Professor Charles Xavier is the founder of the X-Men and one of the most important people in the Marvel Universe. As one of the most powerful mutants on the planet, Xavier took it into his own hands to start a school where mutants could learn how to control their powers and become heroes, ones who would prove that mutants didn't want to erase humanity.
However, over the years, it's seemed like Xavier could be more of a detriment to the team than anything else. He can be very shady about things and is known for manipulating events around him for his own purposes. The X-Men have a lot working against them and their mentor has often been one of those things.
10 Herding Mutants Into A School Was A Bad Idea
The Xavier Institute For Gifted Youngsters was a pretty good idea, in theory — giving mutants a place where they could be themselves and learn about their powers is laudable. However, the problem comes in that the school, for years, was just one place with a lot of mutants in it, many of whom were not trained yet.
This painted a target on the school that the X-Men's most dangerous foes had no problem with attacking, be it evil villains or anti-mutant governmental forces. Forcing the X-Men to stay in one place that all of their enemies knew about was a terrible idea, regardless of how much defensive technology was crammed into the mansion over the years.
9 He Ran Things Like A Benevolent Dictatorship
For years, the last word about anything came from Xavier. Cyclops may have been the team's "leader" but Xavier was the one in charge and his opinion ruled. If he told the X-Men something needed to done, it got done, regardless of how they felt about it. They could go to him with their suggestions and he would listen but in the end, his word ruled.
It wasn't the best way of doing things and it seems that Xavier has learned his lesson, by putting a council in charge of the mutant nation of Krakoa. However, he's still the one voice that seemingly matters most, so maybe he didn't learn his lesson as well as it seems.
8 He Wasn't Much Of A Team Player
One of the ironies of Charles Xavier is that even though he started a team and sent them on the missions he thought were important, he wasn't actually much of a team player himself. Xavier kept a lot to himself and wasn't one to go to his students for help.
Xavier always had his reasons for this but they were never very good. If he would have delegated better and asked for help from his more senior students, things would have been very different for the team. He also set a bad example for Cyclops, who would get more and more insular during his time as leader of the mutant race, something that spelled a lot of trouble for the team down the road.
7 The Fallout From Onslaught Almost Destroyed The Team
The Onslaught affair was a black eye for the X-Men that took a long time to heal. Xavier and Magneto's essences blended together to create a new being, one bent on destroying humanity. In the aftermath of its defeat, the Avengers and Fantastic Four were gone, presumed dead, and Xavier and the X-Men were to blame.
Xavier was imprisoned by Bastion, a Nimrod Sentinel who went through the Siege Perilous, and Operation: Zero Tolerance almost destroyed the team. All of this came from Xavier not asking help from his friends with the beast that was growing inside of him.
6 His Anti-Killing Stance Almost Doomed The Mutant Race Many Times
For superheroes, killing is a last resort, but the X-Men are only nominally superheroes. Their main job is the protection of mutantkind from all manners of threats and sometimes the best way to stop threats is with some killing. Xavier was very much against this sort of thing and it hurt the X-Men a lot over the years.
There were definitely times when the X-Men and the mutant race could have benefited from letting Wolverine do what he did best. However, Xavier's overly moral stance made it so many threats just kept coming back, attacking mutants and humans alike, making the X-Men seem ineffectual and making things worse for mutants.
5 He Wasn't The Best At Putting Together Teams
A team is a very fragile thing. They have to have powers that are complementary, be able to work together and listen to their leader. While the X-Men are one of the most well-trained teams around, most of that is after-the-fact training. The X-Men, as put together by Xavier, were often powder kegs of conflicting personalities that didn't work well together.
While they'd eventually find a way to work together, it was through a lot of hard work and dedication, something that there was no way of guaranteeing would happen. Xavier pretty much just picked whatever powerful mutant said yes to him for the team and this almost messed things up on many occasions, even costing lives more than once.
4 He Flaked Out On The Time A Lot Over The Years
Xavier, ostensibly, was all about making sure that man and mutant could live in harmony. However, his dedication to the cause didn't always seem as strong as he made it seem. Xavier abandoned the team to their own devices a lot, whether it be faking his death so he could fight an alien invasion or just to spend time with his alien princess girlfriend.
Xavier ghosted the team a whole bunch of times over the years, leaving them to their own devices. They were rarely well prepared for this and the team struggled without him, trying to do their jobs and his.
3 He Kept So Many Secrets From The Team
If there was one thing Xavier was good at, and still is, it was keeping secrets from the X-Men, ones that they probably needed to know. For example, Xavier trained a team of X-Men to rescue the original X-Men from Krakoa before the team that debuted in Giant Size X-Men #1. Most of them were killed and he wiped everyone's mind of it, a move that would come back to haunt everyone.
The secrets Xavier keeps are ones that always have huge repercussions, like his time on the Illuminati or the fact that Moira MacTaggert was a mutant who had lived through nine lives of mutants being destroyed by humanity. Xavier's proclivity for keeping secrets has done a lot of damage to the team.
2 He Was Pretty Free With The Old Mental Manipulation
Xavier used his telepathy a lot over the years and not always against the team's foes. Xavier had no problem with doing selective memory wipes on humans and mutants alike if it served his purposes and this could be a very bad thing. From the whole situation with Vulcan to Onslaught, Xavier's proclivity to wipe minds was very bad for the team.
It gets that much worse because the powers that be knew Xavier did this sort of thing and it made them trust the X-Men even less, painting an even bigger target on their backs.
1 He Upheld A Dangerous Status Quo For Years
Nowadays, the X-Men and the mutant race call the mutant nation of Krakoa home. Mutants have actual power and status in the world and the most powerful ones have gathered together, making Krakoa the most powerful nation on Earth — no one could stand in a war against them for long. While this was all because of Xavier working with Moira and Magneto, for years he enforced a dangerous status quo.
Even though he had knowledge of what could happen to mutants because of Moira, he foolishly kept the school going, a very dangerous status quo that could have backfired on mutants many times. He constantly put the X-Men on a defensive footing, endangering the best and brightest of mutantkind because he was scared to rock the boat for a long time.
0 Comments