Alex Summers was six years old when his father flew his family to Canada as a birthday surprise for his mother. Along the way, their aircraft was attacked by a Shi'ar spacecraft. Their father gave his two sons the only parachute and, clinging on to his older brother Scott, Alex and Scott jumped out of the aircraft leaving their parents to their own fate. The Summers brothers were taken to a nearby orphanage run by Sinister, who later adopted the two of them as his own sons. Scott became Sinister's favorite son which drove a wedge between Scott and Alex, who quickly became jealous of his brother. Sinister would train his two sons every day and weld them into becoming the finest of Apocalypse's soldiers.
Alex and Scott were both given the title of Prelate. In the meantime, their father, Christopher, managed to escape from the Shi'ar empire and returned to Earth in a stolen aircraft. Unfortunately he was also infected with a Brood egg. His aircraft was captured by Infinites and he was sent to Sinister, who kept his return secret from Alex and Scott. After years of being experimented on, Christopher managed to escape and Sinister ordered his Elite Mutant Force to recapture him. Alex and Scott located Christopher in the "Ghost Lands" where he revealed that he was their father. Although Christopher told his sons the story of how they got separated, Scott remained unconvinced but Alex believed he was really their father. Their reunion was cut short however when, during a battle between some scavengers, Christopher's Brood egg hatched and Scott was forced to kill his own father to save him. This act would only cause a further rift to appear between Alex and Scott.
Havok became a regular at Angel's nightclub "Heaven" and began an affair with its singer, Scarlett McKenzie. Due to the fact that Scarlett wasn't a mutant, Havok was forced to keep this affair a secret to avoid being accused of miscegenation. Havok was unaware that Scarlett was secretly working for the Human High Council. When Weapon X and Jean Grey infiltrated Apocalypse's Atlantic Sea Wall, they clashed with Havok. During the battle, Havok was accidentally fused with a Sentinel when they both entered a transporter together. Beast was later forced to remove the parts of the Sentinel with a bone-saw. In the meantime, Sinister's betrayal of Apocalypse became open and Cyclops put himself in charge, much to Havok's annoyance.
Havok began to investigate the mysterious escapes from the breeding pens. He interrogated a witness to one of the escapes called Lorna Dane who told him that Magneto was the one responsible for the escapes. Frustrated, Havok sent her to the Beast who tortured her into telling him the truth. She was rescued by Cyclops and sent back to the breeding pens. Later that night, Cyclops, in disguise, helped Lorna escape from the pens. Unbeknownst to Cyclops, Havok was observing this occurrence from a distance. He now had the information necessary to remove Cyclop's authority and take control of the Elite Mutant Force himself. Jean Grey returned to the pens in search of Sinister, who recently supplied information of Apocalypse's plans to the Human High Council, but was captured by Havok. When Cyclops saw Jean was a prisoner of the Beast, he refused Havok's order to kill her and was captured by Sam Guthrie. As this was occurring, Scarlett realized that she was pregnant with Havok's child when she became ill during one of her performances. However it was also discovered that she was working for the Human High Council and she was captured. When word reached Apocalypse that Havok succeeded Cyclops as commander of the pens, he ordered that every prisoner should be culled. Cyclops and Jean managed to escape and tried to free the prisoners by destroying the Brain Trust. The Brain Trust psionically anesthetized the prisoners so they lacked the will to escape. After destroying the Brain Trust, Cyclops and Jean encountered Havok. As brother battled brother, Cyclops got the upper hand and knocked Havok unconscious. After freeing the prisoners, Jean used her telepathic powers to prevent the Human High Council's missiles from destroying New York City. However Havok sneaked up behind Jean and used his powers to kill her before killing Cyclops. His revenge was short-lived however when Weapon X killed Havok in vengeance.
