Remake & Reboot: The XAVIER: YEAR ONE Comic Series

Professor X might be the namesake of the X-Men, but he’s never had a series of his own. He was the co-lead of the recent X-Men: First Class movie, but he’s never been played as such in the comics. Why is that?

In comics, Professor X might be pigeon-holed as the wheelchair-bound elderly man guiding the team from a comfortable sunny window of the old Xavier Mansion, but Xavier was far more than that. And with Cyclops edging out Xavier for the leadership role in the X-Men a few years back and the character little more than an “emeritus” perfunctory advisorship role in the team akin to Stan Lee in relation to current Marvel business, there’s a gaping hole where some quality Professor X stories could be told. Here’s how I’d do it.

The Concept:

While stories could be told of Xavier in the present day in the twilight of his life, I think really juicy bits to his life are his formative teenage and young adult years. In effect, a Xavier comic series as I see it would be a period piece not unlike X-Men: First Class in tone, or the numerous throwback Captain America stories being told in comics today. The stories we know of Xavier’s younger years, from that of being a stepbrother to Cain Marko — aka Juggernaut — and finding a young Ororo Munroe as a pickpocket in the streets of Egypt give you glimpses at what it could be like. Remember the TV series Young Indiana Jones Chronicles? Imagine the promise of that transplanted to Xavier’s young life, but being better than that beleagued TV series.

Digging into Marvel lore as we know it so far as it concerns Charles Xavier, the key years seem to be Xavier’s time wandering the world after serving in the military. He’s a bit forelorn after his romance with Moira McTaggart nee Kinross is broken off. It’s in these years he begins to meet other mutants like Storm and Magneto, but there’s a big question mark as to what else he accomplished in this time. Imagine a story of Xavier living as a mutant in a time where the world didn’t know of mutants. Imagine him trying to discover more about it, while also running across older Marvel characters such as Howard Stark, perhaps a pre-Hulked out Bruce Banner, Bucky Barnes-as-Winter Soldier, and countless others.

If a full-fledged ongoing series is a bit to risky for Marvel these days, imagine doing this as a simple limited series — Xavier: Year One. I think DC owns the rights to that subtitle, but you get the idea.

The Creators:

The Writer – Rick Remender: In the pages of Uncanny X-Force, writer Rick Remender has shown he’s a excellent storyteller and also someone with an extensive knowledge of X-Men lore. Imagine if he took that and focused it on the early days of Charles Xavier. There have been a few young Charles Xavier stories scattered through issues of Uncanny X-Men and X-Men: Legacy over the years, and Remender could weave those together and also elaborate on more about how Xavier interacted with the Marvel universe at that time.

The Artist – Pete Woods: Woods is one of several artists that seemed to have gotten lost in the shuffle with the advent of New 52. That’s not to throw any ill will towards his work on Legion Lost, but his stellar work on the Lex Luther-led Action Comics and previous stints on the main Superman titles seemed to have placed his trajectory into a more strategic and bigger name book than a spin-off team of the Legion of Super-Heroes. It’s only coincidence I’m picking him to draw his second bald white man after Luthor; the real reason is Woods seems to delight in intensive character work while not skimping on giving fully illustrated scenes, and I’d love to see him partner with a colorist to take this down the road of a mutant period piece.