Real Name: Charles Xavier
First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1963)
Affiliation: Founder and teacher of the X-Men
Powers: Telepathy, including reading minds and communicating mentally.
Review coverage: Through X-Men #13 (1965).
The teacher behind the team
Professor Xavier begins as the organizing presence in the X-Men’s lives: he teaches them, trains them, and directs their missions. His exchange with Magneto in X-Men #4 gives us an early view of two different approaches to mutantkind, without yet explaining a complete history between them.
His students also have to learn to act without him. In #7, Xavier places Cyclops in charge and leaves on a mission of his own. When that story reaches #9, we learn that Lucifer was responsible for his loss of the ability to walk. The Professor who guides the students has conflicts predating the team.
A past that reaches the school
#12 develops that personal history much further. Charles recounts family losses, an unhappy household, and his relationship with his stepbrother Cain Marko. During their wartime service, Cain encounters the ruby of Cyttorak and becomes Juggernaut. In the present, that same stepbrother is breaking through the school’s defenses.
The flashbacks give the confrontation a personal reason to matter. They explain the hostility approaching Xavier’s door, although the review is careful to note that they do not yet explain his decision to establish the school.
A powerful mind with limits
Juggernaut’s helmet blocks Xavier’s psychic attack in #13. The Professor needs the X-Men and the Human Torch to help remove it before he can defeat Cain. His students protect him while he works toward a solution, reversing the usual expectation that their teacher will be the one keeping them safe.
By this point, Xavier is more than the reassuring authority at the center of the school. His past can place it in danger, and his considerable abilities still require help from others. That gives the teacher a more personal place in the story than the early mission briefings alone could provide.
