Cyclops’ Big Comeback Is Long Overdue, But Marvel’s Best Summers Brother Still Needs a Win

Cyclops is about to get huge and it’s about time. For six decades and some change, Scott Summers has been one of the most important characters in the X-Men. In fact, in a lot of ways, you could say that X-Men comics have been a story about the life of mutant leader Scott Summers. Cyclops has grown in leaps and bounds in the 21st century, moving past his uptight boy scout personality and becoming a much more complex hero. His growth into revolutionary leader has made him so much better and X-Men ’97 showcased the hero at his best, digging into his insane history and presenting him as the consummate commander and mutant superhero. Add in the rumors that he’s going to play a big role in the MCU in the years to come and it feels like everything is coming up Cyclops.

Cyclops has stepped over many heroes to get to the top and one of them is his brother Alex. Alex was also a mutant, absorbing ambient cosmic radiation that he could release as plasma blasts of tremendous force. As Havok, he was always in his older brother’s shadow, trying to set himself apart as a hero and a leader, yet always failing. At least, that’s how it looks to readers who don’t know the history of the character. Havok was part of some of the best X-Men stories of the ’80s and had quite a history in the ’90s, ’00s, and beyond. Cyclops has gotten his chance to shine, but honestly Havok has always deserved it more.

Havok Has Always Been a Better Character Than His Brother Cyclops

Havok first appeared back in the late ’60s, playing Cyclops’ kid brother. He had a chip on his shoulder and tried to make a name for himself. Back then, he was just a stereotype in an amazing costume with a visually cool power set, especially when he was drawn by Neal Adams. He would fade away along with the rest of the X-Men in 1970 and would make a short come back when X-Men was rebooted after Giant-Size X-Men #1. However, he didn’t spent a lot of time in the title back then and wouldn’t start playing a major role in the mutant side of the Marvel Universe until the ’80s.

Havok would rejoin the team with longtime girlfriend Polaris after Cyclops had left the team in the wake of the death of Jean Grey, marrying Madelyne Pryor (that name will important soon) and moving back to Alaska. Havok joined the team with something prove and that was what made him such a cool character. He was more human than Cyclops; while Scott was cool and controlled, Alex wasn’t. He was trying to prove that he belonged on the team; he made mistakes, but it was fun to see him grow and make connections with the other characters. I’ll be honest – a lot of what made him so cool was the fact that he was being drawn by Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, and Whilce Portacio. He was a very different Summers brother in a changing era of the X-Men. That was what really set him apart from Scott – Alex was able to grow and change, while Scott was basically always the same character back then.

Of course, his time on the X-Men back then is part of the many problems that have plagued the character ever since. It started with his relationship with Madelyne Pryor, who had mind-controlled him and used him against the X-Men in “Inferno”. This made him feel like his brother’s also ran and started his terrible history with mind control. Alex stopped growing after this; he just became bland Cyclops-style leader, taking his brother’s place in X-Factor. Havok still had fun stories in the ’90s but it wouldn’t be until his return to Uncanny in the ’00s that he started to grow again. He set himself apart from his brother again, having cool adventures that had nothing to do with mind control or Cyclops and it was fun. 2012 would see him get his biggest chance in years, becoming the leader of an Avengers team in Uncanny Avengers, which would be both awesome for him and terrible.

I’ll start with the bad part, because that’s the one everyone remembers – his “My name is Alex” speech. It was meant to be about looking past the labels of humans and mutants to see the people underneath, which seems nice but the it was phrased was terribly offensive to any racial group. It was basically what you would expect from an out of touch white liberal. However, he was also an awesome Avengers leader during this period, starting a great relationship with the Wasp and showing the kind of hero he really was by saving the world when the chips were down. Then he was turned evil because of mind control and since then has been back to being in his brother’s shadow, sucked back into the Madelyne Pryor/X-Factor vortex. He’s currently in limbo, while his brother is eating well.

Havok Was Never Given the Kind of Chances as His Brother

Havok was never going to get the same chance as his brother. Cyclops had been around since the beginning of the team and he was in the key role of team leader. The soap opera of his life was compelling, even when he was kind of boring as a character. Havok was introduced as a part of that soap opera and that’s always been the problem. No matter what the character does, how much he grows, he’s always going to be Cyclops’s little brother.

Seriously, go back and read Havok as an X-Men in the late ’80s and early ’90s and tell me he’s not a much better character in a vacuum than Cyclops was at the time. There are loads of fantastic Havok runs out there – for example, he’s actually pretty good in the terrible Chuck Austen run and “Rise and Fall of the Shi’Ar Empire” and its aftermath were amazing. If you look past the speech, Havok in Uncanny Avengers was perfect for the character. However, it feels like every time he gets some momentum, it gets taken away from him. Cyclops, at least in the 21st century, has been allowed to grow, with creators taking advantage of that. Havok never gets that chance and it’s honestly long past time he did.

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