Marvel's Next Big Crossover Will Put a "Disgraced" Professor Xavier In the Hot Seat For One Simple Reason

For the first time since the fall of Krakoa, the X-Men are facing a major crossover event, one that threatens to tear the already fractured team apart. At the center of the conflict lies Charles Xavier, the X-Men's disgraced founder. After striking a deal with Orchis for the sake of mutantkind, Charles has spent months imprisoned underneath his old home. Now, Xavier is about to break loose.

As part of the announcement from Marvel Comics explaining the upcoming crossover, X-Men Executive Editor Tom Brevoort explained why Charles Xavier had to be at the center of it. X-Manhunt is an upcoming seven-part crossover event, which finally draws every corner of the modern mutant comics together, for the first time since the start of the franchise's new era.

Since the mutant nation’s fall, the “children” of Charles Xavier have had to step up and lead their own teams of X-Men. However, not everyone can agree on whether to forgive Charles or not, especially Cyclops and Rogue.

Charles Xavier Connects Every X-Franchise Character, Meaning The Franchise Can't Move Beyond Him That Easily

X-Editor Tom Brevoort On Xavier's Role

As Tom Brevoort explained, as part of the unveiling of X-Manhunt:

We’ve mostly been keeping the various groups of X-characters separated from one another as we set up the post-Krakoa landscape. But it feels like now is the right time to send them crashing into one another. And who better to instigate this situation than the disgraced Professor X, who has intimate connections with almost all of our key players?

X-Men stories thrive more vibrantly when the cast of characters is kept in smaller groups. However, because the teams are so far isolated from each other, Marvel needed something important enough for all of the mutant family to bring them back together. This time, it’s Charles Xavier. Since Krakoa’s foundation, the old dogmatic war between Xavier and Magneto is over. Most came to agree that both Xavier and Magneto were right, establishing a new peace between both minds. However, that ideological war has been replaced with a new one.

To save mutantkind, Charles Xavier turned against his family. Some, like Cyclops’s Alaskan X-Men , justify Xavier’s actions, believing he did what was necessary to save all of mutantkind. Others, like Rogue’s Louisiana X-Men , condemn the Professor for intentionally harming his children and allies, refusing to let that be an example to follow; whether he was justified or not is the question the X-Manhunt event aims to answer. After Krakoa, things settled down relatively quickly in the comics. X-Men stories went back to their usual episodic feel. But Charles Xavier persists as the last unsettled problem from that era.

Rogue And Cyclops Are Trying To Re-Establish What It Means To Be X-Men – Xavier Complicates That

X-Men's "From The Ashes" Era Reckons With Charles' Legacy

If anything, the Krakoa Saga brought the X-Men and mutantkind as a whole closer together. Enemies became allies. Old wounds were healed when given a safe place to do so. Mutants proved that they could change the world together. In the modern era, Marvel needed a solid justification to bring the team back together. However, doing it the same way it's always been done, unifying the X-Men against a common enemy, is an overused plot. This time Marvel needed to change things up. As the X-Men settle into the current era, each team needs to re-establish what they stand for.

X-Men: Alaska has been preparing for the next anti-mutant war. The Louisiana X-Men are trying to build a new School for Gifted Youngsters. Ms. Marvel and her friends are working to manage humanity’s perception of mutants. Every team is prioritizing a different aspect of mutantkind’s journey forward. With Charles Xavier fleeing from his self-subjected captivity, his family will have to look within themselves to decide whether protecting him is the right or wrong thing to do. As sad as it is to see old allies turn against each other, there’s no better way to have brought the X-Men together again.

Source: Marvel Comics

The Uncanny X-Men #11 will be available March 3, 2025 from Marvel Comics.