Havok
Real name: Alexander ("Alex") Summers
Other aliases: None
Identity: Secret
Occupation: (current) Adventurer, (former) Graduate student in
geophysics
Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record
Place of birth: Honolulu, Hawaii
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Scott (Cyclops, brother), Christopher (Corsair,
father), Katherine Anne (mother, deceased), Philip (grandfather),
Deborah (grandmother), Madelyne Pryor-Summers (sister-in-law, deceased)
Base of operations: (current) Alexandria, VA, (former) Diablo mountain
range in Arizona, and the University of California, Berkeley, California
Group affiliation: (former) X-Men, X-Factor, Brotherhood
First appearance: X-MEN (first series) #58
History: Alexander Summers is the younger of the two sons of Christopher
Summers, a United States Air Force Major and test pilot, and his wife
Katherine Anne. Alex and his mother and older brother Scott were flying
back from a vacation in Christopher's vintage airplane when the plane
crashed into a scout ship of the Shi'ar Empire, setting the wooden plane
ablaze. Katherine Anne Summers pushed Scott and Alex out of the burning
plane with the only available parachute. Thus the two boys escaped the
Shi'ar while their parents did not. Scott and Alex both believed their
parents had been killed until as adults they were reunited with their
father, who had since become Corsair, leader of the Starjammers, a
starfaring band of adventurers. The two boys were hospitalized for
injuries they sustained during their landing, since their overburdened
parachute had been unable to slow their decent safely enough. Scott and
Alex both suffered traumatic amnesia regarding the plane incident. Alex
left the hospital after two weeks and was placed in an orphanage in
Omaha, Nebraska. Soon adopted, Alex had little or no contact with Scott
until years later.
Alex was unaware of Scott's developing mutant power or his identity as
Cyclops of the X-Men until after the younger Summers had graduated from
college. It was at that time that Alex first became aware of his own
mutant abilities. A professor of archeology named Ahmet Abdol, also a
mutant, had discovered a psychic link between himself and Summers. While
both of them had the latent mutant power to absorb and transform cosmic
radiation, Abdol's ability to exercise the power was jammed in an
unknown manner by Summers' body. The Living Pharoah, as this mutant was
calling himself, captured the youth and took him to his laboratory in
Egypt. Abdol found a way to screen Summers' body from ambient cosmic
radiation, permitting his own body to attain its latent potential. Abdol
was transformed into the Living Monolith, a gigantic mutant with vast
cosmic power. The Monolith was defeated while in combat with the X-Men
when Summers' latent mutant powers surfaced under the stress of
entombment within the mechanism designed to screen him from cosmic
radiation.
Incapable of controlling the shock waves his body emanated, Summers
chose to remain in the Egyptian desert rather than accompany the X-Men
back to America.
Summers was soon captured by one of the mutant-hunting robotic Sentinels
and brought to the headquarters of Larry Trask, the son of the
Sentinels' inventor. Trask gave Summers the codename Havok and a costume
whose chest display monitored the build-up of cosmic energy within him.
When the X-Men finally freed Trask's captive mutants, Summers
accompanied his brother and his teammates back to civilization where he
began training to help him keep his energy in check. Eventually Havok
gained enough mastery over his power that he would release it only when
he wished to do so, and could wield his power skillfully enough to
become a formidable opponent in battle. Havok fell in love with Lorna
Dane, the mutant now known as Polaris. They both served for a time in
the X-Men helping to repel the invasion by the alien Z'nox. Neither
Havok nor Polaris wished to lead a life as an adventurer, but they
discovered that they had a mutual interest in geophysics. Hence, they
began doing doctoral research in that subject in the Diablo mountain
range in Arizona.
The plan to stay out of the affairs of the outside world did not last
long. Havok and Polaris found themselves hunted by the Marauders.
Polaris was now under the mental control of Malice. Polaris was forced
to attack the X-Men as the leader of the Marauders. Havok, now a member
of the X-Men, had to fight his lover. Polaris was eventually freed from
Malice's control, but was captured by the mutant named Zaladane, who
claimed to be her sister and stole her powers. For a short while,
Polaris gained new superhuman powers.
Later, Polaris regained her original powers and, with Havok, joined the
second version of X-Factor, a newly-formed, governmentally-funded,
mutant agency.
Havok continued to serve with X-Factor until he felt that there were too
many people in his life that had been controlling him. He was also
deeply affected by the apparent death of his teammate Jamie Madrox.
Disillusioned with both the X-Men and X-Factor, Havok teamed up with the
Black Beast, the Beast's evil counterpart from another timeline.
Together they founded a team of mutant terrorists called the
Brotherhood. However, Havok did not truly become a terrorist; he joined
the Brotherhood only in order to stop the Black Beast's sinister plans.
At present Havok has left the Brotherhood and is operating
independently.
Height: 6'
Weight: 175 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Blonde
Strength level: Havok possesses the normal human strength of a man his
age, height and build who engages in intensive regular exercise.
Known superhuman powers: Havok is a mutant with the superhuman ability
to absorb ambient cosmic energy into the cells of his body, transform it
in an unknown manner, and release it as waves of energy that heat the
air in their path enough to turn it into plasma. (Plasma is a
super-heated state of matter consisting of charged subatomic particles.)
These waves will emanate from his body in all directions unless he
purposefully tries to channel them in a single directions, usually along
the length of his arms. Havok is himself immune to the intense heat he
creates. Whether he is immune to intense heat from other sources is not
yet known.
Despite past accounts, the energy that Havok releases is not truly a
concussive force. When Havok strikes an object with the waves of
intensity of hot plasma, the sudden vast jump in temperature will often
cause objects to shatter, explode, or seemingly disintegrate, and an
observer might therefore wrongly think that the object had been struck
by a concussive force. Should Havok direct his energy at the lowest
level, he can project it towards a human being and his target will
suffer a severe headache but will not burn up.
Havok's body is constantly in the process of 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 available energy, it takes Havok's body about 16.5 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
