X-Men: The Strongest Members Of The Summers Family, Ranked

When it comes to families in the Marvel Universe, the Summers tribe is one of the most noteworthy. From Cyclops and Havok to Jean Grey and Rachel Summers, you may think you know this family’s key members and their powers, but you would be wrong. Existing across different time streams, universes, and generations, the Summers family is as expansive and convoluted as you would expected a comic book family to be. You can times that by two when you factor in the Fantastic Four’s Reed family, who many Summers family members share a direct lineage with. Members of the Summers bloodline aren’t just in every corner of almost every universe, but they are also at every level of the power spectrum.

What defines power in the X-Men universe? Is it the range of mutant abilities one has or is it how they choose to use them? Concepts of power are open to interpretation, but one thing is certain: the Summers tribe has no shortage of it. Its members encompass a wide scope of gifts and who out-powers who could, for most characters, be endlessly debated. Take Cyclops, a founding member of the X-Men and one of their most famous team leaders. His optic blasts would never hold up against the telepathic, telekinetic, and reality warping powers of his alternate universe grandson, Hyperstorm. However, if you pit him against his brother Havok, the power differential is a bit more difficult to compare, but therein lies the fun. From characters you’ve never heard of to celebrated fan favorites, here are 20 members of the Summers family ranked from weakest to most powerful.

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19

GENESIS

Born on an alternate, futuristic Earth, Tyler Dayspring’s parentage isn’t exactly clear. While some argue Cable adopted him, most accept that he is Cable and Aliya Summers’ son, which makes him part of the Summers clan. Tyler’s mutant abilities allow him to connect to other people’s consciousnesses via a psionic link and project their memories as holograms.

Living in a world that Apocalypse had ruled for a century, Tyler would later take on the name Genesis and claim to be Apocalypse’s heir. As Genesis, his abilities include absorbing the energy of other mutants to increase his own power. While these powers are nothing to sneeze at, Tyler is lacking the Summer’s strength demonstrated by his kin in this universe and others.

18

DEATHBIRD

Deathbird was born the oldest of the Shi’ar Royal Family’s children (the other two were Lilandra and D’Ken). The renegade Cal’syee was cast out for crimes against the state and she eventually landed in a prison where she met Vulcan (Gabriel Summers). After the two escaped, they married before the M’Kraan Crystal and she became a Summers.

Unlike most of the population, she exhibits overtly avian features like that of the ancient Shi’ar. With her unique physical advantages including claw-like nails, wings, and berserker rage, she is a force to be reckoned with by Shi’ar standards. That goes double when you consider she sent both of her parents to a state of unbreathing. Compared to the family she married into though, Deathbird is small potatoes.

17

CYCLOPS

Despite being one of the most famous members of the Summers family and the X-Men, Cyclops is far from the most powerful member of his bloodline. His primary mutant power is emitting concussive energy blasts from his eyes. His body also protects itself from his own optic blasts by creating a psionic field. He’s immune to his brother Alex’s (Havok) mutant powers and is somewhat immune to his other brother Gabriel’s (Vulcan) abilities.

Scott’s powers were amplified when he was possessed by the Phoenix Force. It was then that he had the strength to mortally wound Professor Xavier. His mutations are powerful and, until his death from M-Pox in 2016, he was a true leader and revolutionary. Comparatively though, he has little to offer.

16

HAVOK

Alex Summers, codenamed Havok, has a mutation similar to that of his older brother, Scott. He absorbs cosmic energy which he then releases from his body as plasma blasts. These blasts are sometimes concussive and other times they can melt or disintegrate their target. He can manipulate the waves to focus them in specific directions, creating quite the destructive force. Havok is immune to Cyclops’ optic blasts.

Between these two Summers brothers, it is debatable which is the more powerful. Like Scott, Havok struggles to control his power, and relies on a containment suit to help him control the plasma blasts. This is not unlike Scott’s ruby visor. Despite their similarities, Alex comes out on top because he naturally has more firepower than his brother.

15

THE WASP

Only diehard comic book fans may know this, but in the universe of Earth-13133, Janet van Dyne married Alex Summers. When the survivors of Earth moved to Planet X, Janet was the only human left. She and Havok were fugitives who fell in love and had a daughter named Katie. Despite being the only human on Planet X, Janet was far from powerless.

As the Wasp, Janet has all the abilities as her Earth-616 counterpart including shrinking to a minimum of several centimeters and growing to several hundred feet, both with increased strength. She can control her size changes at will and also release electric bursts called stinger blasts. She makes for a worthy opponent on this world or any other.

14

JENSKOT

In the alternate future Cable comes from we meet his wife Aliya Dayspring. A member of the Askani Sisterhood, Aliya met Cable when the sisterhood tried to recruit him. Though he refused, he fell in love with Aliya. She taught him the ways of the Askani and changed her name to Jenskot, a combination of Jean and Scott, to honor Cable’s parents. Together, they had a son named Tyler Dayspring.

Aliya is a mutant who possesses telepathy and telekinesis, not unlike her mother-in-law, Jean. However, she is notably less powerful than either Jean or her husband, Cable. Despite this, the powers of a telepath and telekinetic make Aliya a powerful addition to the Summers family, and one who fit right in.

13

RUBY SUMMERS

Scott and Emma Frost may never have gotten married or had kids in this reality, but Earth-1191 is a different story. In this dystopian world, they had a daughter named Ruby Summers. Ruby was born with great powers and a personality to match. Together with a mutant named Linqon, she started the Summers Rebellion against the humans oppressing mutants.

Ruby inherited the most powerful of both her parents genes. Like Scott, she can emit optic blasts, though she requires some time to recharge between blasts. She also has Emma’s ability to transform in to diamond form, though Ruby transforms into organic red ruby. This exterior not only protects her from harm, but it prevents her from aging and enables her to live without sustenance.

12

MEGAN SUMMERS

In the universe of Earth-41001, Scott and Emma are married and have four children, the oldest of which is Megan Summers. In taking after her mother, Meg is a high caliber telepath. She is able to establish mind-to-mind communication allowing her to read the minds of others, mentally paralyze them, control them, possess them, and induce pain. As if that is not enough, she exhibited telekinesis and the ability to fly.

Meg’s uncle Alex (Havok) and her older half siblings Rachel and Cable are all dead, making her one of the most powerful Summers family members in that reality. As you’d expect from a child of Scott and Emma, Meg is a noteworthy across all universes.

11

DAVID RICHARDS

In the universe of Earth-2600, David Richards is the orphaned son of Rachel Summers and Franklin Richards. He was taken under Sabretooth’s wing, training for 20 years to become a skilled combatant. He was also gifted with powerful mutant abilities. As one would expected given his lineage, David exhibited psychic abilities and psionic powers including telepathy, telekinesis, and the ability to produce blasts of psionic power.

As one of the more powerful members of the Summers family, David also expressed the ability to mimic others. He can then use those powers to a greater extent than the mutant he is mimicking. Beyond this, he can also manipulate cosmic energy and time travel. Rachel would be proud.

10

CABLE

Born to Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor, a Jean Grey clone, Nathan Summers was transported to the future as an infant. He was born with telepathic and telekinetic abilities and the latent ability to time travel. He also benefited from techno-organic body parts for a time and can see multiple potential future events before they occur. As an adult, he returned to the present under the moniker Cable.

All that plus his status as a fan favorite and a mighty mutant gives Cable high marks. Even being weakened by a techno-organic virus couldn’t keep him down. Yet, he is not as powerful as one might think. His half-brothers Nate Grey and Stryfe, whom he was the genetic template for, are both considerably more powerful.

9

STRYFE

Stryfe is another clone of Nathan created by the Askani Sisterhood in a future ruled by Apocalypse. As an infant, he was abducted by Apocalypse who protected him from the techno-organic virus and groomed to be his next host body. Nathan was later determined unfit when it was discovered he was a clone. Scott and Jean then defeated Apocalypse leaving Nathan abandoned and vengeful.

Stryfe later came to Earth-616 where he easily defeated Nate and Cable. Having had years to cultivate his powers of telepathy and telekinesis, he is able to read minds, control others and their powers, camouflage himself, fly, and create force fields. His mastery of psionic energy supersedes that of his brothers and he could even deflect Jean and Scott’s powers.

8

X-MAN

Nathan “Nate” Grey, alias X-Man, is an alternate version of Cable from Earth-295. Unlike Cable, Nate was created in a laboratory by Mr. Sinister using Scott and Jean’s genes. Early on, he became the “what if” version of Cable, specifically as he was never infected with a techno-organic virus, thus enabling his telepathic and telekinetic powers to flourish.

Nate became an Omega-level mutant who also benefited from precognitions. Moira MacTaggert once suggested that his psionic powers could potentially rival Jean Grey’s while imbued with the Phoenix Force. He was one of the most powerful mutants of his world, until the Omega Machine diminished his psychic power. After coming to Earth-616 he lost most of his abilities opening a portal to Earth-295.

7

VULCAN

The most powerful of the Summers’ brothers, Vulcan was actually incubated on the Shi’ar homeworld before coming to Earth. When the Shi’ar abducted the pregnant Katherine Summers, her husband Christopher thought he lost his family. Rather, the fetus was placed in an incubation-accelerator. As an adult mutant, Vulcan could psionically manipulate and absorb large amounts of energy in any form. His brothers are not immune to his power and he is not immune to Havok’s.

It was later thought Vulcan died on Earth on the island of Krakoa. After Krakoa swallowed him along with Sway, Petra, and Darwin, he absorbed their abilities. He acquired time manipulation, physical adaptation, and Earth manipulation abilities. He later lost these powers when his niece, Rachel Summers, separated Darwin’s psyche from his.

6

MADELYNE PRYOR

Madelyne Pryor was Scott’s first wife, in no small part because the grief-stricken Cyclops believed her to be the reincarnation of the deceased Jean Grey. He was close — Madelyne was a clone of Jean created by Mr. Sinister to produce a Cable. After learning of her origins and Scott leaving her for a resurrected Jean, Madelyne went off the rails and so did her powers.

Beyond manifesting telepathic and telekinetic abilities, Madelyne was manipulated into becoming the Goblin Queen, a transition that dramatically increased her powers. She could now warp reality, enhance her own physical strength, teleport, and siphon psionic energy from other mutants. Madelyne is one of the most tragic figures in the Summers family, but she is also one of the most formidable.

5

HOPE SUMMERS

One of the most powerful members of the Summers family, Hope was the first mutant to be born after the Scarlet Witch decimated the mutant population. Her birth created a psionic pulse that made Cerebro explode. Different factions then sought to capture the baby messiah, but the X-Men sent her into the future with Cable as his adopted daughter.

An Omega-level mutant, Hope can mimic and manipulate others’ superhuman powers, kickstart newly emerging mutant powers in others, and redirect magnetic field forces into negative matter. She was also part of the Phoenix Force, temporarily becoming the White Phoenix. Stryfe once mentally scanned her and suggested that she also has telepathy and telekinesis. He also noted she was possibly more powerful than even him.

4

PRESTIGE

Born in the world of “Days of Future Past,” Rachel is the daughter of Jean and Scott from an alternate future. Upon finding herself in a mutant concentration camp, she met her future husband, Franklin Richards, and Kate Pryde. She transported Kate back in time via her powers of chronoskimming which allow her to temporarily send someone’s mind through time into the body of their younger or older self.

Beyond chronoskimming, Rachel inherited Jean’s telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Once a host of the Phoenix Force, she also has the power to manipulate time itself, energy, and life-forces. Rachel was later sent to the future Earth under Apocalypse’s rule where she founded the Askani. In the universe of Earth-967, she birthed the formidable Jonathan Richards.

3

FRANKLIN

In the Sentinel ravaged world of “Days of Future Past,” Franklin Richards, the mutant son of the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards and Sue Storm, married Rachel Summers. In the variant Earth-967 timeline, Franklin and Rachel birthed Hyperstorm. Though he met his end at the hands of an Omega Sentinel, Franklin was a powerful member of the Summers family.

Encompassing all the attributes of his Earth-616 counterpart, Franklin possesses the ability to warp reality and rearrange the molecular structure of matter and energy. He also has psionic powers and he even once created a pocket universe. He has even been described as being on par with the Celestials. Franklin is far and away the most powerful in-law to join the Summers.

2

HYPERSTORM

Though he may be a less recognized member of the Summers family tree, Jonathan Richards is one apple that didn’t fall too far. The son of Franklin Richards and Rachel Summers, Jonathan hails from Earth-967. An Omega level mutant and villain of the highest caliber, he conquered the majority of his universe and also sought to rule other timelines.

Beyond telepathy and telekinesis, Jonathan can manipulate reality, travel through hyperspace, create psionic shields and blasts, and heal at an accelerated rate — and that just scrapes the surface. He also wielded the Supreme Power by Hyperstorm, allowing him to control the fundamental elements of the universe. A destroyer of worlds, Jonathan is a close second to his Earth-616 maternal grandmother, Jean Grey.

1

JEAN GREY

The most powerful member of the Summers clan, Jean is an Omega level mutant and true host of the Phoenix Force. A telepath and telekinetic, she can communicate with animals, create psionic force fields, shields and weapons, and possess and manipulate others. With the Phoenix she can exist in any environment and travel through space and time to name a few of her powers.

If you doubt Jean’s ranking, consider that she is only entity to coerce the Phoenix Force into doing anything against its will while not host to it. While she was imbued with its power, she defeated the likes of Galactus. On her own, she is strong enough to have resurrected herself after death. There is no arguing her level of power.