scott summers is a mutant. he was orphaned as a young boy when his parents died in a plane crash. he survived with his younger brother, alex summers. the two brothers were then separated and sent to orphanages. when he was a teenager, scott was adopted by charles xavier, the founder of the x-men and the headmaster of xavier's school for gifted youngsters (a school for mutants). under xavier, scott learned to control his powers with special glasses, as scott cannot control them by himself due to an injury he got in the plane crash. xavier made scott the first leader of the x-men, which was made up of four other teenage mutants.