Is SPOILER Really Done With the X-Men?

“X-Manhunt” has ended in the most predictable fashion imaginable. Professor X escaped Graymalkin Prison to save his daughter Xandra, running to grab the last Krakoan egg while ducking the X-Men and X-Factor. With the help of X-Force’s Sage, Xavier was able to succeed and then resurrected the one person who could save Xandra — Lilandra. X-Manhunt Omega #1, by Murewa Ayodele, Gail Simone, Gleb Melnikov, Fedrica Mancin, and Enid Balam, saw the two lovers do their best to escape the X-Men and the Earth, with Cyclops and Magik in hot pursuit. Thanks to telepathic shenanigans and more help from Sage, Xavier and Lilandra are able to escape, but Xavier returns to say good-bye to his students, telling them about his decision to leave and go to the Shi’Ar Empire with Lilandra.

“X-Manhunt” ended with Xavier leaving the Earth, with happy words to his students, to be with his one true love. So, the question needs to be asked — is this going to be permanent? Xavier has left the Earth before for the Shi’Ar Empire, but is there a chance that this time, Marvel is actually going to keep him away from the X-Men? Xavier is more complicated than ever now, and looking back at his history may reveal the answers we’re looking for.

Xavier Is a Very Different Character Than He Used to Be

At one point in X-Manhunt Omega #1, Xavier talks about having clarity for the first time in ages, which makes a lot of sense. Xavier’s 21st century has been interesting to say the least. After Morrison’s run on New X-Men, Xavier left the Mansion, going to Genosha with Magneto and leaving the X-Men to Cyclops. This would be the state of affairs until “Dangerous”, an Astonishing X-Men story that revealed that Xavier had known the Danger Room was sentient and had enslaved it so it would keep training the X-Men. Xavier was suddenly being given shades of grey, but darker things were to come. X-Men: Deadly Genesis revealed that Xavier had sent a team of mutants — including Cyclops’s brother — to Krakoa to save the original X-Men before the All-New, All-Different Team and mindwiped everyone of their memory after they died. Xavier was starting to become a full-blown villain as the X-Men books moved further and further away from his dream in order to survive.

RELATED: 5 X-Men Stories the MCU Should Adapt

Xavier would stay away from the X-Men for years, allowing Cyclops to reach the next level as a character and become the mentor that he was basically always meant to be. Eventually, Xavier was killed by Dark Phoenix Cyclops, and that honestly felt a little like a redemptive death. However, upon his return, he went back to his shady ways in Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 4) and then came the Krakoa Era, when Xavier was back in the leadership seat. However, this wasn’t the perfect mentor of the past. This was the current, much more complicated version of the character, and his actions in the Krakoa Era are among his shadiest. Xavier, in the eyes of a lot of fans, has become something of a manipulator. While “X-Manhunt” reveals to the X-Men that his actions at the end of the Krakoa Era — teaming with Nimrod and the Omega Sentinel to destroy the human race — were all tricks, the fans still have this negative view of Xavier. He may have clarity, but Xavier is a hard character to salvage right now. Maybe Marvel has decided to not deal with it?

Xavier Will Return, but It Won’t Be for a Long Time

It would honestly be a pretty good idea for Xavier to stay away from the X-Men. Marvel has done tremendous damage to Xavier in the name of making him a complex character and it’s hard for a lot of fans to look at him the same way again. Sending him to the Shi’Ar Empire where he can show up sometimes and not really be a factor, would allow Cyclops to stay as the most important character in the X-Men. Cyclops has grown in popularity a lot and it’s honestly a lot more fun to see him deal with the leadership of the X-Men than it was to watch Xavier do it. The X-Men have grown beyond Xavier.

However, anyone who knows Marvel knows this isn’t going to happen. Tom Brevoort has been put on the X-Men books to shepherd them until the X-Men debut in the MCU, and by the time they get there, he’s going to have the pieces in place to bring back a classic status quo at the X-Mansion with Xavier as the mentor. This whole situation feels like Brevoort wanted to bring the X-Men to a position equivalent to the beginning of X-Men ’97, all so the fans who aren’t ever going to buy comics — Marvel Rivals has driven more fans to comic stores than anything Marvel Studios has ever done — will have a familiar status quo. Brevoort doesn’t have any new ideas for the X-Men, so Xavier will be back. Would it be more interesting if he was gone forever? Definitely. Is Marvel going to do that? No, they definitely aren’t.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section!