I utterly hate the jerkification of Prof X

[Celestialbodies]

I was rereading New Mutants 1.13 tonight, and it crystalized something for me. I have little interest in any X-Titles since 2000 because they got so busy trying to be edgy that they abandoned all sense of morality and hope.

My Case-In-Point is NM 1.13's depiction of Prof X. These days, he's a memory of an amoral douche, who shamelessly used kids and emergent AIs for his own purposes. Back then, he was a guy fighting a desperate war whose first duty was to his students, even if it meant letting them invade his most private thoughts.

Not really sure why Marvel had to make a jerk of him (other than to justify Vulcan's or Danger's Mustache-Twirling), but it poisoned the roots of one of their Great Franchises.

Truthfully, Xavier was always questionable, that said there's at least a dozen better ways to had written him out the X-Men. I've always had a soft spot for Charles the animated series and movies contributed to that, but he could be used in better ways.

There's a lot left to and to go with him, always liked what Carey was doing hoped that carried over or across other series. I'm ambivalent towards "X" not sure if in time he'll casually transition into Charles without much fare, or remain this new character.

[wano]

It's canon, just like Cyclops "cheating" to those that consider it as such, so deal with it

[Magnusilver]

Marvel tried too hard to destroy Xavier and his philosophy in favor of making Cyclops the new leader. The harm is unrecoverable that it's hard to make a convincible story about X-men fighting for peace and co-existence any more. At least I won't believe it any more.

I have to say the way Marvel promoting Cylcops as the leader of next generation is really toxic.

[TheSupernaut]

I agree, I really miss the Professor X of old.... but I'm afraid he may be too far gone. Making him darker and edgier might be one of the most shortsighted things the X-Office has done. Unfortunately he's just another symptom of the X-Men Franchise kind of losing it's way in the 2000s.

[PsychoEFrost]

Marvel tried too hard to destroy Xavier and his philosophy in favor of making Cyclops the new leader. The harm is unrecoverable that it's hard to make a convincible story about X-men fighting for peace and co-existence any more. At least I won't believe it any more.

I have to say the way Marvel promoting Cylcops as the leader of next generation is really toxic.

How so? The mutant race was down to under 400 total, with no more being born. Every enemy was taking the opportunity to wipe them out completely. Cyclops did what was needed for the X-Men to even survive.

[gurkle]

It seems like Xavier was a bit sanctified in the '90s after Claremont left. It seems a weird thing to say when that era culminated in Xavier's dark side going evil and wiping out half Earth's heroes, but I remember the '90s team really going all-out in showing that Xavier was a great man whose dream was an inspiring thing. And the most successful event of the era was all about how, if Xavier had died young, the result would have been almost a literal apocalypse. Even Onslaught wound up turning into just another example of "Xavier's way is good, Magneto's way is bad" once editorial decided he couldn't be just Xavier's bad side.

I think other writers, including Claremont, have a more ambiguous attitude to Xavier because he is kind of a spoilsport: he's the super-powerful grownup authority figure bossing the younger, cooler people around. They tried to kill him off in the '60s for exactly that reason (to let the young X-Men dominate the book) and there is a strong urge to tear him down a bit so other characters can move out of his shadow.

Personally I think this would be a good argument for just letting him be dead or retired and let the X-Men remember him as a flawed but truly great man, instead of leaving him in the books and constantly searching for reasons why he shouldn't be in charge. But we all know by now that any plan to leave a character dead or retired never actually works out.

[Havok83]

How so? The mutant race was down to under 400 total, with no more being born. Every enemy was taking the opportunity to wipe them out completely. Cyclops did what was needed for the X-Men to even survive.

and to add to that, Xavier's dream of peaceful coexistence between mutants and humans made no sense at this point. Even Magneto realized he needed to think things differently bc the world changed so they all had to. Cyclops's leadership was motivated by survival

[AHRNIHAL]

This is gonna turn into another "I hate Scott" thread,isn't it?

[CuteClops]

It's canon, just like Cyclops "cheating" to those that consider it as such, so deal with it

Exactly. Xavier has always been a complete jerk since 1963.
Magneto is much better than him.
Unfortunately some X-Men have become as toxic as him. Beast, Wolverine, Storm, Iceman, Psylocke... all of them being as hypocrites and assholes as Xavier.

[Disciple of Redd]

Does a character really need to be the center of the universe AND liked by every other character/reader?

Xavier being trashed doesn't benefit the X-Men at all besides the one member with the decade-long pet character run. It doesn't even make sense.

[Magnusilver]

How so? The mutant race was down to under 400 total, with no more being born. Every enemy was taking the opportunity to wipe them out completely. Cyclops did what was needed for the X-Men to even survive.

It's not about whether Cyclops is right or wrong. It's ultimately about how Marvel is dealing with characters.

[DiamondQueen]

Xavier always taught control of powers was paramount when dealing with others, but he himself failed miserably. He would often lash out when angry, and then excuse himself. He mind-wiped people left and right. Would bark orders at the kids like a raving lunatic. Faked his own death and that was before the so called "edgy" time.

[yogaflame]

I think TAS and Patrick Stewart's Fox-Men Xaviers are what really 'unjerkified' the character to begin with. The comics always had him as a mixed bag, even the 90's(let's not forget the time Charles asked Ororo to steal the Magneto Protocols from SHIELD and she wondered if he had mind-controlled her into joining the team to begin with, him mind-wiping Magneto in Fatal Attractions, the Xavier Protocols(his plans to kill each of the X-Men) revealed during Onslaught/Zero Tolerance).

[Cyyyke]

I click in this thread knowing I will find this image lol

[SpiderClops]

Xavier was always a douche. The modern writers just started to acknowledge that he was a douche.

Even the movies paint him as a douche.