- Name: Alex Summers
- Code Names: Havok
- First Appearance: X-Men #54 (Mar ‘69)
- Powers: Plasma Beams
- Teams Affiliation: X-Men, X-Factor, The Brotherhood, The Six, The Starjammers, The Avengers
About
Siblings have a relationship that few others do. There is the unique challenge of living up to an older brother who is so accomplished. Younger siblings can feel left in the shadow where every amazing achievement gets compared to what their sibling did. I spent too much energy making sure that my family knew that while my sister walked before I did, she would not technically get her Masters until a few months after me. It is a universal human experience that Havok knows all too much about.
Unlike his older brother, Scott, Alex Summers had a relatively nice childhood. Sure, there was that time he had to jump out of a burning plane and the short stint in the orphanage but Alex got adopted by loving parents. Alex developed a proficiency in geophysics during college and reunited with his brother at graduation. He intended to continue on to get his doctorate in the field until the Living Pharaoh captured him. The Pharaoh revealed two things to Alex. First, that the younger Summer’s brother was a mutant with the ability to absorb solar radiation and convert it into blasts of plasma. And second, that the Living Pharaoh planned to use Alex as a conduit to increase his own solar power. The X-Men were to rescue him and Havok decided to forego grad school to study at Xavier’s School.
At the school, he met Polaris and the two quickly fell in love. They dreamt of leaving their adventuring lifestyle behind them and were given that opportunity when the Professor recruited a team of all-new, all-different X-Men. The lovebirds decided to pursue their dreams and worked on their education in geophysics in the American Southwest. That concept of a “normal life” would always be out of Alex’s grasp as he and Lorna were mind controlled by Erik the Red (who was an alien dressed in the same Viking, bondage gear that Cyclops wore) and attacked the X-Men.
They would spend the next few years alternating between trying to live a normal life, finishing their PhDs, and getting drug into superhero shenanigans. Alex’s life got derailed when Lorna disappeared and Havok decided to go to the only people he knew could help, the X-Men. They promised to help him find Polaris and Havok rejoined the X-Men. With the rest of the team in the Australian Outback, Alex grew closer to his brother’s ex-wife Madelyne. They had both experienced the loss of a loved one and Madelyne had a plan to make things right. She used her latent telepathic powers to transform him into her kinky Goblin Prince. They tried their hand at some good ole’ fashion baby murder before the X-Men stopped her Inferno and reverted Alex to his normal self.
Soon the X-Men faced another challenge when the Reavers aimed to attack when the X-Men were at their weakest. Seeing no other option, Psylocke convinced the X-Men to travel through the Siege Perilous, a mysterious crystal portal that would grant them all a new start to life. Alex’s new start was on the island of Genosha where he believed he was a leading Magistrate in the oppressive Genoshan army. He oppressed his fellow mutants with no memory of his former life. Those memories came flooding back when he battled with his brother and the Summer’s boys teamed up to overthrow the tyrannical government. Havok decided to stay on the island to help rebuild because he realized that completely upending a social structure might have some repercussions.
Professor Xavier asked Alex to lead Valerie Cooper’s new government sponsored X-Factor and he obliged when he realized that Polaris would be involved too. Outside of the shadow of his brother’s team, Alex shined. He built a team out weirdos and outcasts together and become a shining example of cooperation between mutants and humans. It lasted until Jamie Madrox died due to the Legacy Virus and Havok lost his confidence. He left the team soon after but stayed within their periphery as both an ally and an enemy. His time displaced teammate Greystone tried to return home but an issue with the machine seemingly killed Havok.
He didn’t die though (because you know they never do) and got transported to an alternate reality where he led The Six. The Six were this world’s corrupted version of the original X-Men with Havok replacing his brother, the Goblyn Queen replacing her 616 clone Jean Grey, and a vampire version of Storm for good measure. He battled the Goblin Force and helped raise Maddie and his alternate reality child. In the end, Havok discovered that he was the living host of the Nexus of All Realities and used that power to destroy all The Six’s enemies, though it left him trapped between dimensions.
He awoke in a hospital in upstate New York without any memories of his alternate reality adventures and an overly attentive nurse. The nurse, Annie Ghazikhanian, had fallen in love with Alex while he was in a coma and was obsessed with the mysterious, amnesiac and thought she struck gold when she saw an old picture of him in a new paper article about the Xavier Institute. She took him to the school and reunited him with his brother and then decided not to leave. Annie had competition from Polaris, who was excited to see her lover back from the dead. Lorna asked Alex to marry him and began to plan the event before he had a moment to respond. The day of the wedding Alex called everything off because of the feeling he had for Annie. Lorna Dane, who was suffering a bit of a mental breakdown at the time, did not take kindly to this and attacked the wedding. Alex ran off with Annie and they began their relationship in earnest.
Annie was quickly written out of the X-Books and their bizarre relationship was over almost as quickly as it started. Alex and Lorna soon restarted their relationship as Alex led one of the teams of X-Men. They continued to grow close when Professor Xavier recruited the two to fly out into Shi’ar space and battle Vulcan, the lost third Summer’s brother. Alex teamed up with his space pirate dad to stop his evil brother and had a great time until Vulcan killed his father and took control of the Shi’ar empire. Havok decided to avenge his father by leading the space pirates known as the Starjammers against Vulcan. Havok was captured and tortured by his brother but was able to escape and help the Kree and the Guardians of the Galaxy destroy the mad Vulcan.
Alex returned to Earth and helped run X-Factor Investigations for a hot second before getting the call up to the majors. In the wake of the war between the Avengers and X-Men, Capt wanted to build a new team of Avengers, one focused on unity between mutants and the rest of the superhero community. He wanted Havok to lead it. Alex accepted and decided to make sweeping statements about rejecting his mutant identity as if he was speaking for all mutant kind. This did not go over super well in the mutant community.
Regardless of Havok’s bad take on race relations, he began growing closer with his teammate The Wasp. After the Unity Squad completely and utterly failed to save the planet, Havok and Wasp relocated to the mutant planet known as Planet X. They gave birth to a daughter named Katie and spent many years together. Havok was able to go back in time and stop Earth from being destroyed with the help of Kang the Conqueror (an Avengers character so confusing he might as well be an X-Men character). Kang double crossed him and stole Katie into the time stream. In the battle, Alex suffered severe burns over half of his face, but the loss of his daughter scared him worse.
When the heroes in villains of the Marvel universe got their moralities inverted by a wacky combination of the Scarlet Witch and bad writing, Havok went Silver Age bad guy evil. He worked with a reborn Apocalypse (actually an inverted Kid Apocalypse) to murder a bunch of humans and decided that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb. He used his one-time wife Wasp as a human shield and escaped the re-inversion of his moral axis.
He decided to revel in this new-found evilness by hanging out with his brother, taking a nap, and helping lead a peaceful demonstration for mutant rights. When he was told that Cyclops had died fighting the Inhumans, Havok straight up called Emma Frost out and discovered her manipulation. He was still pretty upset about the genocide cloud killing his race (people, I mean specifically mutant people but he isn’t crazy about labels) and joined Emma in the fight to destroy the cloud. He had a change of heart after they captured Black Bolt when Alex realized that his boy scout brother would probably be upset with all the fighting. He did assist Emma in her mass murder of innocent Inhumans though, so maybe he only learned half of his lesson. He was Emma’s leading prelate in New Tian and is still working with her on whatever nefarious plan she has going on with Bastion and Ms. Sinister.
Must Read
Absolutely no question on this on because Havok and Wolverine Meltdown is the bomb dot com. It is a moody buddy road trip with an unlikely pair. The art by Jon J. Muth and Kent Williams is absolutely stunning and the Simonsons’ tell such an engaging tale about a stupid guy who can’t help falling in love with every red head he meets. This is the best hidden gem of the X-Men and deserves a read. There are few ways that $2 could be better spent.
Ranking
Most of the time when I write these articles I come out the other side liking a character more than I did. This is not one of those times. Havok is the guy you get when you can’t get Cyclops (looking at you Rise & Fall of the Shi’Ar Empire and also X-Men First Class). Worse than that, it has been absolutely years since the character has been written well. Looking only on the Summers we have on the list I like him better than Vulcan or Adam-X (who I’m counting because it is my blog) at 77 and 74 but less than Rachel at 36. He is better than his long time love Polaris at 71 but he isn’t as good as someone like Domino at 43. I think his high points are better than Wolfsbane at 49 but I am more excited for more Armor than more Alex Summers. That places Havok as the new number 49 in the Xavier Files.
Havok was requested by Nigel Anders on Patreon among other. Thank you for the request. If you have a request for how about you send it below? If you want to cut to the front of the two-year long line, we have a Patreon you can support Xavier Files for just $1 to get a line cutting reward.
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Next week I talk about Nimrod! Peace!
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Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
