Mutation: it is the key to our evolution. It has enabled us to evolve from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, and normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward. 
- —Professor X[src]
History
Early Life
Charles Xavier is a mutant with the ability to read minds and project his own thoughts into the minds of others.
Young Charles Xavier
As a child, Charles met a shape-shifting girl named Raven, who had broken into his family's mansion and was scrounging for food. Overjoyed to meet someone else "different" like him, he invited her to live with his family.
A natural genius, Charles completed high school at sixteen. He attended Oxford University accompanied by Raven. He earned Ph.D.s in Genetics, Biophysics, and Psychology.
Meeting Erik Lehnsherr
After completing his thesis on genetic mutation, he was approached by Agent Moira MacTaggert of the CIA for his help in stopping a mutant named Sebastian Shaw, who was working with the Soviet Union. MacTaggert introduced him and Raven to the CIA, where they proved to her chief that mutants existed and Shaw was a threat. The chief refused to employ the help of the mutants, but a "Man in Black" offered to sponsor them.
Charles accompanied MacTaggert, MIB and a US Coast Guard assault team to arrest Shaw on his yacht. During the attack, Charles' telepathy was blocked by Emma Frost. They also encountered Erik Lehnsherr, who was launching his own solo attack on Shaw at the time. When Shaw escaped in a submarine, Xavier prevented Lensherr from killing himself in an attempt to stop it and brought him to the CIA's secret "Division X" facility.
Forming The X-Men
There they met young scientist Hank McCoy, a mutant with prehensile feet and enhanced intelligence, whom Xavier identified as a mutant. He then used a mutant-locating device designed by McCoy called Cerebro to find and recruit mutants for training to stop Shaw. Refusing CIA help, he and Lensherr traveled the world discovering various mutants: exotic dancer Angel Salvadore; taxi driver Armando Muñoz; Army prisoner Alexander Summers; and the young Sean Cassidy. They also approached Canadian mercenary James Howlett, but he immediately rebuffed them.
Lensherr and Xavier tried once again to find and capture Shaw, who was supposed to be meeting with a Soviet general. They discovered that Frost had attended the meeting in his place, and Xavier and Lensherr captured her instead. Interrogating her led to the revelation that Shaw intended to spark a third world war to wipe out humanity, leaving mutants as the dominant species. Meanwhile, the other Hellfire Club mutants attacked Division X, turning Angel to their cause and killing Armando in the process. With the facility destroyed, Xavier relocated the mutants to train at his family mansion. During their stay there, Xavier applied his telepathy to help Lensherr reach new heights of his magnetic ability.
Cuban Missile Crisis
Xavier's new team was soon called to action during the Cuban Missile Crisis when Shaw engineered a stand-off between amassed United States and Soviet navel forces. A Soviet freighter had been forcibly commandeered by the Hellfire Club who were attempting to run the American blockade. Xavier took mental control of a Soviet officer and had the man destroy the freighter, thus averting a nuclear catastrophe. Lensherr pulled Shaw's submarine from the water. The submarine and the X-Jet both crashed shortly after, bringing both teams into direct conflict with each other. Lensherr found and killed Shaw.
Xavier found his attention turned to the new threat of the two navel fleets with crews who were rapidly becoming fearful of the mutants. The ships launched a combined missile strike against the mutants, which Lensherr quickly turned back on them. Xavier kept Lensherr from destroying the ships, but when MacTaggert fired a gun at Lensherr, a deflected bullet hit Xavier in the spine, crippling him from ever walking again. A remorseful Erik left with Mystique, Angel, and Shaw's enforcers Riptide and Azazel.
Professor X
Later, a wheelchair-bound Xavier returned to the mansion where MacTaggert promised never to reveal his location. They kissed, whereupon Xavier wiped her memory of the events. He soon after founded Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and ran from his family's Westchester mansion, which had been converted into a base of operations at which he trained mutants for his personal strike force known as the X-Men. The base included subterranean medical labs, a training facility called "The Danger Room," an aircraft hanger, and Cerebro. However, the Vietnam War and the subsequent loss of many of his students in the conflict left Xavier feeling bitter, prompting him to rely for a time on a serum that would restore his ability to walk at the cost of preventing him from using his powers. He and Hank- the last surviving member of the original team still loyal to him- remained at the school for a time in self-imposed isolation, but they eventually moved past it and re-established the school under undisclosed circumstances.
William Stryker sent his son Jason to Xavier's school in hopes of ridding his mutation, regarding it as a disease that he believed needed be cured. Xavier had no interest or belief in 'curing' mutants, which angered Stryker. Later, Xavier helped liberate the mutant children held prisoner by Stryker at Three Mile Island. He took them in an flew off in his helicopter with Scott Summers and the sister of Kayla Silverfox. Summers would go on to lead the X-Men.
After finding Jean Grey during a brief reunion with Magneto, Xavier began controlling her with mind blocks because he believed her class 5 powers were too much for her to handle.
Battles With The Brotherhood
Xavier helped Wolverine try to put together his past. Mystique infiltrated the school and sabotaged Cerebro. When Xavier used Cerebro he fell into a coma. Despite his absence Wolverine and the X-Men prevented Magneto from mutating the leaders at the World Summit on Liberty Island. He later fully recovered from the coma.
Later, Xavier visited Magneto in his plastic prison cell, and the two played chess. Magneto warned his friend that he would continue his fight, to which Xavier promised that he and the X-Men would always be there to stop him.
Mutants United
Stryker captured Xavier and had Jason trick Xavier into using Cerebro II, a reproduction of Cerebro, to kill all mutants. Magneto, wearing a helmet designed to shield against telepathic attacks, was able to reach Xavier while the X-Men were incapacitated by the psychic assault, but then had Jason make Xavier use Cerebro II to kill ordinary humans. At his direction, Mystique impersonated Stryker and instructed Jason of a change in plans, which Jason then communicated to the brainwashed Xavier. Magneto and Mystique escaped, and soon thereafter Storm and Nightcrawler entered Cerebro II and disrupted Jason's illusion, allowing Xavier to break from his control before any humans and mutants could be killed. They took the weakened Professor to safety, and Jean later used him to telekinetically talk to Scott in her final moments.
The Phoenix
Don't let it control you
-Charles' last words
With Cyclops becoming depressed over Jean's death, Xavier made Storm his successor to headmaster, despite her surprise. Like most other X-Men, he was neutral to the idea of the Mutant Cure. Wolverine and Storm later found Jean Grey alive, with her mind blocks removed. Xavier immediately kept her in a coma so he could put them back, but a horrified Wolverine released Jean; she subsequently knocked him unconscious and escaped.
Xavier, Storm, and Wolverine went to Jean in her house, only to run into Magneto and the Brotherhood, who wanted to recruit Jean. The old frenemies argued for control over Jean's fate. When Jean Grey learned of Xavier's mind blocks from Magneto, she and the Professor telekinetically fought and she destroyed his body.
Xavier was buried on the campus grounds, with Scott to his right and Jean to Scott's right.
However, to escape death, Xavier transferred his mind to the body of his brain-dead twin brother, P. Xavier, who was under the care of Dr. Moira MacTaggert at Muir Island.
Return
Shortly after returning from Japan, Logan is greeted by a restored Charles Xavier and repowered Magneto, who inform him that a darkness is coming that could destroy their kind and that he is needed. Wolverine asked how it was possible that he came back, and he said that he merely used his gifts.
Across Time
In 2023, Earth was under peril from the mutant-hunting Sentinels, each capable of rapidly adapting to mutant powers and determined to eliminate all mutants and control humanity to prevent further mutation. Learning that Kitty Pryde had mastered the ability to project someone's consciousness into the past, Xavier proposed that he be sent back to 1973 to prevent Raven assassinating Bolivar Trask, which had been identified as the catalyst for their current circumstances. However, the strain of sending Xavier back that far would have been too much for his body to handle, resulting in Logan being projected back in his place. When Logan was attempting to convince the young Xavier to overcome his issues, the young Xavier was able to communicate with his future self by using Logan as a 'bridge', the older Xavier encouraging his past self to have faith once again. A while later the sentinels attacked killing the team. to by time for Charles, Kitty and Erik. Iceman gave his life for them. He was killed in front of the three the sentinels then fired on the rest of the team. Killing them.Attributes
Powers
Weaknesses
Paraplegic: Professor X has been normally unable to walk due to spinal damage, suffered when one of the bullets Magneto bounced off using his magnetic powers hit his spine, crippling him.
William Stryker developed a "neural inhibitor" headset that prevented Xavier from using his telepathy; thereby making him vulnerable to the illusions of his son Jason.Paraphernalia
Equipment
Transportation
Notes
- Professor X is portrayed by Patrick Stewart in X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and in a cameo appearance in The Wolverine. James McAvoy portrays a younger Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class, and Laurence Belcher portrays an even younger version of the character at the beginning of the film. Both Stewart and McAvoy appear in X-Men: Days of Future Past as both the Professor X of this timeline and in the new timeline.
- Wolverine and Professor X are the only two characters to appear in all seven X-Men films.
Trivia
- In the beginning of X-Men: The Last Stand, Xavier was teaching a class about mutant ethics and used a case study of Moira's with the very same patient on whether or not it was ethical to put the mind of a dead psychic into the body of a comatose patient, who according to movie-makers was Xavier's twin brother, whose psyche was erased due to growing Professor X's powers during the prenatal state. In the comic books, Xavier had a twin sister, yet during screenplay writing the idea of a sister was changed to a brother, for obvious reasons.
- In X-Men: First Class, Xavier loses the use of his legs when Magneto deflects a bullet from hitting him, which consequently hit Xavier's spine, while in 616 reality, he becomes crippled when the alien known as Lucifer traps him beneath a block of steel. In the 616 Reality, he also begins to lose his hair as a result of his mutation, and is completely bald by the time he finishes high school.
- In X-Men Origins: Wolverine and a flashback in X-Men: The Last Stand, Professor X can be seen standing and without hair. In X-Men: First Class, however, he is shown to be crippled while he still has a full head of hair and not long after he formed the X-Men. For more information on the continuity issues present in X-Men: First Class, see here.
See Also
- 16 appearance(s) of Charles Xavier (Earth-10005)
- 1 mention(s) of Charles Xavier (Earth-10005)
- 29 image(s) of Charles Xavier (Earth-10005)
- 2 quotation(s) by or about Charles Xavier (Earth-10005)
Links and References
References
Template:X-Men