Scott Summers, bipolar?

[Michael Watkins]

if he were, it would have been mentioned by Mr. Sinister and/or Professor Xavier and considered to be a disqualifying factor. Scott is one of the most highly analyzed characters around. he's a perfectionist and intense because of it.

[RachelGrey]

I think it's mostly inconsistent writing. I personally had no problem with Scott becoming a bit more militant over the years. He is jaded from years of trying to gain mutant acceptance against insurmountable human hatred and racism. Wolverine had a point about using students as soldiers, but Xavier has been using students as soldiers since the inception of the X-Men.

Heck if you want to be honest, Emma Frost wanted to keep her Hellions out of the Xavier/Magneto/Project Wideawake crap and just teach them how to survive as best as they can.

This idealism that you can keep these younger mutants out of the crossfire somehow is an illusion. Look at what has already happened on Uncanny since the beginning of AoXM, Blindfold dead, Loa dead, Velocidad nearly dead, other mutants dead or imprisoned off panel. So much for Xavier's dream, so much for Wolverine's dream.

I personally think Scott was right that they needed to take a much more active stance and they needed to teach the kids to fight and defend themselves in face of the worldwide hatred. You have a world where the Avengers and Fantastic Four are standing idly to the sidelines while mutants are being rounded up into detention centres and either experimented on, sterilized, cured, or killed. In some cases all four of those in the same detention centre. You have few choices in the face of that level of persecution you either fight against it with everything you have in your being, you try to hide somewhere in the world and hope you don't get found, you just surrender yourself to the system that hates you, or you kill yourself (like Blindfold did). There isn't much options when the entire human world is committing a genocide against your race.

[Hizashi]

I don't know, Kamala Khan and many of the younger characters still seem functional. That must be stopped.

"Because I believe children are the future - unless we stop them now."

[darkblue]

There was a thread a few months back that talked about which X-Men had what disorders, not sure if anyone discussed what Scott might have in that thread.

I'd say Cyclops most likely to have Autism Spectrum Disorder.

[Grey]

if he were, it would have been mentioned by Mr. Sinister and/or Professor Xavier and considered to be a disqualifying factor. Scott is one of the most highly analyzed characters around. he's a perfectionist and intense because of it.

Mental illness, especially bipolar, can often come with attributes that outweigh the negatives.

For example, many of the most famous creative minds, scientists and artists were/are bioolar. Their illness helps them see things in ways others wouldn’t. There are many who believe that some illnesses shouldn’t be considered illnesses at all but rather extreme variations of certain perosnality traits (maladaptive sure but not an illness; they argue.).

Having bipolar or certain other mental illnesses is not necessarily some weakness that should be strained out(I.e. not something that a super scientist like sinister would necessarily note and get rid of). In fact you mention him having perfectionism, a trait often associated with neuroticism (the most common component among mental illnesses across the board). And mental illness can be brought out my environental factors such as being highly analyzed.

My point isnt to say that Scott is bipolar.. I don’t know much about him tbh. I don’t keep up with him. My point is just that, this is not good evidence that he ISNT bipolar.

[Grey]

I think it's mostly inconsistent writing. I personally had no problem with Scott becoming a bit more militant over the years. He is jaded from years of trying to gain mutant acceptance against insurmountable human hatred and racism. Wolverine had a point about using students as soldiers, but Xavier has been using students as soldiers since the inception of the X-Men.

Heck if you want to be honest, Emma Frost wanted to keep her Hellions out of the Xavier/Magneto/Project Wideawake crap and just teach them how to survive as best as they can.

This idealism that you can keep these younger mutants out of the crossfire somehow is an illusion. Look at what has already happened on Uncanny since the beginning of AoXM, Blindfold dead, Loa dead, Velocidad nearly dead, other mutants dead or imprisoned off panel. So much for Xavier's dream, so much for Wolverine's dream.

I personally think Scott was right that they needed to take a much more active stance and they needed to teach the kids to fight and defend themselves in face of the worldwide hatred. You have a world where the Avengers and Fantastic Four are standing idly to the sidelines while mutants are being rounded up into detention centres and either experimented on, sterilized, cured, or killed. In some cases all four of those in the same detention centre. You have few choices in the face of that level of persecution you either fight against it with everything you have in your being, you try to hide somewhere in the world and hope you don't get found, you just surrender yourself to the system that hates you, or you kill yourself (like Blindfold did). There isn't much options when the entire human world is committing a genocide against your race.

Are you implying Xavier and wolverine didn’t teach kids to use their powers for fighting, even if just self defense?

[Glio]

Mental illness, especially bipolar, can often come with attributes that outweigh the negatives.

For example, many of the most famous creative minds, scientists and artists were/are bioolar. Their illness helps them see things in ways others wouldn’t. There are many who believe that some illnesses shouldn’t be considered illnesses at all but rather extreme variations of certain perosnality traits (maladaptive sure but not an illness; they argue.).

Having bipolar or certain other mental illnesses is not necessarily some weakness that should be strained out(I.e. not something that a super scientist like sinister would necessarily note and get rid of). In fact you mention him having perfectionism, a trait often associated with neuroticism (the most common component among mental illnesses across the board). And mental illness can be brought out my environental factors such as being highly analyzed.

My point isnt to say that Scott is bipolar.. I don’t know much about him tbh. I don’t keep up with him. My point is just that, this is not good evidence that he ISNT bipolar.

In First Class (The comic) Xavier mentions that there are traits in the personality of Scott that concern him as a student but that are useful to keep the team alive as a leader so he decides not to intervene.

[TheCape]

Are you implying Xavier and wolverine didn’t teach kids to use their powers for fighting, even if just self defense?

With Wolverine is a bit complicated, Logan originally didn't have a problem with training kids, he was one of the few X-Men that was willing to let Kitty on the team when she was 14, for him the world is an unforgiving and hard place and if you are small and weak, you had to learn how to defend yourself as best as you can, he wasn't fond of letting children see horrible stuff (in Uncanny #205 Logan ask Katie Powers to close her eyes and cover her ears until he is done with the Reavers and Lady Deathstrike because he doesn't want her to see how he torn then apart) but he never sugarcoated things and was as sincere as he could be to then, Uncanny #268 is another example when he and Captain America saved a young Nastasha Romanov when of being brainwashed by the hand.

After House of M, all that changed, many horrible things happened in Logan's life regarding children (finding about Daken in Origins, his time with Laura in X-Force, the incident with Apocalypse in Remender X-Force, the Red Right Hand tricking him on killing sons), make him more unwilling to train him, what happened to Iddie in Schism was basically the last straw and he decided to reform Xavier's institute, even if he wasn't the right man for the job. Personally i never was fond of that development, mostly because Marvel tried to insist in him having the high moral ground in the Schism situation, witch for me just strip him of any complexity as a character, but what can you do? it happened.

[DragonsChi]

Hank Pym was only revealed to be bipolar a few years ago, so just the fact he's been around since the silver age isn't an excuse. The bigger issue here is that it can be hereditary. Which means if he had it, then Cable, X-Man, and Prestige could have it too. Also, another comic is already exploring bipolar disorder. Unstoppable Wasp. Like father, like daughter, you see. Nadia is bipolar.

Scott might be autistic though.

Hank Pym was said to have pysch issues in the 80's when his Yellow Jacket persona came about. It's was also explained that part of the reason why Hank had so many different alias was linked back to his mental health at the time in a book.

[Michael Watkins]

Mental illness, especially bipolar, can often come with attributes that outweigh the negatives.

For example, many of the most famous creative minds, scientists and artists were/are bioolar. Their illness helps them see things in ways others wouldn’t. There are many who believe that some illnesses shouldn’t be considered illnesses at all but rather extreme variations of certain perosnality traits (maladaptive sure but not an illness; they argue.).

Having bipolar or certain other mental illnesses is not necessarily some weakness that should be strained out(I.e. not something that a super scientist like sinister would necessarily note and get rid of). In fact you mention him having perfectionism, a trait often associated with neuroticism (the most common component among mental illnesses across the board). And mental illness can be brought out my environental factors such as being highly analyzed.

My point isnt to say that Scott is bipolar.. I don’t know much about him tbh. I don’t keep up with him. My point is just that, this is not good evidence that he ISNT bipolar.

Eh, Sinister has a very narrow view of perfection. He would not want Scott's DNA with that baggage. It would make the creation harder to control. And, again, I think it would have been mentioned by now. Sinister has studied Scott for most of the latter's life.

[Rosebunse]

"Because I believe children are the future - unless we stop them now."

I don't mean to stop them, just to break them.

There was a thread a few months back that talked about which X-Men had what disorders, not sure if anyone discussed what Scott might have in that thread.

I'd say Cyclops most likely to have Autism Spectrum Disorder.

I can totally see Scott being on the autistic spectrum. Like, on the far functional end, but still on it.

[Hizashi]

I don't mean to stop them, just to break them.


I can totally see Scott being on the autistic spectrum. Like, on the far functional end, but still on it.

Oh, I was just making a good-natured joke, I didn’t mean to imply anything about what you said.

[CoCoBandz]

At this point every single marvel hero is a barely functional psychological wreck.

Nature Girl seems alright.

[Rosebunse]

Oh, I was just making a good-natured joke, I didn’t mean to imply anything about what you said.

But I can still see him on it. His obsessiveness, his seeming lack of empathy while still clearly being empathetic, his trouble connecting to people sometimes.

Nature Girl seems alright.

Give it time.

Genesis and Eye Boy are also far too well adjusted despite everything.

[hokus83]

I don't think he is bipolar but I think it's safe to say he has chronic depression and anxiety, it's not just questioning him self and self loathing a lot of his character traits are of someone who struggles with depression on a regular basis. He's the most solitaire memebr of the x-men. He did commit suicide in a alternate reality what if