HAVOK: Page 7 of 13

BIOGRAPHY - Page 7

Alex’s happiness with Annie was short-lived. When they returned from Paris, Alex became the target of the Timebroker, a temporal entity who claimed that he was charged with repairing damaged timelines. According to the Timebroker, Havok had become temporally linked to his counterparts of every convergent reality and a powerful nexus of realities. In order to preserve the temporal balance, the Timebroker opted to eliminate all of these Alex Summers,  especially as the consciousness of the misguided Havok from the Mutant X-reality was still buried in Alex’ subconscious, and about to take over. However, by the time the Timebroker’s agents, the dimension-hopping team called the Exiles, arrived to warn Havok and the X-Men, it was already too late. Possessed by his evil inter-dimensional counterpart, “Alex” lashed out at Carter, who he held responsible for leaving him behind in the inter-dimensional void when he rescued Alex’s consciousness. During the brief moments that Alex was able to assert control, he told the Exiles to kill him if that was what was needed to save Carter and Annie from his evil self. Fortunately, this did not prove necessary, though, as when Nocturne fully possessed Havok, it drove the evil psyche out of his body long enough for the Timebroker to eliminate him permanently. [Exiles (1st series) #28-30]

[Note: Although the “Timebroker“ lied about his identity, him being actually a holographic projection by the insect race operating the Crystal Place outside time and space, his claim about Havok’s temporal interconnectedness still seems to have been correct. After all, the only reason for their charade was their attempt to repair timelines having gone wrong and undo the damages to the timestream.]

A couple of weeks later, Xavier departed to Genosha and left the school in the care of Cyclops and Emma Frost. The new headmasters reorganized the X-Men, and Havok was now officially assigned to lead one squad of the X-Men. During this time, a mounting tension developed between Alex and his teammate Iceman, who blamed Havok for stealing Lorna away from him years earlier and sabotaging his chance at happiness with Annie, who he was developing feelings for around the time Alex was supposed to marry Lorna. Alex himself had questions about how far Annie’s involvement with Iceman went. This combined with his duties as leader of the X-Men began to drive a wedge between the two. [X-Men (2nd series) #157]

In his professional relationships with his teammates, Havok didn’t fare much better. Lingering tensions with both Iceman and Polaris resulted in a rocky start as leader of this new team of X-Men. Once more, Alex began questioning and doubting his ability to be an effective leader. Despite this, the team performed admirably as they faced threats such as the Collective Man and a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. After the numerous injuries, riots and attacks she had witnessed at the Xavier Institute, Annie decided that she had to leave the school in order to ensure the safety of her son. She left without saying good-bye to Alex, but did ask Polaris (of all people) to look after him. In typical Summers brother style, Havok showed little emotional reaction to Annie’s sudden departure. [X-Men (2nd series) #158-164]

With Annie and Carter gone, Alex has devoted himself fully to his role as leader of the X-Men. He is still getting over his awkward start with his new team and dealing with the mounting tensions between he and Iceman.  He has also been showing signs of jealousy, now that Polaris has shifted her affections to Iceman. Alex’s patterns of jealousy have increased notably since the team’s encounter with the creature known as Golgotha. During the X-Men’s battle with Golgotha, Alex and Lorna became separated from the rest of the team, and Lorna had some sort of vision. She has yet to tell what exactly she saw, but Havok is determined to find out. [X-Men (2nd series) #166-170]

Alex ardently pursued his obsession with what Polaris saw during the Golgotha incident, upsetting Lorna on several occasions. He came to the realization that he was still in love with Lorna and this entire obsession was just his way of hiding it. He soon confessed this to Lorna, admitting leaving her for Annie was the biggest mistake of his life. Lorna, however was reluctant to discuss the matter, being committed to Bobby and they were interrupted soon after by a crisis. [X-Men (2nd series) #171-174]

Tragically, Alex’s sister-in-law, Jean, had been killed by Magneto. To everyone’s surprise, his brother Scott moved on soon after and started a relationship with the White Queen, Emma Frost. Alex fulfilled his familial duties by lending a friendly ear to his niece Rachel, who feel Scott was disrespecting her mother’s memory and needed to vent about the situation. [X-Men Unlimited (2nd series) #11]

Things took a dramatic turn for Havok when M-Day occurred. Mutants all around the world lost their abilities, reducing the mutant population to a mere handful. Alex managed to retain his powers, however Lorna did not. After nearly being killed, Lorna decided to leave the X-Men and search out the thing she saw in space. Not wanting Lorna to go on her own, and refusing to let Iceman (who was having difficulty with controlling his powers) accompany her, Alex also quit the X-Men to protect her. Despite his brother Cyclops’ resistance, Alexleft shortly after. [X-Men (2nd series) #177-179]

Though she couldn’t say how she knew it, Lorna sensed that whatever it was that she had seen in space was about to land on Earth and that it would be able to restore her powers. The pair travelled to Costa Rica posing as a couple, unaware they were being hunted by the Leper Queen and her mutant hating Sapien League. By the time that the League’s leader, the Leper Queen, caught up with Alex and Lorna, they had just reached the crash-site of a giant green blob – it was this creature that Lorna had seen in space, which she called Daap.

Lorna was overjoyed to find the creature, but Alex was untrusting, and his wariness was reinforced by the sudden arrival of Apocalypse’s sphinx ship. When she tried to run to the strange creature, Daap, Alex tried to physically restrain her, leading to it blasting him away. Determined to protect Lorna, he in turn blasted Daap to pieces. At the same time, Lorna was attacked by the Leper Queen and the pair were covered by the liquefied Daap, which somehow sucked the pair up into the air and vanished. Alex could only watch helplessly as the woman he loved vanished along with Apocalypse’s ship. [X-Men (2nd series) #180-181]

With no leads on Lorna’s whereabouts, and suspecting she might be dead, Alex had no choice but to return to the X-Men. Almost immediately upon his arrival back at the mansion, Apocalypse arrived in his massive sphinx ship. Given the recent devastation of M-Day, Apocalypse had returned to mutant kind, intending to be their savior. Alex lead a squad into Apocalypse’s ship to take the villain down but was shocked to discover his team mate Gambit and former X-Man Sunfire had both defected and became horsemen.

He was further shocked to learn that Polaris too had been converted by Apocalypse into the Horseman Pestilence. During the chaotic battle between the X-Men and Apocalypse, Pestilence was injured and stopped breathing. Despite her having absorbed dozens of viruses and diseases during her transformation, Alex administered mouth to mouth resuscitation without hesitation, risking infection with the world’s deadliest diseases. Fortunately, a sample of Apocalypse’s blood was enough to help him ward off infection. When she recovered, Lorna left the X-Men to search out Apocalypse and learn about her new powers. When Alex insisted he wanted to accompany her, she refused him. [X-Men (2nd series) #182-187]