Rumors are abound about prospective origin films for a few more X-verse characters pending the box-office haul of Wolverine. One is the possibility of a Magneto origin. Some may agree that doesn't sound very exciting. Adding Xavier's origin would add a great deal of action and interest.
Like I said in the introduction, Magneto doesn't really need a solo origin movie. When you examine his origin, there isn't much there and very few characters to work with. Don't get me wrong, he is a very interesting and powerful personality, he just doesn't warrant a solo endeavor. Xavier, however, would be a great story. Now, combine the two and show how they intertwine and become friends while showing their individual experiences... I'd love to see it. I know, I know, whats so exciting about these two old men, right. Lets find out.
We all know how radically powerful these to characters are. Quite honestly, they are Gods in mortal form within the Marvel Universe. Xavier is commonly known as the most powerful mind on the planet while Magneto is the undisputed 'Master of Magnetism', so I'm sure I can spare us all the analysis of their powers. While many of you probably know that Magneto spent a portion of his youth in Auschwitz, you may not have known that many more events helped push him down his path. What do we know about Xavier in his youth? There is much there and to see him struggling with his sense of morality and application of his powers is a story in itself.
While Magneto, whose real name was Max Eisenhardt, was imprisoned in Auschwitz, he met a girl named Magda with whom he escaped during a riot in the death camp he was in. He had a daughter with her named Anya. One day, his daughter is killed in a fire while a mob prevents him from saving her. This is when his powers first manifest and he destroys much of the village. Magda then flee's from him after seeing what he's done, while Magneto himself is being hunted for what he did. This is when he receives the commonly known 'Erik Lehnsher' identity. He takes his new identity and heads to Israel, where he works in a Holocaust victims hospital and soon meets Charles Xavier...
With Xavier's beginnings, the story becomes much more interesting. Xavier's father died while he was very young and his mother married Kurt Marko, a colleague of his fathers. Charles powers manifested very early in his life and he struggled greatly to keep it secret. His stepbrother, Cain, knew what he was though, as Charles would often probe Cain's mind, which Cain could feel. This made Cain take every opportunity he could to physically beat Charles. Kurt Marko, however, would return those beatings to Cain while pampering Charles, which only made Cain angrier. Why was Kurt so nice to Charles? I'll tell you later. Charles eventually finds out, through application of his powers, that Kurt only married his mother for the money to continue his research. Not long after, Charles mother dies and he is left in Kurt's custody. The next fight between Cain and Charles causes Kurt lab equipment to explode and Kurt dies saving the two boys. This is where the traveling starts for Xavier. He attends several schools like Harvard and Oxford attaining carious degrees and doctorates. At Oxford, he meets a woman named Moira Kinross(later to be Moira MacTaggart) who becomes his college sweetheart. After he graduates Oxford he is drafted into the Army and sent to Korea. This is where Cain attains the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak. Charles also receives a 'Dear John' letter from Moira who has begun seeing a professor of hers... Depressed, Charles begins to travel the world after leaving the army, when he ends up in Cairo, Egypt. A young girl attempts to pickpocket him. He telepathy allows him to catch her and he realizes she is forced to steal by a man named Amahl Farruk, a local crime lord. When Xavier confronts the man, he meets the first 'Evil Mutant' in his life. The man is actually being possessed by a mutant named Shadow King. Xavier battle's him on the Astral plane and manages to win, banishing the mutant into the Astral plane and saving the very young Ororoe Munroe. This is also where he realizes his calling in life. Now, he makes his way to Israel where he meets Magneto and the two work together and become great friends.
Now that destiny has brought these two powers together, it can't be long before something goes wrong, right. Xavier uses his powers to bring a woman named Gabrielle Haller out of a catatonic state brought on by her experiences in the Holocaust. The 2 fall in love, and Charles, Gabrielle, and Erik are inseperable for a while. During this time, Xavier and Magneto engage in many debates of the possible existence of mutants, neither suspecting the other to be a mutant(Charles has by now developed a strict rule of never entering a mind without permission). Eventually, an old Nazi commander named Baron von Strucker comes for Gabrielle, as she knows the location of a Nazi gold cache. He takes all three of them, and upon finding the cache, Charles and Erik reveal who they are to each other for the first time. While Magneto is intent on killing the Nazi's, Charles stops him, and this is the climactic split between the two. Magneto takes the gold and leaves to pursue his vision of mutant freedom, while Charles leaves for his. When Charles leaves, he doesn't know that Gabrielle is pregnant with their son David... more popularly known as Legion. Xavier soon encounters an alien named Lucifer in Tibet, who Charles finds out is a scout for a larger invasion party. Charles foils his plans to be paralyzed by Lucifer in retribution. While Charles lay trapped with a shattered spine, his telepathic distress calls attract a young mutant named Tessa to help him. Tessa, who later becomes Sage, brings Xavier to a hospital where he is nursed back to health by another mutant named Amelia Voight. The two fall in Love and move back to America together to live in Xavier's family mansion.Amelia becomes disturbed by Charles mutant research, as she is a mutant, but calms down when she realizes he to is a mutant. He tells her of his goals for mutants and his plans to help them, but she is skeptical. She leaves Charles When he recruits his first official X-Man, Scott Summers.
When Magneto parted with Xavier, he to went to work finding and recruiting mutants to his cause. He found the mutant twins, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, not knowing they were his children. Additionally, the mutants Mortimer Toinbee and Jason Wyngarde joined his cause, known as Toad and Mastermind, forming the first Brotherhood of Mutants.
Maybe you've noticed a few situations I've alluded to but not explained fully. The research Kurt Marko was performing were remnants of the "Black Womb" project. A project in which 5 scientists worked to research the mutant genome. Who were the 5 scientists? Brian Xavier(Charles father of course), Kurt Marko, Jacob Shaw(father of Sebastian and Shinobi Shaw), Irene Adler(later known as the mutant Destiny), and Nathan Milsbury. Dr. Milsbury isn't who they all thought he was though. It was in fact, Mr. Sinister. He even introduced the mutant gene to Shaw's bloodline. Who was the Oxford professor that got between Charles and Moira? Sinister again. And just a bit of info, Sinister was doing research on human and mutant genes in Auschwitz, which, after the Nazi defeat, Sinister's journal was discovered by the future creator of the Weapon-X program. Sinister's grubby little paws are in everything aren't they.
In all, a movie adaptation of the combined origins would have a lot to say and offer us as comic fans. There are other parts of Xaviers past especially, such as the fact that Sage is actually one of the original X-Men, but Xavier thought her better suited as a spy and planted her in the Hellfire Club. She had been in that position since Cyclops moved into the mansion. The fact that Xavier knew about mutants like Nightcrawler and Colossus, but chose the one's he did for the original team because they were all American and their mutations weren't frightening to the public, which is what he wanted, to show mutants were nice people too, lol. And then there are the darker aspects of Xavier, but we can get into that later. I hope you enjoyed this enlightenment. Maybe a Magneto origin wouldn't sell, but I know I can get behind a Magneto/Xavier origin movie.
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TheMyth
4/12/2009
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