Top 5 Terrible Mistakes Professor Xavier Has Made Within the X-Men (movie) Universe

The fan favorite and loved leader of the x-men; Professor Xavier, has been examined by many fans on accounts for his misuse of powers and manipulation of his team. Many instances focusing towards varying areas within the comic books in-which he has acted anything but ideal. With a variety of different universes or storylines stretching back to the 1960’s, with a variety of different character changes and arc’s the ability to judge the professor across these many series becomes difficult. Due to this the most ideal representation of the iconoclastic figure should be examine through the agreed upon universe within the movies

1. X-Men: Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters / Child Soldiers

The X-mansion or Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters is the private estate of Charles Xavier. It is the base of operations and training site of the X-Men; additionally it is a school for mutant teenagers. In which professor Xavier is both the leader, teacher, and father figure of many abandoned mutant teenagers. These vulnerable teens who have been rejected by society find safe haven within the school and are very impressionable. Many of the strongest students within the school will assist the X-men in battles waged against the team foes; ultimately, being turned into child soldiers to help better the mutant cause. While Xavier’s may have noble intentions, he is both risking the lives and future of his students by inducting them into these fights with his nemeses. By creating foes with Magneto, the Government, and other dangerous mutants, he endangers the X-men and the students at the school with his persistent war. This is not and ideal place for education and would be a better choice to have a separate location for the X-men headquarters.

2. Logan: The Westchester Incident

Within “Logan” the most recent and arguably most renowned x-men movie amongst fan’s, we learn of the destruction of the x-men, with the only remaining members Professor Xavier and Wolverine. It is eluded from the early parts of the film that a terrible incident involving professor Xavier caused the destruction of the X-mansion. It is later on in the film in which professor Xavier has a seizure and triggers a large scale psychic attack upon everyone in the neighboring area; leaving only wolverine lightly immune due to Adamantium skull. As the movie progresses we find out through a radio broadcast on and a series of conversations that these seizures are what caused Westchester Incident that injured 600 people and killed off the X-men. It is eluded that Professor Xavier had experience these seizures before this incident and could have done something to prevent it. Had the Professor simply left the mansion upon his early exposure to these seizures and stayed away from populated areas to live out his days in the woods; he could have prevented the death and injury of his hundreds of people and his loyal students.

3. X-Men: The Last Stand- Jean Gray/ The Pheonix

Within X-men the last stand we learn about the past of Jean Gray and Professor Xavier’s attempts to “help her”. We find out that during her youth she was over-powered by her psychic abilities and had difficulty controlling both herself and her powers. We learn that Xavier made the decision to place a series of psychic blocks on Jean's mind, to limit her immense power and help her control herself. Upon doing this it pushed her powers into her subconscious rather than her conscious mind. This is problematic due to the subconscious being of pure emotion, without morality. By locking her powers away into her subconscious, it created a split personality within Jean. This personality came to call itself "The Phoenix", a primal manifestation of the dark side of Jean's mind. Within X-men United, Jean uses her powers to save the X-men trying to escape within Blackbird aircraft from a giant wave that was created from the destruction of Alkali Lake Damn. She uses her remaining powers to help push the aircraft away to safety and is swept under the tides from the giant crashing wave. She is preassembly dead, but is actuality is put knocked into a coma under the waves. She reawakens within X-Men: The Last Stand and kills cyclops in the process, she ultimately becomes the main villain of the X-men and is taken down by Wolverine in the end.

Should Professor Xavier provided legitimate therapy and coaching instead of simply blocking her powers away, he could have prevented these events from transpiring. His lackluster in approach in therapy killed two of his star pupils (Jean Gray and Cyclops), but also helped reinforce the terrible fear and imagery of mutants that had been instilled on the public.

4. X-Men: Days of Future Past- Time Travel / Magneto

The storyline of X-Men Days of Futures Past takes place in a dystopian future, in which Sentinels, a giant undefeatable robotic army, has been created to hunt down individuals with mutant genes. With the help of Professor Xavier and Kitty Pryde; Wolverine is able to travel to his conscious back in time to prevent the construction of the sentinels in 1973. This is due to Proffesor Xavier discovering the assignation of Bolivar Trask in 1973 being the force of construction behind the Sentinel program. Professor X and Wolverine within the year 1973, decided to bust Magneto out of a specialized prison cell under the pentagon in order to aide their efforts. Ultimately Magneto and Mystique decided to use their powers to take control of the Sentinel program, thus creating the catalyst of Xavier vs Magneto arc.

While the efforts to save mutants where ideal, the poor choice of choosing Magneto as an ally and being bold enough to trust him yet again had threated wolverine and the future. Chalres Xavier and Wolverine being armed with years of experience with Magneto and the understanding of events that would happen in the future, it is surprising that both of them would make the same mistakes. Moreover, with the ability to travel through time, the chosen area to prevent only an incident that is for the benefit of mutants, seems selfish in desire. Lastly, had they of simply prevented Tusak from entering some form of academia or had reached out to him personally they may have had a much easier way of saving the future (This of course would be a much less entertaining movie) none the less.

5. X-Men: Cerebro

Within the X-mansion is a supercomputer / room known as Cerebro, which is used by Professor Xavier. Within this room is a helmet that would magnify his already extraordinary telepathic powers and project the results onto the internal walls of the room. The signature use of Cerebro is the targeting of mutant brainwaves. Additionally, it allows Xavier a mental connection with every human and mutant mind on Earth. Within X-Men United, the device is used the villain William Stryker as a means to destroy all mutants on the planet through telepathically manipulating Charles Xavier to focus his telepathic energy through it, thus hurting and potentially killing every mutant around the world.

While Cerebro is amazing and is used for good, Professor Xavier chooses only to use to it to help find mutants in danger or become aware of potential threats. Professor Xavier could use Cerebro to bring a much greater good to the world (e.g. prevent crimes, solve world issues) but rather uses it for simple means. However, the biggest case against Cerbero is the level of threat it provides in comparison to its benefits. The device has limited use for Professor Xavier, in comparison to the greater to the large threat it has had on humanity and mutants brought about by its misuse from villains.