I started this on twitter today, but it has given me enough thoughts to want to continue it on here. Basically, I was saying that I tend to forget that Professor Xavier is on the X-Men’s compound, Utopia. In the past, he was front and center, but since Cyclops has taken on the role as “Steward of the Mutant Race”, Xavier is just the backseat driver that everyone ignores. The only time we even see him is when there’s a War Council (there have been a LOT of those recently), and Cyclops gives him a dressing down in front of everyone, just so everyone knows who’s the Big Dawg. If you’re not familiar with X-Men,
though, I guess I should rewind a bit.
X-Men is the story of mutants fighting to gain equal rights and acceptance in a bigoted world. Charles Xavier opened a school for mutants, and created the X-Men in order fight for The Dream: a world in which humans and mutants could coexist. However, nothing he has ever done has really been towards achieving that goal. Sure, his aims sound nice on a business card, or on an elevator ride with the company president, but after issue #1 of the book, the X-Men have never done anything to put humankind at ease. Now, coexistence is one of those concepts where people are going to have to reach out of their comfort zones, but I don’t think Xavier stuck to the mission statement.
Xavier was written as this Martin Luther King character, while his old friend/new enemy Magneto is set up as the Malcolm X. Xavier feels that we can all coexist and be happy, while Magneto thinks that humans are obsolete, and mutants should take their rightful place as the inheritors of the Earth. This battle is waged back and forth for the better part of about 30 years, with no one side really winning anything, while humans just start to hate mutants more and more. In fact, Xavier would die/disappear every few years, and it’s at those periods that the team was MOST effective. So, maybe Xavier was the problem.
One thing that was always interesting to me, though, is that the MLK-Xavier comparison is erroneous. You see, Martin Luther King Jr was a black figurehead who fought for equal rights for black people. Up until recent years, The World never knew that Xavier was actually a mutant. Sure, you could surmise that he was, based on his passion and the fact that he had opened a school for mutants. It’s the whole “If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…” But he never outed himself, and I’m not quite sure why. it couldn’t have been for the protection of his students, ’cause people knew the school was full of mutants, and the place got blown up once a year. This stance set him up as a “crusader by proxy”, almost like a Jane Goodall of mutants. If I were on one of the X-teams, I think I’d probably resent him for that.
Anyway, around the turn of this century, something odd happened. It’s like Xavier was too squeaky clean. He was dedicated enough, but there had to be some explanation for how ineffective his approach had been. Forget the fact that comics are soap operas, where nothing finite can occur ’cause then the story would be over. No, it was decided that Xavier was actually an asshole the entire time. Sure, he’d done evil things before, but those were always written off as “he was possessed, so it wasn’t his fault” (look up “Onslaught” some time). This time, though, he was actually in control of his faculties, and it was revealed that he had a long trail of wrongs that he had hidden from his students. He had been manipulating people without their consent, he had sent a whole team of neophyte X-Men to their deaths, and forced an alien machine into slavery – defending everything with an “it was for your own good”. So, when it turned out that he always knew that his favorite pupil Cyclops had a 2nd brother (something that Cyclops didn’t even know), AND that he had sent the brother to his “death”, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. They kicked Xavier out of his own home, and Cyclops became the de facto face of mutantkind. To say they turned their backs on Xavier is an understatement. There’s a later storyline where he gets shot in the head, and they don’t even worry when his body disappears.
Xavier didn’t actually die from the bullet, and he goes on a soul-searching quest to figure out where he went wrong. After a year, he shows up on the X-Men’s doorstep, and they’re basically like, “So, looks like that bullet didn’t kill you after all. Pity.” In Xavier’s absence, Cyclops had moved all willing mutants to a base floating off the coast of San Francisco, due to the fact that mutants were now facing exctinction and Cyclops felt this would make it easier to protect those who remained. Humans, of course, saw this as another Mutie Threat. This makes the X-Men sitting ducks, as they fend off one attack after the other. The entire time, their founder, the man who trained them, is at their disposal, but the minute he opens his mouth, Cyclops is all like “You had your chance!” Xavier usually shrinks away with a “I was just trying to help, Scott”, but I really don’t get why he sticks around. It can’t be as a show of support, as nobody really seems to want him there. I guess it’s that he has no place to go, but he’s Old Money, so he could go join the Avengers and be their mutant advisor or some shit. He ain’t doing it for a paycheck. Plus, the last time I checked, the X-Men didn’t have jobs – they’re like a Real World cast, freeloading off someone else as they trash all the IKEA furniture and fuck in the shower. Not sure why Xavier doesn’t just cut them off financially, and say “The bank is CLOSED!”
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This would be a really good time for Xavier to go off and find himself, but he basically JUST did that. I don’t know if editorial thought that through, or what. Based on the fact that I’ve been reading this series for the past 17 years (oh, God…hasn’t it really been that long?), I know how this shit goes. If Marvel steals any of this, remember that you read it here first: Xavier’s at a pretty low point, as far as self esteem goes. This is usually when he’s most succeptible to psychic/demonic possession. So, the Shadow King will come along and possess him for the 843rd time. He’ll kidnap Hope, the young mutant who’s currently being touted as the new Mutant Messiah, since she’s the first mutant born in the past 5 years (although in comic time, it’s probably only been about 2 weeks). Five new mutants were discovered after Hope’s powers triggered for the first time. Xavier’s not much of a fighter, seeing as how he has spent 75% of his existence in a wheelchair (don’t worry, he can walk now – LONG story). Anyway, he builds teams of youngsters to do his bidding in order to make up for his own poor fighting skills. So, I say Shadow Xavier kidnaps Hope, and uses his powers to contact these new mutants and coerce them into joining him. Then, he’ll go all David Koresh and establish a Messianic stronghold on the site of his former mansion in Westchester (he does, technically, still own the property). The X-Men will go in search of Hope, and realize that Xavier took her. They won’t know about the possession angle, as they’ll just figure it as another example of “Charlie being an asshole”. It’ll be team versus team, Magneto will do something dickish to further his own goals, and the X-Men will eventually end up taking on the Shadow King. They’ll even tease us with the whole “Is Hope Actually Our Reincarnated Dead Friend” gimmick a bit more. When the dust settles, we’ll end up with X-Generation Force or whatever the Hell they decide to call the team comprised of the 5 new mutants, Nightcrawler’s ghost and Wolverine. Xavier will have sacrificed himself, but it will be in a blaze of glory. He’ll finally have his redemption. Plus, the X-Men will be all like, “Well, since we came all this way, we might as well rebuild the mansion for the 437th time”, which will end their San Francisco sojourn.
I know that comics need to have new ideas every now and then, but I’ve never been a fan of Asshole Xavier. It was already established that he was a deadbeat dad, and he basically had to kill his own son (don’t worry, he’s alive again). I mean, that’s one fucked up episode of Maury right there, so it’s not like they needed to heap anything else on him. I’d like to see him back in his rightful place, especially since it seems like Cyclops is going to crack pretty soon. I think Xavier has realized, from all of this, that The Dream isn’t as important as Survival. Cyclops did what was necessary to protect what was left of the mutant race. After all, you would need them in order to further any coexistence called for by The Dream. I think Xavier’s approach was flawed, and he might be coming around to figuring out a way that *works*. Xavier knows that he would’ve taken the pacifist route, and they’d all probably be dead. So, maybe this is the road to him becoming a badass. His way wasn’t working, but I don’t think they needed to villify him in order to prove that. Just let him retire. I just hope they figure out something soon, ’cause I’m tired of him being a doormat. I’d rather they kill him.
