Professor Charles Xavier, one of the most respected figures within the Marvel Universe, The calm, collected and pacifistic figurehead for the X-Men, who leads by example, hoping that one day mutants can live alongside humanity in peace and harmony. A truly remarkable, kind and wise man, the Martin Luther King to Magneto's Malcolm X in a oft-repeated and oft-offensive real-world comparison. A thoroughly nice guy, all in all. Right? Wrong! As Kitty Pryde so memorably put it in Uncanny X-Men #168, Professor Xavier is a jerk! Throughout his storied, decades-long history, he has manipulated his students, covered up countless atrocities he is entirely responsible for, and been the epitome of a dirty old man. Don't let that suave Patrick Stewart look fool you when you go see Days of Future Past, this guy is a stone-cold jerk. Here's ten instances that prove it.
10. Pretending To Lose His Powers
Chuck was a big fan of this superheroic spin on trust exercises. Early on in the original run of X-Men, the erstwhile Professor pretended to have lost his mental abilities following an early clash with arch nemesis Magneto. Obviously, the freshly recruited batch of mutant students are pretty distraught to find their mentor suddenly powerless. But they needed have worried, because he was just having them on. It turns out that his little deception, coming at a time where the fledgling team were facing their greatest challenge yet (and which could have resulted in the deaths of a lot of civilians if they'd failed) without the help of their leader, was actually the team's final exam! As Xavier informs them, whilst smugly lighting his pipe with the biggest poop-eating grin you've ever seen, in a comic book or otherwise. What a jerk.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
