A tribute to the man responsible for making Cyclops who he is today.
Originally seen in X-Men #38-42, principally by Roy Thomas and Werner Roth
Part of the reason the stories seem like they're getting flimsier at this point is because they're actually getting shorter. The last few pages of each issue are being devoted to a serialized B-story that fills in the background before X-Men #1, beginning with Charles Xavier's decision to stop being a recluse and form a team of sexy young mutants.
Remember at this point, Xavier was a former high school track star and telepathic genius who had served in the Korean War and gone on to a life of wandering adventures, from which he retired somewhat recently after being crippled by alien invader Lucifer's falling ceiling tile trap, after which point he devoted his life to inventing a computer that reads minds better than he can, giant punching bag robots, a room made of flamethrowers, and this thing.
I should note that despite having a lifetime's worth of adventures at this point, Professor X isn't meant to be old. It only seems that way due to his infirmity and his bald appearance. But really, he's still in his prime, like mid-90s Michael Stipe.
He begins by reaching out to Agent Fred Duncan of the FBI, last seen in Uncanny X-Men #2 (which, remember, is in the future from this point,) who is researching mutants. X somehow convinces him to go along with his cockamamie young mutant recruiting scheme, and starts with a young man recently discovered uncontrollably blasting red Hawaiian Punch from his eyes.
On the run from the usual sort of Angry Mob, Scott Summers meets "the first evil mutant," the one and only Jack Winters, aka Jack O'Diamonds, a classic character creation if there ever was one.
Jack is a former blue collar technician at a nuclear plant, whose latent mutant powers were triggered by one of those everyday safety incidents you always hear about. They granted him super-hard diamond hands, and somehoiw, the ability to do whatever this is:
Up until now, we had always led to believe that mutant powers were usually one thing or the other, but Jack got quite the combo with teleportation and mind-reading in addition to his cool diamond hands. We were also led to believe that they manifested naturally during adolescence, not randomly due to scientific mishap in late middle age. I'm starting to think Jack isn't a mutant at all.
Actually, the best thing about Jack O'Diamonds is that his "accident" occurred while he was attempting to steal radioactive isotopes to, no kidding here, pay off his gambling debts.
He must have made some real terrible wagers because I'm pretty sure anywhere he could sell those stolen goods would amount to literal treason.
Jack plans to use Scott to recreate that accident to make himself more diamond and also increase his brainpower. Talk about ambitious. The craziest part is that it essentially goes off without a hitch.
Sucker goes and gives himself yet another codename! How do you like that.
With LD on the rampage and looking to tie off loose ends by murdering Xavier and Summers, Xavier has Scott ramp up the machine even more as he returns to wreak havoc. I do enjoy how all-in the creators are with Jack as over-the-top one-shot bad guy.
This causes Jack to freeze up and, upon rejecting Xavier's offer to cure his diamond state, explode into millions of atoms.
With that, Scott Summers becomes the first recruit of Xavier's X-Men as Cyclops, complete with his specially-designed ruby quartz visor, and they agree never to speak of Jack Winters, the first human life he has ever taken, ever again.
That certainly was a ride. The individual components aren't much and put together as a whole issue they barely add up to anything, except for the fascinating case study of Jack Winters/Jack O'Diamonds/The Living Diamond, possibly the best villain the X-Men have ever murdered. In a more put-together universe, Scott's origin might have tied into someone else we've already seen, but this was actually an entertaining, if slight, excursion.
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