Prof_X_History

History:

Charles Xavier's crippled body serves as a constant reminder of his troubled past -- fraught with pain, loss and the bitter sting of oppression. The son of nuclear researcher Brian Xavier and his wife, Sharon, Charles experienced the emergence of his telepathic powers while still a boy. Following her husband's accidental death, Sharon married Brian's colleague, Dr. Kurt Marko. Cain, Kurt's son by a previous marriage, came to live at the Xaviers' Westchester mansion shortly thereafter. A cruel and spiteful boy, he bullied his new stepbrother. As punishment, his father secretly beat him -- and the untrained Charles felt his sibling's pain firsthand, because he could not yet control his fledgling abilities or terminate his contact with Cain's mind. As he grew older, Charles learned to control his burgeoning powers.

A brilliant student, he enrolled in the graduate-studies program at England's prestigious Oxford University, where he met and fell in love with a young Scotswoman named Moira Kinross. Of all their classmates, Charles and Moira were the only ones who understood the ultimate implications of genetic mutation. Their passionate discussions on the subject gave way to an equally passionate romantic relationship, and the two planned to be married. Standing in their way was Moira's former boyfriend, Joe MacTaggert, a lance corporal in the Royal Marines -- and a bully and thug, just like Cain. In Joe's eyes, Charles was an effete, good-for-nothing intellectual. To prove him wrong, to validate himself in terms his rival would understand, Charles enlisted in the military after completing his studies at Oxford.

His first day in combat, he thought he would go mad. Nothing could have prepared him for the mental horrors he would experience as his fellow soldiers were maimed and killed around him. Somehow, he found a way to cope -- becoming something of a legend in the area of search and rescue. Attached to the same unit as his stepbrother, Charles was present when Cain discovered the ages-old ruby that transformed him into the mystically empowered Juggernaut. Crushed when Moira broke off their engagement without explanation, Charles traveled abroad after leaving the Army. While in Cairo, Egypt, he clashed with Amahl Farouk -- a.k.a. the Shadow King, a mutant capable of summoning forth the darkness in the souls of others. This confrontation led to Charles' decision to devote his life to protecting humanity from evil mutants bent on world domination and safeguarding innocent mutants from human oppression.

Charles next traveled to Israel, where he fell in love with Gabrielle Haller, an Israeli diplomat. Also, he befriended fellow drifter Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, the mutant who would become his greatest enemy and rival: the genetic terrorist known as Magneto, Master of Magnetism. Charles espoused his optimistic belief that Homo sapiens and Homo superior could coexist, but Magnus foresaw mutants as the new minority to be persecuted and hunted because of their differences. Charles was unaware when he left Israel that Haller was pregnant with his son. Only years later did he learn of his connection to the psionically powered mutant known as Legion. Arriving in London, Charles renewed his friendship with Moira, who had married Joe MacTaggert and was now a renowned geneticist. The two began to discuss the idea of founding a school for mutants. En route to the United States, Charles encountered an alien calling himself Lucifer, the advance scout for an invasion by his race. Lucifer dropped a massive stone block on Charles, crippling his legs. During his convalescence at a hospital in India, Charles met and fell in love with Amelia Voght. The young nurse who renewed his will to live.

Professor X's first student was 11-year-old Jean Grey, traumatized when she telepathically experienced the emotions of a dying friend. Charles helped Jean recover and taught her to use her telekinetic powers. Following his success with Jean, he embarked on his long-held plan to locate young mutants and enroll them in his School for Gifted Youngsters. Professor X even converted his ancestral mansion into a base where he could train them to use their powers for humanity's benefit. Voght remained with Charles until the arrival of Scott Summers -- a modern-day Cyclops, cursed with uncontrollable optic blasts. Voght fled, fearing an escalating "genetic arms race" between Professor X and Magneto.

During the months that followed, Charles assembled the balance of his original students: Warren Worthington III, the high-flying, heroic Angel; Robert Drake, the irrepressible Iceman; Henry McCoy, the big-brained, able-bodied Beast; and an older, more powerful Jean Grey, the telekinetic Marvel Girl. He dubbed his students the "X-Men," because each possessed an "extra" ability normal humans lacked. Years later, when the mutant island Krakoa captured most of his original proteges, Professor X recruited a new team of X-Men to rescue them. Encouraged by Moira, he took on another class of students after the second wave of X-Men appeared to die in battle: the New Mutants. Later, he assumed control of a private institution, the Massachusetts Academy, and transformed it a new School for Gifted Youngsters. There, yet another new crop of young mutants, Generation X, learned to use of their amazing abilities.

As a young mutant, Charles Xavier dedicated his life to the attainment of peaceful coexistence between Homo sapiens and Homo superior. He has seen this dream nearly snuffed out on countless occasions, but his X-Men continue their fight to make his vision a reality -- raging against hate, prejudice and the oppression of mutantkind.