The X-Men: The Animated Series was a masterpiece in its finest form, and Larry Houston was one of the producers at the helm of it. Throughout the five seasons that it aired, fans were deeply in love with almost every story arc that the 1992 series decided to adapt. But even after such tremendous success with it, Houston still has one major regret about the show.
This regret is about his not exploring the character arc of a super-powerful yet long-forgotten hero, who was even more closely related to Scott Summers than what the non-comic book readers may expect. This character was Alex Summers, the younger brother of Scott and a mutant himself, best known as ‘Havoc.’ And as it turns out, Houston has immense regrets about it.
Larry Houston Regrets Not Exploring Alex in His X-Men Series
The original animated series of the X-mutants of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, i.e., X-Men: The Animated Series was a true gem that ran for five seasons and spawned a whopping 76 episodes before ending its run after getting canceled, much to fans’ disappointment.
That said, the series’ co-producer Larry Houston holds one tremendous regret in his heart about the iconic show. This regret relates to exploring one character’s story that he wanted to but couldn’t, and the character in talks is none other than Alex Summers.
As per what Houston shared at the recently held Calgary Comics & Entertainment Expo 2024 (via @AgentsFandom on X):
“The only subplot I regret not doing so far is not having Scott realize that he has a little brother, Alex.”
For those who may be unversed with the character, Alex, aka Havoc, is Scott Summers‘ younger brother and a mutant himself. But unlike Cyclops, who does all the magic with his eyes, Havoc exercises the power to shoot plasma blasts through his hands.
As an orphan who lost his parents to a plane crash, Alex was captured by the Living Pharoah as a child and was brutally experimented on, resulting in his acquiring his superpowers. Later on, after finding out about his brother, he initially clashed with Scott and the other mutants in his team.
However, Alex eventually joined his brother’s league of superheroes before finding his love interest in Magneto’s daughter Polaris and leaving with her to join the second incarnation of X-Factor. All in all, he had a significantly interesting story that could have well been explored in the animated show.
But now that Houston has expressed his regret over not exploring Havoc’s character arc and only granting him a cameo-like appearance in the original animated series that has been long gone now, fans are expecting its currently airing sequel X-Men ’97 to not repeat the same mistake.
Fans Are Hoping X-Men ’97 Doesn’t Make the Same Mistake
While Houston’s admission of his shortcomings for Havoc while working on The Animated Series comes as a relief to many, fans are also expecting that the currently ongoing sequel to the 1992 masterpiece doesn’t end up repeating this very mistake.
At the very least, they are hoping that this sequel saga would not only introduce Alex into the series and have Scott meet him but also explore his character arc in the most profound manner possible. All in all, here’s what they’re saying on X:
Hopefully X-Men 97 finally deals with this. Alex in the cartoon universe does seem kinda of different than his comics counterpart. Given Vulcan's cameo in episode 6, I also hope the entire Summers family plays a role.
— Final Destination Stan (@ArchdukeHorror) April 27, 2024
To this day, that still annoys me that he doesn't know, now we gotta add Gabriel into mix since his recent introduction too.
— Generation-West (@GenerationWest0) April 26, 2024
Yeah for real. I hope we finally get that in 97.
— Macman521 (@Macman421) April 26, 2024
Technically #XMen97 has confirmed that Scott has 2 Little Brothers he is unaware of! Hopefully in future season of X-Men 97 will explore it!?
— CrusaderV28 (@JustinAzevedo10) April 26, 2024
I’m sure it will get explored in season 2
— spideymrw (@spideymrw) April 26, 2024
Maybe they’ll explore it in season 2 or 3
— Mr. Nobody (@Abs0luteN0b0dy) April 26, 2024
It seems that could be coming up very soon
— mike rogers (@michelous) April 26, 2024
i hope they explore it later on. Cold Comfort was my favorite episode…
— Nuk Nuk (@Nuk_Nuk616) April 26, 2024
Now that fans are already talking about it and expressing their wish to see Havoc included in the storyline, bringing him back in the game in one of the upcoming seasons of the ongoing sequel saga doesn’t seem like a bad idea.
But until then, you can stream X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men ’97 on Disney+.
