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Alexander Summers

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"You know, when I do this, bad things tend to happen."
―Alex Summers[src]

Alexander "Alex" Summers, known as Havok, was a class 4 mutant who could generate, manipulate and absorb plasma energy, process it and emanate it from his body as red rings of energy, later red energy blasts.

Alex was one of the first mutants to attend Charles Xavier's school and a member of the original X-Men. He was also the older brother of Scott Summers.

Biography[]

X-Men: First Class[]

Alex is a mutant shown to be in solitary confinement in a government prison, preferring it; due to the nature of his powers. In 1962, his release was arranged by Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr in order for him to join their team of mutant peacekeepers they were forming for the CIA. The warden cautioned them about putting him with others in a group, as Alex was the only prisoner he'd known to actually prefer solitary confinement.

While bonding with Xavier's other recruits, the secret CIA facility where they were staying was attacked by the Hellfire Club. Their leader, Sebastian Shaw, encouraged them to join him in overthrowing humanity. Angel Salvadore accepted the offer, and when Alex attempted to hit Shaw with his energy waves, Shaw absorbed the blast and used the energy to murder the mutant Darwin.

Afterwards, Alex and the others relocated to Xavier's Mansion where they began training to defeat Shaw. Team member Hank McCoy constructed a containment unit for him, allowing Alex to focus his energy blasts. After a successful test he had one built into his X-Men uniform.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the team assembled to finally confront the Hellfire Club, Summers was impressed with Hank McCoy's ferocity accompanying his bestial transformation and dubbed him Beast. He and Hank fought the mutant Azazel and he also faced Angel alongside Banshee.

X-Men: Days of Future Past[]

"You're not coming with us, are you?"
―Alex Summers[src]

As mentioned by Hank McCoy, Xavier's school shut down in the late 1960's when Alex, alongside most of the faculty and students, were drafted into the Vietnam War.

At the end of the war in 1973, Alex, alongside Toad, Ink, and another Mutant Soldier, was waiting in a Vietnam airfield barracks to be shipped back to America. However, Stryker then arrived to send the mutant soldiers to Trask Industries to be experimented on. However, Mystique broke in and rescued them. Mystique strangled Stryker to incapacitate him, but then kept squeezing, tempted to kill him. Seeing her reaction, Alex struck Stryker with one of his energy blasts, throwing him across the room and knocking him unconscious but leaving him alive. Mystique insisted that she "had" that one, but Alex sternly replied that he knew – despite what Stryker was trying to do, he was still unwilling to needlessly kill him.

Mystique then disguised herself as a general to secure the mutants' place on a plane leaving for America. Alex asked if she was coming with them, but she replied that she had a bigger fight to deal with.

X-Men: Apocalypse[]

"He got that from the Bible."
"Or the Bible got it from him?"
―Alex Summers and Moira MacTaggert on En Sabah Nur[src]

When Alex's younger brother, Scott Summers, manifested his mutant powers, he took him to Xavier's School. Alex met Xavier for the first time in years, introducing Scott to him. When training to examine Scott's abilities Xavier has Alex line him up so he can hit the target. However, Scott ends up destroying a tree that was apparently very special to Charles. Xavier then proceeds to enrol Scott into the school.

Later, Alex accompanied Xavier to consult Moira MacTaggert in the CIA, after the powers of En Sabah Nur caused disturbances. Moira told Alex and Xavier about a mutant called En Sabah Nur, who had appeared throughout time and inspired legends and gods. He was the oldest mutant. Ever since 1973, cults had worshiped mutants. There was a cult in Cairo, where the disturbances were from, dedicated to En Sabah Nur.

When Xavier used Cerebro to locate Magneto, En Sabah Nur used his telepathy to hack Cerebro and take over Charles. Charles then orders Alex to destroy Cerebro and "reap havoc". After helping the others drag Xavier He and his horsemen appeared in the mansion, abducting Xavier. Alex, trying to stop En Sabah Nur, accidentally caused a blast that destroyed the mansion. While Quicksilver was able to get everyone to safety Alex being closest to the blast was presumably incinerated. Scott mourned his brother's death and claimed it should have been him who should have died, however, Jean assured him that Alex believed Scott would do great things having read his mind. This inspired Scott to ultimately become one of the newest members of the X-Men.

Alex's body was never found after the explosion or during the rebuilding of the X-Mansion, and it is implied he died in the blast despite the nature of his mutation.

Character traits[]

Similar to his younger brother, Scott Summers, Alex is terrified of the damage his powers might do to others; due to his lack of control over his cosmic energy at the time. Alex initially came across as a bully, mainly to Hank McCoy, but it was shown later that he ultimately cares about his teammates and displays a great deal of loyalty to them all. Alex still considered each of the original team his allies, particularly Erik Lehnsherr and Mystique, despite differences in affiliations and after many years apart. Alex also is shown to have a playful personality that at times comes across too harsh, but in his later years mellowed and matured; leading to him serve as something of a comic relief in X-Men: Apocalypse as he teased and judged Hank McCoy, Charles Xavier and his brother Scott on their respective failed romances.

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

  • Mutant Physiology: Havok was a powerful mutant who could project energy blasts from his entire body.
    • Plasmagenesis: Havok could generate, create and project several different types of energy, particularly bright red plasma energy from both of his hands or his entire body.
      • Energy Blasts: Havok could generate, create and project bright red energy blasts from both of his hands or his chest.
    • Plasmakinesis: Havok could manipulate several different types of energy, particularly plasma energy. Normally when he used his powers, the rings travel in all directions and burn down everything around him, but he was given a device to channel his powers in a straight line. By the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past; he was now completely in control of his plasma energy and was able to fire the red energy into a small ball, that knocked Stryker across the room without burning him.
    • Energy Absorption: Havok could absorb several different types of energy, particularly plasma energy. He could also discharge it as his own.
    • Superhuman Longevity: Havok's continuous passive energy absorption greatly slowed his ageing process, in a manner similar to Sebastian Shaw, resulting in him still appearing in his mid-twenties during X-Men: Apocalypse.

Abilities[]

  • Skilled Hand-To-Hand Combatant: As a former soldier of the Vietnam war, Havok is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant.

Weaknesses[]

Former Weaknesses[]

  • Lack of Control: Initially, Havok could not control his plasma energy, as it had a tendency to it shoot out in several directions simultaneously; when he tried aiming it precisely. However, by the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past; Havok now has complete control over his plasma energy.

Equipment[]

  • X-Man uniform: Alex wears a protective suit when he is out on the field in battle. It also contains a chest piece that allows him to direct his powers into a beam. At some point between X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past he no longer uses it or any variation of it.

Relationships[]

Appearances/Actors[]

Behind the scenes[]

  • Lucas Till was originally cast as Beast, but decided not to because of the amount of time for makeup, but was later cast as Havok instead. When told by the producers told Till his audition served for both Havok and Beast, Till replied that despite his lifelong dream of playing a superhero: "I know you'll kill me, but if I get Beast, I'm not in the movie. I'm not going through that makeup everyday."

Trivia[]

  • In the comics, Alex Summers is the younger brother of Scott Summers (aka Cyclops). Cyclops joins the X-Men and obtains leadership first. Havok briefly attended the X-Men but in later continuity was chosen to be the leader of X-Factor, a similarly-themed team of mutants under government jurisdiction. In the films, Havok is Cyclops' older brother instead of the other way round.
  • In the comics, Alex can generate, manipulate and absorb cosmic energy, but in the films, he generates, manipulates and absorbs plasma energy.
  • Days of Future Past revealed that Alex was one of only a few mutants from Xavier's "first class" of X-Men to survive. Banshee, Angel, Azazel and Emma Frost (and presumably, also Riptide) were all experimented on and killed by Trask Industries (or other anti-mutant factions) between films. Magneto and Mystique went their separate ways, while Hank stayed with Xavier to take care of him. It is unknown if Alex would attempt to reconnect with Xavier and Beast after returning from Vietnam.
  • When Magneto is retrieving his helmet from the Department of Defence (in X-Men: Days of Future Past), you can see Havok's damaged X-Men uniform.
  • In an older draft of the Days of Future Past script, there was a scene with Havok and Angel running through the woods in an experimental attack by a Trask Sentinel. This was the first time you see a glimpse of the Sentinels. It had been cut before the movie ever was shot, mainly for budget reasons.
  • In Apocalypse Alex references En Sabah Nur's four horsemen as biblical, possibly serving a small nod to his Catholic origins from his devout foster family the Blandings.
  • The manner in which Havok is presumably killed in Apocalypse directly contradicts his ability to absorb energies like that of the blast, leading many to believe he may have survived.

Gallery[]

X-Men: First Class[]

X-Men: Days of Future Past[]

X-Men Apocalypse[]

See Also[]

See: Havok on the
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