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Katie Summers was the daughter of Havok and a major member of the Avengers — and her brief life might make her the most tragic Summers.
One of the most infamously tricky and tragic families in the Marvel Universe is the Summers family, who have been at the center of decades of X-Men drama. Many of the Summers have gone through death, rebirth, torture, and plenty of other unlikely events. But the most tragic might be the one who had a deep connection not just to the X-Men but the Avengers — only to have her life not just taken, but seemingly invalidated.
Katherine Summers was the daughter of Havok and Wasp — and although her life was ultimately short-lived, it was one of the more tragic chapters in the history of the Summers family.
The fallout of Avengers vs. X-Men resulted in serious changes for many classic members of the Marvel Universe. On top of the Avengers deciding to further engage the mutant population, founding Avenger Janet Van Dyne — aka the Wasp — was revealed to have survived the events of Secret Invasion. Returning to the real world after months in the microverse, Janet quickly found a place for herself back with the Avengers — specifically, the newly founded Avengers Unity Division. There, she worked alongside longtime allies like Wonder Man and Captain America, while also teaming up with new faces like Wolverine, Rogue, and Havok.
The latter — nominally one of the leaders of the team — grew particularly close with Wasp. While most of the team bristled against one another, Wasp and Havok began to increasingly flirt while planning PR pushes for the new team — and although Havok was somewhat hesitant to add a romantic complication to his already stressful new life as an Avenger, he and Wasp increasingly flirted. When the Apocalypse Twins Uriel and Eimin briefly were able to achieve their goal of creating Planet X for mutants and allow the Earth to be wiped out by a Celestial, Wasp became one of the last humans alive. In the subsequent years, Wasp and Havok had married and even had a daughter — a happy young girl named Katherine (nicknamed Katie), who first appeared in Uncanny Avengers #18 by Rick Remender and Daniel Acuña.
Born a human on a world that would never accept her as such, Katherine was protected by her godfather Beast while her parents tried to find a way to break the barrier keeping time-travel from operating around this world. After Wasp was captured though and they discovered there was no easy way to venture into the past, Havok and Beast were forced to work with Kang and his Chronos Corp to save Earth. In a bid to ensure Havok’s cooperation, he kidnapped Katherine — promising to return her upon the completion of the mission.
But although the overall mission was a success, Kang ultimately revealed his true machinations — taking advantage of the situation to try and gain the power of a Celestial. Havok was threatened with the loss of his daughter for all time — and ultimately has to choose to fight for the Earth, sacrificing any chance of ever seeing her again to stand against Kang. Immortus later visited the pair and hinted she could be restored. But the events of AXIS left Havok turned into a more monstrous and vile person, destroying the marriage he and Wasp had found with one another by deciding their love (and Katherine) never truly existed.
Since these events, Havok has been increasingly unstable. Although the events of AXIS were eventually reversed for him, Havok still has a volatile and dark side to him that has presented plenty of dangers to plenty of people. And while his grief over someone like Madelyne Pryor could be potentially assuaged by the Five resurrecting her, Katherine’s lack of actual existence and human DNA makes that impossible. Katherine Summers might be one of the most tragic members of the Summers family — as unlike the rest, it appears there’s no real way for her to be brought back to life. There’s always the chance Kang has kept her outside of the timeline as a secret weapon, but even that might be an even crueler twist of fate.
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