Which Xavier do you prefer?

[FUBAR007]

Springboarding off the "jerkification of Xavier" thread...

Broadly speaking, there are two takes on Xavier:

1) the kindly, well-meaning, but flawed idealist and father-mentor crusading for mutant-human integration. This is the version really shaped by Chris Claremont beginning in the late 70s and early 80s that carried through Grant Morrison's run in the early 2000s and that has carried over into broader pop culture, most notably the 90s cartoon and the Fox film series.

2) the ruthless, zealous pragmatist who telepathically alters peoples minds and memories without a second thought, even those closest to him, and is willing to do awful things if he believes the ends justify the means. This is the Xavier who faked his death during the Silver Age, erased the X-Men's memories of Vulcan and his team as revealed in "Deadly Genesis," and was revealed to have enslaved Danger during the Joss Whedon run.

Which version do you like better? And why?

[The Kid]

My favorite incarnations of Xavier are TAS and the movies so the first one. I do like him as very strategic and occaisonally immoral though but not a straight up bad person.

[MechaJeanix]

I mentioned some of this in another thread but too many of the X-men over the years have fallen into darkness and have become sort of villain like. Xavier has good company with the likes of Bishop, Archangel, Cyclops, Emma, Beast, etc.

Which I think it gives characters depth when they do things that are wrong, questionable, and downright immoral. There is a line of how much you get by with before you cannot be redeemed. Scratch that. I mean I didn't think Bishop could be redeemed and here we are.

We need a redemption arc for a whole host of our beloved characters.

[PsychoEFrost]

The poll question is not great. It's like asking "what do you prefer, a tasty pie or a kick in the face?"

I think everyone would prefer the nice version. But it never really existed.

[Gambit, King of Thieves]

I prefer the dead one.

[Harpsikord]

I prefer the dead one.

... I mean.

I agree with this because Xavier is better as a symbol and martyr than being alive.

[Rover]

It's TAS Xavier and Patrick Stewart's Xavier for me. These versions of the character were genuinely likeable and incarnated Xavier's dreams from the comics without twisting it and worked as opposites of Magneto.
In the comics...I'd say 70s Claremont Xavier. He was interesting and worked as a complex mentor figure. Definitely not as likable as the TAS or movie versions of the character, but they didn't go too far with it.

[mikeb]

I prefer the dead one.

Thumbs up from me!

[Tycon]

I prefer the dead one.

... I mean.

I agree with this because Xavier is better as a symbol and martyr than being alive.

Yeah, both of these.

[Revenant]

He should have stayed dead. I don't like any version of him.

[Gray Lensman]

I prefer the dead one.

Is that the actually dead one or the pretending to be dead one? Cause with Chuck you have to ask.

[Ambaryerno]

[Flashback]

And then people wonder how a thread turns into an anti cyclops thread.

[PsychoEFrost]

And then people wonder how a thread turns into an anti cyclops thread.

Because the posters with the biggest axe to grind against Scott (or Emma) are also some of the biggest posters on the board?

Not rocket science.

[AbnormallyNormal]

I like a Xavier between those two options.

I think he needed to be "desanctified" and I don't actually agree he ever got "jerkified".

Xavier Jr by Bendis basically fulfilled the latter role as did Onslaught somewhat and other AU versions.