Professor Charles Francis Xavier (also known as Professor X) is a fictional character

appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and is the founder
and leader of the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character
first appeared in The X-Men #1 (September 1963).

Xavier is a member of a subspecies of humans known as mutants who are born with
superhuman abilities. The founder of the X-Men, he himself is an exceptionally
powerful telepath who can read and control minds of others. While running a private
school in Westchester County, New York to both shelter and train mutants from around
the globe, Xavier also fights to serve the greater good by promoting peaceful
coexistence and equality between humans and mutants in a world where often zealous
anti-mutant bigotry is widespread.

Throughout much of the character's history in comics, Xavier is a paraplegic variously

using either a wheelchair or a form of personal hovercraft. One of the world's most
powerful telepathic mutant minds, Xavier is also a scientific genius, being an expert in
genetics, biophysics, psychology, anthropology, and psychiatry. He's put his combined
talents to use by serving as a leading authority on genetics, mutations, and psionic
powers. Furthermore, he has shown noteworthy talents in devising equipment to greatly
enhance psionic powers. Xavier is perhaps best known in this regard for the creation of
a device called Cerebro, a technology that serves to detect and track those individuals
possessing the mutant gene, at the same time greatly expanding the gifts of those with
existing psionic abilities.

Although quite at odds with his consistent use of the X-Men to fight threats of evil by
engaging in purely physical battle, from a social policy and philosophical perspective
Xavier has been shown to deeply resent the violent methods of those like his former
close friend and occasional arch enemy, the supervillain Magneto. Instead, he's
presented his platform as espousing uncompromising pacifism in order to see his dream
to fruition - one that seeks to live harmoniously alongside humanity, just the same as it
desires full-fledged civil rights and equality for all of mutantkind. Xavier's actions and
goals in life have therefore quite often been compared to those of Martin Luther King,
Jr. for his involvement with the American civil rights struggle, [1] whereas Magneto is
often compared with the more militant civil rights activist Malcolm X.[1]

Indeed, the character's creation and development occurred simultaneously with the civil
rights struggle, taking place as it did in the 1960s, while Xavier's first appearance dates
to 1963. The fictionalized plight on paper of a mutantkind faced with exceptional
intolerance, prejudice and blind hatred was done in large part to better illustrate to
audiences of the day what was transpiring across the United States, just the same as it
also served to further promote ideals of tolerance and equality for all.[2]

Patrick Stewart portrayed the character in five films of the X-Men film series and in
various video games, while James McAvoy portrayed a younger version of the character
in the 2011 prequel X-Men: First Class, with both actors reprising the role in the film X-
Men: Days of Future Past. James McAvoy also portrays the character in X-Men:
Apocalypse.

Contents
 1 Publication history
o 1.1 Creation and influences
o 1.2 Character
2 Fictional character biography
3 Powers and abilities
4 Xavier Protocols
5 Other versions
6 In other media
7 References
8 Sources
9 External links

Publication history
Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, Professor X first appeared in
X-Men #1 (September 1963).

Creation and influences

Stan Lee has stated that the physical inspiration of Professor Xavier was from Academy
Awardwinning actor Yul Brynner.[3][4] Professor Xavier's character development has
been inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.[5]

Writer Scott Lobdell established Xavier's middle name to be Francis in Uncanny X-Men
#328 (January 1996).

Character

Xaviers goals are to promote the peaceful affirmation of mutant rights, to mediate the
co-existence of mutants and humans, to protect mutants from violent humans and to
protect society from antagonistic mutants, including his old friend, Magneto. To achieve
these aims, he founded Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters (later named the Xavier
Institute) to teach mutants to explore and control their powers. Its first group of students
was the original X-Men (Cyclops, Iceman, Marvel Girl, Angel, and Beast). Xavier's
students consider him a visionary and often refer to their mission as "Xavier's dream".
He is highly regarded by others in the Marvel Universe, respected by various
governments and trusted by several other superhero teams, including the Avengers and
the Fantastic Four. However, he also has a manipulative streak which has resulted in
several significant fallings-out with allies and students.

He often acts as a public advocate for mutant rights and is the authority most of the
Marvel superhero community turns to for advice on mutants. Despite this, his status as a
mutant himself and originator of the X-Men only became public during the 2001 story
"E Is for Extinction". He also appears in almost all of the X-Men animated series and in
many video games, although usually as a non-playable character because of his
disability. Patrick Stewart plays him in the 2000s film series, as well as providing his
voice in some of the X-Men videogames (including some not connected to the film
series).
Professor X as he appears in his debut comic book, The X-Men #1 (1963). Story by Stan
Lee. Art by Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman.

According to BusinessWeek, Charles Xavier is listed as one of the top ten most
intelligent fictional characters in American comics. [6]

In a number of comics, Xavier is shown to have a dark side, a part of himself that he
struggles to suppress. Perhaps the most notable appearance of this character element is
in the Onslaught storyline, in which the crossover event's antagonist is a physical
manifestation of that dark side. Also, Onslaught is created in the most violent act Xavier
claims to have done: erasing the mind of Magneto. In X-Men #106 (August 1977), the
new X-Men fight images of the original team, which have been created by what Xavier
says is his "evil self ... who would use his powers for personal gain and conquest",
which he says he is normally able to keep in check. In the 1984 four-part series titled
The X-Men and the Micronauts, Xavier's dark desires manifest themselves as the Entity
and threaten to destroy the Micronauts' universe.

In other instances, Xavier is shown to be secretive and manipulative. During the

Onslaught storyline, the X-Men find Xavier's files, the "Xavier Protocols", which detail
how to kill many of the characters, including Xavier himself, should the need ever arise,
such as if they went rogue.[7] Astonishing X-Men vol. 3, #12 (August 2005) reveals that
when Xavier realizes that the Danger Room has become sentient, he keeps it trapped
and experiments on it for years, an act that Cyclops calls "the oppression of a new life"
and equates to humanity's treatment of mutants (however, X-Men Legacy #220 - 224
reveals that Xavier did not intend for the Danger Room to become sentient: it was an
accident, and Xavier sought a way to free Danger, but was unable to find a way to
accomplish this without deleting her sentience as well).

Fictional character biography

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subheadings. (January 2016)

Charles Francis Xavier was born in New York City to the wealthy Brian Xavier, a well-
respected nuclear scientist, and Sharon Xavier. After Brian dies in an accident, his
science partner Kurt Marko comforts and then marries the grieving Sharon. When
Xavier's telepathic mutant powers emerge, he discovers Marko cares only about his
mother's money.[8]
A young Charles Xavier. Story by Stan Lee. Art by Jack Kirby, Alex Toth, and Vincent
Colletta.

After the wedding, Kurt moves in with the Xaviers, bringing with him his son Cain.
Kurt quickly grows neglectful of Sharon, driving her to alcoholism, and abuses both
Charles and Cain. Cain takes out his frustrations and insecurities on his stepbrother.
Charles uses his telepathic powers to read Cain's mind and explore the extent of his
psychological damage, which only leads to Cain becoming more aggressive toward him
and the young Xavier feeling Cain's pain firsthand. [8]

Sharon dies soon after, and a fight erupts between Cain and Charles that causes some of
Kurt's lab equipment to explode. Mortally wounded, Kurt drags the two children out
before dying, and admits he was partly responsible for Brian's death. [8][9]

With help from his powers and his natural genius, Xavier becomes an excellent student
and athlete, though he gives up the latter, believing his powers give him an unfair
advantage. Due to his powers, by the time he graduates from high school, Charles loses
all of his hair. He graduates with honors at the age of 16 from Harvard University.[10] In
graduate studies, he receives Ph.D.s in Genetics, Biophysics, Psychology, and
Anthropology with a two-year residence at Pembroke College, Oxford University.[11]
He also receives an M.D. in Psychiatry while spending several years in London.[12][13]
He is later appointed Adjunct Professor at Columbia University.[14] Origins of Marvel
Comics: X-Men #1 (2010) presents a different version of events, suggesting a
scholarship to Oxford University rescued him from his abusive home, after which he
"never looked back", suggesting he began his academic career as a very young man at
Oxford.[15] His stepbrother is resentful of him. [volume & issue needed]

At graduate school, he meets a Scottish girl named Moira Kinross, a fellow genetics
student with whom he falls in love. The two agree to get married, but soon, Xavier is
drafted into the Korean War. He carves himself a niche as a soldier in search and rescue
missions alongside Shadowcat's father, Carmen Pryde,[16] and witnesses Cain's
transformation into Juggernaut when he touches a ruby with an inscription on it in an
underground temple. During the war, he receives a letter from Moira telling him that she
is breaking up with him. He later discovers that Moira married her old boyfriend Joseph
MacTaggert, who abuses her.[8][13][17]

Deeply depressed when Moira broke off their engagement without explanation, Xavier
began traveling around the world as an adventurer after leaving the army. In Cairo, he
meets a young girl named Ororo Munroe (later known as Storm), who is a pickpocket,
and the Shadow King, a powerful mutant who is posing as Egyptian crime lord Amahl
Farouk. Xavier defeats the Shadow King, barely escaping with his life. This encounter
leads to Xavier's decision to devote his life to protecting humanity from evil mutants
and safeguarding innocent mutants from human oppression.[13]

Xavier and Magneto part ways due to the differences in their beliefs on how to help
mutants. Art by Carlos Pacheco.

Xavier visits his friend Daniel Shomron, who runs a clinic for traumatized Holocaust
victims in Haifa, Israel. There, he meets a man going by the name of Magnus (who
would later become Magneto), a Holocaust survivor who works as a volunteer in the
clinic, and Gabrielle Haller, a woman driven into a catatonic coma by the trauma she
experienced. Xavier uses his mental powers to break her out of her catatonia and the
two fall in love. Xavier and Magneto become good friends, although neither
immediately reveals to the other that he is a mutant. The two hold lengthy debates
hypothesizing what will happen if humanity is faced with a new super-powered race of
humans. While Xavier is optimistic, Magneto's experiences in the Holocaust lead him to
believe that humanity will ultimately oppress the new race of humans as they have done
with other minorities. The two friends reveal their powers to each other when they fight
Nazi Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and his Hydra agents, who kidnap Gabrielle
because she knows the location of their secret cache of gold. Magneto attempts to kill
Strucker but Xavier stops him. Realizing that his and Xavier's views on mutant-human
relations are incompatible, Magneto leaves with the gold. Charles stays in Israel for
some time, but he and Gabrielle separate on good terms, neither knowing that she is
pregnant with his son, who grows up to become the mutant Legion.[18]

In a strange town near the Himalayas, Xavier encounters an alien calling himself
Lucifer, the advance scout for an invasion by his race, and foils his plans. In retaliation,
Lucifer drops a huge stone block on Xavier, crippling his legs. [19] After Lucifer leaves, a
young woman named Sage hears Xavier's telepathic cries for help and rescues him,
bringing him to safety, beginning a long alliance between the two. [20]

In a hospital in India he is brought to an American nurse, Amelia Voght, who looks

after him and, as she sees to his recovery, they fall in love. When he is released from the
hospital, the two moved into an apartment in Bombay together. Amelia is troubled to
find Charles studying mutation, as she is a mutant and unsettled by it, though she calms
when he reveals himself to be a mutant as well. They eventually move to the United
States, living on Xavier's family estate. But the night Scott Summers moves into
Xavier's mansion, Amelia leaves him, believing Charles would have changed his view
and that mutants should lie low. Yet he is recruiting them to what she believes is a lost
cause. Charles tries to force her to stay with his mental powers, but immediately
ashamed by this, lets her go. She later becomes a disciple of Magneto. [21][22][23]

Over the years, Charles makes a name for himself as geneticist and psychologist,
apparently renowned enough that the Greys were referred to him when no other expert
could help their catatonic daughter, Jean. Xavier trains her in the use of her telekinesis,
while inhibiting her telepathic abilities until she matures.[24] Around this time, he also
starts working with fellow mutation expert, Karl Lykos, as well as Moira MacTaggert
again, who built a mutant research station on Muir Island. Apparently, Charles had
gotten over Moira in his travels to the Greek island of Kirinos.[13] Xavier discusses his
candidates for recruitment to his personal strike force, the X-Men, with Moira,
including those he passes over, which are Kurt Wagner, Piotr Rasputin, Pietro and
Wanda Maximoff, and Ororo Munroe. Xavier also trains Tessa in order to spy on
Sebastian Shaw.[25][26][27]

Xavier founded Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, which provides a safe haven for
mutants and teaches them to master their abilities. In addition, he seeks to foster mutant-
human relations by providing his superhero team, the X-Men, as an example of mutants
acting in good faith, as he told FBI agent Fred Duncan.[28] With his inherited fortune, he
uses his ancestral mansion at 1407 Graymalkin Lane in Salem Center, Westchester
County, New York as a base of operations with technologically advanced facilities,
including the Danger Room - later, Fantomex mentions that Xavier is a billionaire with
a net worth of $3.5 billion.[29] Presenting the image of a stern teacher, Xavier makes his
students endure a rigorous training regime. [30]

Xavier's first five students are Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, and Angel, who
become the original X-Men.[31] After he completes recruiting the original team of X-
Men, he sends them into battle with Magneto. [32]

Throughout most of his time with the team, Xavier uses his telepathic powers to keep in
constant contact with his students and provides instructions and advice when needed. In
addition, he uses a special machine called Cerebro, which enhances his ability to detect
mutants and to allow the team to find new students in need of the school. [33]

Among the obstacles Xavier faces is his old friend, Magneto, who has grown into an
advocate of mutant superiority since their last encounter and who believes the only
solution to mutant persecution is domination over humanity. [34]

When anthropologist Bolivar Trask resurfaces the "mutant problem", Xavier counters
him in a televised debate, however, he appears arrogant and Trask sends his mutant-
hunting robot Sentinels to terrorize mutants. The X-Men dispatch them, but Trask sees
the error in his ways too late as he is killed by his creations. [35]

At one point, Xavier seemingly dies during the X-Men's battle with the sub-human
Grotesk, but it is later revealed that Xavier arranged for a reformed former villain
named Changeling to impersonate him while he went into hiding to plan a defense
against an invasion by the extraterrestrial Z'Nox, imparting a portion of his telepathic
abilities to the Changeling to complete the disguise. [36]
When the X-Men are captured by the sentient island Krakoa, Xavier assembles a new
team to rescue them, including Cyclops' and Havok's long-lost brother, Vulcan,[37] along
with Darwin, Petra, and Sway. This new team, composed of students of Dr. Moira
MacTaggert, was sent to rescue the original X-Men from Krakoa. However, after
rescuing Cyclops, McTaggert's former students were seemingly killed. Upon Cyclops'
return, Xavier removed Cyclops' memories of the death of Vulcan and his teammates,
and began assembling yet another team of X-Men.

Xavier's subsequent rescue team consists of Banshee, Colossus, Sunfire, Nightcrawler,

Storm, Wolverine, and Thunderbird. After the mission, the older team of X-Men, except
for Cyclops, leave the school, believing they no longer belong there, and Xavier
mentors the new X-Men.[38][39]

Xavier forms a psychic bond across galaxies with Princess Lilandra from the Shi'ar
Empire. When they finally meet, it is love at first sight. She implores the professor to
stop her mad brother, Shi'ar Emperor D'Ken, and he instantly aids her by deploying his
X-Men. When Jean Grey returns from the Savage Land to tell him that all the X-Men
are dead, he shuts down the school and travels with Lilandra to her kingdom, where she
is crowned Empress and he is treated like a child or a trophy husband. [40][41]

Xavier senses the changes taking place in Jean Grey, and returns to Earth to help and
resume leadership of the X-Men.[42] Shortly thereafter he battles his pupil after she
becomes Dark Phoenix and destroys a populated planet in the Shi'ar Empire. It hurts
Xavier to be on the opposite side of Lilandra, but he has no other choice but to
challenge the Shi'ar Imperial Guard to a duel over the fate of the Phoenix. Xavier would
have lost against the greater power of the Dark Phoenix, but thanks to the help Jean
Grey gives him (fighting her Phoenix persona), Xavier emerges victorious; she later
commits suicide in order to prevent herself from endangering more innocent lives. [43]

When the X-Men fight members of the extraterrestrial race known as the Brood, Xavier
is captured by them, and implanted with a Brood egg, which places Xavier under the
Brood's control. During this time, Xavier assembles a team of younger mutants called
the New Mutants, secretly intended to be prime hosts for reproduction of the aliens. The
X-Men discover this and return to free Xavier, but they are too late to prevent his body
from being destroyed with a Brood Queen in its place; however, his soul remains intact.
The X-Men and Starjammers subdue this monstrous creature containing Xavier's
essence, but the only way to restore him is to clone a new body using tissue samples he
donated to the Starjammers and transfer his consciousness into the clone body. This
new body possesses functional legs, though the psychosomatic pain Xavier experienced
after living so long as a paraplegic takes some time to subside. Subsequently, he even
joins the X-Men in the field, but later decides not to continue this practice after realizing
that his place is at the school, as the teacher of the New Mutants. [44][45][46][47]

After taking a teaching position at Columbia University in Uncanny X-Men #192,

Xavier is severely injured and left for dead as the victim of a hate crime. Callisto and
her Morlocks, a group of underground-dwelling mutants, get him to safety. One of the
Morlocks partially restores Xavier's health, but Callisto warns Xavier that he is not fully
healed and that he must spend more time recuperating and restrain himself from
exerting his full strength or powers, or his health might fail again. Xavier hides his
injuries from the others and resumes his life. [14]
Charles meets with former lover Gabrielle Haller on Muir Isle and discovers that they
had a child. The boy, David, is autistic and suffers from multiple personality disorder
and has vast psionic powers like his father. After helping him and his team to escape
from David's mind, Xavier promises he will always be there for him. [48]

A reformed Magneto is arrested and put on trial. Xavier attends the trial to defend his
friend. Andrea and Andreas Strucker, the children of presumed dead Baron von
Strucker, crash the courtroom to attack Magneto and Xavier. Xavier is seriously injured.
Dying, he asks a shocked Magneto to look after the X-Men for him. Lilandra, who has a
psychic bond with Xavier, feels that he is in great danger and heads to Earth. There, she
and Corsair take Xavier with them so Shi'ar advanced technology can heal him. [49]

Xavier leaves Magneto in charge of the school, but some of the X-Men are unwilling to
forgive their former enemy. Cyclops loses a duel for the leadership of the X-Men
against Storm, then leaves them and joins the other four original X-Men to form a new
team called X-Factor.[50]

In the meantime, Charles becomes stranded in space with the Starjammers, but he is
reunited with his lover Lilandra and relishes his carefree lifestyle. He serves as a
member of the Starjammers aboard the starship Starjammer, mobile in the Shi'ar
Galaxy. He becomes consort to the Princess-Majestrix Lilandra while in exile, and
when she later resumes her throne he takes up residence with her in the Imperial palace
on the Shi'ar homeworld. Xavier joins Lilandra in her cause to overthrow her sister
Deathbird, taking on the powers of Phoenix temporarily wherein he is named Bald
Phoenix by Corsair, but sees that he must return to help the X-Men.[51][52]

Xavier eventually becomes imprisoned by the Skrulls during their attempted invasion of
the Shi'ar Empire. Xavier breaks free from imprisonment by Warskrull Prime, and is
reunited with the X-Men.[53] A healthy Xavier returns from the Shi'ar Empire and is
reunited with both the current and original X-Men teams, and resumes his leadership
responsibilities of the united teams. In a battle with his old foe, the Shadow King, in the
"Muir Island Saga", Xavier's spine is shattered, returning him to his former paraplegic
state, while his son David is seemingly killed. In the following months, Xavier rebuilds
the mansion, which previously was rebuilt with Shi'ar technology, and restructures the
X-Men into two teams.[54][55][56]

While holding a mutant rights speech, Xavier is nearly assassinated by Stryfe in the
guise of Cable, being infected with a fatal techno-organic virus. For reasons of his own,
the villain Apocalypse saves him. As a temporary side-effect he gains full use of his
legs and devotes his precious time to the youngest recruit on his team, Jubilee.[57][58]

With all his students now highly trained adults, Professor Xavier renames his school the
Xavier Institute For Higher Learning. Also, he assumes control of a private institution,
the Massachusetts Academy, making it a new School for Gifted Youngsters. Another
group of young mutants is trained here, Generation X, with Banshee and Emma Frost as
headmaster and headmistress, respectively. [59]

Professor X is for a time the unknowing host of the evil psionic entity Onslaught, the
result of a previous battle with Magneto. In that battle, Magneto uses his powers to rip
out the adamantium bonded to Wolverine's skeleton, and a furious Xavier wipes
Magneto's mind, leaving him in a coma.[23][60][61] From the psychic trauma of Xavier
using his powers so violently and the mixing of Magneto's and Xavier's repressed anger,
Onslaught is born. Onslaught wreaks havoc, destroying much of Manhattan, until many
of Marvel's superheroesincluding the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and the Hulk
destroy him.[62] Xavier is left without his telepathy and, overcome with guilt, leaves the
X-Men and is incarcerated for his actions. [63][64][65] He later returns to the X-Men after
Operation: Zero Tolerance, in which he is shocked by the cruel act of being turned over
to the mutant-hating Bastion, following a clash with the sentient Cerebro and a team of
impostor X-Men.[66][67][68]

Xavier questions his dream again and Magneto shortly thereafter is confronted by the
X-Men. After the battle, the UN concedes Genosha to Magnus, and Wolverine is
angered by Xavier stopping him from getting his revenge on Magneto. Charles and
Logan are later trapped in a dimension with different laws of physics, wherein they have
to coordinate their moves together and, in the process, gain a better understanding of the
other's views.[69][70]

Apocalypse kidnaps the fabled "Twelve" special mutants (Xavier included) whose
combined energies would grant him omnipotence. After Apocalypse's defeat with the
help of Skrull mutants, Xavier goes with the young Skrulls known as Cadre K to train
them and free them from their oppressors, and eventually returns to aid in Legacy Virus
research.[71][72][73][74]

Mystique and her Brotherhood start a deadly assault on Muir Isle by releasing an altered
form of the Legacy Virus, all in retaliation against the election campaign of Robert
Kelly, a seeming mutant-hater. Mystique blows up Moira MacTaggert's laboratory
complex, fatally wounding her. Charles goes to the astral plane to meet with her and
retrieve information on the cure to the Legacy Virus, but after gathering the information
does not want to leave her alone. If not for Jean pulling him back, the professor would
have died with his first love, who states she has no regrets. [74]

As Beast cures the Legacy Virus, many infected Genoshan mutants recover overnight,
providing Magneto, current ruler of Genosha, with an army to start the third World War.
He demands Earth's governments to accept him as their leader, and abducts and
crucifies Xavier in Magda Square for all to see. A loyal member of Magneto's Acolytes,
Amelia Voght, can't stand to see her former lover punished in such a manner and sets
him free. Jean Grey and rather untrained newcomers, as most of the team are elsewhere,
distract Magneto and Wolverine guts him. Xavier is too late to intervene. [75]

Xavier's evil twin Cassandra Nova, whom Xavier attempted to kill while they were both
in their mother's womb, orders a group of rogue Sentinels to destroy the independent
mutant nation of Genosha. Magneto, who is Genosha's leader, appears to die along with
the vast majority of the nation's inhabitants. Nova then takes over Xavier's body. Posing
as Xavier, she reveals his mutation to the world, something he needed to do but did not
want to sully his reputation over,[76] before going into space and crippling the Shi'ar
Empire. The X-Men restore Xavier, but Lilandra, believing that too much disaster has
come from the Shi'ar's involvement with the X-Men, annuls her marriage to Xavier.
Lilandra previously had gone insane and tried to assassinate Charles on a trip to
Mumbai. During this period, a mutant named Xorn joins the X-Men. Xorn uses his
healing power to restore Xavier's use of his legs. [77]