10 Comic Book Supervillains Who Created Their Own Worst Enemy

8. The Shadow King And Professor X

Professor X Charles Xavier
Marvel Comics

This one's up for debate now, given the the massive changes introduced in Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva and Marte Gracia's House of X/Powers of X, but if we're going off traditional origins, this is how Charles Xavier first embarked upon his quest to ensure the survival of mutantkind.

It's probably fair to say that Charles Xavier had a bit of a rough upbringing. His father died when Charles was only young, and he later learns after his mutant powers manifest that his father's business partner Kurt - who had also married Charles' mother for the money - was partially responsible.

Following another accident (this time caused by Charles and Kurt's son Cain, the eventual Juggernaut), Kurt also perishes. The young Xavier is still able to use his gifts to make sure he realises his talents though, growing up and attending Oxford University. A brief excursion in Korea during the war of 1950-1953 is then followed by gap year of sorts, which leads Xavier to encounter his first ever mutant in Amahl Farouk, who was possessed by a demonic entity known as The Shadow King.

It was this encounter that inspired Xavier to use his gifts to help other mutants and humans, as he realised just how dangerous his own psychic powers could be if turned against innocents. Xavier would battle the Shadow King many times more in the future, only this time with an entire team of gifted mutants by his side.

The moral of the story? Never underestimate the power of a good gap year.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.