Alexander Summers

"You know, when I do this bad things tend to happen."

―Alex Summers^[src]

Alex Summers, aka Havok, is a mutant who attended Professor Xavier's school. He possesses the power to absorb ambient cosmic energy, process it and emanate it from his body as red rings of energy.

Biography

X-Men: First Class

Alex Summers 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 beastial 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 to Mystique^[src]

According to Hank McCoy, Xavier's school shut down in the late 1960's when most of the faculty and students were drafted to fight in Vietnam.

At the end of the war in 1973, Alex - along with 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. Mystique, however, broke in and rescued them. Mystique strangled Stryker to incapacitate him, but then kept squeezing, tempted to kill him. Seeing her reaction, Alex hit 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 said 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.

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. 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. He presumably perished in the blast; but his body was never found.

Character traits

To be added

Powers and Abilities

Ambient Cosmic Energy: Havok has the power to fire red rings of energy capable of causing anything it hits to spontaneously combust. Normally when he uses his powers, the rings travel in all directions and burn down everything around him, but he was later given a device to charge his powers into a straight line. By the end of the Vietnam war, he is completely in control of his powers and able to fire the red energy into a small ball that knocked Stryker across the room without burning him.

Relationships

Charles Xavier - Mentor and Friend
Erik Lehnsherr - Former Friend turned Enemy
Beast - Teammate
Mystique - Former Friend turned enemy turned rescuer
Cyclops - Younger brother
Banshee - Teammate
Sebastian Shaw - Enemy
Angel Salvadore - Former Friend turned Enemy
Darwin - Friend
Riptide - Enemy
Azazel - Enemy
Mortimer Toynbee - Comrade in arms
William Stryker, Jr. - Enemy and Captor

Appearances/Actors

Canon (3 films)
- X-Men: First Class (First appearance) - Lucas Till
- X-Men: Days of Future Past - Lucas Till
- X-Men: Apocalypse - Lucas Till

Behind the scenes

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.

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.
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 (and/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 Lucas Till auditioned for the role, 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."
When Magneto is retrieving his helmet from the Department of Defense (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.