- Name: Charles Francis Xavier
- Code Names: Professor X
- First Appearance: X-Men #1 (September ‘63)
- Powers: Telepathy
- Team Affiliation: X-Men
About
When the X-Men were initially conceived all those years ago, it was about students at a school. For whatever reason, it only took seven issues for the original five X-Men to graduate. This left the series in an interesting position where the initial trappings of the book were no longer relevant. As it has evolved, the central X-Men story has never been about the school. Sure, it might have been a location or a side book may have focused on it, but it stopped being the driving force. It is telling then that the very first X-Men spin-off was an attempt to return to the very fruitful idea of a fantastic school for youngsters with gifts. That initial pitch has left plenty of baggage for the X-Men to carry with them, but nothing larger than their original teacher.
Charles Francis Xavier was born to wealthy parents in Westchester County, New York. He inherited his father’s brilliant intellect and so much more. Charles Xavier was a mutant with the beautiful gift of telepathy, he could see into other’s minds. He used this to excel in school, both academically and athletically, much to the chagrin of his abusive step-brother Cain. He was given a full ride scholarship to Oxford University and quickly became one of the foremost experts in genetic mutation. However, Xavier was drafted into the Korean War and served his country, limiting his advancement in genetics.
When he was discharged from the Army, Xavier decided to travel the world, starting first in Cairo, Egypt. At a café, he felt a psionic force like none he had felt before. It came from a large man with round glasses and a fez. His name was Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King, and in that mutant mind, Charles Xavier felt an evil he had never imagined. Their eyes met and they moved to the Astral Plane, locked in a battle of wits and wills. To the simple patron of this café, the two men seemed to be sitting motionless at their table but in the world of the mind, an epic war was being waged. Charles spent most of the bout on the defensive, trying to parry blows from a thousand angles, but finally, with the focused totality of his psychic might, he released a mental blast strong enough to decimate the Shadow King. Xavier left Cairo knowing that he was not alone, and he would have to find a way to stop evil mutants from overtaking the world.
He moved then to Israel in a humanitarian effort to help Holocaust survivors. There he met a man named Magnus. The men quickly bonded over their theories of human evolution, even if they disagreed on the role homo sapiens would play in the coming age. When agents of Hydra, led by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker attacked seeking the location of a hidden cache of Nazi gold, Erik and Charles fought back. Erik revealed that he had an unnatural gift to shape metal and Charles revealed that he was a telepath of the highest order. They stopped Hydra but Erik took the gold for himself declaring that homo superior would not be led meekly into gas chambers. They would fight for their right to survive, to inherit the planet that was rightfully theirs. With that, the friends parted and Charles began preparing for the future.
He traveled to the Himalayas and was crippled by an alien named Lucifer for interfering with his plans for invasion (kinda thought this would be a more important event didn’t you). This forced him back home as he remembered all the strange things he had witnessed in the last year. Charles knew that mutants and humans must find a way to coexist and he set about doing just that. He decided to build something for his race. He knew mutants were out there and he knew his dream would only work if mutants stood up for homo sapiens. He recruited five teenagers with attitude, mutants with an extra power to be his example to the world. They were his X-Men and they would make his dream real.
The X-Men became an odd mix. They were ambassadors for the mutant race but they were also child soldiers battling the likes of Magnus and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. His students learned faster than he could teach them and they soon graduated into a more independent force. Xavier learned of a planned invasion by the interstellar race known as the Z’nox and committed his life to stop them. He faked his own death, leaving the X-Men to fend for themselves until he was ready to reemerge and thwart the invasion.
When his entire team of X-Men was captured by Krakoa, the island that walks like a man, Xavier was determined to save them. To that end he recruited a new team of X-Men including Vulcan, the brother of Cyclops, to rescue them. His colleague and former lover Dr. Moira MacTaggert warned Charles that these new X-Men weren’t ready but he manipulated the students into insisting they were. These X-Men rescued Cyclops but were all killed in the process. Distraught, Xavier mindwiped Cyclops and recruited a new team to do it all again. They were more successful and Charles hoped his dark secret would never be revealed.
His original team went off on their own and Charles Xavier was left to mentor a new, older group of X-Men. They honestly needed him less, they were adults or self-sufficient enough that they may as well be and Xavier felt like he wasn’t needed. He began getting flashed from some intergalactic mind, a vision of a woman reaching out to him. She was Lilandra Neramani, heir to the Shi’ar throne and the two soon fell deeply in love. He used his X-Men to help her reclaim her throne but the battle left him in a deep coma.
When he awoke the X-Men were gone, presumed dead, and Xavier needed a new set of mutants to fill that hole in his heart. He created the New Mutants, a much younger team focused on learning about their abilities, not fighting with them. Something was growing in Xavier though, he had been implanted with the egg of the Brood Queen, an alien race suspiciously similar to, but legally distinct from, the Xenomorphs. The X-Men, who were actually just in space with Xavier’s girlfriend, tried to save Xavier but were only able to move his psyche into a cloned body. Considering this clone had working legs, it was really an improvement.
In the years since forming the X-Men, Xavier had rekindled a mutual respect with Magnus. He cooled his anti-human rhetoric and Charles was able to find a place for him among the X-Men. Magnus was put on trial for his terrorist activities and Xavier stood in his defense. The trial was attacked by the twins of Fenris and Xavier was gravely injured in the fight. The only way to save his life was with Shi’ar technology, so Charles Xavier left Earth in his lover’s arms. He and Lilandra joined the Starjammers, traveling the stars and getting possessed by the Phoenix Force for a hot second. After some time, Xavier was well enough to return to Earth, though he again lost the use of his legs.
His X-Men and New Mutants no longer needing much of a teacher, Charles dedicated his life to advocating for mutant equality. At a rally pushing for just that, there was an assassination attempt on Xavier, though the X-Men were able to save their founder. More troubling to Xavier was what had happened to Magento. While Charles was gallivanting in space, Magnus had returned to his more radical ways. He caused global blackouts and was threatening the lives of millions. Xavier tried to reason with his old friend but when Magneto ripped the adamantium from Wolverine’s bones, Charles knew he had no choice. He showed Magneto the dream, the dream of mutants and humans coexisting, he let Magnus believe they had achieved it side by side. Then he shut down his mind.
These actions deeply upset Charles and the evil he felt in Magneto’s mind took hold within his own. That malevolence emerged as the psionic being known as Onslaught which terrorized the Marvel Universe, leading to the apparent death of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Xavier turned himself over to the US government in the fallout from Onslaught but was broken out thanks to the machinations of his sentient Cerebro (which considering something that happens later, you would think would be more important). He returned to the X-Men and prepared for the next evolution in the mutant world.
Seeing an uptick in mutant births, Xavier decided to focus on mutant outreach. The X-Men were no longer enough. He formed X-Corporation, an international extension of the X-Men’s mutant rights mission. This mission was cemented when Cassandra Nova (essentially his evil twin but more complicated) destroyed the mutant nation of Genosha, killing over 16 million mutants. He knew that he could no longer hide and told the world the truth. Charles Xavier brought the X-Men, and the entire mutant world public.
He spent the next few years as the ambassador of the mutant race, but relations were struck a heavy blow when Xorn attacked New York City. Afterwards, Xavier traveled to Genosha with his good friend Magneto (who had since gotten better from that mindwipe) to help rebuild the island nation but three things happened to destroy all Xavier had built. First, it was revealed that Xavier was aware that the X-Men’s training facility, the Danger Room, was actually a sentient being and Charles was alright with keeping it as a tool. Second, the dark secret of the team killed on Krakoa came to light. And finally, the Scarlet Witch’s spell had decimated Xavier, taking away his mutant abilities. These revelations disgusted this X-Men and Cyclops decided that the X-Men weren’t Xavier’s any longer.
Xavier tried to make amends by traveling to space to stop Vulcan from destroying the Shi’ar empire, but it was a lost cause. He was able to recover his lost telepathic abilities on the trip thanks to the M’Kraan Crystal. When the first baby born after M-Day appeared, Xavier was all but shut out of the rescue attempt, only playing a role when he took a bullet meant for the child. He survived and, after recovery, spent some time walking the Earth and trying to understand his place in the future of mutant kind. Maybe he had no place in this future? Maybe it was time for his students to lead and for Xavier to fade away? He believed, truly believed that Cyclops would one day replace him, and in a way, he was right. Cyclops’ leadership of the mutant race led to him possessing the Phoenix Force and remaking the world as a Utopia, but it couldn’t last. The Phoenix was driving him mad, and Xavier knew it had to be stopped. He confronted Scott, tried to reach him, he believed he could be saved. Charles Xavier was wrong. The Phoenix-powered Cyclops murdered that man he once called father. Professor X’s dream was over.
But nothing ever ends for a mutant. His oldest foe, the Shadow King captured Xavier’s astral consciousness and forced him into a game, one for complete domination. Xavier recruited a team of X-Men, Rogue, Mystique, and Fantomex to be his secret weapons. When Farouk thought the match over, Xavier sprung his trap and destroyed the Shadow King, body and soul. Back in the real world, Psylocke, who was tethering those X-Men to the astral plane was met with a shock. Fantomex approached he to tell her everything would be fine and revealed something to her. While his was the body of Fantomex, his mind was something much different. The faux-Frenchman had given his body up to Charles Xavier, and now, the man called X walks the world freely.
Must Read
Professor X has been in a ton of good X-Men stories over the years but the best comes in Uncanny X-Men #117. This tells the tale of Xavier’s first meeting with another mutant. It provides massive insight into why Xavier would dedicate his life to child soldiers and social justice. It also has a killer battle on the astral plane drawn by John Byrne. It is a fabulous standalone that you don’t want to miss.
Ranking
I’ve held the same position for years, and that is that Xavier works better as an idea than as an active participant in the story of X-Men. What is important is his dream and writers often find that out when they try to apply him. There is a very good reason that he is constantly sent into space or killed off, he just isn’t needed to tell great X-Men stories. He is also a jerk, which doesn’t help. This isn’t to say he is a bad character, just one that needs to be used carefully. I think he is better than Iceman and while I like Xorn more, Xavier is a deeper character. He has more pathos than Mister Sinister but I think Cable has to rank higher solely by his ability to be an active participant in stories. That puts Professor X in as the new number 17 in the Xavier Files.
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Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
