Charles

Biodata

Background

Charles's adoptive father and first mentor, Professor Brian Xavier, quietly helped his psychic abilities develop when Charles was young. Charles believed Brian had died of a heart attack when he was seventeen. Nearly sixty years later, he discovered Brian alive on Krakoa, where Brian had been teaching young Mutants 146.

Charles built the Xavier Institute around teaching young Mutants and pursuing peaceful coexistence. His former friend Magneto advocates a more forceful response to persecution, and the two continue to disagree over Mutants' future 37 61. After Jean Grey's Dark Phoenix awakening devastated the Institute, Charles accepted responsibility for suppressing her power and for the losses suffered by his students 61 68.

Appearance

Charles is an elderly, bald man who uses a wheelchair 13 25.

• He wears a neat gray-blue suit and keeps a blanket over his knees during his first in-person meeting with Russell 25.
• He later uses a hovering wheelchair on Krakoa 146.

Personality

Charles favors invitation and guidance over coercion. He offers Russell and his friends a place at his school without demanding an immediate answer, and he respects Rogue's decision not to stay at the Institute 26 58. He believes Russell's choice to save people from a fire matters despite his capacity for violence 26.

His restraint does not prevent difficult judgments. Charles suppressed Jean's power because he believed her mind could not bear it; after her awakening, he acknowledges the harm that decision caused 61 68. He also admits that he failed Russell while Russell was imprisoned and experimented on 56.

Abilities & Skills

Telepathy

Charles is described as the most powerful telepath on Earth 13.

• He senses distant minds and communicates across New York, including contacting Russell at his hotel 25 56.
• He can control another person's body to speak through them and, on one occasion, possesses a corpse 38 42.
• He guides Scott Summers in steadying his unstable optic blasts 45.
• He temporarily reconnects Matt Murdock to powers blocked by Russell's microscopic barrier. Charles cannot remove the barrier; his solution lasts no more than a week 57.

Mental Barriers

• Charles helped Jean establish mental defenses, then suppressed power he believed she could not safely bear 26 61.
• Russell's rapidly strengthening Mental Defense prevents Charles from entering his mind unnoticed. Charles later says he cannot read Russell's thoughts or see his future 26 56.

Relationships

• Professor Brian Xavier — Adoptive father and first mentor; Charles reunites with him on Krakoa after believing him dead for nearly sixty years 146.
• Magneto / Erik Lehnsherr — Old friend and ideological opponent. Magneto protects and comforts Charles after the Institute's destruction 37 61 68.
• Jean Grey — Student whom Charles raised like a daughter; his suppression of her power becomes central to their conflict 61 68.
• Scott Summers / Cyclops — Student whose changing powers Charles helps stabilize 45.
• Russell — Genetic clone carrying Charles's genes. Charles offers him support and training while trying to guide his choices; he has kept Russell's origins secret from the X-Men 26 45 46 56.
• Rogue / Anna Marie — Newly awakened Mutant whom Charles asks Russell to protect and escort to the Institute; he leaves her choice of where to stay to her 43 58.

Story Role

• Russell's emergence: Charles assesses Russell as an Omega-level Mutant, offers him a place at the school, and later arranges training with the X-Men in exchange for help improving their abilities 26 45.
• Fall of the Institute: Jean's Dark Phoenix awakening kills Scott and Hank and gravely injures other X-Men. Charles tries to reach Jean and is left grieving amid the ruins 61 68.
• Krakoa: Charles travels with Russell and Magneto to Apocalypse's Mutant world, reunites with Brian, and learns more about Mutants' hidden place in history 146 147.