WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Hellions #3 by Zeb Wells, Stephen Segovia, David Curiel and Ariana Maher, on sale now.
Alex Summers, like most of his fellow X-Men, has been through a lot in recent years. He’s had his mind and personality altered, he's been captured and tortured, and he's even died and come back to life.
But while the rest of Marvel’s Merry Mutants are on the upswing, the new Hellions series has shown just how much misfortune Havok can really take. And Hellions #3, by Zeb Wells, Stephen Segovia and David Curiel, is no different.
Working for Mister Sinister as a part of Krakoa’s own version of the Suicide Squad, Havok and the other Hellions were dispatched in the previous issue to the State Home for Foundlings -- Sinister’s orphanage, where Scott and Alex Summers grew up — to raze and clear out the defunct cloning lab beneath the facility. They arrived to find none other than Havok’s former lover, Madelyne Pryor, the Goblyn Queen, alive and using the decaying clone bodies of Sinister’s original Marauders as her zombie servants.
As this issue begins, Havok confronts the woman he loved, only for her to seal his mouth, as if it were never there. While she reminisces over her life story, including her marriage to Havok’s older brother, Cyclops, Alex shatters some nearby equipment. Picking up one of the shards of glass, the Summers brother slices through his flesh, giving himself a new mouth.
Tired of listening to Madelyne monologue, he tells her how much he’d wanted to give her everything he had, before realizing she only wanted his brother, just as his brother had only wanted Jean Grey when he and Madelyne were together. He tells her he’s sick of hearing her talk about his brother, exciting her with how much he’s changed and inspiring her to kiss him, seemingly placing him under her thrall.
The Goblyn Queen shares her plans with Alex as her zombie Marauders deal with the other Hellions, just as she aims to use them to infiltrate and annihilate Krakoa — before sending Alex’s head to his older brother. She has Greycrow strung up and eaten while Nanny and Orphanmaker are bludgeoned. Meanwhile, Empath was shot by Greycrow in the previous issue, and Wild Child, driven by his feral nature, is busy attacking a wounded Psylocke. Alex hangs on every word, seemingly wrapped around her finger, but he’s been having his own personality issues since he was inverted during the events of 2014's Axis.
This isn’t the first time Havok has been manipulated by Pryor, and the pair have a very involved history. As a clone of Jean Grey created by Sinister to further Scott Summers’ genetic line, Madelyne was planted as a pilot at the shipping company owned by Alex and Scott’s grandparents. She and Scott fell in love, and Alex was the best man at their wedding. Madelyne and Alex eventually became romantically involved after the return of Jean Grey. Scott left Madelyne and their infant son to return to Jean, and found X-Factor, and Havok’s then-lover Polaris was possessed by the Marauder named Malice.
When Madelyne was manipulated by a demonic entity into becoming the Goblyn Queen during the 1988-1989 "Inferno" storyline, she tried to use Havok, her Goblyn Prince, to help her turn the world into a new demonic realm. Pitting the X-Men and X-Factor against one another, Pryor died after going mad from the knowledge that she is a clone. Although she returned to life years later, her resurrection was unknown to Havok.
Marvel's Earth-616 timeline isn’t the only one in which Havok falls for Pryor. When Havok was accidentally cast into a parallel world in the 1998-2001 Mutant X series, by Howard Mackie, Tom Raney, Andrew Pepoy and others, he not only led that world’s X-Factor, but replaced its Havok as the husband of Madelyne Pryor and the father to her son, Scotty. That relationship lasted until Alex eventually returned to the main timeline after Pryor becomes the Goblyn Queen, just as she did in his home reality.
Like most of the X-Men's famous love triangles, the relationship between Alex and Madelyne is a complicated one. It has to be if he’s willing to carve out a new mouth just to giver her a piece of his mind.