PROFESSOR X : The World's Most Powerful Telepath

"My name is Charles Xavier. I am a mutant. And once upon a time I had a dream...of a world where all Earth's children, both mutant and baseline human, might live together in peace. This isn't it. This is today's reality." --PROFESSOR X
With a new X-Men movie in the horizon it would be nice to feature some of its members, and where better to start than the mutant who started it all - PROFESSOR X.

Who is PROFESSOR X?
PROFESSOR X is Charles Xavier, creator of the X-Men and founder the Xavier Institute for mutants. It is his dream and quest that baseline humans and mutants can live a peaceful coexistence. His powerful telepathy and indomitable will make him one of the world's strongest mutants.

PROFESSOR X is a Marvel Comics superhero known as the leader and founder of the X-Men.Throughout most of his comic book history, Xavier is paraplegic, although his body houses one of the world's most powerful mutant minds. As a high-level telepath, Xavier can read, control and influence human minds. A scientific genius, he is also a leading authority on genetics, mutation, and psionic powers. He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in X-Men #1 (Sep. 1963).

VISUAL HISTORY
PROFESSOR X is not known for his costumes, but he has a fair share of colorful wardrobe that we would see later. A big portion of his comicbook career he spent seating because the loss of the use of his legs but recently he regained their uses. PROFESSOR X's iconic image is him on a wheelchair, wearing regular formal clothes, with his shiny bald head.

Regular Wheelchair
When he first appeared PROFESSOR X used regular wheelchair and at times returns to use these kind of wheelchairs. The look of these chairs are typical of the time period that they were drawn.

Explorer Chair
There are times that PROFESSOR X would need mechanized chairs, as he go to some of his missions. One such mission is when he went in a cavern to pursue a villain, he used a chair with tank thread wheels to help him in the difficult terrain.

Hover Chair
If your first introduction to the X-Men was the 90s cartoon series, this is probably the PROFESSOR X your familiar with. The chair was based on an alien technology.

Tri-wheel Chair
The first X-Men movie was just released in theaters, so newbie comicfans might find it strange to see PROFESSOR X floating around on his hoverchair, so PROFESSOR X was grounded with a new set of motorized tri-wheeled chair. He also wears a leather jacket, because its cool (eventhough the movie version was all coat and tie).

Heavy Duty Wheelchair
When Xavier moved to Genosha to help rebuild the island nation (it was destroyed by mutant seeking sentinels), he used this more heavy-duty, motorized, all-terrain chair.

PROFESSOR X Adventurer
At times when he regained the use of his legs, PROFESSOR X would join his X-Men and even the New Mutants in their missions.

Bald Phoenix
During his time with the Starjammers, Xavier possessed a fraction of the Phoenix Force for a short time. (Jean Grey why did you have to die?!?!)

PROFESSOR X Exoskeleton
Leading an assault against Magneto, Xavier donned a special exoskeleton that allowed him to walk. It was powered by his own mind and was particularly taxing on his psionic powers. The suit included a form-fitting, deep purple bodysuit with silver armored components and cybernetic power links that framed Xavier’s face.

Other looks
Here are some of his other casual looks, usually bearing an X-emblem.

Evil Manifestations
With a powerful mind like PROFESSOR X it is bound to happen, that evil will eventually tap into it. Here are two instances when PROFESSOR X succumbed to the dark side.

Dark Xavier

Onslaught
After the event of PROFESSOR X wiping Magneto's memories, the negative side effect of this is the creation of the entity known as Onslaught.

IN LIVE MEDIA

1. Patrick Stewart
Patrick Stewart played PROFESSOR X in the first 3 X-Men movies and a CGI cameo in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The casting of Patrick Stewart as PROFESSOR X was spot on and was received with positive feedback from the comic fans community.

2. James McAvoy
James McAvoy will play a younger Charles Xavier in X-Men First Class, before he went bald and became paraplegic.

POWERS & ABILITIES
Note: Due to the nature of comicbooks being an on-going tale, the character's powers along with his appearance, is in a constant state of flux.

PROFESSOR X possesses vast psionic powers:

Telepathy: able to read minds and project his own thoughts into the minds of others within a radius of 250 miles.

Telepathic Illusion: ability to create realistic telepathic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.

Telepathic Cloak: can mask his presence from being detected by others.

Psi Link: ability to develop a mental link with any person which remains as a connection to that individual.

Telepathic Camouflage: ability to mask himself, and other peoples' presence from those around him. Can telepathically disguise himself, making his appearance to those around him quite different.

Mind Blast: ability to place large amounts of information in another's mind.

Mind Control: ability to control the minds of others upon mere concentration. This power can allow him to completely shut down several peoples' minds, making it appear as if time has stopped.

Mind Possession: ability to possess the mind of another, and use that being's body as his own.

Mind Alteration: ability to alter the minds of others by force of will.

Mental Amnesia: ability to cause loss of particular memories and amnesia in another person or even in a group of people.

Psionic Shield: ability to erect a psychic shield for protection of himself and of other minds.

Psionic Blasts: can project psionic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness and can even kill an adversary

Astral Projection: ability to Astral Travel and communicate with others astrally through his own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others.

Mental Detection: can sense the presence of another superhuman mutant within a small but as yet undefined radius of himself by perceiving the distinctive mental radiations emitted by such a being.

Mind Transferal: able to transfer both his mind and powers into other host bodies if his own physical body could be somehow killed.

Absorb Information: ability to quickly process and store information, by mental transference.

Genius-level Intellect: A natural genius, Xavier is a leading authority on genetics, mutation, and psionics. He possesses considerable expertise in other life sciences. He is highly talented in devising equipment for utilizing and enhancing psionic powers. Xavier is also quite the masterful tactician and strategist, effectively evaluating situations and devising swift responses.

Military Training: Charles served in the United States Military, secretly employing his abilities to specialize in search and rescue missions.

Expert Fighter: In his travels in the East, he became a proficient hand-to-hand combatant and gained knowledge of pressure points.

Knowledge of the body: As an extension of his studies of pressure points, Xavier's knowledge of the body and its energies/chakras has gained him the unofficial degree of a seasoned Zen master, allotting him the ability to keep in the prime of his physique.

sources: http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/spotlight/showquestion.asp?faq=10&fldAuto=105&page=11 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_X : http://marvel.wikia.com/Professor_X : http://www.comicvine.com/professor-x/29-1505/

This is the 30th article in my Know Your CBM Character series. Any requests and suggestions for an article for this series write it down in the comment section BELOW.

P0llMaster
5/8/2011
DCMU

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