Professor X Just Reignited Marvel’s Biggest Sibling Rivalry

“X-Manhunt” is tearing the X-teams apart, forcing them to choose sides with anti-mutant forces of the government and their mentor Charles Xavier. Xavier has become one of the X-Men’s greatest antagonists, his dream forcing him to do terrible things to ensure the survival of mutantkind. “X-Manhunt” revolves around Xavier escaping Graymalkin Prison in order to somehow save his half-Shi’Ar daughter Empress Xandra. Xavier tore through Rogue’s X-Men, got Storm to help him, and ended up battling Cyclops’s X-Men in San Francisco. X-Factor #8, by Mark Russell and Bob Quinn, pits the X-Men against X-Factor, who have basically become the mutant Suicide Squad, over who gets custody of Xavier.

Xavier has hedged all of his bets, though, fooling X-Factor member Cargill into thinking that he was part of the mutant underground and needed help. Cargill went to Havok for assistance, and the two of them ended up in San Francisco, shocked that Xavier was the one who called them and not the underground’s leader Polaris. Cyclops gets involved in the fray, taking down Cargill and leaving the Summers brothers to face off once again. However, this battle feels much more personal and could change their relationship forever.

Cyclops and Havok’s Lives Have Set Them Against One Another Many Times

Cyclops and Havok’s rivarly began before they were ever heroes. After the deaths of their parents, Cyclops and Havok were put into an orphanage. This orphanage was run by Mister Sinister. He used places like that as genetic testing beds. Cyclops was everything that Sinister wanted as a test subject, but Havok wasn’t nearly as useful to him. He got rid of Havok by having him adopted so he could experiment on Cyclops. The two were set as opposites to each other at that moment — Cyclops being the perfect useful one and Havok being surplus to requirements — fanning the flames of their nascent rivalry. The two mutants wouldn’t meet again until Cyclops was an X-Man, after Havok was captured by the Living Monolith. Havok ended up becoming an on-again, off-again X-Man, and their rivalry started to take on a new dimension. Cyclops was the consummate superhero and Havok was a newbie, only becoming a hero because he could be used by the Living Monolith as a source of power. He was always the younger brother, doing his best to prove that he deserves to be there.

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When Cyclops left the X-Men and eventually founded X-Factor, Havok took his place on the X-Men. However, Havok wasn’t made into a leader of the team; he was the younger brother stepping into his brother’s massive shoes. Havok ended up falling in love with Cyclops’s estranged wife Madelyne Pryor, with Maddie using her powers to control his mind. This set the brothers against each other in battle once again, and would make their rivalry that much more acute. Since then, Havok has constantly tried to live up to the example of his brother, but constantly failed. Sure, he led X-Factor and the X-Men, but he was never considered on the same level as Cyclops. Cyclops always looked down on his brother, which allowed a huge chip to form on Havok’s shoulder. Havok’s history with mind control didn’t help either. Beyond Madelyne Pryor, villains like Onslaught, Dark Beast, and Red Skull have all used Havok as a cat’s paw, and Cyclops just doesn’t trust his brother at all. All of this is the prologue to the fight between the two brothers in X-Factor #8, a battle that gets much more personal than any of their previous ones.

Havok and Cyclops’s Rivalry Has Reached New Depths of Hatred

Cyclops and Havok have come to blows many times over the years. These fights, which come down to fist fights because their powers don’t work on each other, have gotten a bit heated, but their latest fight takes it to another level. Cyclops immediately starts berating Havok, taking out his years of anger and disappointment on his younger brother. He gets an early advantage over Havok, but his words hit harder than his fists. Cyclops wishes Havok would just go away, and there’s a core of anger to his words that was never there before. Havok fights back, able to turn the table on Cyclops, and talks about his own sorrow and how it’s affected his life, telling Cyclops that he basically doesn’t have anyone else to turn to in his life but the X-Men, people he’s inadvertently betrayed many times.

Cyclops and Havok have never been the best of friends; it rarely even seems like they are actually loving family members. This battle between the two illustrates just how broken their lives and relationships are. Cyclops is tired of the wishy-washy nature of his brother’s superhero career and Havok is tired of the suffering of his life. This brutal fight between the brothers could be the beginning of a new rivalry between the two.

X-Factor #8 is on sale where ever comics are sold.