History:
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#1 (fb) - BTS) - In 1859, Daniel witnessed how cutthroats murdered his parents. The horrifying experience left him mute. Later, he was captured by the Marauders, a band of mercenaries led by Cootie Tremble who believed it was his civic duty to round up society's rejects and "freaks". Daniel was imprisoned in a large cage in the sewers of London.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#1) - The Marauders showed Nathaniel Essex, the geneticist destined to become Mr. Sinister, their prison of freaks. Essex noticed the normal looking Daniel among the misshapen and asked about him. Tremble explained why Daniel had become mute, leading Essex to conclude that they were not merely freaks but nature's failed experiments. Satisfied, Essex tried to leave but was attacked by the Marauders who wanted his money. Instead of resisting, Essex offered to hire the Marauders to continue their work for him. He needed people to experiment on and arranged for the Marauders to supply him with test subjects.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#1 - BTS) - Two weeks later, the Marauders moved Daniel and several other "freaks" to Milbury House where Essex was conducting his experiments. Daniel was trapped in a large birdcage like a metal prison.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#1 - BTS) - Unbeknownst to Daniel, two of the modern day X-Men, Jean Grey and Cyclops had been transported to the past by Sanctity, last of the Askani Sisterhood, to find Nathaniel Essex and stop the rise of Apocalypse.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#2 - BTS) - Essex most likely conducted experiments on Daniel.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#2) - Stuck in his birdcage, Daniel witnessed the first meeting between Nathaniel Essex and the recently risen Apocalypse. En Sabah Nur figured Essex was a possible ally, especially when Essex's theories about genetics led him to conclude he was the first born of the great mutation. Later that night Jean Grey and Nathaniel's pregnant wife Rebecca Essex entered the threshold, shocked to find all the tortured and dead. Thanks to her telepathy, Jean picked up on the mute Daniel trying to reach out to her with his mind. After asking permission to read his thoughts, Grey entered the mindscape where they talked. Daniel told her his name and what he had seen. He also informed her Essex and Apocalypse had gone to the Hellfire Club.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#2 (fb) - BTS) - While Jean Grey headed for the Hellfire Club, Rebecca Essex freed Daniel and the other freaks still alive. However, the stress caused her to have a miscarriage.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#3) - Daniel was still present at Milbury House when Sinister returned for his wife only to watch her die.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#3 - BTS) - Daniel and the freaks and victims of Essex's work gathered back in the sewer system.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#3) - Daniel was shocked to see former Marauder Oscar Stamp return to the sewer system, Stamp had returned to try and persuade the freaks to join him and the X-Men in stopping Apocalypse and Essex. Right before the freaks could kill the former Marauder, Daniel stopped them. Willing to listen to reason, the freaks decided to help and followed Stamp to Apocalypse's underground stronghold. Once they arrived Daniel and the freaks fought the remaining Marauders.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#4) - Daniel remained on the sidelines while the X-Men and freaks fought Essex, who'd just been transformed into Mr. Sinister by his new master Apocalypse. When the stronghold started to cave in Cyclops, Jean, Oscar and Daniel tried to escape to the sewers. They were attacked by the mutated Marauders leader Cootie Tremble. Jean used her telekinetic powers to push Cootie aside. She sensed his psychic aura was screaming out in agony and confusion. Upset she couldn't save him, Jean tried to ease his pain but was unable to maintain psychic control because Cootie's braincells were mutating by the second. Mister Sinister was watching the scene from the shadows and decided to step in. Using his newfound powers, he snapped Cootie's neck, killing him. Sinister revealed it was the most simple and robust way of easing the man's suffering. Sinister went on to say Apocalypse's transmutation of the Marauders had been so crude and hideously unscientific that it was a travesty of his dream for a new species.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#4 - BTS) - The X-Men successfully stopped Apocalypse and returned to their own time.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#4 (fb) - BTS) <1860> - Oscar decided to adopt Daniel. Eager to start a new life together, they planned on immigrating to the United States of America.
(The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#4) <1860> - Arriving in lower Manhattan, New York, Oscar reminded Daniel that if anyone asked, he was his dad and his mother had died. After all, if anyone found out they weren't related, chances were Daniel would be put in a workhouse. When they went in to officially register, Oscar allowed Daniel to come up with their new names to mark their fresh start in the new world. Inspired by the heroics of Cyclops, Daniel decided on "Summers" (thereby possibly establishing himself as an ancestor to the X-Man Cyclops himself).
Comments: Created by Peter Milligan (writer), John Paul Leon (pencils) & Klaus Janson (inks).
Daniel was imprisoned in Nathaniel Essex's lab for an extended period of time. It's not unthinkable that he was experimented on during that stay, it's possible that Essex's Victorian era scientific expertise might have succeeded in subtly altering Daniel's genetic structure, leading to eventual mutations in his offspring.
Black Womb's profile in 2011's X-Men - Earth's Mutant Heroes handbook includes a comment that lists Daniel's original last name as "Edge." The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#4 states, "WHILE AT THE MOUTH OF A CRUMBLING SEWER...OSCAR STAMP AND THE BOY NAMED DANIEL EDGE TOWARDS MERCIFUL DAYLIGHT..." Unless there is a grammatical error, it would seem that EDGE is actually the verb describing their movement towards daylight, rather than being Daniel's last name. Daniel does not receive a last name elsewhere in the story until he and Oscar rename themselves with the last name Summers later in that issue.
&nsbp; Further, a collected edition of The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix contains a script for the issue that contains the above text as "While at the mouth of a crumbling sewer... Oscar Stamp and the boy named Daniel edge towards merciful daylight..." The lack of across the board capitalization makes it more clear that edge was probably not intended to be Daniel's last name.
Fair enough. If we have the chance to re-present the Black Womb profile, we will ask Peter Milligan and confirm his intentions officially.
--Snood
Daniel Summers married the Black Womb?
The OHotMU entry on Black Womb includes a comment that states "It has been speculated Amanda's husband, Daniel, was Daniel Summers and that Daniel was the ancestor of
Corsair (Christopher Summers) and X-Men Cyclops, Havok, Vulcan and Cable; these remain unconfirmed." Though chronologically speaking this would be a logical fit, after all Daniel would be about 41 when he divorced Mueller in the early 1890, Gambit writer Fabian Nicieza denies he had Daniel in mind when he wrote the story: "I don't recall ever planning that she married Daniel Summers nor do I think I was even alluding to that in that Gambit issue, just connecting a Summers ancestor to Sinister and to Black Womb to show how far back the genetic manipulation had been going on."
Therefore I've decided to place those entries in the comment section:
(Gambit III#13 (fb)) - Daniel, considered a commoner because of his lowly, immigrant past, managed to marry into money when he wed Amanda Mueller. Together, they had a son.
(Gambit III#13 (fb) - BTS) - Daniel was unaware his wife was a mutant who possessed superhuman longevity, he also didn't realize her obstetrician, Dr. Nathan Milbury, was secretly Mister Sinister. He planned to use Mueller's mutation to experiment with ways to gain eternal life. In order to do so, he paid Mueller to be a living, breathing birthing factory, terminating the pregnancies when the fetus was ripe for experimentation. However, Mueller's multiple "miscarriages" led to accusations of her murdering her in utero children, gaining her the nickname Black Womb. Thanks to Dr. Milbury's testimony on her behalf, Mueller was acquitted of murdering her offspring in 1891, however Daniel divorced her and left with their only surviving son.
Profile by MarvellousLuke
CLARIFICATIONS:
Daniel Summers has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#2, p7, pan2 (main image)
The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#1, p10, pan1 (closeup)
The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#4, p22, pan5-6 (choosing the Summers name)
Gambit III#13, p13, pan3 (wedding portrait)
Appearances:
The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#1 (June, 1996) - Peter Milligan (writer), John Paul Leon (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#2 (July, 1996) - Peter Milligan (writer), John Paul Leon (pencils), Klaus Janson, Shawn Martinbrough (inkers), Mark Powers (editor)
The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#3 (August, 1996) - Peter Milligan (writer), John Paul Leon (pencils), Shawn Martinbrough, Tommy Lee Edwards (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix#4 (September, 1996) - Peter Milligan (writer), John Paul Leon (pencils), Shawn Martinbrough (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Gambit III#13 (February, 2000) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Anthony Williams (pencils), Andy Lanning (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Last updated: 05/17/17
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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