Havok (Marvel)
Havok is a male comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Alexander Summers was a male human Mutant born the son of Christopher Summers and his wife Katherine Ann Summers. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #144) It was shown that he was the younger brother of Scott Summers. (X-Men v1 #54)
He was 6 years old when he and his 10 year old brother Scott were with their parents who took them on a flight on-board their father's plane. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #144)
The brothers were then taken to County General Hospital in Anchorage with Scott's injuries leading to him suffering from some memory loss. In this time, the siblings were deemed orphans leading to Dr. Robyn Hanover taking custody of Scott Summers as she was the administrator of a state-run orphanage in Nebraska. They were then taken to live Sunset Home for Foundlings where the orphans had to stay until they were adopted by a family. (Uncanny Origins v1 #1)
Alex was raised by the Blandings, whose son, Todd, was killed in a car accident, leaving them and their daughter disturbed. They constantly tried to make Alex fit into their image of their son, which he tried to do as best as he could. When the boy who killed Todd kidnapped Alex and his foster sister, Haley, and then tried to blow up their house, Alex manifested his powers for the first time, incinerating the boy. Sinister appeared, quite surprised that Alex’s potential even exceeded that of Scott but, unfortunately, he seemed lacking any control over his gift. He placed psi-blocks on both Alex and Haley, causing them to forget everything that happened that night. (X-Factor v1 #-1)
X-Men
Alex Summers was a normal human youth who had recently finished his formal education and graduated from Old Landon College. Raised separately from his biological brother Scott due to a childhood adoption, he remained entirely unaware of his true mutant heritage or his family lineage. Following his graduation ceremony, he returned to his private quarters to change out of his academic cap and gown. His life was abruptly upended when a fanatical cabal of attackers dressed in ancient Egyptian attire ambushed him, hailing him as royalty. The cultists subjected him to a knockout gas and abducted him from the school grounds, transporting him to a hidden Egyptian exhibit inside a metropolitan museum. There, he was bound to an altar to serve as a living sacrifice for a mysterious, energy-wielding zealot known as the Living Pharaoh. Although his brother Scott and the X-Men successfully tracked his location and interrupted the ritual, the sudden, traumatic stress of the event began to unlock the latent, highly unstable mutant energy dormant within his genetics. (X-Men v1 #54)
The X-Men did not want to go to a common hospital, as it would have endangered their secret identities. Instead, they found the address of a Dr. Karl Lykos in Xavier‘s notes and he was eager to help. Alex was taken to Lykos‘ practice for treatment, though, in actuality, Lykos' treatment was to drain lifeforce from his victims, feeding his own vampiric urges. When he tried to absorb Havok's lifeforce, the incredible amounts of mutant energy triggered his transformation into Sauron, a pterodactyl energy vampire. Without knowing that the creature was the same doctor they had met only hours before, the X-Men battled with Sauron until his energies were depleted. Returning to his home, Lykos once more wanted to leech off Havok but was intercepted by his girlfriend, Tanya, and Alex was released with a clean bill of health. (X-Men v1 #61) Havok actively joined the X-Men and began a relationship with Lorna Dane, much to the anger of Iceman, who too showed a romantic interest in the magnetic mutant. While the senior X-Men were busy in the Savage Land, Havok and Lorna were approached by Xavier about the imminent invasion of the alien Z’Nox. They had never met the professor before, so they were not as shocked as the other team members, who believed their mentor dead, while he in isolation had been preparing defenses against the aliens. (X-Men v1 #65)
Shortly afterwards, the X-Men encountered a group called the Promise. They wanted to wait for the time after the final confrontation between humans and mutants and only stepped out of their cryogenic chambers every ten years to check on the world’s status and to recruit more members. In one of these occasions, they targeted Lorna and Alex, as they had not yet been indoctrinated by Xavier and could be easier influenced. However, not all within the group agreed with the ways of leader Thomas Messenger and he was killed by Lucy Robinson, who also helped to free Alex from the chamber that would have put her in suspended animation for ten years. With the rest of the team fighting the Mole Man, Havok was the only one that could go to New York and try to aid the Fantastic Four in their battle against Namura and Magneto. Yet Alex never reached his destination, as an angry mob thought he was part of Magneto’s and Namura’s invading army and so he had his first painful confrontation with anti-mutant hysteria. (X-Men: The Hidden Years v1 #21)
While living in the Rio Diablo Mountains of New Mexico, Alex and Lorna stumbled upon a Brood Star-shark. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #218) Alex went to warn the X-Men, who he found on the run from the Mister Sinister's Marauders. Storm ordered Psylocke to erase his memory so he would not remember the X-Men were going to go underground and become a proactive strike force. Because Professor Xavier had trained him in mental defense, his psi-shields made him have reoccurring nightmares of being attacked by the X-Men. Alex left Lorna to check on the X-Men again. This time Psylocke refused to erase his memory a second time, fearing she might damage his mind. Havok agreed to return to the X-Men in their time of need. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #219) While Havok was away the Marauders went after Polaris. The psychic entity Malice possessed her body and assumed leadership of the Marauders. Havok ran into Polaris/Malice in San Francisco when she was attempting to kill Madelyne Pryor, who was still in a hospital. Malice made Alex aware of the fact that Lorna was being controlled and tormented him with the knowledge that he could do nothing about it. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #222) In Dallas, Texas, the X-Men and Madelyne Pryor gave their lives to imprison the Adversary. The Omniversal Guardian Roma restored the X-Men to life. The event was broadcast live on television and the world believed the heroes to be dead. After being resurrected, the X-Men decided to go underground and keep their rebirth secret. The X-Men resurfaced in Australia, where they defeated the Reavers and claimed their base. Roma magically made them invisible to any sort of detection such as cameras. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #229)
Madelyne transformed into the Goblin Queen and caused a demonic invasion of New York with Havok as her Goblin Prince. When X-Factor and X-Men met, Madelyne manipulated brother against brother. Havok accused Cyclops of abandoning his wife when she most needed him. Madelyne, at last, learned she was a clone of Jean and was driven mad. She died fighting the X-Men and X-Factor while trying to sacrifice her son to gain more power. (X-Factor v1 #38)
X-Factor
The team battled the fanatical terrorist Haven who believed that, when the Mahapralaya came, the world would be destroyed and a new golden age would come about after it. Haven hoped to bring Mahapralaya about early. She took Wolfsbane through a Pralaya, moving her in and out of pocket dimensions, and cured her of the genetic bond. When Haven tried to cure Multiple Man of the Legacy Virus, she failed, killing him. (X-Factor v1 #100)
Havok rejoined Lorna and what was left of X-Factor at the time. However, his teammate Greystone developed a severe case of temporal insanity and tried to use a slipshod time machine to return to his own time. Havok attempted to stop him but the time machine exploded, apparently killing them both. (X-Factor v1 #149)
In the explosion, Alex's mind was transported to another reality, where he took over the body of his counterpart, who too was on the brink of death, as he had been shot by Sentinels. In this reality, Alex was leader of the Six, a team consisting of himself and altered versions of Madelyne Pryor, Iceman, Beast, Archangel and Storm. (Mutant X v1 #1)
Starjammers
Uncanny Avenger
At the end of the war, Captain America realized that the Avengers had stood by and allowed the world to hate mutants and that they should have done more to help them. As a result, he formed a new team of Avengers in hopes of unifying mutant and humankind. He chose Havok to lead his team and become the new face to represent Mutants. He was then invited to the Avengers Mansion where Captain America wanted him to join the ranks of the Avengers as part of an initiative bringing X-Men alongside the other heroes. (Uncanny Avengers v1 #1)
During their fight Kang burned the left half of Havok's face badly leaving him scarred severely. (Uncanny Avengers v1 #22)
As part of his plan to create mutant concentration camps in Genosha, the returned Red Skull abducted Havok, Rogue, and the Scarlet Witch. They managed to break free, and rescued Magneto, whom they found captured after a failed attempt to kill the Red Skull. (Uncanny Avengers v1 #24) When they confronted the Red Skull and his S-Men, Magneto killed Shmidt's disciples and brutally murdered the villain. However, his actions unleashed the Red Onslaught. (Uncanny Avengers v1 #25)
The three members of the Unity Division and Magneto tried to confront the Red Onslaught, and were helped by the arrival of the Avengers, both teams of X-Men, and allies of both teams. However, the Red Skull was prepared, and unleashed his Stark Sentinels. (Avengers & X-Men: AXIS v1 #1) The Scarlet Witch and Doctor Doom managed to cast a spell to invert the axis of Skull's brain, to make a fragment of Charles Xavier still present in it take control of the Skull's body and stop the Red Onslaught. The inversion spell was a success, and the Red Skull was knocked unconscious and reversed from his Red Onslaught form. Before he could wake up to reveal whether Charles Xavier was now in control or not, as the X-Men wanted, the Avengers decided to be cautious and take the Red Skull prisoner to the Stark Tower. This caused Havok to resign from the Unity Division and side with the now-unified two teams of X-Men and his brother, with whom he reconciled. (Avengers & X-Men: AXIS v1 #3) The inverted X-Men declared Manhattan for mutants, and planned on detonating a gene bomb to kill every non-mutant on the Earth. (Avengers & X-Men: AXIS v1 #6) Havok retrieved the Wasp from the Avengers Tower when the inverted X-Men stormed the building. Alex tried to convince his brother to spare Wasp's life from a gene bomb the X-Men planned to detonate which would have killed every person on the Earth who was not a Mutant. (Avengers & X-Men: AXIS v1 #7) After the bomb's detonation was prevented, Havok freed Wasp and tried to escape with her, claiming he was the one who defused the bomb. After realizing he hadn't done such a thing, Janet turned on him and then rejoined the Axis to prevent Steve Rogers from helping the inverted Red Skull reinvert the affected heroes and villains. Havok was accidentally shielded by Iron Man who had created a shield to resist the spell and remained evil. Alex then used Wasp as leverage to escape from the heroes, and later joined Cyclops' X-Men. (Avengers & X-Men: AXIS v1 #9)
House of X
Following the establishment of Krakoa, the living island came to serve as a homeland for Mutants around the world with Havok coming to reside there. He was on a mission with the X-Men in shutting down activity from the Hellfire Cult when he was attacked by one of the human cultists. This caused Alex to snap and he nearly killed the man despite a proclamation that no Mutant was to kill a human being. This caused him to be brought before the Quiet Council to answer for his actions where it was decided that he would be placed on a team consisting of other Mutants struggling to adapt to life on the island. The team were then deployed on their first mission by Mister Sinister which was to destroy one of his old bases whose cloning chambers had gone rogue. (Hellions v1 #1)
From the Ashes
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Alex Summers was a tall, athletic human youth of Caucasian descent with a clean-shaven face and short, neatly parted blonde hair. During his collegiate graduation ceremony, he wore a traditional, formal academic outfit consisting of a long, dark graduation gown worn over his civilian clothes, complete with a matching square mortarboard cap and tassel. Upon returning to his dorm room, he stripped away his ceremonial attire to reveal a standard, stylish civilian outfit suited for a young adult of the late 1960s. This wardrobe consisted of a light-coloured, long-sleeved button-up shirt paired with dark, tailored trousers and standard leather dress shoes. Unlike his later operational activity as a costumed superhero, his debut featured no specialized containment gear, tactical armor, or superhero iconography, presenting the visual profile of an ordinary, unsuspecting university graduate. (X-Men v1 #54) After being adopted, he initially came to take his foster family's last name and went by Alex Blanding. (X-Factor v1 #-1)
He was unaware of the fact that he was a Mutant at first until the manifestation of his powers. (X-Men v1 #54) After manifesting his powers, he struggled with controlling it and feared that he would accidentally kill people with it. (X-Men v1 #57)
Alexander Summers was the son of Major Christopher Summers who was a pilot in the U.S.A.F. and his mother was Katherine Ann Summers. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #144) (Uncanny X-Men v1 #144) He had an older by the name of Scott Summers. (X-Men v1 #54)
Powers and abilities
He came to be classed as an Alpha-level Mutant. (X-Men v2 #94) At first, he was unaware he was a Mutant until adulthood when a moment of stress led to him reflexively using his powers. (X-Men v1 #55) At first, it was shown that he could not control his own abilities. (X-Men v1 #56)
Alex Summers possessed the genetic potential for immense, near-infinite mutant capabilities centered around the involuntary absorption and discharge of ambient cosmic radiation. In his initial appearance, these radioactive traits remained largely dormant, hidden behind standard human physical limitations and normal athletic conditioning. However, his unique biological makeup granted him an innate, complete immunity to the specific plasma blasts and cosmic energy projections generated by the Living Pharaoh. This hereditary genetic link created a symbiotic power dynamic with the villain, ensuring that as long as Alex was alive, his body naturally suppressed and limited the Pharaoh's ultimate destructive capacity. The intense psychic and physical trauma of his abduction acted as a biological catalyst, initiating the volatile awakening of his cellular energy matrix and setting the stage for his conversion into a highly destructive living plasma generator. (X-Men v1 #54)
According to the Living Pharaoh, cosmic rays were responsible for giving Alex Summers his powers. (X-Men v1 #56) It was able to turn it into pure destructive force with it being turned into savage, stone smashing-energy where it could raze an entire temple. (X-Men v1 #57)
Using his plasma-based energy, he managed to retain the mini-black hole effects from Xorn's head for a long time. (X-Men v2 #160)
Havok had displayed the ability to breathe in space by using the energy absorbed from a star as a barrier between himself and the surrounding vacuum. This power appears to only operate under extreme conditions and require immense levels of energy that are well above what he can regularly obtain. (X-Men: Emperor Vulcan v1 #5)
It was shown that he was immune to his brother's optical blasts. (Giant Size X-Men v1 #1)
Notes
- Havok was created by Arnold Drake and Don Heck where he made his first appearance in Uncanny X-Men v1 #54 (March, 1969).
Alternate Versions
In other media
Television
- In X-Men, Havok appeared in the 1990s animated television series in the episode "Cold Comfort" though his voice actor was uncredited. Havok's early life is unknown. He is the brother of Scott Summers. While flying with his brother, mother, and father their plane was attacked by aliens. Their parents gave Scott and Havok parachutes and sent them away. Scott went away to a orphanage. What happened to Havok is not stated. He grew up and became the superhero Havok and eventually joined X-Factor. At some point Havok met and became involved with fellow X-Factor member Lorna Dane. Their leader Forge set up a "friendly skirmish" after realizing that Iceman would lead the X-Men to them. Forge wanted to test his team against theirs. During the battle Havok fought against Cyclops, the alternate identity of Scott. However, during their skirmish they found they could not hurt each other. After the battle ended Lorna came to him, much to the anger of Iceman. Since it was her choice Iceman let her go.
- In X-Men: Evolution, Havok appeared in the setting of the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Matt Hill. Alex was separated from his brother Scott after their parents died in a plane crash. Alex was adopted by the Masters family and grew up to be a surfer. As he grew up his joints would hurt from time to time. The mutant Magneto came to him and explained that he was also a mutant. He also reintroduced him to his long-lost brother, who was team leader of the X-Men. The two went to Asteroid M where their powers were enhanced with the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak. However, they fought against Magneto and used their powers to destroy the asteroid, defeating him and returning to normal. Though they did not live together, Alex and Scott remained in contact and saw each other often. At one point, Mystique imitated Alex to trap Cyclops so she could strand him in Mexico. Jean Grey contacted Alex, discovered the deception, and was able to find Scott. Havok aided the X-Men and Brotherhood of Mutants in defeating Apocalypse and his Horsemen of Apocalypse.
Films
- In X-Men: First Class, Havok appeared in the live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Lucas Till.
- In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Havok appeared in the live-action sequel film where he was once again portrayed by actor Lucas Till.
Video games
- In X-Men Legends, Havok appeared as an NPC in the setting of the video game where he was voiced by actor Matt Nolan. At some point, Havok joins the Brotherhood and aids them during their mission to the Russian Nuclear Plant, where he uses his powers to protect Magneto from radiation. Later, Charles Xavier, Emma Frost and Jean Grey travel to the Astral Plane to rescue Illyana Rasputin. At the exact same time, Havok meets Cyclops at the abandoned Weapon X facility in Canada. There, Alex reveals that he's now a member of the Brotherhood and was the one who protected Magneto in Russia, much to Scott's dismay. Afterwards, the two brothers enter a physical battle, because their powers are immune on each other. A short time later, Wolverine arrives and breaks up their fight. At first, Cyclops thinks Wolverine followed him, but the Canadian mutant reveals that he came on his own, due to his ties with Weapon X. Havok then travels with the two through the corridors of the facility, which is now inhabited with GRSO Soldiers and mutant torture chambers. After helping his brother and Wolverine defeat the soldiers and rescuing the mutant prisoners, the last prisoner (a Morlock) reveals that General Kincaid is responsible for all of this, having created "Operation: Vigilance" to not only run tests, but to destroy mutants and wipe them off the face of the Earth. After the mission, Havok refuses to go back to the X-Mansion, due to his affiliation with the Brotherhood and loyalty to Magneto. Despite Scott's plea, Alex says goodbye to his brother and leaves the facility.
- In X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, Havok appeared as an NPC in the setting of the video game where he was voiced by actor Scott Holst.
- In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, Havok appeared in the setting of the video game where he was voiced by actor Jason Zumwalt.
Appearances
- X-Men v1: (1969)
- Uncanny X-Men v1:
- X-Factor v1:
- Uncanny Origins v1:
- Uncanny X-Men v1:
- X-Men: Emperor Vulcan v1:
- Uncanny Avengers v1:
- X-Men: Blue:
- Astonishing X-Men v4:
- Hellions v1: (2020)
- X-Men v6:
External Links
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