There are several things about the X-Men that are carved in stone, and one of them is Professor Charles Xavier. The X-Men have had some amazing adventures, and all of them stem from Charles Xavier’s dream of peaceful human and mutant co-existence. Xavier’s desire for a just world for his people is a laudable thing, and he became one of the greatest mentors in the history of the Marvel Universe. However, it’s hard to write about a patron saint of anything forever and keep them pure; pure can be boring. Xavier has had a heaping helping of complexity dropped into him, and that has led the character down a much darker path in the comics than most people who don’t read them can imagine.
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Xavier has become a much more controversial character in comics because it’s been revealed that there’s a pragmatic, almost villainous side to Xavier. Xavier wants his dream to endure no matter what, and has done some rather terrible things over the years behind the scenes to make it happen. I’ve read X-Men comics for over thirty years and at this point, I’m fine with making a hot take — Xavier is the biggest X-Men villain ever.
Xavier Has Made Himself Into Mutantkind’s Greatest Threat
It’s easy to think of Charles Xavier as a kindly old man, but that has become a terrible misinterpretation of the character. Xavier’s powers have allowed him an unparalleled ability to manipulate the world on a major basis and he’s done it numerous times. He had no problem with faking his death, letting only Jean know that he’s alive, leaving his young students without the one person they depended on way back in the Silver Age. He spent years secretly working with Moira MacTaggert and Magneto to create the groundwork for the mutant nation of Krakoa. He learned that the Danger Room had become sentient and hid this from everyone, enslaving a living being. Xavier hid things from his students, even going so far as to mindwipe them, like he did after the death of the actual second X-Men team in X-Men: Deadly Genesis.
On the one hand, it’s easy to give Xavier a lot of credit for all of the X-Men’s successes, but on the other hand, it’s also easy to see how much he’s harder he’s made things for mutants. The best example of this is the Krakoa Era. Krakoa was the mutant race’s chance at power, but Xavier built it on a foundation of lies and secrets. Xavier likes to pretend that he’s making the hard choices and doing the hard things so that no one has to; however, his actions planted bombs throughout the world he was building for his students and when those bombs go off, the X-Men are caught in the blast. At the end of the Krakoa Era, driven by despair at the anti-mutant Orchis Initiative’s destruction of Krakoa and a shard of Mister Sinister’s personality inside of him, Xavier teamed with the Sentinels in a ploy to trick them into destroying humanity, allowing the X-Men time to regroup. However, all of this happened because of Xavier’s hubris.
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Xavier played dangerous games with the enemies of mutantkind, and those games gave them the ammunition to hurt mutants even more. Xavier has been responsible for an inordinate amount of suffering for his people, but he still thinks that he was right. In the Krakoa Era, if Xavier would have played things smarter, Orchis would never have scored wins in public opinion battle after public opinion battle. Xavier handed the enemies of mutantkind everything they need to truly hurt the mutant race in a way other villains never have been able to.
Villains like Magneto or Apocalypse have done damage to the perception of mutants in their own way, but they aren’t the face of the mutant race like Xavier is to the general public. Xavier is inseparable from the mutant cause; when he does something terrible, it’s like all mutants doing something terrible. I’ve reached a point where I don’t want to see Xavier anymore, because any time Xavier returns, he brings some kind of shenanigans that will ultimately hurt the team. The upcoming “X-Manhunt” teases yet another Xavier story, and it’s one that I doubt is going to change my perception — and the perception of many other X-Men fans — on Xavier’s status of the X-Men greatest villain.
Xavier Is a Monster and He’ll Destroy the X-Men Given the Chance
Xavier is in prison for now, with the world not knowing how many of his crimes alongside Orchis were a ruse. It feels like Marvel is going to go for some kind of redemption arc for Xavier for the worst reason possible — MCU synergy. With the X-Men coming to the MCU, that means that the comics are going to brought more in line with the status quo of the movies. That’s almost certainly going to mean Xavier and the X-Mansion. I personally am not looking forward to this, because I don’t want Xavier back. He’s a monster.
What’s a villain in comics? A character who does terrible thing to push their agenda. Xavier’s agenda is noble, but it’s his actions that make him the X-Men’s greatest villains. Xavier goes to extremes, and he does so in such a way that make the X-Men suffer. Xavier’s actions have almost destroyed the X-Men many times; he repeats the same actions over and over again, expecting that things will be fine. He has his X-Men. They clean up the mess. That’s not the way of a hero; that’s what villains like DC’s Lex Luthor do. Xavier has gone from the team’s mentor to their greatest enemy, one that is impossible to get rid of.
Do you think Charles Xavier is a villain? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!
