When Katherine and Christopher Summers pushed their sons out of a burning plane with only one parachute between them, the impact upon landing caused Scott Summers slight brain damage that permanently cost him the conscious control of his optic blasts. His ruby quartz sunglasses were originally created by Mr. Sinister to control this powerful ability while he experimented on Scott during his time in Sinister's orphanage. The battle visor that would become Cyclops' signature icon was created by Professor Xavier when Scott agreed to become the first X-Man.