Alex Summers is the incredibly powerful mutant known as Havok who has worked alongside teams like X-Men and X-Factor as both a member and a leader, though he has at times also actively worked against his teammates in a surprising number of turns toward villainy that are almost always associated with some form of mind-control or brainwashing.
While the majority of the X-Men have mental training and established psychic blocks that help defend them from telepathic assault, Havok has fallen victim to a number of mind-control schemes that have made him a dangerous enemy of the X-Men and threatens his new team of Hellions in the Krakoa era, which we'll take a closer look at today.
10 Mister Sinister Wiped His Memories And Placed Mental Blocks On Young Alex
The twisted geneticist known as Mister Sinister has an odd obsession with the Summers brothers, though his focus was initially on the eldest brother Scott, who would grow up to become the mutant leader Cyclops. Mister Sinister arranged for Alex to be adopted, though when he was kidnapped along with his adopted sister by a child murderer, his powerful powers manifested.
Sinister once again took notice of young Alex and his uncontrollable abilities, so he put psychic blocks in Alex to dampen his abilities until he was older and then mindwiped him and his sister to make them forget the incident entirely, marking the first time Alex's mind was altered.
9 Erik The Red Brainwashed Havok And Polaris And Sent Them Against The X-Men
The original Erik The Red was a Shi'ar secret agent named Davan Shakari, who served the mad Emperor D'Ken as an Earth operative who was tasked with assassinating Professor Charles Xavier before he was able to make contact with the escaped princess Lilandra.
Erik the Red used Shi'ar technology to brainwash both Alex Summers and Lorna Dane/Polaris while they were on leave from the X-Men. He sent his new agents on a failed mission to kill Xavier and would continue to use them alongside his growing mutant army until they were eventually freed from his control.
8 Psylocke Tried To Make Havok Telepathically Forget The X-Men
Havok spent some time away from the X-Men to recover from Erik the Red's mind-control and to finish his studies alongside Lorna Dane/Polaris, though he was forced to seek out the X-Men, who were on the run from Mister Sinister's Marauders and planning to go underground.
This led them to attempt to erase Havok's memories of finding the team with Psylocke's telepathic abilities, though his previous mental training allowed him to resist her mental manipulation, and he ultimately joined the team on their mission after Psylocke refused to alter his mind again.
7 Madelyne Pryor Manipulated Havok As Her Goblin Prince During Inferno
it was during the X-Men's time underground that Havok and his brother's estranged wife Madelyne Pryor first became close, though her discovery of Jean Grey's survival led to a demonic deal and turn to villainy as the Goblin Queen that led to the Inferno event.
Havok was still reeling from the loss of Polaris to the Marauder known as Malice (more on her soon) and easily fell to the seductive manipulations of the Goblin Queen, joining her as her Goblin Prince against the X-Men and X-Factor, though he was eventually awoken from her control and rejoined the X-Men.
6 Havok Was Reborn As A Genoshan Magistrate During X-Tinction Agenda
While Havok was with the X-Men they settled in a new base in the Australian outback that was stolen from the cybernetic mercenaries known as the Reavers, who eventually returned to exact vengeance on the X-Men. The X-Men were forced to escape through the mystically transformative Siege Perilous, which judged and altered anyone who walked through it.
Havok was reborn as an amnesiac Genoshan Magistrate who re-emerged during the "X-Tinction Agenda" fighting with the oppressive government against the X-Men, though his memories returned during a battle with his brother Cyclops, and he remained in Genosha to help rebuild and atone for his work there as a magistrate.
5 Malice Took Over Havok's Body And Attacked Her Former Host Polaris
Mister Sinister added the psionic mutant entity known as Malice to his team of Marauders, and she quickly began to move through the X-Men by possessing their bodies and attacking each other, though when she entered the body of Polaris, she found herself trapped. Mister Sinister knew this would happen but wanted Polaris' powerful abilities under his control and encouraged it.
Malice eventually escaped and attempted to use Havok's body to kill Polaris so she wouldn't be trapped again. Mister Sinister intervened and was able to kill Malice for betraying him after Polaris and Havok were both able to force her out of their bodies.
4 Dark Beast Manipulated His Brainwaves To Turn Him Into AoA's Prelate Summers
The Age of Apocalypse introduced dark alternate-reality versions of the X-Men and related characters in a world that developed without Xavier and fell under Apocalypse's control, with a few of the new characters managing to escape into the mainstream universe, including the evil version of Henry McCoy known as Dark Beast.
Dark Beast attempted to alter Havok's brain waves in order to make him more like AoA's bloodthirsty version that was known as Prelate Summers to serve Onslaught. This version of Havok turned on X-Factor and formed a new terrorist faction of the Brotherhood of Mutants, though this was later revealed as a cover to take down Dark Beast after he had broken free of his brainwashing.
3 An Evil Alex Summers From The Mutant X Universe Possessed Havok
Havok eventually returned to X-Factor after his mission with the Brotherhood of Mutants, though he soon "died" and found his consciousness thrown into an alternate reality, where he took over the body of another recently deceased Alex Summers, who was revealed as the leader of a dark version of the X-Men known as The Six.
While Alex ultimately returned to his home reality, the evil consciousness from the Mutant X reality returned to take over Havok's body, though he was exorcised and erased from the multiverse by the X-Men and the dimension-hopping Exiles.
2 Havok Was Inverted And Turned Evil By A Magical Spell During AXIS
Havok was chosen as the leader of the Avengers Unity Division team that mixed humans and mutants together following the damaging Avengers vs. X-Men event. Both teams were forced to come together again to deal with the threat of the Red Skull, who had stolen Xavier's brain to gain his powerful telepathic abilities.
After he evolved into the deadly Red Onslaught, Doctor Doom and Scarlet Witch cast a spell hoping to invert him to the peaceful Xavier personality, though the spell resulted in a number of heroes and villains also being inverted. Havok remained evil after the spell was undone and launched a few villainous campaigns before he was restored.
1 Madelyne Pryor Discovered That An Unknown Force Was Manipulating Havok's Actions
Havok's death during "This Is Forever" led to his rebirth in the Krakoan era, though he still experienced some mental issues that led to his placement on a team of Hellions that was tasked with completing missions for Mister Sinister which brought them into contact with a returned Madelyne Pryor.
Pryor had taken control of Sinister's cloned Marauders and appeared to have taken control of Havok as well with her demonic magic, though it was ultimately revealed that another powerful force that was implied to also be demonic was manipulating Alex Summers, with details on who is pulling those strings yet to be revealed.