Charles Xavier

Charles Francis Xavier, also known as Professor X, is a Class 4 mutant from the United States who founded the Xavier Institute, a school that educates mutants and trains them to eventually join the X-Men once they come of age. In addition to being the founder and headmaster of the Xavier Institute, Professor X is an accomplished geneticist.

Early Years
Charles Xavier is the mutant son of wealthy nuclear researcher, Dr. Brian Xavier, and his wife, Sharon. While gestating in his mother's womb, Charles' twin was recognized by Charles as an evil presence, and he preemptively tried to kill it with his nascent psychic abilities, causing the fetus' miscarriage. After Dr. Xavier's death in an accident, Sharon married his colleague, Dr. Kurt Marko, who brought his son by a previous marriage, Cain Marko, to live in their ancestral mansion. Dr. Marko favored the gentle, smart Charles over over his own son, which led to Cain constantly bullying Charles and Dr. Marko secretly beating Cain.

Charles' telepathic powers began emerging when he was still a boy, and as he grew older, he learned to control them. Due to the immense psychic energies emanating from Charles' head, he became bald at a young age. With his powers, Charles had discovered that Dr. Marko only cared about his mother's money, admitting that he was jealous of Dr. Xavier's wealth. Dr. Marko quickly grew neglectful of Sharon, driving her to alcoholism, and abused both Sharon and Cain. Charles linked his mind to his mother's in an effort to share the abuse with her and alleviate it and even once found himself experiencing the anguished thoughts and emotions of Cain after Cain had been beaten by his father. This, however, only led to Cain being more aggressive towards Charles. After Sharon's death, Charles was left to live with his step-father and abusive step-brother.

At some point after Sharon's death, a fight erupted between Cain and Dr. Marko, causing some of Dr. Marko's lab equipment to explode. Mortally wounded, Dr. Marko dragged the children out of the house before he died, begging forgiveness for not saving Dr. Xavier when he had the chance and telling Charles to keep his powers secret from Cain. Cain, who was nearby, heard of Charles' gift, leading him to believe that Charles had invaded his thoughts deliberately. From that point on, Cain regarded Xavier as his enemy.

Education
Xavier was a brilliant student, attending multiple schools throughout his educational career. He attended Bard College in his early teens and graduated from Harvard University when he was sixteen years old. Intent on undertaking graduate studies, Xavier entered England's Oxford University to gain two Ph.D.s in genetics and biophysics. It was at Oxford where he met and fell in love with the young Scottish woman Moira Kinross.

Meanwhile, Marko continued to live at the mansion, growing increasingly resentful of his step-brother's scholastic and athletic achievements, as well as his telepathic powers. One day, Marko pushed Xavier too far and the two got into a fight, which Xavier easily won. Moira and Xavier's passionate discussions on genetic mutation gave way to an equally passionate romance. While still studying at Oxford, he was confronted on campus by two mutants named Logan and Victor Creed who, upon learning that the United States government was actively imprisoning mutants, were seeking to band mutants together in a common group. Xavier turned the pair down, something he would grow to regret in later years. Xavier and Moira planned to get married, but after finishign his work at Oxford, Xavier was drafted.

Korean War
Having been drafted, Xavier was sent to Korea during the Korean War. There, Xavier and Marko served in the same unit. Attempting to bring back the deserting Marko, Xavier witnessed how he found a mystical ruby in the Temple of Cyttorak that transformed him into the superhuman Juggernaut. Just then, enemy high explosive bombardment caused a cave-in, and Marko was buried under several thousand tons of rock. Xavier survived and returned to his unit.

Dangerous Mutants
Xavier became deeply depressed after Momira broke off their engagement with no explanation. After inheriting his family's considerable wealth, Xavier began traveling abroad. After leaving the army, Xavier discovered that Momira had married her old boyfriend, Joseph MacTaggert, who abused her. While in Cairo, Egypt, Xavier met the young pickpocket Ororo Munroe and, while making mental contact with her, battled Amahl Farouk, the host of the Shadow King. This meeting led to Xavier's decision to devote his life to protecting humanity from evil mutants and safeguarding innocent mutants from human oppression, believing that both could peacefully coexist. Xavier, who acknowledged that Munroe was a mutant from her brainwaves, declined to contact her at this point, not wanting to shock the young woman with the true nature of her powers.

Erik Lehnsherr
Xavier next went to Haifa, Israel, to meet with the head of a clinic for traumatized Holocaust victims, Daniel Shomron, where he fell in love with the catatonic Gabrielle Haller, whom he awoke using his telepathy. He also became friends with a man calling himself Erik Lehnsherr, a volunteer. Lehnsherr and Xavier held lengthy debates hypothesizing what would happen if humanity was faced with a new super-powered race of humans, unaware that Lehnsherr himself was a mutant. While Xavier was optimistic, Lehnsherr's experiences in the Holocaust led him to believe that humanity would ultimately oppress the new race of humans, as they had done with other minorities. The two friends revealed their powers to each other when they fought Nazi Baron von Strucker and his Hydra agents, who kidnapped Gabrielle because she knew the location of their secret cache of gold. Lehnsherr attempted to kill Strucker, but Xavier stopped him. Realizing that his and Xavier's views on mutant-human relations were incompatible, Lehnsherr left with the gold. Xavier stayed in Israel for some time, but he and Haller were unaware that she was pregnant when he left.

X-Men
Later, Xavier met with Fred Duncan, an FBI agent investigating the growing number of mutants. Xavier told Duncan about his plan to locate young mutants and enroll them in his school, using his ancestral mansionhome as a base to train them to use their powers and provide them conventional education for humanity's benefit. Xavier began enrolling students in his newly-founded school, the first five of whom were Scott Summers, Bobby Drake, Warren Worthington III, Hank McCoy, and Jean Grey.

Powers
Telepathy: Professor X is able to read minds and project his own thoughts into the minds of others within a 250 mile radius while on Earth. With extreme effort, he can greatly extend that radius. When synched with Cerebro or Cerebra, he can connect to every mind on a planet. After he was thrown into the M'Kraan Crystal, his telepathy was made even more powerful than what it had been previously, thereby making him the world's most powerful telepath.

He is able to manifest his telepathic abilities in a wide variety of ways, including creating realistic illusions, masking his presence from being detected by others, developing mental links with others, causing mental pain, transferring information to and from others' minds, controlling and possessing the minds of others, manipulating personalities and memories, erect psychic shields to protect minds from other telepathic attacks, projecting psychic blasts, astral projecting onto astral or physical planes, sensing the presence of other mutants, and transferring his mind into other host bodies.

Abilities

 * Intelligence: A natural genius, Professor X is a leading authority in genetics, mutation, and psionics. He possesses considerable expertise in various other life sciences as well. Professor X earned his Bachelor's from Harvard University at the age of sixteen, and he went on to receive four Ph.D.s from Oxford and Columbia University in genetics, biophysics, psychology, and anthropology.
 * Psi-Technology: He is highly talented at devising equipment for utilizing and enhancing psionic powers.
 * Tactics and Strategy: Professor X is also quite the masterful tactician and strategist, effectively evaluating situations and devising swift responses. He has, on numerous occasions, even fashioned long-term operations as complex as those of his adversaries, such as Mister Sinister, Magneto, and Apocalypse.
 * Military Training: Professor X served in the United States military, secretly employing his abilities to specialize in research and rescue missions.
 * Combat: In his travels through the East, he became a proficient hand-to-hand combatant and gained knowledge of pressure points of the human body.

Weaknesses
Dark Side: Professor X has shown to have a dark side, a part of himself that he struggles to suppress. Perhaps the most notable appearance of this was the entity Onslaught, which was a physical manifestation of that dark side. In other instances, Professor X was shown to be secretive and manipulative. During the battle against Onslaught, the X-Men found Professor X's files that detail how to kill many of the mutants under his care should the need ever arise, such as if they went rogue. It was also revealed that, when Professor X realized that the Danger Room had become sentient, he kept it trapped and experimented on it for years.

Paraplegia: Professor X is unable to walk due to spinal damage he suffered during a battle in his youth.