Spoilers for X-Force #6 by Ben Percy, Joshua Cassara and Dustin Weaver below
The X-Men’s Charles Xavier deliberately orchestrated his own death. Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men relaunch saw Charles Xavier found a new mutant nation on the living island of Krakoa. He discovered a way to synergize mutant powers and the use of Cerebro technology to resurrect the dead, allowing the X-Men to conquer death and restore every mutant who has ever died.
And then, in a shocking twist, Xavier was assassinated in X-Force #1. His death sent shockwaves through the new mutant community, not least because it was initially unclear whether or not the Professor could be resurrected. Fortunately, he’d left backup Cerebro units, and Jean Grey was able to use this Cerebro to bring Xavier back. Now, in this week’s X-Force #6, Marvel has revealed that Xavier engineered his death and resurrection.
X-Force #6 includes a text page revealing that Charles Xavier deliberately placed himself in the line of fire. It includes a text page described as “Xavier’s Confession,” which opens with a chilling admission. “He hoped for death. He dreamt welcomingly of the bullet or the blade or the poison that would fell him.” Xavier believed that the mutants would be unable to unify without an enemy.
Charles Xavier knew that there were enemies out there, and also groups whose wrath he had earned. So, he resolved to make it easy for them; he traveled often, visiting even hostile countries such as Sokovia, and he didn’t take any guards with him. He ate and drank freely, aiming to provide the maximum opportunity for would-be poisoners. In short, Xavier painted a big, red bullseye on his own back, inviting the anti-mutant bigots to take a shot.
Words can only accomplish so much. His own notions of what liberty and power and self-actualization and nationhood mean could not be forced onto other by speeches. He needed a spectacle of blood. He needed collective grief and anguish. He needed a scar that ran across the entire island, that scored the heart of mutantkind.
Without this - some early proof that the rough beasts had been aroused and incited by mutant innovation - his fellow mutants wouldn’t be unified except in theory and geography. Inevitably strife and differences, old and new grudges would drive them apart. Krakoa needed a Lusitania. Krakoa needed a Pearl Harbor.
Xavier’s gambit was a smart one; people do indeed unify when they have an enemy to fight. The problem, however, is that such a spark of anger and outrage is very difficult indeed to control; it lights a fire that burns completely out of control. Xavier has always preached a message of peace between man and mutant, but he’s making it increasingly likely that the two races will go to war. Making matters worse, Xavier’s actions inflamed anti-mutant sentiment, and the new X-Force is still struggling to understand the nature of the conspiracy they’re now dealing with.
X-Force #6 is on sale now in comic book shops.
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