Professor X

Professor X, born Charles Xavier, is an American mutant and the founder and leader of the heroic team known as the X-Men. He possesses the powers of telepathy, telekinesis, and other mental abilities.

Biography

Youth

Like many other mutants, Xavier inherited his mutation as a result of his parents' exposure to radioactivity at the dawn of the nuclear age. The Xavier family was quite wealthy and lived very comfortably. Charles's father Brian Xavier, a nuclear physicist, was killed during a test of the atomic bomb in Alamogordo, New Mexico when Charles was a boy. Brian worked with a man named Kurt Marko, whom Charles had always distrusted. This distrust intensified when Marko became close with his mother Sharon, and the two got married months after Brian's death. Kurt's son from a prior marriage, Cain, moved in and quickly began to bully his new younger stepbrother. It soon became clear that Kurt had only married into the family to claim the wealth that Brian had earned, and the heartbroken Sharon soon passed away. Charles witnessed a confrontation between Kurt and Cain in Kurt's lab in which Cain accused his father of intentionally killing Brian. Charles stormed in and demanded an explanation, and Cain knocked over some volatile chemicals in rage. An explosion ensued and Kurt took the brunt of the blow, but used his dying strength to carry the boys out of the flames. With his last breaths, he told Charles that he hadn't killed Brian, but he had neglected to save him from the blast. He begged his forgiveness and warned him to beware of Cain when he found out about his power. The stepbrothers continued to live together, as Charles inherited his parents' fortune with Kurt's death.

Shortly after Kurt's death, Charles developed various mutative mental powers. His ability to read minds allowed him to excel, if dishonestly, at academics and athletics. He also went completely bald in his teens. The malicious Cain grew jealous of Charles's rampant success. After Charles got accepted to college, Cain offered to drive him to the campus, and Charles optimistically took it as an olive branch. Instead, Cain drove erratically to terrorize his stepbrother, but failed to see a detour in the road and accidentally set the car on a collision course. Charles mentally influenced Cain to jump out safely in time, but Charles was caught in the crash. It certainly would have been fatal, but he managed to guard himself with a barrier of mental energy such that it only injured him. The two later served together in the Korean War, and while overseas Cain found himself in an ancient shrine to Cyttorak. Charles tried to stop him, but Cain went further into the temple and grabbed a large red gem. He was overcome by a magical force that declared him the possessor of the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, which would make him a "human juggernaut." Marko grew to a hulking, powerful monstrosity, but the powerful magic caused the cave to collapse around him. Charles escaped in the nick of time, knowing that the magic of Cyttorak would enable Cain to track him down some day. The magic also granted Cain—the Juggernaut—a suit of powerful red armor, including a psionic helmet that gave him protection from Charles's mental penetrations.

He also suffered an undisclosed accident in his childhood involving a person named Lucifer that bound him to a wheelchair. As an adult, Xavier founded an institution in Westchester County, New York disguised as a private school, but in fact designed as a safe haven and training center for young mutants. Xavier, using the codename Professor X, would train these mutants as part of a team called the X-Men: they would use their powers for good, defending humanity from other, more violent mutants.

1963-1964

Full article: History of the X-Men, 1963-1964

Xavier's first four recruits came to be called Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, and Angel. He engineered regular training sessions for each of them, targeting their individual abilities to prepare them for conflict in the real world. During one such training session, the X-Men were approached by another new member who came to be known as Marvel Girl. The five of them soon found themselves on their first mission, as Xavier received word of an attack on the military base Cape Citadel by an evil mutant, Magneto. Xavier mentally observed their progress from home, guiding their jet telekinetically and advising them telepathically. The X-Men defeated Magneto, overwhelming him with their coordinated attack and forcing him to retreat. The X-Men soon also defeated a pair of malevolent mutants known as the Vanisher and the Blob. Magneto then returned, having formed his own team known as the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants along with Mastermind, Toad, and the siblings Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, who seemed less enthused about serving Magneto than the others. The X-Men countered the Brotherhood's invasion of Santo Marco, and later rescued Angel from their orbital base Asteroid M. The Brotherhood attempted to recruit Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Blob, both to no avail in part due to the X-Men's intervention. The X-Men were soon also manipulated by the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker, who took control of Professor X's mind and commanded them to defeat the heroic Fantastic Four. Eventually, the Four and the X-Men teamed up to defeat the villainous duo. Shortly before their battle against the Brotherhood and the Blob, the X-Men officially graduated from Xavier's academy, and Professor X left them alone while he went off to deal with personal matters. He appointed Cyclops the leader of the team in his stead. Those personal matters had to do with a man known as Lucifer, whom he had tracked to southern Europe. Using special high-tech wheelchair equipment, Xavier spelunked into Lucifer's cave hideout, but soon found himself captured. He contacted the X-Men telepathically, and they arrived to save him, having a brief run-in with the Avengers along the way.

1965

Full article: History of the X-Men, 1965

Near the beginning of the year, the X-Men explored the Savage Land beneath Antarctica and fought off a group of hostile natives with the help of Lord of the Jungle, Ka-Zar. Some time later, the team followed up on reports that seemed to suggest the presence of a powerful mutant, who came to be known as the Stranger. When they found him, he was already meeting with the Brotherhood. In truth, Stranger was a member of an alien race interested in examining mutants of various species across the universe. Over the course of the day, the Stranger used a laser beam to petrify Mastermind, and took Magneto and Toad in strange cocoons up into space back to his home planet. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch also decided to leave the Brotherhood, effectively ending the villainous group. As the team returned home, Cerebro detected a massive threat in the area, and Charles knew that it was the Juggernaut. He had the X-Men prepare for the incoming attack and told them the story of his history with Cain Marko. Juggernaut arrived and proved virtually unstoppable. Xavier powered up his mind with a specially designed Mento-Helmet and summoned the help of the Human Torch. The team managed to defeat Juggernaut with a combined effort to remove his psionic helmet and allow Xavier to knock him out telepathically and allow the authorities to retrieve him. Professor X wiped Torch's memory of the incident to preserve the X-Men's secrecy.