The X-Men are a gang of mutants who have ruled many people’s screens and hearts, and the universe in which they inhabit is nothing short of magical. People born with incredible abilities and capabilities use them for good or evil, with some straddling the line between the two. Wolverine, Jean Gray, Storm, Cyclops, and Magneto are just a few of the iconic mutants from the series, and one of them is none other than the formidable Havok.
Alex Summers portrays Havok, a highly destructive mutant who was a founding member of the X-First Men and the previous commander of X-Factor. He first appeared in The X-Men #54, created by writer Arnold Drake and penciller Don Heck. Havok is best known for his ability to create gigantic “plasmablasts,” which he has had a hard time controlling.
He has had a few setbacks along the way, which has led to his assignment with the Hellions, Krakoa’s newest band of disturbed mutants, as he attempts to regain control of his mind and abilities. The X-Alex Men’s Summers has a physique that mixes deadly superpowers with a one-of-a-kind multiverse link. In this video, we will look at his history and how his abilities have changed through time.
The True Origin of Havok
Alexander Summers was born in the Hawaiian city of Honolulu. He was the second of three sons born to Christopher Summers, an U.s. Air Force Major and test pilot, and Katherine Anne Summers. However, what was a blossoming and beautiful happy family was not to last for long, and soon, disaster struck. When Alex was a child growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, United States, his father took the family for a ride in their airplane, which came under attack by a Shi’ar spaceship.
As the jet went up in flames and crashed, his parents strapped Alex and his elder brother, Scott, into parachute harnesses and threw them from the plane in the hopes that they would escape. The Summers brothers were rescued and placed in an institution, where Alex was quickly adopted, though his brother Scott stayed for the majority of his youth.
The Blandings took in and raised Alex after their son, Todd, perished in a vehicle accident. They attempted to mold Alex into the image of their son, and he did his best. When the child who killed Todd grabbed Alex and his foster sister, Haley, Alex used his talents for the first time, incinerating the boy.
Into the picture came Mister Sinister, a malevolent geneticist who was enamored with the Summers bloodline because of the powers the brothers possessed. Post this violent outburst of Alex, he looked thrilled but shocked that Alex’s potential outstripped Scott’s — despite the fact that he appeared to lack control over his talent. Sinister implanted psi-blocks in Alex’s and Haley’s minds, making them unable to recall what had occurred that night so that he would be able to recruit him and use him for his sinister deeds, as his name suggests.
Despite all his hardships, he went on to study geophysics in college and acquire a degree in the field. He first encountered the original X-Men there and discovered that Cyclops was actually his brother. His mutant abilities were then revealed when he was captured by the Living Pharaoh, who pronounced Alex to be the only being capable of rivaling his strength. In opposite proportions to each other, the two possessed identical cosmic energy-absorption powers.
The Pharaoh was able to absorb sufficient cosmic energy to become the Living Monolith by imprisoning Alex in a protected cell. The X-Men endured a crushing defeat against the nearly unbeatable Monolith until Alex was able to break free by himself and the Monolith reverted to the form of the Living Pharaoh.
Alex is better known as Havok and this name came to be in the following manner. Alex’s mutant power appeared to express itself only when he was close to death at first. He couldn’t control it and was terrified of its great power. Larry Trask and his Sentinels, who were hell-bent on controlling or destroying all mutants, later kidnapped Alex. Trask created an outfit for Alex to help him control his abilities, and he was given the code name Havok. Trask was revealed to be a mutant, and the Sentinels were destroyed by the X-Men. Havok, on the other hand, lost all control of his abilities, and his extra energy was consumed by Sauron. Havok then regained control of his abilities.
Havok then officially decided to join the X-Men and began dating Lorna Dane, much to the chagrin of Iceman, who was also interested in a relationship with her. Professor X then contacted Havok and Polaris about the impending arrival of the alien Z’Nox while the senior X-Men were all in the Savage Land.
The pair fell in love throughout this time. Havok and Polaris were abducted by Krakoa the living island alongside the original X-Men but were liberated by the new X-Men. The group’s active membership was then terminated by Havok and Polaris, along with the majority of the core members. Havok was kidnapped by the Living Pharaoh/Living Monolith once more, but this time he was saved by Spider-Man and Thor.
For many years, Havok and Polaris were sporadic members and allies of the X-Men. They alternated between conducting graduate study and receiving a postgraduate degree in the American Southwest — where they encountered the Hulk on occasion — and assisting Moira MacTaggert at her genetic research center on Muir Island, off the coast of Scotland. During their sojourn on Muir Island, Havok assisted the X-Men in their battle against Proteus. Alex eventually discovered that Corsair of the Starjammers was his biological father. Polaris was possessed by Malice during one of their escapades, temporarily ruining their loving engagement. Havok then went in search of and reunited with the X-Men.
Havok in X-Men Movies
Havok has so far been featured in three X-Men movies. In the film X-Men First Class, Alex Summers was seen to be in solitary confinement in a governmental prison, desiring it owing to the unpredictable nature of his talents. In 1962, Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr negotiated for his release in order for him to join their squad of mutant peacekeepers that they were forming for the CIA. The warden cautioned them against putting Alex in a group, as Alex was the only inmate he’d met who preferred solitary confinement. Alex grudgingly agreed to join them. The Hellfire Club raided the covert CIA base where they were staying while he was bonding with Xavier’s other recruits.
Sebastian Shaw, their commander, persuaded them to assist him in toppling mankind, stating that they should be with their brethren, the mutants rather than guarding the humans. Angel Salvadore accepted the bargain, and when Alex tried to assault Shaw with his energy waves, Shaw withstood the blast and used it to kill the mutant Darwin, who was attempting to rescue Angel. Following that, Alex and the others retreated to Xavier’s Mansion and started training to defeat Shaw. Xavier had converted an underground bomb bunker into a training facility for Alex, complete with mannequin targets. Alex was however unable to concentrate and regulate his energy beams on his own.
Hank McCoy then built a containment chamber for Alex, allowing him to concentrate his energy blasts which finally allowed him to control his own powers.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the crew came together to combat the Hellfire Club for the first time. Shaw was seeking to provoke America and Russia into a nuclear war. Summers was amazed at Hank McCoy’s fury, which accompanied his bestial change, and christened him “Beast” despite their initial squabble. He and Hank battled the mutant Azazel, and he also fought Angel alongside Banshee.
Despite the fact that his containment unit was destroyed in battle, he was able to stay focused on his ability sufficiently to release a laser that chopped off one of Angel’s wings, leading her to crash. Alex remained with Xavier at his new school for a brief duration after the battle until he was recruited into the Vietnam War.
His second appeal X-Men: Days of Future Past. Havok served in the military in Vietnam in 1973, alongside comrades Ink and Toad, while waiting to be hauled in for testing at Trask Industries by William Stryker. They were interrupted, however, by the appearance of an Army Colonel who turned out to be a disguised Mystique. He questioned Stryker’s motivations in kidnapping Havok and the others when they were supposed to be sent home.
Mystique then showed her actual form and attacked Stryker’s goons, who were also attacked by the other mutants. When Mystique seized Stryker by the neck, Havok launched an energy blast from his palm, knocking him over the table. Mystique informs him that she had it under control, to which Havok responds that he knew, implying that he did it to help shield her. Havok then asks where Magneto was, to which she responds that she was alone.
He then gets on a military plane with his fellow soldiers to return to America, leaving Mystique behind. An enraged Stryker attempts to prevent the plane from lifting off, but he was too late.
Interestingly, after Alex’s stint in the military, it is unknown what actually happened to him in the original timeline of this movie.
Alex made his third and final appearance on the big screen in X-Men: Apocalypse. Alex accompanied Scott to the X-Mansion as his younger brother began to manifest his own mutant power, reuniting him with Hank McCoy and Professor Xavier. He later joined Xavier at Moira MacTaggert’s house. Later, when Xavier employed Cerebro to contact Magneto, Apocalypse took possession of the professor and utilized his telepathy to fire every nuclear weapon in the world into space. Xavier commanded Alex to “wreak havoc” in an attempt to prevent him, and Alex demolished Cerebro.
Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen arrived at the X-Mansion after escaping Cerebro to capture a crippled Xavier. Havok fired an energy blast targeted for Angel in an attempt to halt them, but they teleported, forcing the projectile to impact a generator. The subsequent explosion wrecked the X-Mansion, but Quicksilver arrived and saved everyone else inside except Alex, who was murdered because he was the nearest to the blast.
Scott was very saddened by his passing. When Scott, Jean, and Kurt slipped into the helicopter that will take them to Alkali Lake, Scott wistfully told Jean that he should have perished instead of Alex, because Alex was the one who was going to do something with his life. Jean consoled him, informing him that she had previously read his mind and that Alex had faith in Scott’s ability to do great things with his life. Scott’s brother’s death had a significant influence on him, inspiring him to become a superhero and an X-Men in order to live up to his brother’s legacy.
Some lesser-known facts about Havok
There are a couple of things that are still not widely known about this literal force of nature.
Havok has once swapped bodies and this is how it happened. Alex attempted to reassemble his X-Factor unit and start a new chapter of his life after years of battle for control of his mind after being corrupted by many foes, yet he appeared to have died protecting the planet before the reassembled team’s first mission.
However, Alex’s psyche had been transferred to another universe, where he was inhabiting the body of another recently deceased Havok in Howard Mackie’s Mutant X series. This Havok was the leader of his corrupted version of the X-Men known as the Six, and he resided in a distorted reality as his opposite counterpart.
While the majority of Alex’s talents remained the same, his new body was wedded to Madelyne Pryor, and he had a kid called Scotty, who was named after the Mutant X reality’s lost Cyclops, to name a few of the adjustments Alex was forced to adapt to. Unfortunately, he soon found himself having to fight for the survival of his new reality against his ex-wife, who had transformed into the Goblin Queen. This cost him his new body and resulted in his psyche getting lost in a void until he was finally returned to his original body by a strong young mutant named Carter Ghazikhanian.
There are only a select few entities, such as Man-Thing, who are linked to the Nexus of All Realities, which acts as back-door access to the myriad parallel realities in Marvel’s vast multiverse. Notably, that nexus lived within Havok at one point. Alex Summers had been inextricably linked to every other version of Havok in the Multiverse, causing instabilities that both Alex and the Multiverse started to feel. This prompted the Timebrokers, a race of creatures, to assemble a team of dimension-hopping Exiles to rectify the faults in these realities and the Timebrokers discreetly began to obliterate the various versions of Havok.
When the 616 Havok went back to his home reality following the Mutant X series, he was pursued by the wicked specter of the slain Havok he had supplanted, who then attempted to seize control of their shared form. In Chuck Austen and Clayton Henry’s Exiles #30, the Exiles worked alongside the X-Men to aid the good Alex to recover control of his body, while the Timebrokers extinguished the evil ghost of Havok, cutting Havok’s link to the Nexus of All Realities.
Havok and his special powers
Havok’s physiology is already distinct from that of most other heroes, and the nature of his abilities has been a central theme in his adventures from his debut in Arnold Drake and Don Heck’s X-Men #54 in 1969. However, Havok’s unusual physiology has a few exceptional components that distinguish him distinct from the rest of mutantkind, both because of his own uncontrollable levels of strength and because of his ability to easily bring other powerful individuals to their knees.
Havok is an Alpha-level Mutant who absorbs atmospheric cosmic energy into his cells and converts it to plasma. As a result, you gain command of an extraordinarily powerful destructive force. At times, he is unable to fully control this talent, making him a risk to others around him unless he uses a special suit to assist him. The body of Havok is continually collecting cosmic radiation.
When the capacity of each of his body’s power-storage cell enclaves is reached, extra-cosmic energy is received and instantly re-emitted in minuscule proportions. Unless he absorbs a substantial amount of energy, it takes Havok’s body roughly 16 12 hours to recover to its highest level after he has expended all of his available energy.
The effort of concentration required to release his energy in anything but an omnidirectional wave is physically taxing for Havok if he does it for an extended period of time. He can absorb cosmic energies from his surroundings (such as starlight, x-rays, and gamma radiation) and store them inside of his body cells, then metabolize the energy to generate plasma wave discharges that super-heat and disintegrate items or concussion bursts by violently displacing air molecules in his path. His capacity to absorb energy is so powerful that he was able to withstand being placed into a massive Star and use its energy to boost his strengths to the point that he effortlessly outclassed and defeated Vulcan.
He can also shoot or emit plasma in the form of a burst or discharge, with a distinct concentric circular pattern. Unless he deliberately tries to channel them in a specific direction, generally along the length of his arms, these waves will erupt from his body in all directions. As a result, you gain command of an extraordinarily powerful destructive force. When Havok hits an object with the intense waves of hot plasma, the sudden enormous increase in temperature frequently causes objects to break, erupt, or appear to disintegrate. If Havok directs his energy at the lowest level, then he can direct it at a human being, who will suffer from a severe headache but will not burn up.
Havok may also utilize stored energy for flying by channeling it downward as propulsion, and is virtually impervious to most forms of heat and radiation. Intellectually talented, Havok is well-educated in geophysical sciences and has received martial arts training from Wolverine. This works even better because Havok has the usual human power of a man his age, height, and build who engages in frequent hard exercise.
However, he is not without weaknesses. At times, he is unable to fully control this talent, making him a danger to everybody around him unless he dons a special restraining suit. This could possibly be attributed to psychological trauma, like his brother, Scott, experienced. Furthermore, while he is not impervious to Vulcan’s powers, he is somewhat resistant to them due to his capacity to absorb energy. Havok is impervious to Cyclops’ optic blasts, much as he is immune to Cyclops’ powers.
Thus, Havok truly lives up to his name and was a formidable force in the movies before his tragic and untimely demise. His powers were truly a class apart and he had the potential and ability to be on par with some of the most powerful and revered mutants of his time. Do you like Havok and what do you think about his powers? Let us know in the comments below!