Alexander "Alex" SummersHavok

Alex Summers is many things. Mutant. Survivor. Space pirate. Freedom fighter. X-Man. Able to release plasma energy from his body in a powerful force, his ability to wreak havoc earns him the name. 

Havok

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Alexander “Alex” Summers is the second son to his parents Christopher Summers, a United States Air Force Major and test pilot, and Katherine Anne. He spends his childhood growing up alongside his older brother Scott. When Alex is young, he and his family fly back from a vacation in his father’s vintage airplane, though a scout ship from the intergalactic Shi’ar Empire sets the wooden plane ablaze. Their mother pushes Scott and Alex out of the burning plane with the only available parachute, enabling the children to escape while she and Christopher are captured by the Shi’ar. Since their overburdened parachute could not slow their descent safely enough, the two boys sustain injuries and are hospitalized. Scott and Alex both suffer traumatic amnesia regarding the plane incident. After two weeks, Alex is sent to an orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska that is secretly run by geneticist Nathaniel Essex, AKA Mister Sinister. Alex is soon adopted by the Blanding family, whose son Todd had died in a car accident; however, still traumatized by their loss, the Blandings treat Alex as if he were Todd.

Sinister monitors Alex while he lives with his foster family, and noticing when Alex’s latent mutant powers begin to emerge, Sinister incites the local school bully Vincent—who had caused Todd’s accident—to attack Alex. When Vincent threatens to blow up the Blandlings’ house, the stress causes Alex’s mutant powers to manifest and he incinerates the bully with a plasma blast. Sinister then intervenes, placing a genetic lock upon Alex to curtail his powers’ development, and imposes psi-blocks that remove Alex’s memories of these events. As a result, Alex does not become aware of his mutant abilities until after graduating from college. Meanwhile, his brother Scott develops mutant energy powers of his own and becomes a founding member of the heroic X-Men as Cyclops.

Cosmic Energy Absorption and Projection

Havok absorbs ambient cosmic energy (such as stellar energy, x-rays and gamma radiation) into his bodily cells, metabolizes it and then releases it as waves of plasma energy. These waves will emanate from his body in all directions unless he purposely channels them in a single direction, usually along the length of his arms. Havok’s body is constantly absorbing cosmic radiation. 

When each of his body’s power-storage cell enclaves reaches its capacity, excess cosmic energy is thereafter absorbed and immediately re-emitted in negligible quantities. Upon the total expenditure of all his energy, it takes Havok’s body about 16 1⁄2 hours to recharge to its peak level. The act of concentration involved in releasing his energy in anything other than an omnidirectional wave is physically exhausting for Havok if he continues it over an extended period of time. 

Havok’s superheated plasma blasts can penetrate, shatter, melt or even vaporize most targets, though with intense concentration he can sometimes decrease their intensity for less destructive effects, such as stunning live targets. Havok is himself immune to the intense heat he creates. He is also immune to the energy generated by his brother Cyclops, but not to the energy generated by his other brother Gabriel Summers, AKA Vulcan. 

An instinctive tactician and strategist, Alex is a good athlete who has participated in track and field events, and has been trained in hand-to-hand combat. Havok’s special costume is fitted with sensors for measuring and controlling his power output. As the energy stored within Havok’s body increases, the concentric circles on his costume’s chest expand outward.

Nefarious Foes

Geneticist Mister Sinister leads the orphanage that young Alex is placed in and monitors his growth and incites a traumatic event that causes Alex’s latent mutant abilities to emerge. Sinister removes Alex’s memories of the events though and he doesn’t learn of his mutant heritage until much later.

When Vulcanis revealed to be Havok and Scott’s long lost brother, he is simultaneously a nefarious foe to the universe and threatens the Shi’ar Empire. While Vulcan tries to usurp the Shi’ar throne, he kills Havok’s father, who had survived the attack on their family and become the space-faring pirate Corsair. Havok with the Starjammers team attempts to stop him from taking over the Shi’ar Empire though their efforts fail. Havok and most of the team eventually escape Vulcan’s clutches.

Trusted Yet Tenuous Allies

Havok is brother to Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, and seems to struggle under the shadow of his brother in the early years. Now and then, they work together as X-Men against evildoers.

Lorna Dane, AKA Polaris, is Havok’s longtime love with whom he shares an on-again, off-again relationship. A mutant with magnetic powers, Polaris serves with the mutant teams X-Men and X-Factor before she joins Havoc and other X-Men on a mission to battle his younger brother Vulcan in Shi’ar space. She and Havok rekindled their rocky romance when they help form the Starjammers, and she plays a key role in rescuing deposed Shi’ar Majestrix Lilandra Neramani.

Havok has other romantic relationships as well including with Madelyne Pryor, both in reality Earth-616 and when he is shunted to Reality-1298. In the latter reality, they have a son and name him Scott. He also, when severely injured, falls in love with his caretaker Annie Ghazikhanian until she realizes the X-Men’s mansion is unsafe for her and her son.

Havok and Polaris form the Starjammers, a band of interstellar pirates and brigands, legendary adventurers and freedom fighters battling to rid the galaxy of the Shi’ar oppression. Havok also joins other teams, such as X-Factor, the Brotherhood of Mutants, Dark Descendants, Genoshan Magistrates, and The Defenders but is only a part of the latter for a day.

Just Cry Havok

Archaeology professor Ahmet Abdol, secretly the power-mad Living Pharaoh, had discovered he was strangely linked to Alex; thanks to En Sabah Nur, AKA Apocalypse, and Mister Sinister’s experiment to bond a sample of Alex’s DNA to Abdol. As a result, Alex and Abdol both had the latent mutant power to absorb and transform cosmic radiation, but Abdol’s ability to exercise this power was unexpectedly blocked by Alex’s body. Abdol captured Alex and in taking him to his lab in Egypt, he discovered how to permit his own body to attain its latent potential. Abdol was transformed into the Living Monolith, a gigantic mutant with vast cosmic power, but was defeated while in combat with the X-Men when Alex’s latent mutant powers surfaced under the stress. Incapable of controlling the power his body emanated, Alex fled into the Egyptian desert rather than endanger others.

A mutant-hunting Sentinel robot captured Alex and brought him to the headquarters of Larry Trask, son of the Sentinels’ inventor Bolivar Trask, who gave Alex the code name Havok and a special costume which regulated, monitored and displayed his body’s cosmic energy levels. Alex cooperated with Trask at first to ensure the safety of his fellow prisoner, magnetic mutant Lorna Dane, but when the X-Men came to their rescue, Havok fought alongside the mutant heroes. Injured in the ensuing battle with the Sentinels, Alex was taken to Dr. Karl Lykos for treatment. Secretly a superhuman energy vampire, Lykos fed off the life energies of mutants, and when he siphoned Alex’s energy he transformed for the first time into the monstrous Sauron. After Sauron’s defeat, Alex returned to New York with the X-Men, where he joined his brother Scott on the team and began training to master his powers, gradually developing much more control.

During this period, Alex fell in love with Lorna Dane, causing friction between him and Lorna’s ex-boyfriend Iceman. Alex and Lorna served together for a time in the X-Men, helping to repel the alien Z’nox invasion force and confronting the mutant isolationists known as the Promise. Havok also got his first real taste of anti-mutant prejudice, attacked by an angry mob while helping to repel an Atlantean invasion of New York led by Max Eisenhardt, AKA Magneto, and Namor McKenzie, AKA Namor the Sub-Mariner. After inadvertently injuring Iceman during a quarrel, Havok quit the team in fear of losing control again. The X-Men’s mentor, Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X, sent Lorna after him, but she ran afoul of a biker gang and Bruce Banner, AKA Hulk, who mistook her for his former lover Jarella. Alex rescued her by demonstrating a greater degree of control over his powers, and she convinced him to rejoin the team. Alex and Lorna were later among the mutants captured by the Secret Empire, but the X-Men freed them with the aid of Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, and Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon.

When the X-Men’s roster expanded after their battle with the living island Krakoa, Alex and Lorna quit the team to pursue geophysics studies. Soon after, they were kidnapped and brainwashed by Shi’ar agent Davan Shakari, AKA Eric the Red, who sought to prevent his race’s Princess Lilandra from securing the X-Men’s aid against the mad emperor D’ken Neramani. Under Eric’s control, Havok and Polaris fought the X-Men. Ultimately liberated by Xavier, the pair resumed their research, though they occasionally aided the X-Men against menaces such as Proteus and Arcade. They also joined The Defenders, but quit after a single day in action with that dauntingly erratic Super Hero group. On a happier note, Alex and Scott were later reunited with their long-lost father, now the space pirate Corsair, leader of the Starjammers.

When Alex and Lorna discovered a crashed Brood starship in the desert, Alex sought to warn the X-Men. He ended up rejoining the team to aid them against the Marauders, who ambushed Polaris in Havok’s absence. The psionic entity Malice possessed Lorna, forcing her to attack the X- Men as the Marauders’ new leader, leaving Alex no choice but to fight his lover. After the X-Men’s battle with the mystic Adversary left the world believing them and their ally Madelyne Pryor (Cyclops’ estranged wife) dead, they relocated to an abandoned town in the Australian outback. In a subsequent clash with the Brood, while saving team leader Ororo Munroe, AKA Storm, Alex was forced to kill, the one thing he had feared most since his power first manifested. 

Eventually, Alex and Madelyne became lovers; however, Madelyne had become corrupted by demonic forces and, as the Goblyn Queen, incited a demonic invasion of New York. The X-Men teamed up with X-Factor—a new group led by Cyclops—to successfully oppose the invasion, during which Madelyne died. Affected by his time under Madelyne’s demonic influence, Alex briefly became colder and more ruthless, less restrained in the use of his power, though his more benign traditional personality gradually reemerged.

Back in Australia, the Living Pharaoh’s niece Leila O’Toole, AKA Plasma, sought to empower herself using Havok like her uncle before her. She manipulated Alex into falling in love with her, then forced him to fight her, but he thwarted her scheme and defeated her. 

Later, superhuman Russian scientist Meltdown targeted Alex as a means to gain the power of India’s Tarapur nuclear reactor for himself. While Havok’s X-Men teammate James Howlett/Logan, AKA Wolverine, dealt with Meltdown, Alex absorbed the energy and released it harmlessly into space. Lorna’s sister Zaladane subsequently kidnapped Lorna, taking her to the Savage Land. Havok and the X-Men followed but were too late to prevent Zaladane from absorbing Polaris’ powers, freeing Lorna from Malice’s possession. 

Escaping with Lorna, the X-Men returned to Australia, where the team’s telepath Betsy Braddock, AKA Psylocke, had a precognitive vision of the Reavers killing the X-Men. To escape this fate, Roma the Omniversal guardian, gave the X-Men the Siege Perilous, a mystic gateway that granted those who passed through it a new lease on life, free of their past attachments. The X-Men traveled through it, and when Alex reappeared, he was a member of the Magistrates of the mutant-enslaving island nation of Genosha. After the X-Men overthrew the Genoshan government, Alex remained there for a time to ensure the new regime wouldn’t repeat the former administration’s mistakes. During this time, he befriended the young mutant Rahne Sinclar, AKA Wolfsbane, unaware she had been programmed by the old regime to adore him.

Havok later accepted an offer to lead a government-funded incarnation of X-Factor, whose members included Wolfsbane and a re-powered Polaris. Though successful as leader, Alex compared himself unfavorably to Scott and confessed his insecurities to the team’s psychologist, Dr. Leonard Samson. Later, feeling too many people in his life were controlling him, and deeply affected by the seeming death of his teammate Jamie Madrox at the hands of the prophetic mutant Haven, Alex quit X-Factor and returned to Hawaii. Lorna followed, trying to convince him to return. Mister Sinister then targeted the pair, seeking to re-merge Polaris and Malice. Not wanting to be bound to Lorna again, Malice rebelled and possessed Havok, threatening to kill Polaris. During the ensuing four-way struggle, Sinister destroyed Malice for her treachery. Alex subsequently rejoined X- Factor, but the bounty hunter Random kidnapped him and took him to the Dark Beast, an evil doppelgänger of the X-Men’s Beast from Earth-295, who brainwashed Alex into opposing X-Factor. Ultimately, Alex broke free of the Dark Beast’s conditioning and, having become disillusioned with both X-Factor and the X-Men, formed the Brotherhood, a group dedicated to keeping the peace between mutants and humans by any means necessary. Alex recruited the Dark Beast into the Brotherhood so as to ultimately expose the Dark Beast’s genetic experiments. After the time-traveling Xavier Underground Enforcers helped Havok defeat the Dark Beast, Alex joined their quest to prevent their apocalyptic future. Seemingly killed when XUE member Greystone’s time machine exploded, Alex was actually shunted into the alternate Reality-1298, trading bodies with that reality’s Havok. Alex’s family and friends all believed him dead.

In Reality-1298, Alex led a group dubbed “the Six,” twisted versions of the heroes he knew. He was married to that reality’s Madelyne Pryor and they had a son, Scott. After Madelyne succumbed to her darker side and became the Goblin Queen, Alex escaped with young Scotty and his nanny, Elektra. They allied with Magneto’s X-Men in opposing Madelyne, who was ultimately defeated after Scotty’s burgeoning psychic powers purged the Goblin Force from her. Alex then re-formed the Six, who became fugitives after the government declared war on mutants. Allying with mutant savior Apocalypse against an evil Charles Xavier, Alex and the Six faced a threat from within when their new member Captain America went insane after becoming linked with the omnipotent Beyonder. The ensuing battle between Alex and the Captain was so destructive that it incinerated the Avengers and even shattered the moon. The resultant energy backlash released the Beyonder from his prison within the Earth’s core. After learning he had become the host for the Nexus of All Realities, Alex used his newfound power to defeat the Beyonder and the returned Goblin Force, but found himself again trapped between dimensions.

Alex somehow returned amnesiac to his own reality, Earth-616, becoming a catatonic “John Doe” patient at the Rosy Manor Convalescent Hospital in upstate New York, but was identified as Alex Summers by his attending nurse, Annie Ghazikanian, after she read a newspaper article about the Xavier Institute. She contacted the X-Men and Cyclops came to collect his brother. Having come to care for Alex, Annie accompanied them back to Westchester to continue his rehabilitation. Xavier probed Alex’s mind and sensed that his consciousness was trapped in a void. Havok was eventually saved when Annie’s young son Carter used his fledgling mutant powers to reconnect Alex’s consciousness to his body. Seizing the day, Alex’s longtime love Lorna asked him to marry her. Somewhat shocked at such a life-altering question so soon after his return, Alex faltered over a reply but his assembled friends and family burst into a round of congratulations, seemingly making the decision for him; however, Alex had fallen in love with Annie, and called off the wedding as Lorna was walking up the aisle. Lorna, unstable since surviving a Sentinel massacre of Genosha’s populace, snapped and tried to kill both Alex and his newfound love. Alex and Annie admitted their feelings for each other as Lorna hunted them down, and Alex’s teammate Cain Marko, AKA Juggernaut, ultimately subdued Polaris. Alex and Annie began a romance thereafter.

The Reality-1298 Havok’s personality resurfaced within Alex, having followed Alex’s consciousness back from within the void in which he had been trapped. The dimension-hopping Exiles team was assigned to stop the evil Havok-1298, and they teamed up with the X-Men to prevent him from killing Carter. The Reality-1298 Havok’s consciousness was eventually forced out of Alex’s body and sent back into the void where it was seemingly destroyed by the Exiles’ taskmaster, the enigmatic Timebroker. 

Soon after, Xavier departed to help rebuild Genosha and left Cyclops and Emma Frost in charge of the school. They formed new X-Men squads, and Havok was appointed leader of one that included Iceman. Their longstanding enmity soon reignited thanks to Iceman’s own recent romantic interest in Annie. As a result, Alex once again began doubting himself as leader. When Annie took Carter and left the Institute to safeguard him from the X-Men’s dangerous lives, Alex showed little emotion, devoting himself fully to his leadership role; however, he later grew openly jealous of Lorna’s renewed romance with Iceman. After recovering the mutant Shen Xorn from China, Havok and his X-Men found themselves under siege by Exodus’ Brotherhood of Mutants, until the Brotherhood was pulled into the black hole within Shen’s mind.

When Lorna was among those mutants who lost their powers on “M-Day,” Havok accompanied her as she left the X-Men. Lorna sought out the mysterious mutant she called “Daap,” whom she believed could restore her powers. Locating Daap in South America, the pair were attacked by the mutant-hating Leper Queen. In the ensuing struggle, Alex was forced to defend himself against Daap, causing it to explode. At that moment, Apocalypse abducted Lorna and the Leper Queen, leaving Alex no choice but to return to the X-Men. Polaris was later briefly corrupted into serving as Apocalypse’s Horseman Pestilence, but soon escaped his influence.

By now the X-Men had learned of a third Summers brother, Gabriel, born in space after Scott and Alex were separated from their parents; Gabriel had briefly served as part of a secret X-Men roster years earlier, but had since become one of the group’s deadliest foes as Vulcan. 

While Vulcan attempted to seize the Shi’ar throne, Havok and the X-Men tried to stop him. Though Vulcan killed their father, Corsair, and Havok attacked him in a furious rage. He later vowed to stay in space to bring his brother Vulcan’s mad reign to an end. He joined Starjammers alongside Polaris, Rachel Grey, AKA Marvel Girl, Raza Longknife and Ch’od as well as newfound ally Korvus Rook’shir, AKA Korvus, to bring Vulcan to justice. However, the Starjammers were forced to ally with Vulcan, Cal’Syee Neramani, AKA Deathbird, and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard against the Sc’yar Tal, a growing threat. Vulcan ultimately betrayed them and imprisoned most of the Starjammers, including Havok. During their capture, they are tortured and meanwhile Xavier perished and the X-Men were no more. The Starjammers eventually escaped the clutches of Vulcan and just when Havok was about to defeat Vulcan, the Shi’ar Emperor teleported them away.

Upon returning to Earth, Havok and Polaris were asked by Wolverine to join X-Factor Investigations as their leaders since Jamie Madrox, AKA Multiple Man’s apparent death. They did so and once Jamie returned, he and Havok shared leadership and Havok took point on missions. Their differing leadership styles, however, drove Havok to leave while Lorna stayed with X-Factor. The pair broke up on account of their shifting paths. 

Shortly thereafter, Captain America chose Havok to lead a new Avengers team promoting cooperation between humans and mutants. During this time, he and Janet Van Dyne, AKA the Wasp, embarked on a romantic relationship. 

When all mutants were relocated to Planet X and Earth was destroyed by the Celestials, Havok married the Wasp and they have a daughter, Katherine “Katie” Summers. Though she is captured by time-traveling Nathaniel Richards, AKA Kang the Conqueror, after he helped the Avengers avoid this timeline by sending their minds back to their past selves. Though Kang drank a Celestial’s power and ascended to Kang, Conqueror of the Universe. As Havok fought him off, Kang burned his face with raw cosmic power in the battle and left him badly scarred.

When Johann Shmidt, AKA Red Skull, became Red Onslaught with Xavier’s brain and powers, the Avengers and X-Men fought him and some of the fiercest villains on the island of Genosha. Red Onslaught and Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, accidentally invert heroes and villains and Havok was impacted. Even though a spell performed by Victor Von Doom, AKA Doctor Doom, and Scarlet Witch rendered Red Onslaught dormant, Havok was shielded from it and remained inverted. The X-Men hoped to reunite with Xavier but were denied by the Avengers causing Havok to resign and leave the Wasp behind. He then rejoined the X-Men and found that the fight to bridge the gap between mutants and humans was a futile one, and the X-Men called for a war against humanity.

Later, Cyclops apparently died from a Terrigenesis cloud in a conflict with the Inhumans and Havok attended his funeral shortly thereafter. At the end of the war against the Inhumans, Havok discovered the truth from Emma Frost that she faked his death. Doing so ruined his brother’s reputation but he joined her still out of respect for his brother’s memory, wherever he was, and eventually reverts to his old self by Frost and Polaris. Afterward, Josh Foley, AKA Elixir, healed his scars.