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Hope Summers (character)
Fictional character From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Hope Summers is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Mike Carey and Chris Bachalo, the character first appeared in X-Men #205 (Jan 2008, during the "X-Men: Messiah Complex" storyline).[1] She is the first mutant born after the events of the "House of M" and "Decimation" storyline.
 | This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a particular audience. (August 2018) |
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Publication history
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"Messiah Complex" The Goddess of all Mutants
Hope is the first mutant to be born after the Decimation, an event in which the Scarlet Witch uses her reality-altering powers to remove the powers of all but 198 mutants. The moment Hope is born, the mutant-locating computer Cerebro explodes,[2] and soon afterwards the hunt for her begins.
Hope's town is attacked by the Purifiers, who use information given to them by the time-traveling Nimrod who warns them of her arrival.[3] Although all the children in town are murdered by the Purifiers, the X-Man Cable manages to save Hope.[4] According to Cable, the baby is a Messianic figure destined to save both mutant and humankind.[5] The Purifiers and Bishop, however, recall a timeline in which Hope will become the mutant equivalent of the Antichrist, and kill a million humans in an instant. This event, known as the "Six Second War", will turn humanity against mutants once again and lead into a new era of mutant persecution, creating the dark timeline into which Bishop is born.[6]
Later, the baby is kidnapped by the Marauders and delivered to the mutant Mystique, disguised as Mister Sinister.[6] Mystique makes the baby touch the comatose Rogue with the intention of waking her from her coma.[7] Gambit intervenes and takes Hope. Gambit is amazed to find not only is the baby unharmed, but also Rogue has been awakened from her coma.[8] After a battle between the Marauders, the X-Men and Predator X, Cyclops decides the baby would be better off with Cable, and allows him to take her to the future. However, an adamant Bishop decides to track Cable and the baby through time to kill her.[5]
Art by Mike Choi
Into the Future
During one of the first battles with Bishop, Cable's time traveling device is damaged, so he can only jump into the future, instead of the past. After several jumps into the future, Cable has taken her to the secluded safe haven of New Liberty in the future, where Cable marries a woman named Hope.[9] Finding peace there, he raises her with Hope until she is seven years old. New Liberty is then invaded by humanoid insects.[9] Cable fights them and leaves New Liberty with his wife and girl.[10] After spending months in wastelands, the family is attacked by the leader of the insects, who Hope fatally injures. Cable questions the leader and finds out that Bishop has destroyed all the continents in the world except North America, in order to box them in. The family moves on and encounters a settlement, but are met with resistance. Cable fights them but his wife is shot and killed. Cable and the young girl depart and arrive at a church, where Cable decides to name her Hope Summers, in honor of her adoptive mother.[11]
"Messiah War"
In the Messiah War storyline, which ran through Cable and X-Force, Hope Summers was the center of conflict between the forces of Stryfe, Cable, and X-Force.[12] Hope was kidnapped by Cable's clone Stryfe, in league with Bishop. Hope and Warpath are then rescued by Cable, Wolverine and Elixir. After a fight, Cable and Hope were forced to time travel again, Hope resisted because she wanted to stay with her new friends. She kicks Cable mid-jump, stranding them two years apart. They eventually reunite, with Hope now eleven years old.
"Homecoming" and "X-Men: Second Coming"
In the four-part series A Girl Called Hope, Hope is shown with the Phoenix emblem reflecting in her eyes, with a promotional image for the event released depicting a version of Hope surrounded by the Phoenix Force.[13][14][15]
During the "X-Men: Second Coming" story arc, Hope manifests the powers of other X-Men, and kills Stephen Lang and Graydon Creed. Nightcrawler saves her from Bastion, dying in the process. With the assistance of the X-Men, she eradicates Bastion and shatters the dome surrounding San Francisco. At a celebratory bonfire, Emma Frost notices the flames around Hope take the shape of the Phoenix, and triggers a flashback to the Sisterhood storyline where Jean warned her to prepare. Emma runs to Cyclops but before she can, he tells her that Cerebro has found five new mutants that have appeared around the globe.
The Five Lights
After the events of Second Coming, five new mutants are detected by Cerebro. Hope is then tasked with the mission to find and help these "Five Lights". Hope finds the suicidal Laurie Tromette in Canada and jump starts her mutation by touching her, and she agrees to follow Hope. Being in Canada, Hope expressed an interest in discovery her biological family to which Cyclops agreed and organized an escort team. Once the group arrived in Alaska they discovered the identity of Hope's mother Louise Spalding, and visited her grave, and Hope was able to meet her maternal grandmother, although she did not reveal her connection, she learned of her mother.[16]
Later she is called to Mexico for the second light, Gabriel Cohuelo, whose speed powers caused him to move so fast he had become invisible to the naked eye. Hope manages to help him gather control of his abilities.[17]
Accompanied by Storm, Hope finds the third of the Five Lights, Idie Okonkwo, praying in a small church in Nigeria, surrounded by armed men who wish to kill her due to her newly manifesting power over fire and ice. Hope manages to help her calm herself and gather control of her abilities, defeating the armed men.[18]
Later Rogue, Hope, and the Lights arrive in Miami Beach to search for the fourth Light, Teon, in the hope of having him join the X-Men. Their first interaction with Teon results in the feral boy's attempt at "mating" with Hope. A battle ensues and is promptly finished by Hope who uses her power to tame Teon. From this point, Teon views her as his Master.[19]
Generation Hope
In the series Generation Hope, Hope and the four "Lights" along with Rogue, Cyclops and Wolverine travel to Tokyo to find and help the fifth so-called "Light", a mutant boy called Kenji Uedo, whose powers are causing destruction.[20] Hope attempts to make contact with Kenji to complete his transformation but he seemingly avoids her touch. She presses on after him, being attacked by him, but eventually does make contact.[21]
Later, she and the Lights travel to Utopia, where they all decide to stay to hone their powers. After Doctor Nemesis determines the specifications of each of their powers, Hope and Gabriel share a kiss in private.[22] Hope and the Lights leave Utopia after some discussion with members of the X-Men and Hope's views on the situation. Cyclops accepts this agreement, telling Hope that he isn't a jailor and that she and the Lights are welcome to come and go however they like.[23]
A Sixth Light is located in Germany. Hope, the Lights and Shadowcat, arrive to a cordoned off hospital. They find the Sixth Light, a baby with telepathic powers, still in the womb of its mother. The baby is terrified to leave the womb, and controls people into a zombie-like state to protect it, even expanding its range to those outside[24] Hope and each of the Lights try to talk to the child telepathically, but all are rejected. Teon is able to talk to the child, using simplistic language to convince it to embrace life. The child is then born, and Hope's touch suppresses the child's X-Gene until its older. The celebration is cut short, however, as the group leaves the hospital; Shadowcat tells them that Teon's parents have sued for custody of their son.[25]
Primal wins the right to stay with Hope on Utopia through his speech in court, but Zero and Transonic about how Hope has changed them all, and they both agree that something isn't right about it.[26]
Fear Itself
In the Fear Itself crossover event, Hope is part of Cyclops' "Plan 2" in defeating Kuurth, the Breaker of Stone, by using any Utopian mutant powers to remove Kuurth's telepathy-blocking helmet. Hope is successful in doing this, but is rendered unconscious. The plan is unsuccessful, as telepathy is revealed worthless against the Worthy and Kuurth marches on.[27]
X-Men: Schism
Hope and Velocidad go on a date, which is interrupted by the new Hellfire Club attacking the Museum, and defeating most of the X-Men. Hope and Velocidad arrive at the Museum to discover that Oya has "saved the day" by "murdering" most of the Hellfire grunts based on Cyclops' orders to do what she thought was necessary. This causes Hope to chastise Transonic for losing her head during the battle and leaving Oya in that position, but Transonic explains that she is not a soldier except when Hope is around to influence her. Zero asks Oya if she is okay, but she horrifies Hope and the other Lights by asking if there is anyone else she needs to kill.[28][29]
X-Men: Regenesis
Hope accepts Oya leaving with Wolverine, but asks Pixie not to leave, as the team needed a teleporter. No-Girl is also recruited by Zero. During a mission, the team finds an amnesiac Sebastian Shaw and Zero makes No-Girl a new body. Hope invites Shaw to join the Lights. When they return to Utopia, the team is attacked by former Morlocks, who are defeated. After this, Zero loses confidence in Hope and rebels against her, manipulates Utopian residents into clamoring for Hope's death. No-Girl later kills Zero by disrupting his powers, also destroying the body he gave her. Nemesis and Danger build her a new containment unit.[30]
Avengers: X-Sanction
Hope stops Cable from killing Red Hulk. When Cable turns the gun on Cyclops, Hope intervenes and Cable states the mission has been compromised due to the fact that Hope wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. Hope permanently cures Cable of the T-O virus by completely burning it out of his system. Cable gives confirmation to Cyclops that Hope is indeed an aspect of The Phoenix.[31]
Avengers vs. X-Men
In AvX, Hope is targeted by the Phoenix Force. The Avengers want to take her into custody to protect her from the Phoenix Force, but the X-Men want her to be able to accept the Phoenix Force as it could help revive the dwindling mutant "race".[32] As the two teams start fighting over this, Cyclops orders Emma to take Hope away so she could be safe. As Wolverine moved to apparently kill Hope, he's overwhelmed by Hope who uses the power of Phoenix on him and escapes the compound.[33] While on the run, Hope creates a device that camouflages her power signature and makes her untraceable.[34] After stealing a ship, she strikes a deal with Wolverine, to try contain the Phoenix Force, but if she is unable to do so then she will allow Wolverine to kill her.[35] However, Hope is betrayed when Wolverine alerts the Avengers. The team meets Hope and Wolverine on the Blue Area of the Moon. Before they can contain Hope, the X-Men also arrive.[36] The Phoenix force arrives and, instead of possessing Hope, possess each of the five X-Men present after Iron Man's failed attempt to destroy the Phoenix Force with his new 'PhoenixKiller' armour. They take her now comatose body back to Earth and, as one, declare plans to heal her. However, she is subsequently rescued by the Avengers and the Scarlet Witch,[37] who take her away to safety, with Iron Fist suggesting that she hide in K'un-L'un.[38]
Hope visits Yu-Ti, a previous Phoenix host and Iron Fist, but Yu-Ti is unable to help her directly, instead instructing her to learn from Spider-Man. Spider-Man proceeds to tell Hope about his mantra of great power requiring great responsibility, and about patience.[39][40] Guided by these lessons, Hope fights alongside the Scarlet Witch against Cyclops when he takes on the full power of the Phoenix Force, ascends to Dark Phoenix and kills Professor X,[41] allowing her to not only take on the power of the Phoenix and restore the mutant race, but also have the power to give up that power afterwards. With her destiny fulfilled, she is shown departing Utopia to find a new place for herself.[42]
Avengers vs. X-Men: Consequences
Hope decides to attempt to live a normal life, and enrolls in a regular public school while also searching for Cable.[43] Around this time, Cable wakes up from his coma, and disappears off-the-grid, but he secretly watches Hope and lets her know personally that it's not her job to watch him, but for him to watch over her.[44]
Cable and X-Force
Hope has been living a 'normal life', speaks to an Avenger mandated psychiatrist, and has foster parents. Hope hacks into Domino's files, and makes deal with Domino to use her luck powers to find Cable. They locate Cable in Nebraska and Hope becomes enraged, but is calmed by his words. Suddenly Cable has a headache and Hope sees visions of a future event, Cable passes out and awakens later on, only to see Hope's vision on television.[45]
X-Force
In the new X-Force team, Hope is in a coma after being infected with a virus that infected both her and Cable.[46] It was revealed that she was able to manifest herself in a digital avatar by copying the powers of a brain-dead mutant, MeMe. She uses this identity to remain in Cable's team, but is discovered by Psylocke, who chose to keep Hope's identity secret.[47] Hope's secret is revealed to the team by Mojo, leading to an argument between her and Cable.[48] Hope agrees to MeMe's life support being turned off, thus letting MeMe die and putting Hope back to being in a coma.[49] Hope then convinces Fantomex, who now has god-like super-powers, to attack the X-Force and is able to copy his powers and remove the virus from herself and defeat Fantomex. She then takes charge of the X-Force and fires Cable, for leading the team down a morally questionable route.[50]
Uncanny X-Men
After Cable's death in X-Termination and most of the X-Men's disappearance, Hope joins up with the terrorist group Mutant Liberation Front. She has her sights set on assassinating Senate candidate Prestel, but the X-Men attempt to stop her. Hope believes she and Cyclops both failed Cable, and shoots a pistol at him, wounding his eye.
War of the Realms
Hope participated in Scott's survivor retrieval mission while the major and minor heroes of Midgard did battle with the invading forces of Malekith. Making hit and run passes against enemy forces headed by Sabretooth working in league with the Dark Council while running the beachhead of fallen New York.[51]
Krakoan Era
When mutants established the mutant nation of Krakoa, Hope worked in tandem with a group of mutants known as The Five in order to revive dead mutants as part of a mutant "circuit" of combined powers, by recreating their bodies and replanting their saved psychic consciousness within. Hope's powers in particular were needed to synergize and enhance the other four mutants, with her later taking over restoring the psychic essences in Xavier's stead.[52] She later joins the Quiet Council, the governing body of Krakoa. When Krakoa is attacked by Orchis, Xavier forces the majority of mutants off-Earth through portals, as part of conceding to Orchis's threats to destroy the Earth. Xavier believes he has sent the mutants to their deaths, but they were all transported to the White Hot Room, a higher plane of existence for mutants.[53] Journeying through the White Hot Room with the other Krakoan mutants, they determine the only way to return and save Earth is by reviving the Phoenix Force and locating the recently killed Jean Grey.
Enigma, an omnipresent god-like ascended intelligence derived from the original Nathaniel Essex, tries to prevent the resurrection of the Phoenix Force. To achieve this, he reaches back in time and tries to coerce Hope's mother into letting him father Hope. But in the White Hot Room, Jean, detecting Enigma's attempt to alter history, utilizes the power of the Phoenix Force to stop him. Hope's mother rejects Enigma and Jean describes what Hope will one day be like to her. Jean places a portion of the Phoenix Force within Hope's mother, thereby conceiving Hope, and thanking her for her sacrifice, referencing her eventual death at the hands of the Purifiers after Hope's birth. Back in the White Hot Room, Hope hunts down the vestige of the Phoenix, "killing" it and dying in the process, thus allowing the Phoenix to assimilate Hope and be reborn anew. While identifying Jean as "mother-me", the revitalized Phoenix/Hope merges with Jean, empowering Jean as the Phoenix once again and allowing Jean to fight and overcome Enigma.[54]
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Powers and abilities
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Hope Summers is an Omega level mutant with an ability of unspecified limits to psychically manipulate and mimic the powers of other mutants.[55][52][56]
This ability is primarily manifested as mimicry of the superhuman mutant abilities of those near her, however, she has demonstrated additional powers. When she was born, she unleashed a massive psionic pulse that destroyed Cerebro. She also proved to be immune to Rogue's newly lethal absorption power and her touch erased all of the previous memories and abilities Rogue had absorbed, including those of the Hecatomb.[57] She also cured Rogue of the Strain 88 virus.[5][8] During Messiah Complex when the Three-in-One tried to search for her when she was kidnapped by the Marauders, she was able to block and disrupt Cerebro from finding her.[6]
Hope Summers can also mimic mutant powers at their utmost capacity. However, she generates power levels that are potentially dangerous to people and the environment around her. Prodigy describes her as a metaphorical "voodoo doll" of the mutant race.[58] In the "Messiah War" storyline, after mentally scanning her, Stryfe hints that she has the same powers he does (telekinesis and telepathy), and is potentially far more powerful than he is.[59] Her ability to mimic the powers of other mutants is restricted by the fact that they have to be "near enough" to her to mimic.[60] When near Cable, Hope showed some telepathic and telekinetic powers at her command by stopping a bullet fired at her by Bishop. She then generated extremely powerful energy blasts that overloaded Bishop's own ability to absorb projected energy.[61]
She can also jump-start a newly emerging mutant power though to an undefined extent, and can redirect the force of magnetic fields into negative matter.[16] Hellion also theorizes that she is able to unconsciously enhance mutant abilities such as his own telekinetic powers to a level he could not reach before she was around him. She also has a connection to the Phoenix Force. Later it was revealed that she is an aspect of the Phoenix Force itself which enabled her to operate independently from the Force itself and become the "White Phoenix of the Crown," albeit temporarily.[42]
In House of X Hope's true abilities come to light, wherein she can modulate as well as control the abilities of other mutants, and primarily uses her powers in conjunction with others in order to resurrect fallen mutants.[52]
Thanks to Cable's training, Hope has some knowledge of advanced technology. During the Avengers Vs X-Men storyline she was able to construct a portable device capable of masking her presence from Cerebra using components found at a common hardware store.[34]
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Reception
Accolades
- In 2014, Entertainment Weekly ranked Hope Summers 73rd in their "Let's rank every X-Man ever" list.[62]
- In 2018, CBR.com ranked Hope Summers 5th in their "X-Men: The Strongest Members Of The Summers Family" list.[63]
- In 2018, CBR.com ranked Hope Summers 1st in their "8 X-Men Kids Cooler Than Their Parents (And 7 Who Are Way Worse)" list.[64]
- In 2019, Screen Rant ranked Hope Summers 3rd in their "X-Men: The 10 Most Powerful Members Of The Summers Family" list.[65]
- In 2019, CBR.com ranked Hope Summers 7h in their "X-Men: All Of Marvel's Omega-Level Mutants, Ranked By Power" list.
- In 2021, Screen Rant ranked Hope Summers 2nd in their "10 Most Powerful Alternate Universe Members Of The X-Men" list.[66]
- In 2022, Collider ranked Hope Summers 3rd in their "10 Most Powerful Marvel Mutants" list[67] and 10th in their "20 Most Powerful Marvel Characters, Ranked" list.[68]
- In 2022, The Mary Sue ranked Hope Summers 10th in their "10 Most Powerful X-Men of All Time" list.[69]
- In 2022, CBR.com ranked Hope Summers 4th in their "Most Powerful Summers-Grey Kids From The X-Men Comics" list,[70] 6th in their "10 X-Men Characters Fans Want In the MCU" list,[71] and 13th in their "15 Strongest Omega-Level X-Men" list.[72]
Other versions
Stryfe
In an alternate future, Hope Summers is killed by the Avengers.[73] Her father, Cable, decides to travel back in time in order to save her.[74] When the Phoenix Force comes back to take Hope Summers as a host, the Avengers and the X-Men battle each other.[32] Hope Summers and Blaquesmith decide to work together to create a better world.
In other media
Film
Hope Summers makes a cameo appearance in Deadpool 2, portrayed by Islie Hirvonen.[75] This version is Cable's biological daughter. After she and her mother were killed by Russell Collins, Cable travels back in time to avert the event by killing Russell. However, Deadpool sacrifices himself to save Russell, leading to Cable sacrificing the ability to return to the future to save Deadpool before staying in the present to ensure his family have a brighter future.
Video games
- Hope Summers appears as a playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online.[76]
- Hope Summers appears in Marvel: War of Heroes.[77]
- Hope Summers appears in X-Men: Battle of the Atom.[77]
- Hope Summers appears in Marvel Snap.[78]
- Hope Summers appears as a playable character in Marvel: Future Fight.[79]
Merchandise
- Hope Summers received an action figure in Hasbro's Marvel Legends line.
- Hope Summers received a figure in the Minimates line via the "Avengers vs. X-Men" boxset.
- Hope Summers appears in CMON Limited's "Marvel United: X-Men" board game via the "Phoenix Five" expansion.
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Collected editions
References
External links
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