Is Professor X A Jerk?

[Divine Spark]

Prof X lusting after pre-teen Jean Grey in Onslaught made me sick.

pre-teen? I thought she was 15 and he didn't act on it.

[AbnormallyNormal]

pre-teen? I thought she was 15 and he didn't act on it.

It was one panel printed in 1963/4.... and it was Xavier musing how he "loves" Jean like as a person. Again, this is either tongue-in-cheek and funny or people not getting the in-joke and taking this way too seriously and totally out of context

[yogaflame]

When those old issues first came out, Bobby was explicitly stated to be the youngest at 16, so Jean was probably 17(issue #1). Charles was only supposed to be a little older than the kids, since it was 60's and his father had been involved in the Manhattan Project before he was born(why Charles is a mutant, his father was exposed to radiation). So really Charles should have only been in his 20's then. Not saying that justifies his attraction, but it was a different age(my grandmother was 11 years younger than my grandfather), and HE DIDN'T ACT ON IT.

Charles was definitely a jerk in the early era. By Claremont's time, he was only a little bit of a jerk. Lobdell made him even more saintly, and the cartoons continued that trend, into the movie age. Modern comics went out of their way to tarnish him, so as to bring in the more ethical Scott, Emma and Erik into the fore(note sarcasm).

[AbnormallyNormal]

When those old issues first came out, Bobby was explicitly stated to be the youngest at 16, so Jean was probably 17(issue #1). Charles was only supposed to be a little older than the kids, since it was 60's and his father had been involved in the Manhattan Project before he was born(why Charles is a mutant, his father was exposed to radiation). So really Charles should have only been in his 20's then. Not saying that justifies his attraction, but it was a different age(my grandmother was 11 years younger than my grandfather), and HE DIDN'T ACT ON IT.

Charles was definitely a jerk in the early era. By Claremont's time, he was only a little bit of a jerk. Lobdell made him even more saintly, and the cartoons continued that trend, into the movie age. Modern comics went out of their way to tarnish him, so as to bring in the more ethical Scott, Emma and Erik into the fore(note sarcasm).

I agree that in the modern comics era it has been part of the subversive irony to deliberately deconstruct the hallowed persona of Professor X. But we as fans ought to realize that is a writing choice and not something necessary to agree with.

I do think though his portrayal in the cartoon was so over-the-top Goody-Goody that to an extent the blowback is understandable.

In either case, he is currently dead.

[somacula]

It was the silver age, everyone acted like idiots in the silver age.
Don't blame prof x for what happened in the silver age

[JediMindTrick]

It was one panel printed in 1963/4.... and it was Xavier musing how he "loves" Jean like as a person. Again, this is either tongue-in-cheek and funny or people not getting the in-joke and taking this way too seriously and totally out of context

That not even remotely how he was professing his love. The image is easily found on google:

https://www.google.com/search?q=prof...lMgbWoMyZFM%3A

He refers to her as "the one I love" which is not how you would refer to loving someone as a person. It clearly implies romantic love. He then says he can't tell her while he's confined to a wheel chair. Why would he say that if he was loving her as a person since the wheelchair wouldn't matter. The only reason the wheelchair matters is that because of it he is unable to have sex with Jean.

It was neither an in joke or tongue in cheek. It was a creepy pervo scene of a middle aged man lusting after a teen. Not as creepy as some of the stuff done later on by writers to Kitty Pryde where there was actual touching and then sex with well underage Kitty but creepy enough.

[somacula]

That not even remotely how he was professing his love. The image is easily found on google:

https://www.google.com/search?q=prof...lMgbWoMyZFM%3A

He refers to her as "the one I love" which is not how you would refer to loving someone as a person. It clearly implies romantic love. He then says he can't tell her while he's confined to a wheel chair. Why would he say that if was loving her as a person since the wheelchair wouldn't matter. The only reason the wheelchair matters is that because of it he is unable to have sex with Jean.

It was neither an in joke or tongue in cheek. It was a creepy pervo scene of a middle aged man lusting after a teen. Not as creepy as some of the stuff done later on by writers to Kitty Pryde where there was actual touching and then sex with well underage Kitty but creepy enough.

Dude, silver age... It was a different society back then and apparently no one had a problem with that at that time.

[gurkle]

As others have pointed out, that thought balloon was Stan Lee's attempt to fit in one of his favorite themes: a man who loves a woman but feels he can't tell her that because he's crippled. Tony Stark was always thought-ballooning about how he had no right to tell Pepper he loved her because of his bad heart, and Don Blake couldn't tell Jane Foster he loved her because of his handicap, and Matt Murdock couldn't tell Karen his love because he can't ask her to be with a blind man, and so on and so forth.

Since Xavier was originally supposed to be a young man, and the standards for age-appropriate relationships were somewhat different then, it's clear Stan was thinking of doing something similar here. But he never followed up on it, probably because it was clear that Xavier was reading as older than he was supposed to be. Instead he leaned heavily on Cyclops' "Woe is me, I cannot tell my love to Jean because of my handicap."

[NK1988]

Not as creepy as some of the stuff done later on by writers to Kitty Pryde where there was actual touching and then sex with well underage Kitty but creepy enough.

Wait, what?

[ariwl1]

Yep, this is all that needs to be said.

Although I can't remember, was he still infested by the Brood at that point?

I believe that happened directly after that.

And funnily enough, in the issue Kitty's most famous quote comes from he actually isn't being particularly unreasonable.

[ExodusCloak]

I'm not sure why people are so fixated on this, Xavier did waaaay worse things that this:

[Wiccan]

When those old issues first came out, Bobby was explicitly stated to be the youngest at 16, so Jean was probably 17(issue #1). Charles was only supposed to be a little older than the kids, since it was 60's and his father had been involved in the Manhattan Project before he was born(why Charles is a mutant, his father was exposed to radiation). So really Charles should have only been in his 20's then. Not saying that justifies his attraction, but it was a different age(my grandmother was 11 years younger than my grandfather), and HE DIDN'T ACT ON IT.

Charles was definitely a jerk in the early era. By Claremont's time, he was only a little bit of a jerk. Lobdell made him even more saintly, and the cartoons continued that trend, into the movie age. Modern comics went out of their way to tarnish him, so as to bring in the more ethical Scott, Emma and Erik into the fore(note sarcasm).

I think we have 15 as Jean's age when she joined the X-Men stablished. Maybe I'm crazy but I really "remember" it being mentioned some times...

[ExodusCloak]

In the original stories they're 17 IIRC Iceman is 16, Bendis retconned Jean to being 15. Cyclops was once retconned to 19 actually in that one origin story IIRC. Age change but Bendis made Jean 15. Stan Lee had her at 17.

[donpricetag]

Writers over the last twenty years have made sure to ruin pretty much every character they could get their hands on. So, yeah, he's a jerk now.

Well said. He's been retconned into quite the a-hole.

[Project Initiative Cascada]

He has an inner darkness that escaped tried to rape Dani Moonstar and Kitty Pryde and he also blew up planets with billions of lifeforms on them. So yeah canon in the 80's.

And you also proved that he was a massive asshole for sending underage teenagers to fight against a powerful mutant tyrant in the very first issue. So he's always been a deceitful phony for his whole existence.