Professor X

• 1. Introduction

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  Professor X, whose full name is Charles Francis Xavier, first appeared in The X-Men #1, dated September 1963. Writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby created him for Marvel Comics, and Kirby is also credited as co-writer. Lee said the physical inspiration for the character was the Academy Award-winning actor Yul Brynner.

  Xavier is a mutant, a member of a subspecies of humans born with superhuman abilities. His own gift is telepathy, and it is enormous. He can read the minds of other people, and he can control them.

  That raises an uncomfortable question. Why would a man who can take over minds spend his life arguing for peaceful coexistence? His students call his goal a dream, and the dream does not last forever. This documentary asks what the dream cost, who paid for it, and what replaced it.

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• 2. Mind and Machine

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  Within a radius of about 250 miles, Charles Xavier can hear the thoughts of others and send his own. At one point his reach covered the entire world, until Magneto altered the Earth's electromagnetic field to shrink it. Away from Earth, his mind has made contact with several alien races. With extreme effort, he can stretch his range even further.

  Cerebro and its successor Cerebra are machines of his own design that amplify the power. Through them he can detect mutants far beyond his natural range. Without them, he senses the distinct brain waves of other superhuman mutants only within a small radius.

  Listening is the smallest part of the gift. Xavier can warp perception so that he seems invisible, project illusions, and erase particular memories or all of them. He can induce pain, or temporary paralysis of the mind and body. He can learn a foreign language by reading the language centers of a speaker's brain, and he can teach one the same way.

  Once he trained a new group of mutants mentally. The students subjectively lived through months of training together, while only hours passed in the real world.

  The limits are as revealing as the abilities. Xavier can fully possess only one mind at a time, and only while standing in that person's physical presence. He cannot permanently reprogram a human mind. As he explains it, the mind is an organism that would always recall how it reached the present, and it would rewrite itself back. His early reprogramming of Wolverine still lasted several years.

  He can also fire bolts of psychic energy. These bolts can stun a mind into unconsciousness, inflict mental trauma, or even cause death. They harm only minds and have a negligible effect on beings without one. He can project an astral form into a psychic dimension called the astral plane. There he can create objects and control his surroundings, though not over long distances.

  Because Cerebro can enhance his telepathy and Magneto's magnetic changes can disrupt it, the stories imply that the power is physical in some way.

  Born in New York City, Charles Xavier was the son of Dr. Brian Xavier, a respected nuclear scientist, and Sharon Xavier. The family lived in a grand estate in Westchester County, paid for by the father's research. Xavier gave up athletics because he felt his powers gave him an unfair advantage. He entered Bard College at the age of 16 and finished a biology degree in only two years.

  His graduate record is startling. He earned doctorates in Genetics, Biophysics, Psychology, and Anthropology, including two years of residence at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. He earned an M.D. in Psychiatry during several years in London, and he became an adjunct professor at Columbia University. Writer Ed Brubaker has claimed that Xavier's telepathy grew stronger after he was depowered and then repowered, though the extent is unknown.

  Xavier also holds the Mind Gem, which boosts mental power. Backed by the Power Gem, it could reach every mind in existence at once. Like the other former Illuminati members, he has sworn never to use it.

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• 3. The School and Its Heirs

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  In Westchester County, New York, the Xavier family estate became a school. The X-Mansion stands in Salem Center, and Xavier opened it as Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, later called the Xavier Institute. It shelters mutants from around the world and teaches them to explore and control their powers.

  His first five students were Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast, and Marvel Girl, who became the original X-Men. The first issue presents Marvel Girl as a new pupil, apparently the first female student. In X-Men #7, Xavier briefly leaves the team and puts Cyclops in command. Ben Saunders observes that the direction of the X-Men will often pivot on "the question of Xavier's absence or presence."

  Xavier's aims are four. He wants to promote the peaceful affirmation of mutant rights and to mediate between mutants and humans. He wants to protect mutants from violent humans, and to protect society from antagonistic mutants, including his old friend Magneto. His students call the mission "Xavier's dream." Governments respect him, and teams such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four trust him.

  For years, the public did not know that Xavier was himself a mutant. That changed in the 2001 story "E Is for Extinction."

  The students did not all stay loyal. At an open house at the Xavier Institute, student Quentin Quire and his gang started a riot, and Quire and two other students were killed. Unsure whether his dream was valid, Xavier announced that he would step down and name Jean Grey as his successor. After Xorn killed Jean Grey, Xavier left the school to Cyclops and Emma Frost.

  During the Messiah Complex storyline, the break with Cyclops turned open. Xavier learned that Cyclops had sent a team out without telling him. Cyclops told him outright that he no longer needed him to run the X-Men. When Xavier tried to help the New X-Men find a non-violent way to face the Purifiers, a student named Surge rebuked him. She asked where he had been when they were first attacked.

  On the island base Utopia, Cyclops refused to let Xavier leave for the mainland to clear his name. He judged that Xavier was more useful held in reserve. Cyclops kept him out of the field and relied on Emma Frost, Psylocke, and the Stepford Cuckoos for psionic work.

  The last quarrel came in the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline. The Phoenix Force split into five pieces and joined Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Colossus, and Magik. Cyclops and Frost came to hold the full Phoenix Force. Xavier was instrumental in confronting them and died in the battle with Cyclops, his first student. After facing the Shadow King on the astral plane, he returned in the body of Fantomex and later built himself a new body.

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• 4. Magneto

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  Moira Kinross, a fellow genetics student, agreed to marry Xavier, but the draft for the Korean War intervened. While Xavier served, Moira broke up with him. Saddened, he began traveling the world.

  In Haifa he worked with Holocaust victims and met a volunteer named Magnus, a Holocaust survivor. He also met Gabrielle Haller, who had been driven into a catatonic coma by trauma. Xavier used his powers to bring her out of it, and they fell in love. Xavier and Magnus became friends, though neither at first told the other that he was a mutant.

  Magnus's experiences led him to believe that humanity would oppress mutants. Xavier held a more hopeful view of human and mutant relations. Realizing their views could not coexist, Magnus left. He would become Magneto. Xavier and Gabrielle separated on good terms, neither knowing that she was pregnant with his son David, who grows up to become the mutant Legion.

  The two men became the poles of a long argument. Xavier's pacifist and assimilationist ideology is often set against that of Magneto. Magneto began as a supervillain and later became a complex antihero. Fans and commentators often compare Xavier and Magneto to Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, though how much the creators intended it is disputed.

  Writer Chris Claremont, who developed Xavier's characterization and originated Magneto's backstory, drew on Israeli politics. He compared Xavier to David Ben-Gurion and Magneto to Menachem Begin. Later writers have also stressed secretive, ruthless, and manipulative sides of Xavier.

  The friendship survived many breaks. When a reformed Magneto was arrested and put on trial, Xavier attended to defend him. Andrea and Andreas Strucker, children of the presumed dead Baron von Strucker, crashed the courtroom and attacked both men. Xavier was seriously injured and left Earth with the Shi'ar to be healed, leaving leadership of the X-Men to Magneto.

  In the Age of Apocalypse series, Xavier is killed while saving Magneto from an attack by Legion. His death creates a dystopian timeline in which Magneto founds the X-Men in Xavier's name. Apocalypse awakens decades too early and conquers most of the Earth. Magneto's X-Men travel back in time and save Xavier, restoring the main universe.

  Xavier's twin Cassandra Nova, whom he had tried to kill while both were in their mother's womb, sent rogue Sentinels against the mutant nation of Genosha. Magneto ruled Genosha, and he appeared to die along with most of its people.

  On Utopia, Magneto arrived during the funeral of Yuriko Takiguchi, apparently with peaceful motives. Xavier did not believe it and attacked him telepathically until Cyclops forced him to stand down. Afterward Xavier apologized for acting out of his old passions, and Magneto accepted.

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• 5. The Dark Side

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  In X-Men #106, dated August 1977, the new X-Men fight images of the original team. According to Xavier, these were created by his "evil self... who would use his powers for personal gain and conquest." He says he is normally able to keep that self in check. The same theme returns in the four-part 1984 series The X-Men and the Micronauts, where his dark desires take the form of the Entity and threaten the Micronauts' universe.

  The Onslaught storyline made the dark side literal. Its antagonist is a physical manifestation of Xavier's darkness, built from the repressed emotions of Xavier and Magneto. Onslaught was created in the most violent act Xavier claims to have done, which was erasing the mind of Magneto. Onslaught destroyed much of Manhattan before heroes including the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the Hulk destroyed him.

  Xavier was left without his telepathy and, overcome with guilt, left the X-Men and was incarcerated. He returned after the events of Operation: Zero Tolerance.

  Astonishing X-Men vol. 3, #12, from August 2005, adds a darker charge. Xavier is revealed to have kept the Danger Room trapped and to have experimented on it for years, even after learning that it was sentient. Cyclops calls this "the oppression of a new life" and equates it with humanity's treatment of mutants. Later issues, X-Men Legacy #220-224, reveal that its sentience was an accident. Xavier sought a way to free the Danger Room, but could not do so without deleting her sentience as well.

  During Onslaught the X-Men also found the Xavier Protocols, a set of doomsday plans written by Xavier himself. They detail the best way to kill many powerful mutants, including the X-Men and Xavier. The protocols are first seen in Excalibur #100, in Moira MacTaggert's lab. Xavier had compiled a list of the Earth's most powerful mutants, with plans to defeat each if it became a threat.

  In Operation: Zero Tolerance, Bastion obtained an encrypted copy, intending to use it against the X-Men. Cable infiltrated the X-Mansion and secured the files before Bastion could decrypt them. Because of tampering by Bastion and his Sentinels, Cerebro gained autonomy and tried to destroy the X-Men with its knowledge of the protocols. In a virtual environment Xavier created, Cerebro executed the protocols against them.

  Each protocol is triggered by a different combination of X-Men. Code 0-0-0 is the file on Charles Xavier himself, and Moira MacTaggert, Cyclops, and Jean Grey activate it. A holographic Xavier addresses them: "if you three are seeing these images, then I have become a mortal threat to my X-Men." He adds that he must be stopped by any means necessary, and the file downloads a blueprint for armor that protects the wearer from his psychic abilities.

  Code 0-2-1 is Wolverine's, activated by Archangel, Cyclops, and Jean Grey. Code 1-3-9 is Cable's, activated by Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Cannonball. Colossus, Rogue, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Gambit have also faced their own protocols.

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• 6. A Body Repeatedly Broken

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  In a strange town near the Himalayas, an alien scout named Lucifer dropped a stone block on Xavier. Xavier had foiled the scout's plans for an invasion by his race, and the blow paralyzed his legs. Sage heard his telepathic cries for help and rescued him, beginning a long alliance. In a hospital in India, Amelia Voght cared for him during his recovery.

  For much of his history since, Xavier has been paraplegic and has used a wheelchair. The comics keep finding ways to change that.

  When the X-Men fought the alien Brood, they captured Xavier and implanted him with a Brood egg that placed him under their control. The X-Men and the Starjammers could not remove it, so they transferred his consciousness into a cloned body. That body had working legs, though the psychosomatic pain from years of paralysis took time to fade.

  After the courtroom attack, Xavier traveled in space with the Shi'ar. He had long shared a psychic bond across galaxies with Princess Lilandra Neramani, and the two fell in love when they met in person. He joined the Starjammers and became her consort. After escaping Skrull forces he returned to Earth. In the Muir Island Saga, a battle with the Shadow King shattered his spine and returned him to paraplegia.

  Cassandra Nova later took over Xavier's body and attacked the Shi'ar empire. The X-Men restored him. Lilandra believed too much disaster had come from the Shi'ar's involvement with the X-Men, and she annulled her marriage. In that period a mutant named Xorn joined the X-Men and used his healing powers on Xavier's legs.

  In House of M, Scarlet Witch created a universe where mutants dominated, and Xavier was apparently dead. At Genosha, Magneto had built a memorial garden to him. When she restored reality, most mutants lost their powers, and Xavier stayed missing. Cerebro could not find him.

  He turned up depowered but able to walk. Vulcan abducted him and threw him into the M'Kraan Crystal, which restored his powers.

  In the Messiah Complex storyline, Bishop accidentally shot Xavier in the head, leaving him comatose. Exodus, Magneto, and Karima Shapandar saved his life, but he was partly amnesiac. He parted from Magneto and Karima to visit people from his past and regain his memories.

  During Dark Reign, Mystique posed as Xavier to denounce Cyclops. The real Xavier was imprisoned on Alcatraz and slowly stripped of his powers.

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• 7. Krakoa

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  A helmet like Cerebro now covers Xavier's head, and he can walk again. He now goes by X, and he has apparently abandoned the dream of peaceful coexistence. In its place he has made Krakoa, a living mutant island, into a sovereign nation for mutants.

  He leads the X-Men in planting seeds in strategic places around the world and on Mars. Overnight, the seeds grow into massive plantlike Habitats that act as extensions of Krakoa. Through mutant technology combined with Krakoa's abilities, Xavier and the X-Men now have embassies around the world.

  The same combination produced three drugs that could change human life. One is a pill that extends life by five years. Another is an adaptable universal antibiotic. The third is a pill that cures mental disease. Xavier offers them to humankind in exchange for recognition of Krakoa's sovereignty, while mutants live in peace on the island.

  He had also upgraded Cerebro with the help of Forge. It can now copy and store the minds of mutants in a database. A group called the Five combines their abilities to resurrect dead mutants. Its members are Hope Summers, Goldballs, Elixir, Proteus, and Tempus. The resurrection protocols revived Xavier after attackers from HALO killed him.

  Hope Summers has a history with Xavier's old dream. At the end of the Second Coming storyline, he watched her cradle Cable's lifeless arm. He reflected that she had indeed come to save mutantkind and revive his dream. But he also noted that she was still a young woman with a long and difficult journey ahead.

  This Xavier is allied with Magneto in building a sovereign mutant nation. The helmet also seems to unlock something new. Using it to galvanize dormant parts of his X-Gene, he apparently used telekinesis to will a flash drive on Mystique's person into his hand.

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• 8. Screen and Rankings

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  Patrick Stewart played Professor X in the first three films of the 20th Century Fox X-Men series, and in various video games. In the 2011 prequel X-Men: First Class, James McAvoy played a younger Xavier. Both actors returned for X-Men: Days of Future Past.

  Stewart came back again for Logan in 2017. McAvoy continued as the younger version in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Deadpool 2 (2018), and Dark Phoenix (2019). Harry Lloyd played the character in the third season of the television series Legion. In 2022 Stewart returned as an alternate version in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

  In 2006 BusinessWeek listed Xavier among the top ten most intelligent fictional characters in American comics. In 2014 Entertainment Weekly ranked him 13th in its list of every X-Man ever, and BuzzFeed placed him 11th among 95 X-Men members. ComicBook.com ranked him 14th in its 50 most important superheroes list in 2019.

  In 2022 The Mary Sue ranked him 8th among the most powerful X-Men of all time, and 7th among the most powerful Marvel mutants. Digital Trends put him 6th in its list of Marvel's most powerful mutants that year. Newsarama placed him 15th among the best X-Men members of all time. Screen Rant included him among the smartest Marvel telepaths. CBR.com ranked him 1st in its list of the greatest X-Men by experience.

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