The Case For... Havok

It's time for 5th installment of the mostly monthly Case For.

With the exception of a couple notable big names (Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Scarlet Witch, Moon Knight, Bullseye) Hasbro has done an applause-worthy job of putting out the Marvel Universe's heavy-hitters. In only 2 years, we have (and yes, this is counting figures like Sentry which have yet to ship) most of the current core-title Avengers line-ups and a large section of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. X-Men fans, however, usually have a long list of characters they want to see.

One can argue that X-Men just don’t get the same love those other groups get, but being honest, the one new X-figure (more or less) per wave keeps up with other major groups like the Avengers, Spider-Man, Marvel Universe, Bad Guys, and seriously out-performs other groups like Cosmic Characters and New Classics (Young Avengers, Runaways, Agents of Atlas, The Initiative, New Warriors and other groups that are not as iconic as many other figures), but the number of different X-groups and X-characters means more characters are beloved to more people.

All that is a long-winded way of saying important X-characters like Havok are still missing in action. One of the first additions to the original X-Men, Havok left after the all-new, all-different X-Men came on the scene, but returned for the Australian years. During the 20+ issues during which the X-Men were effectively disbanded (250-273), Havok was a Genoshan Magistrate before joining the newly government sanctioned X-Factor.

Over the next 80 issues, Havok was featured either as leader of X-Factor, or as one of X-Factor’s then arch-enemy the Brotherhood. Follow that up with his 30+ issue stint as the main character in Mutant X and a return to the X-Men featuring high points (The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire) and low points (a botched engagement to Polaris, a cross-over with the Exiles where he faced the “evil” Havok personality), the character has almost 40 years of history behind him.

With the upcoming storyline War of Kings promising to resolve ongoing storylines for both Havok and the Starjammers, Black Bolt and the Inhumans, and even Nova and many players from the Annihilation stories, Havok will be once again in the spotlight.

Unlike some of the Case For characters, Havok has actually had a few action figures before (certainly better than Polaris who was lucky to get a bad repaint of an early Rogue sculpt for her action figure debut) so the odds of him being made eventually look pretty good.

Now, the case against Havok can be strong as well. Most importantly is the fact that none of Havok’s re-inventions has been successful. He has been the bitter younger brother living in Cyclops’s shadow, the confident team-leader, the space-rebel, a mutant trying to live a normal life, an outsider trying to do good in a world of evil… and none of these lasts very long. When a majority of the character’s stories involve said character possessed by Eric the Red, mind-wiped by the Siege Perilous, brainwashed by the Dark Beast, psychically induced to love his nurse by a comatose mutant, and possessed by an evil version of his own psyche, one may wonder if he has any purpose on the team other than being the one to get mentally messed around with by one villain or another.

His pre-disposition for possession and manipulation rubs off on those he's near, as Polaris has also been possessed and distressed a number of times (possessed by Erik the Red, Malice, and the Shadow King, brainwashed by Apocalypse into becoming one of his many Horsemen, haunted by visions of Daap, driven insane by Havok's death and more insane by his return), Wolfsbane spent years programmed to love him before Haven cured her, and we've already talked about his nurse.