Alex Summers (or Winters, depending on when you met him) was separated from his brother at a young age, following a plane crash. His adopted parents, Nathan and Beatrice, were happy to have a child of their own but even Alex would admit they spoiled him rotten. He was their only child and he played the role to the hilt. He loved them both, but he knew he was a brat. Especially in high school, when he experimented with drugs and alcohol.

He grew up fast when his mutant gifts manifested. The Winters were on a family car outing when his father swerved to avoid a deer darting across the road. Their car wrapped around a tree but everyone survived the crash; unfortunately what everyone didn't survive was Alex's powers manifesting and causing the already leaky gas tank to explode. The Winters died instantly; Alex survived.

Alex limped the rest of the way through high school in a haze of drugs and alcohol but his friends rescued him from the brink and he quit the junkie life right before he squeaked into college. But Alex continued to drink heavily in college and joined a fraternity that encouraged binge drinking among its members. Although Alex eventually modified his college drinking habits and scaled back, he never completely quit his favorite party drug.

After graduating from college with decent grades, Alex worked blue collar and low paying jobs and tried figuring out what he'd do with the rest of his life. He wrote off a few job prospects because, in his opinion, his mutant gifts were too unpredictable and too dangerous around clueless employers. Alex slowly learned to control and suppress what he could do with practice, but he supplemented his training with booze. He justified it, saying booze kept him calm and mellow enough to limit accidental flare-ups.

Following another accident with his powers that burned down his apartment and most of his possessions, Alex began researching other methods to modify his out-of-control powers. He located a few doctors in New York famous for working with mutant genetics - Doctors Jean Grey and Henry McCoy - and tracked them down via the Internet. Alex received a double surprise when he discovered Doctor Grey had been dating his long lost brother, Scott.

As it stands today, Alex has become part of Professor Xavier's School of Gifted Youngsters as both teacher and trainer of the younger X-Men: Generation-X. He began dating Lorna Dane, famous for being the granddaughter of the mutant terrorist, Erik Lensherr, and he'd say his life has been pretty good so far. He doesn't like everyone harping on his every day drinking as if it's a problem, though. He was worse off in college, and he has it all under control now. He's sure of it...

Well...almost sure.