Last week, I picked up X-Men (Legacy) #208 for the stunning John Romita Jr. art and the surprise (semi) return of personal favorite Moira MacTaggart.

Yes, Moira MacTaggart features prominently in X-Men #208 despite being dead, but then again, so does Xavier despite the bullet we saw his brain pan take at the end of Messiah CompleX. You see, exposition tells us that, through masterful subterfuge, the X-Men didn’t notice the Acolytes sneaking off Xavier’s corpse so that Exodus could try and bring Professor X back from the land of the semi-dead.

Somewhere, Elixir sighs and turns another page in his magazine.
Angel changes channels on the TV next to him.

Exodus has a good point, that they need a strong leader in these trying times and an alive Xavier would probably make things a lot easier for the 198 of them (give or take). So, by rebuilding his brain matter, we’re going to fix the old man by taking a tour through the X-Men’s ‘legacy’ (just like the title of this cartoon!) while building a bigger, better Xavier from Exodus and guest stars. We’ll be going through well-drawn history and debating what to say about it as we go along. Will they give Xavier back his pacifist ways or remake him in their image? What will Xavier remember about his life and legacy once all this is over?

What will be left of the ‘legacy’ featured so prominently on the cover?

Let me put it to you this way: Supeman is pretty freakin’ powerful. If he wanted to, he could easily live the easy life, robbing banks, mackin’ on chicks, and doing whatever he wanted like a two-ton gorilla (who actually can’t do whatever he wants, but we’ll leave Grodd out of this). But, because Superman is inherently good, he’s our hero who lives a responsible moral life. But it’s a choice! It could go the other way! And this is a theme people like to play with: heroes as villains. People with incredible powers choosing Option B: EVIL instead of what we know and love about them. This is a pretty interesting plot point for anyone, but with Charles Xavier… it’s kind of getting played out.

Onslaught took care of it in true ’90s fashion, X-Men: Deadly Genesis ruined his reputation with his strongest supporter, he’s been a man out of place in both space and his own home and now we have villains trying to remake his brain and apparently constantly questioning how much he plays God with people’s heads. Did he want to protect mutants or mold them into his image? Did he make the X-Men as a force for good or his own personal army? Did he make Scott Summers into the noble, heroic man he is today or did he just mess with his head until he got the proper results out of the kid?

Personally, I’m hoping for the best out of this little sidequest in the Divided We Fall story arc. I don’t want to know how EEEVIL Xavier could have been when history shows the man stood for something more than Truth, Justice and the American Way. It was a sense of human rights; no matter creed, color or DNA, Xavier was touted on the side of bringing everyone together and that made the X-Men into not only entertaining yarns for those disenfranchised youth I spoke of last week, but something people write papers about and discuss with lattes foamy at coffee shops. Now, don’t get me wrong, the man went telepathy wild back in the early issues of the X-Men, but then again, Superman used to be a dick. It’s all relative and I think the X-Men’s message of tolerance is something to enjoy as an undercurrent to the drama and adventure we as a readership fell in love with.

It could be said that Marvel’s really getting their millage out of this new movement of hero as villain. I mean, one doesn’t nominate and then award Tony Stark a Villain of the Year award without good reason. And now, with Secret Invasion on the rise, the mantra of “Who Can You Trust?” takes on even stronger significance as really, who have we been able to trust these days?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Marvel, News & Views, The Fifth Color, Version 1.0 Blog@. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.