Jonathan Hickman, mastermind of the X-Men relaunch, has just provided an important clue to understanding Charles Xavier’s current portrayal. The X-Men franchise had been struggling for years, but in July last year superstar comic book writer Jonathan Hickman began a high-profile relaunch of the entire franchise.
At the heart of this relaunch was Charles Francis Xavier, who appeared to have moved on from the traditional interpretation of Xavier’s Dream in favor of a new vision. Xavier had established a mutant nation on the living island of Krakoa, welcoming hero and villain alike to live there in peace. While many readers were thrilled at this new version of Xavier, others were disturbed, and wondered what had happened to make him abandon Xavier’s Dream like this. Adding to the puzzle, Xavier avoided ever removing his Cerebro helmet, leading many to speculate he’d been replaced by an impostor of some kind.
Speaking to AiPT!, Hickman has just provided an important - albeit, at first read, somewhat cryptic - clue. In response to a reader question about Xavier’s backstory, Hickman noted that “the Xavier we saw in [House of X/Powers of X] and up to X-Force #1 was the Astonishing Xavier.” This is a reference to Charles Soule’s Astonishing X-Men run, which launched in 2017, just under two years before Hickman took charge of the X-Men franchise. Importantly, it offers a crucial narrative key to understanding who Charles Xavier is - and interpreting Hickman’s entire story.
The Death and Resurrection of Charles Xavier
The story begins back in 2012, when Marvel decided to kill Charles Xavier off in the climax of the Avengers Vs X-Men event. At the time, writer Brian Bendis admitted there was a simple reason for their decision; none of the writers knew what to do with Xavier, and when they came up with the idea of killing him off, they realized there was tremendous story potential in exploring the repercussions. Xavier’s death was a tragic one, murdered at the hands of Cyclops, who had absorbed the Phoenix Force and gone Dark Phoenix. It led to a schism among the ranks of the X-Men, one that lasted years.
These are comic books, and death is something of a revolving door. For all that’s the case, though, Xavier’s death stuck until 2017, when Charles Soule resurrected Xavier in a weird homage to X-Men: The Last Stand. It seems Xavier’s mind had survived death, trapped on the Astral Plane and waging an unceasing war against the Shadow King; in the end, the Professor came back by striking a deal with Fantomex, allowing him to psychically swap places with the mutant sneak-thief and take possession of Fantomex’s body. The experience of death, and indeed the perception of a millennium or more spent on the Astral Plane, changed Xavier. He became colder, more abrupt, more willing to impose his will upon others; he perceived people as little more than pawns in the game he had been playing in order to beat the Shadow King and stave off apocalypse. In one scene, Xavier showed an unusual focus on the difference between mutants and humans; when three X-Men fought alongside him, he reflected, “We are mutantkind. Look how beautiful we are.” When the Shadow King was finally defeated, Xavier was freed, and he began to build a new life for himself. He decided he should be known by a new name; “X.”
Xavier claimed to have abandoned his old dream; in one key scene in Astonishing X-Men #12, he told Psylocke he had a new dream now. Whatever that dream was, it was pursued in secret, with Xavier erasing the knowledge of his resurrection from the minds of all but one X-Man; he allowed Psylocke to retain that knowledge, because he saw her as a defense against the Shadow King’s return, fearful the monstrous psychic being had some sort of foothold in his own psyche. The Astonishing X-Men annual revealed Xavier had tapped into previously-hidden funds, ones that hadn’t even been recounted in his will, and that he was mobilizing these in pursuit of his new dream. It further suggested he was psychically manipulating his former students, ensuring they would comply with his wishes; he had a notable influence on Jean Grey.
Astonishing X-Men Directly Sets Up House of X
It’s important to place this story in context. Writer Cullen Bunn has recently revealed that, back in 2017, the X-Men comics were operating under certain constraints. “We had kind of been given marching orders that we couldn’t change anything with the X-Men,” he explained. “The plans for House of X - those were already in play.” Marvel already knew Jonathan Hickman was coming on board, and in general the franchise was just spinning wheels until he took over. But that makes Astonishing X-Men particularly interesting, because it instituted a real change - the resurrection of Charles Xavier as X - at a time when the X-books were avoiding real change. The clear implication is that this was essential setup, and Astonishing X-Men should really be seen as something of a prelude to House of X.
And it makes sense; if Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters was the house that Xavier built, then Krakoa is literally the House of X - the mutant nation build by the resurrected Xavier, aka “X.” It’s possible the links were originally intended to be a lot more explicit, with Xavier’s death and return serving as the motive for his changed outlook rather than the memory of the Genoshan genocide as per House of X #6; but Hickman realized he had to pivot because it took him longer to get ready for the relaunch than he’d intended, and Astonishing X-Men was gradually being forgotten. Genosha was already an important part of his story - Xavier was literally resurrecting the dead of Genosha - so it made sense to create another link.
Rereading Soule’s Astonishing X-Men now, the portrayal of Charles Xavier dovetails perfectly with the man seen in House of X and Powers of X. House of X #1 confirmed that, in the run-up to the establishment of Krakoa, Xavier reached out to various financial interests he’d previously kept secret; a development strongly implied in the Astonishing X-Men annual. Meanwhile, many of the X-Men have seemed a little out of character, most notably Jean Grey, who’s even adopted her old Marvel Girl persona; the Astonishing X-Men annual already established X is willing to adjust his former students’ minds in order to ensure their compliance. In Astonishing X-Men, Xavier showed a focus on mutants as a distinctive race, and he has that same attitude in the Hickman era. Finally, all this explains why Xavier never took the Cerebro helmet off in the first wave of the X-Men relaunch; he didn’t want anybody to realize he was still wearing Fantomex’s face. Xavier carefully orchestrated his own death in X-Force #1, aware the X-Men could resurrect him themselves this time, and now his mind is in his own body again. Notice that, within just a few days of his resurrection, Xavier was unmasking in X-Men #4. He has his own face back, and while he still wears Cerebro for functional reasons, he no longer has to hide his appearance.
It’s true that House of X has avoided making its connections to Astonishing X-Men explicit, but frankly that makes perfect sense. The new Xavier - X - was presented as an incredibly secretive man, who even erased all knowledge of his existence from the minds of his X-Men so he could act in secret. Xavier had always been something of a “shades of gray” character, but the Astonishing Xavier took that to a new level. And that is the Xavier readers are following in the strange new world of Marvel’s X-Men.
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