Art by Billy Tan, Danny Miki, Roy Allan Martinez, and Frank D’Armata
- Name: Gabriel Summers
- Code Names: Kid Vulcan, Vulcan
- First Appearance: X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1 (Jan 2006)
- Powers: Energy Manipulation
- Teams Affiliation: X-Men
About
The Summers’ family tree is a mess. Centered around poor Cyclops, we have a long lost brother, a space pirate father, an alternate reality daughter, a time traveling cyborg son who is older than him, an alternate reality test tube son, and that’s not even getting into the other long lost brother. In the early 90’s a hint was dropped by Fabian Nicieza that Havok wasn’t Scott’s only brother and one of the biggest dangling threads of the X-Men universe was pulled. It went largely unanswered for years, fans and creators dropped hints that guys like Gambit or Adam-X the X-Treme could be a sibling, but nothing concrete came of it. That is until Ed Brubaker wrote the X-Men: Deadly Genesis mini-series and introduced the world to the real heir to the Summer’s throne. Enter Gabriel Summers, the kid known as Vulcan.
Art by Andy Kubert, Mark Pennington, and Joe Rosas
To dig into Vulcan, we need to start with that fateful Summer’s plane crash. Scott and Alex jumped to safety while Christopher and Kathrine were captured by the Shi’ar and their mad emperor D’Ken. Christopher tried to lead an escape but was thwarted and the rebellion cost him the life of his wife. Kathrine was very pregnant and the child was ripped from her dying body. D’Ken intended to use the boy as a slave, a prize for his agent Eric the Red on Earth, and genetically accelerated him to adolescence. While being transported to Eric, the boy escaped, thanks to the onset of his energy manipulation abilities. Confused and alone, he was found by Moira MacTaggart who took him in and helped with his developing abilities.
Art by Trevor Hairsine, Scott Hanna, and Val Staples
He chose the name Gabriel and, in keeping with his interest in Roman mythology, the code name Vulcan. He, and the other young mutants Moira was training, were eager to prove himself like the X-Men and relished the times that Charles Xavier would visit. In talking to Gabriel, Xavier noticed a psychic similarity between him and Cyclops. He brought Scott to his next visit and Gabriel was ecstatic to meet his hero. When Xavier came to Moira about his missing students, asking to train hers as his new X-Men, Kid Vulcan’s mind was made up. He could be the hero that Scott was, he could rescue the missing X-Men. As they left to Krakoa the professor told him the secret that would affirm Gabriel’s conviction, the boy’s last name was Summers and his brother led the X-Men.
The mission on Krakoa started well, Vulcan led the charge and was able to rescue Cyclops, but things took a deadly turn. The island overwhelmed the X-Men and they ran to escape. Vulcan told Scott of his heritage, he wanted his brother to know who saved him as he forced Cyclops to leave on their plane. Vulcan’s X-Men fell, Sway was cut down, Petra lost control of her earth bending abilities and buried the team, and Darwin allowed himself to survive by being absorbed by Vulcan. Gabriel Summers was alone and comatose as the island was blasted into the atmosphere by the all-new, all-different X-Men.
Art by Trevor Hairsine, Scott Hanna, and Val Staples
Things were calm until M-Day, the lost mutant energy from the spell charged away from the Earth and a portion was claimed by Gabriel. He was awakened, super charged, and out for the blood of the man who sent him to die. He crashed back to Earth and put his plan into motion. He captured Cyclops and Rachel, caused Banshee’s death, and brought to light what Xavier had done years ago. Rachel accessed his earliest memories and brought clarity to his birth, worse she gave him a new target for all his anger. Vulcan exploded into the sky towards Shi’ar space to exact his vengeance on D’Ken.
Art by Clayton Henry, Mark Morales and Wil Quintana
The circumstances of his “birth” filled Vulcan with rage and he took it out in the first Shi’ar he could find. They told him he was too late, D’Ken had been rendered catatonic since touching the M’Kraan Crystal in the original Phoenix Saga and his youngest sister Liliandra was in charge of the Imperium. Vulcan killed the messengers and set his sights on Liliandra, she would be the target of his wrath. He commandeered a Shi’ar warbird and used its crew to make his way towards the throne world of Chandilar, only to be intercepted by the Imperial Guard and their leader Gladiator. While Vulcan was able to cut down several guardsmen, he was no match for Gladiator who beat and imprisoned him. For weeks he stayed in chains, unaware of machinations within the Aerie. A rogue agent released Vulcan, they too wanted to overthrow Lilandra and ensured that he ran into Lilandra’s older sister Cal’syee, the Deathbird.
Vulcan was infatuated with her brutality, Deathbird was enticed by his determination. The two became lovers as they led raids against the Imperium along with the secret order. Deathbird asked Vulcan to halt his plan of vengeance to help the order move forward with the next stage of its plan. He was horrified by what he had to do but accepted it as a necessary concession for the greater plan. He used his powers to heal the mad emperor D’Ken, and in return D’Ken offered his sister to be Vulcan’s bride. The Shi’ar had become disillusioned with Lilandra’s rule and welcomed D’Ken as their rightful leader. Everything was going according to plan and the wedding was soon set to take place in front of the M’Kraan Crystal.
Art by Clayton Henry, Mark Morales and Frank D’Armata
Charles Xavier had led a team of X-Men, including Vulcan’s brother Alex, on a mission to stop Gabriel from his path of destruction. They had teamed up with Christopher Summers, the space pirate known as Corsair, and his ragtag band of Starjammers to crash the wedding and try and right the sins of the past. They were too late to stop the exchanging of vows and forced to watch as Vulcan’s true plan came into action. Vulcan unleashed his powers on D’Ken, he destroyed the man, body and soul. He claimed control of the Aerie and became the new Emperor of the Shi’ar. The X-Men moved to stop him but they couldn’t stand against his might, Xavier was thrown into the M’Kraan Crystal and Vulcan showed no mercy in killing his own father. Lilandra forced most of the X-Men to retreat against their will but Havok, Rachel Grey, and Polaris were left behind. They joined the Lilandra and the remaining Starjammers in a single minded quest, defeat Emperor Vulcan.
Art by Billy Tan, Danny Miki, and Frank D’Armata
Vulcan’s ascension was not as clean as he hoped. The Shi’ar distrusted the outsider and many defected to join the Starjammer’s resistance, but the appearance of an elder race known as the Scy’ar Tal gave Vulcan an opportunity to cement his rule. After a disastrous first attack against the Scy’ar Tal, Vulcan knew he needed help and asked his brother Alex for a truce. Their combined might was enough to stop the Scy’ar Tal, but that wasn’t enough for Vulcan. He turned on the Starjammers and was able to imprison his brother as he turned his attention on the rest of the galaxy. He would bring the Shi’ar to their rightful place as the conquerors of the galaxy.
Art by Paco Diaz Luque, Vicente Cifuentes, and Chris Sotomayor
The Inhumans had recently returned to the stars to take their place as rulers of the Kree empire, and Vulcan saw this coup as an opportunity to add the Kree to his crown. At the wedding of the Inhuman Crystal and Ronan the Accuser, he had the Imperial Guard attack as the first blow in this war of kings. He then sent the Guard to capture Lilandra as he planned to publicly execute the only person with a claim to match his. Gladiator of the Guard was torn by his duty and what he believed to be right and defected from Vulcan’s command, taking Liandra with him. Lilandra rallied the people to support her claim but was assassinated by the Fraternity of Raptors, an act that drove Gladiator to lead in her stead. Without the support of his people and with the Kree armada pressing down on him, Vulcan’s high counsel advised him to negotiate terms of surrender but the Emperor wouldn’t listen. He challenged Black Bolt to single combat, unaware that the Inhuman king had an ace up his sleeve. Black Bolt activated the T-Bomb, his secret weapon, ripped a hole in the fabric of time and space, and killed the Shi’ar Emperor.
Art by Brandon Peterson
Must Read
Most people are going to think that I will recommend War of Kings and they would be right. Part of the massive cosmic Marvel saga, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning created a fantastic run of event comics that built the universe to a truly epic scale. While I am not as hot on the cosmic stuff as a lot of people are, I have to respect the fantastic work these creators did, especially with the War of Kings. This book is the best mix of Game of Thrones politicking and Star Wars sci-fi adventure. Paul Pelletier’s art is solid throughout and really stands alone in big moments. While some elements are clunky, partially due to Vulcan never feeling fully developed, it is the shining gem of the entire DnA Cosmic Saga. The series is available on Marvel Unlimited or in a few variety of trades.
Art by Brandon Peterson
Ranking
I would be happy never seeing Vulcan again. He was a cool concept turned into a boring, generic, space villain (a lot like Thane from Infinity). For all the anticipation that there was behind the Third Summer’s Brother, the end result was a bigger disappointment than anyone could fathom. Both Nicieza and Chris Claremont came up with answers to the mystery that were more satisfying. Vulcan was just a disappointment. We have two members of the Summers clan already on the list, Rachel and X-Man. He goes well below Rachel as she is in every Vulcan story and is written better in all of them. He goes above X-Man, not based on potential, but because at least Vulcan is in proximity to some great stories. Darwin is character who was created in the same story as Vulcan but is much more enjoyable to read. My gut is telling me that the best place for him is between Marrow and Avalanche, an unenjoyable character and an ultimately disposable one. Because when you really think about it that is all Vulcan is, unenjoyable and disposable. That why he is the new number 28 in the Xavier Files.
Vulcan was requested by /u/DrTee on reddit. I want to give him a special thanks for being my designated volunteer spell checker every week. These articles would be filled with even more basic grammatical mistakes without him. If you want to cut to the front of the line, we just started a Patreon if you want to support it and get a line cutting reward. Our first goal is only $15 and it gets rid of those ads and makes the hosting for Xavier Files entirely reader supported.
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Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
