marvel - How did Cyclops originally control his optic blasts?

I have seen the X-Men films, but have not really been a fan of the comic books.

I have always wondered if Cyclops just bandaged his eyes permanently growing up, and how he came to realise that ruby controls his "optic portals to another dimension".

Answer

He didn't. He has never had full, permanent control of his optic blasts over his history. He has had brief periods where his power was under his control due to either temporary physical or psychological alterations to his body or mind.

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  Origin 1: Scott Summers suffers traumatic brain injury as a child when he and his brother, Alex, parachute from a plane that is crashing. He uses his mutant power to break his fall and is injured. His mutant power later manifests randomly when he gets older and after causing an accident and nearly getting mobbed to death, he escapes, blind (powers were sporadic) but eventually he cannot even open his eyes.

  
  


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  He is rescued and becomes a ward of Charles Xavier. He is also the first of the X-men. It was Charles who figures out the resonance with ruby-quartz and creates a visor and later sunglasses to control Scott's power. Part of Xavier's genius (along with Moira McTaggart) was learning and understanding about mutant abilities.

  
  


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  In Origin 2: Everything starts the same but this time when he is put into an orphanage he is studied by the doctor Nathan Matthews (Mister Sinister) attempting to learn about his mutation. When Scott's power manifests after having severe headaches (and blowing the roof off the place) Matthews develops the ruby glasses he will use for the rest of his life.

  
  
  

Marvel has always hinted at giving Scott some level of control but never commits to it for very long, possibly because it is the visor and the lack of control which makes the underlying psychology of the character so compelling. Cyclops is a man whose power and responsibility to the Mutant Movement is something that requires precision and vision, both which are part of the use of his visor to control his power.

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  After becoming one of the Phoenix Five, Scott's optic blast's energy output was increased enough to stagger the demon-god Dormammu.

  
  


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  It also became more uncontrollable and Scott would go back to wearing his visor to control his power once more. His blast would display its more powerful state by having curved energy displays.

  
  

• In the soft reboot of the Marvel Universe, Cyclops has returned to using his visor as he did before.