Jab’s Builds! (Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef! Sweetums! Gonzo!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
Doc chaos
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Re: Jab’s Builds (The Power Tools! Polaris! Pyro! Post!)

Post by Doc chaos »

I've always thought Post was supposed to be an aspect of Professor X. The testing and his appaerance. There was a panel where Onslaught was talking to Jean and showing her a whole bunch of doors. Onslaught says something about coming from one of these doors.
And then Heroes Reborn.
Jabroniville
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Professor Xavier

Post by Jabroniville »

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"LOOK into my EYES... I am NOT a giant dick... I have NOT engaged in countless evil acts in order to make myself look better... I am a GOOD PERSON..."

PROFESSOR X (Charles Xavier)
Created By:
Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
First Appearance: The X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963)
Role: The Mentor, Master Telepath, Surprisingly-Evil Good Guy
Group Affiliations: The X-Men, The Starjammers, Cadre X, The Illuminati, The Brotherhood of Mutants
PL 14 (246)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 2 AGILITY -2
FIGHTING 2 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 8 AWARENESS 5 PRESENCE 4

Skills:
Athletics 2 (+3)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+3)
Deception 8 (+12)
Expertise (The Arts) 2 (+10)
Expertise (Behavioral Sciences) 4 (+12)
Expertise (Mutant Leader) 10 (+18)
Expertise (History) 4 (+12)
Expertise (Science) 6 (+14)
Insight 10 (+15)
Investigation 2 (+7)
Perception 8 (+13)
Persuasion 6 (+10)
Technology 7 (+15)
Treatment 5 (+13)
Vehicles 5 (+5)

Advantages:
Assessment, Beginner's Luck, Benefit 5 (Wealth- Billionaire), Equipment 14 (Wheelchair- X-Mansion, Blackbird Jet), Fearless, Inspire, Languages (Various), Leadership, Trance, Ultimate Insight Skill, Ultimate Mutant Leader Skill, Well-Informed

Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Omega-Level Telepathy"
"Mind Shield" Enhanced Will Check 4 (Flaws: Limited to Mental Attacks) [2]

Mind-Reading 14 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Effortless, Cumulative, Sensory Link) Linked to Mental Communication 4 (Feats: Subtle, Rapid) (Extras: Area, Selective) (97) -- [111]
  • Dynamic AE: "Focused Mind Control" Mind Control 14 (Feats: Dynamic) (57)
  • Dynamic AE: "Group Mind Control" Mind Control 10 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2, Selective) (Flaws: Touch Range -2) (51)
  • Dynamic AE: "Mental Stun" Affliction 14 (Will; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Perception Range +2, Cumulative) (57)
  • Dynamic AE: "Astral Form" Remote Sensing 15 (Visuals & Hearing) (Feats: Dynamic, Dimensional) (Flaws: Physical Body is Defenseless) (32)
  • Dynamic AE: "Focused Mental Blast" Damage 14 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Perception Range +2, Will Save) (57)
  • Dynamic AE: "Mental Illusions" Illusion (All Senses) 10 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Selective) (Flaws: Resisted by Will) (50)
  • AE: "Area Mental Blast" Damage 10 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2, Selective, Will Save) (50)
  • AE: "Brainwashing" Affliction 14 (Will; Dazed/Compelled/Transformed Mentally) (Extras: Perception Range +2, Cumulative) (56)
"Mental Detection" Senses 7 (Mental Awareness- Ranged, Radius, Acute, Detect Mutants- Ranged & Radius) [7]

Offense:
Unarmed +3 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Mind-Reading +14 Perception (DC 24)
Mind Attacks +10-14 Perception (+10-14 Perception Affliction, DC 20-24)
Mental Blast +10-14 Perception (+10-14 Perception Damage, DC 25-29)
Initiative -2

Defenses:
Dodge +3 (DC 13), Parry +3 (DC 13), Toughness +2, Fortitude +5, Will +13 (+17 vs. Mental Attacks)

Complications:
Responsibility (The Dream)- Mutants and Humans must one day live together in trust and harmony. Charles' life is devoted to this purpose, however difficult the road might be.
Relationship (Various Women in his Life)- Jean Grey, Moira MacTaggart, Amelia Voght, Gabrielle Haller, Empress Lilandra, etc. Charles is pretty pimping for a bald guy in a chair. Though really, he only kind of crushed on Jean as a young student (which is still EWWWWWWWWWW). He was engaged to Moira, and fathered a child with Haller (the multi-personalitied lunatic Legion), and spent years off in the stars with Lilandra.
Guilt (Students' Deaths)- Xavier has buried many, many students over the years, and each one weighs heavily on his conscience.
Disabled (Wheelchair-Bound)- For most of his life in the public eye, Xavier is trapped in a wheelchair. This reduces his land speed to half of what is normal for a human being, and prevents him from covering certain kinds of terrain. If left without his chair, he will be unable to move other than by crawling.
Enemy (Magneto)- The two were once great friends and allies, but Magneto became more and more twisted by humanity's nature, and now the two are diametrically-opposed, unless Magneto has done a face turn.
Guilt (Moral Ambiguities)- Xavier has engaged in some nasty practices to ensure the survival of his team and his people.
Power Loss (Telepathy)- Moments of great anger, fear or other things can cause telepaths to lose or mishandle their powers temporarily, allowing the enemy to get the advantage. Charles was once nearly beaten to death by anti-mutant bigots because he was startled.

Total: Abilities: 40 / Skills: 80--40 / Advantages: 29 / Powers: 120 / Defenses: 17 (246)

The Dream:
-Professor Xavier is obviously one of the defining characters of the entire X-verse, being the heart of everything. A stern taskmaster in the '60s, he developed into his most well-rounded form under Chris Claremont, who used him leading the adult X-Men and pontificating philosophically more than actually helping out in fights to maximum potential. In the end, Chuck had fascinating relationships with Cyclops (his greatest student & accomplishment), Jean Grey (his most loved student), The Beast (a partner in science), Wolverine (a nasty rivalry turned respectful), Jubilee & Kitty (annoying young students who nonetheless loved him), Magneto (his best friend turned greatest rival), and more.

-The only problems any writers ever had with him was his great powers, which required CONSTANT work and careful monitoring. He was depowered frequently, even more than Banshee was. He vanished into space at least once. Various X-teams had to go on extended vacations all over the world just to avoid having Chuck be too involved with the stories. Nearly EVERY SINGLE ENEMY had to have some kind of device (sometiemes even on their henchmen!) that prevented them from simply being mentally taken over, ending the fight in two seconds. Ladies & gentlemen, this is why you should be careful in showcasing characters with supremely powerful abilities that are also not combat-related (ie. Wolverine or Hulk being super-powerful is OK most of the time, because they at least FIGHT; Professor X can end every fight without ANY action at all, which is much lamer).

-Another tricky thing is just HOW focused Charles is on his "Dream"- modern times have given MANY instances where Xavier himself has gone down a dark path to ensure the survival of his students and his people, many of which have split him from his students. Cyclops and the X-Men themselves turned their backs on him when it was revealed that he was essentially enslaving their sentient Danger Room to train his students, and was hiding the existence of the Third Summers Brother and a "mid-tier" X-team from the entire X-Men, and eventually Cyclops "fired" him as mutant leader and put himself in that position... only to take many OTHER extreme measures (such as a wetworks squad). It seems that you can't be the leader of a hated, feared, targetted group without getting your hands dirty

The History of Professor X:
-Typically NEVER called by his old "codename" of Professor X anymore, Charles used to be a bipedal, studious soldier, growing up with a timid mother and a brutal stepfather, whose corporal punishment turned the man's own son, Cain, into a brute as well. Eventually, Charles' mother dies, and the boys' father dies in an accident, leaving them both orphans. Charles, actually an early mutant, gained vast telepathic powers, and went on a bit of a world tour, which included helping his friend Erik help out victims of the Holocaust- a harsh lesson in the ultimate cost of fearmongering and hatred. Cain gained super-powers and became the Juggernaut, while Charles encountered the vicious Shadow King- the two engaged in a telepathic duel that left Amal Farouk dead (and later a psionic entity). This battle taught Charles of the danger of evil mutants, and he decided to form a team of students based around combating them. Eventually, "The Dream" formed- Xavier wished for a future in which mutants and normal humans lived together in trust and harmony, as opposed to mutants being eradicated (the dream of many humans around the world), or mutants dominating humans (the dream that afflicted his friend Erik, now called Magneto).

-Charles would actually have THREE relationships retconned into the festivities here- Moira MacTaggert (who left him while he was away during the Korean War for her abusive ex-boyfriend), Gabrielle Haller (an Israeli Jew who bore an unknowing Charles a son- the future Legion), and Amelia Voght (who would abandon Charles' "lost cause", and later join the Acolytes).

-It was in this form that we met Charles in the 1960s X-Men comic- a stern tastmaster who had to train his immature, underpowered students. Rendered bald by his own telepathic powers, and crippled by what would later be revealed to be the machinations of the alien Lucifer, the Professor couldn't be a true battlefield commander, which led to this being a different kind of team book. Charles, in the typical Stan & Jack tradition, was brilliant but flawed- he manipulated people for his own ends, hid his mutant status from others to better be an "advocate" for mutantkind while existing in the general public, pretended to be dead even to his own students (just so he could research some villains), and often mind-wiped people who learned too much about his team (like The Blob). Helpfully, though, he is independently wealthy (an INSANE amount of wealth, as he basically earns zero money but has a fantastic mansion and a bunch of high-tech jets), thus allowing the conveniences of "Superteam Travel" and a "Cool Base".

Claremont's X-Men:
-Professor X would recruit an "All-New, All-Different" team of mutants in Giant-Size X-Men #1, leading to a new team of young people, soon to be written by Chris Claremont. Here, the Professor was depicted as a moral, but very grim, man. Humorless and dour, he would often try to be strict with his charges, most of whom were adults with their own thoughts and opinions, and not dutiful students. Claremont, however, was unafraid to show some moral ambiguity. He would mindwipe Kitty Pryde's parents of the knowledge of her kidnapping by the White Queen, and his students being the X-Men. Around this time, he meets the big love of the Claremont Years- Lilandra of the Shi'ar Empire- their minds connect across the light years, and they fall in love at first meeting. She implores the X-Men to help her defeat her mad brother, Emperor D'Ken, and she takes him as a consort when she rules the Shi'ar herself. However, this leads to a lot of issues, as the existence of the genocidal Dark Phoenix leads her to sentence Charles' favorite student, Jean Grey, to death, and Jean commits suicide rather than let the Dark Phoenix take hold in the future.

-He would eventually train a NEW generation of students, too, in the New Mutants, which allowed Claremont to explore his stricter side. Now, Charles is more calm and rational, allowing Danielle Moonstar in particular a bit of rebellion (while worrying about how natural it comes to her), acknowledging that in the past he would have attempted to force compliance, and would have been wrong to do so. An incident with the Brood would result in his body being destroyed- a cloned body would be created by the Shi'ar, which would lead to a WALKING Xavier for the first time in the X-Books. Finally, he meets his adult son, David "Legion" Haller, and helps the New Mutants escape his powerful, schizophrenic mind. And... at this point, Claremont decides it's time for Charles to LEAVE the X-books. While reforming Magneto, Claremont decides that HE must take over the teams, as a dying Charles begs Magneto to carry on for him. Then, Empress Lilandra arrives to cart an injured Charles away to where Shi'ar science can cure him, and he chooses to stay with her on her homeworld.

Charles Returns:
-This leads to a VERY interesting stretch in the X-Books, as Magneto leads the team through the Mutant Massacre and a few other stories. Charles reunites with his students when they battle Warlock's father The Magus- a near-Cosmic Being that can destroy planets. Using some "Asspull Powers", he amps up their abilities and leads them to victory in New Mutants #50, a sadly forgotten book these days. But for the most part, Xavier is out of the books for a NUMBER of years. Finally, near the end of Claremont's run on the book, we get a helping of "Back To Basics Syndrome", as Xavier returns and gets crippled by the Shadow King, rendering him wheelchair-bound once more. But as this is Jim Lee drawing the art, Xavier gets this wicked-cool, super-silly giant Golden Space Chair, which is 100% how I remember Professor X as a child, so it's weird for me to see him just drop the clearly-superior chair for a common wheelchair in later books. In any case, Xavier had this thing for the ENTIRE 1990s!

-Professor X in the '90s was thus back in charge of the X-Men, but dealing with a much different set of teams, written by Scott Lobdell (boo!) & Fabian Nicieza (not bad). There are now TWO X-teams (they would never return to one again), the New Mutants have become the runaway outlaws "X-Force", and more. He is nearly killed by Stryfe (dressed as Cable), setting off The X-Cutioner's Song mega-crossover, and spends some time with Jubilee before she joins Generation-X.

Onslaught:
-The never-ending angst of an increasingly-dark period in comics history takes place when it's shown that Xavier's dark side, combined with the essence of Magneto (in a battle in which Charles controversially mind-wiped his former friend and left him a vegetable) has formed into the creature Onslaught. And Onslaught was so big that he led to a mega-event where most of Marvel's heroes DIED stopping him- the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and the Hulk all die to kill Onslaught, depowering Xavier once more, and making it look like the X-Men are HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE heels to the general public all over again. Charles is both guilt-ridden and weakened, but rejoins his team(s). But there's still never-ending angst, as both Moira MacTaggert & Colossus die in quick succession during the end of the "Legacy Virus" story.

Professor X is Outed as a Mutant. Also, as a Dick:
-It would be a shockingly long time before Xavier's identity as a mutant would be exposed- in the beginning of Grant Morrison's run on the X-Books, Xavier does a press conference where he reveals that he is a mutant telepath, and opens the school as a FORMAL School For Mutants, setting off a new era for the X-Men. However, this was while Cassandra Nova was disguised as him, because it turns out that Xavier had an EVIL TWIN in the womb- a psychotic telepath who now attempted to tear the X-Men apart. He would briefly start an "X-Corp" out of unused X-characters to explain what they were doing (overseeing "Mutant Stuff" all over the globe), but that went nowhere. The School stuck around for several years, at least, and was a terrific idea... but then various writers got "Kill Crazy" on a new generation of teen heroes (Teen Heroes bite it at a HUGE rate compared to adults- just look at the New Mutants & Teen Titans!), and never-ending angst-requirements resulted in dozens of dead kids and the school looking terrible.

-The whole "Xavier is Morally Ambiguous" thing would get ramped up again, with Joss Whedon doing an arc featuring the sentient Danger Room coming to life and nearly killing the X-Men. It's revealed that Xavier knew that Danger had become sentient, but that "my team needed to be trained" and he'd refused to free her from servitude and multiple attacks from his X-men. A disgusted band of X-Men abandon him, with some pretty pointed dialogue about the hypocracy of a Mutant Rights Advocate making "new life" suffer in this way ("Scott, it's not that simple" "You're the man who taught me that it was"). However, a LATER writer would go all "Oh no, it's not THAT BAD..." and say that Charles TRIED to free her, but didn't know how without erasing her mind.

-But, of course, things would get EVEN WORSE on that front, as it's then Retconned that Xavier had sent ANOTHER group of X-Men to free the original team from Krakoa, BEFORE the "All-New" team had been formed! The deaths of Cyclops' brother Vulcan and his teammates was so traumatizing that Xavier ERASED THE MEMORIES FROM EVERYONE'S MINDS, which led to a resurrected, pissed-off Vulcan wanting blood and being a Generic Space Crazy. Oh, and before they could recover from THAT little bit of betrayal, Charles is shown as one of "The Illuminati", the clandestine group of background leaders of the Marvel Universe, manipulating things for their own means and doing stuff like sending the Hulk into space.

-All of this basically left Charles REALLY broken as a character- though as a Wonderful Wizard once said, "There are previous few at ease with moral amguities, and so we act as though they don't EXIST". I mean, this was always a part of the character. In the '60s, he was mind-wiping people and faking his death. In the Claremont Years he'd do stuff like that to save his team, too. But the RELENTLESS dogpiling of "LOLZ he tortured Danger! LOLZ he sent a mid-tier bunch of rookies to their deaths and blocked the memories from everyone! LOLZ he kept this other super-powerful mutant's powers hidden!" in the span of literally only a few years (I swear it was about 6-7 years in which ALL of this was revealed)... Xavier was basically looking almost as evil as the murderous Magneto. And that REALLY wasn't a good look- it broke up a lot of his "Dream", and more. To the credit of some writers, this was treated as an IN-UNIVERSE thing, too, as Cyclops booted Xavier from being the "Mutant Leader", and took the role himself... aaaaaaaaaaand promptly became just as morally-ambiguous, to the point of eventually breaking off and going on the run. Because Comics... Are... WEIRD.

Xavier Dies:
-As you might expect, this breaking of the character had one possible solution- nothing like a good, old-fashioned temporary DEATH to make everyone forget all that crap, right? They teased it once when Bishop shot him (I actually heard he was dead for a while), but because this is comics, they like to tease a story before finally committing to it, and sure enough, Charles was slaughtered by a crazed, Phoenix-powered Cyclops at the culmination of A (vs) X, a battle-book between X-teams and Avengers. The funny thing was, there was a REALLY long-running attempt at reformation, with Charles revisiting past misdeeds and trying to make peace with his biggest challenges (Cain Marko, Wolverine, Cyclops & Emma Frost), gaining forgiveness from some of them... but it was in some side-book that nobody read, so it got ignored (THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD ONLY HAVE ONE CENTRAL BOOK PER TEAM, DAMMIT!!!). So like, all that work was completely pointless, because they just killed the character right away afterwards, and then Brian Michael Bendis wrote a bit where it turned out that Xavier was hiding some Uber-Mutant from all humanity, taking away his memories every few years or so, because his panic could destroy the world. Bendis COMPLETELY fell apart in this story, as he basically had to write his Time-Travelling Pet Character as the solution. Professor X's brain was used by the Red Skull to give himself telepathic powers, turning him into a Mega-Villain for a few years- most of Uncanny Avengers was spent trying to fix this, and ultimately they de-Psychiced the villain.

Xavier, All In All:
-As a whole, Xavier was a very good character for a large number of years, but just kind of... BROKE... under the weight of all these stories. I think because "your authority figure is WRONG!" is such a fun story to tell for writers, everyone got their shot it... which piled up into making Xavier seem almost as bad as Magneto, which should have never been a thing. Very rarely do you see a character bungled by so many repeated attempts at the exact same story- the kind of thing readers with long memories don't forget... or can otherwise just look up on Wikipedia. And, like I said, this was never anything NEW with Xavier, but you always got the sense that his actions, while often very sketchy, were justifiable, in that they were to protect his team or ensure the safety of others- like making Kitty's father forget something. But other characters IMMEDIATELY were like "Dude! The f*ck?" and we went a long while before seeing that again. Xavier eventually did this so many times, and in such big ways (it's still insane to me that ED BRUBAKER wrote the "Vulcan" one), that he was practically a manipulative super-villain by the end of it. A lot of these should have never seen print, ESPECIALLY the Vulcan one.

-That said, with him deceased, there's a good chance they can bring him back with a way to kind of diminish those past events, or at least wisely NEVER BRING THEM UP AGAIN, so that they kind of fade away into memory. And as it stands, Professor X HAS returned in a way- possessing the body of Fantomex and calling himself "X".

Xavier's Powers:
-The Professor isn't meant to be a PC by any means, as he's PATHETIC on the attack, is immobile without his chair, and is basically a super-genius guy with supreme mental powers who also owns all the X-Men's cool crap so they don't have to pay for it with their own points. He's a PL 14 (most of my builds don't go over +10 in Will Saves, so +14 Afflictions and the like are rather tough to beat unless you're in the Doom/Cap/Magneto master class on Willpower) with MASSIVE Mental prowess (Mental Blast, Telepathy, Mind Control, etc.), but he's a tremendous Glass Cannon who'd go down to nearly any attack (some civilians once beat him within an inch of his life by surprising him- he was even at full power). Few characters are more powerful mentally than he, but in actual combat, he's limited, especially if numbers are against him.

-At various times, he's been both depowered, and been allowed to walk again (a clone body that later got crippled on it's own by the Shadow King), but that's all in Complications now anyways. He has occasionally used a Shi'ar Hoverchair that gives Flight 1 (Flaws: Low Ceiling), for one more point of Equipment. But in any incarnation, Chuck is SUPER-expensive, as is only right- his powers are vast, his Mind-Reading is the best anywhere, and he can communicate over a vast range, in a huge Area.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:55 am, edited 2 times in total.
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drkrash
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Polaris! Pyro! Post! Professor Xavier!)

Post by drkrash »

X was a useless character, as he was unrecognizable as Charles Xavier in any meaningful way. And Fantomex is a stupid character too.

I'm just happy he went away before it got creepy and he bedded some X-Woman.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Polaris! Pyro! Post! Professor Xavier!)

Post by Shock »

I'm really not OK with the "all authority figures are bad" trend that's run through comics in the recent (10-15 years?) past. Between Marvel's Illuminati (pretty much all of them), DC's Guardians, Batman, the Justice League with the mind-wiping, they've all come up looking like assholes to some degree. I can't wait until this reverses itself and we can have leadership that can be looked up to again.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Polaris! Pyro! Post! Professor Xavier!)

Post by drkrash »

Shock wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 3:43 am I'm really not OK with the "all authority figures are bad" trend that's run through comics in the recent (10-15 years?) past. Between Marvel's Illuminati (pretty much all of them), DC's Guardians, Batman, the Justice League with the mind-wiping, they've all come up looking like assholes to some degree. I can't wait until this reverses itself and we can have leadership that can be looked up to again.
I agree with you but I seriously doubt we will ever go back to that again.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Polaris! Pyro! Post! Professor Xavier!)

Post by FuzzyBoots »

drkrash wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 3:49 am I agree with you but I seriously doubt we will ever go back to that again.
Eh, we got past Nixon turning out to be Number One, the leader of the Secret Empire. We'll get past this one.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Polaris! Pyro! Post! Professor Xavier!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Shock wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 3:43 am I'm really not OK with the "all authority figures are bad" trend that's run through comics in the recent (10-15 years?) past. Between Marvel's Illuminati (pretty much all of them), DC's Guardians, Batman, the Justice League with the mind-wiping, they've all come up looking like assholes to some degree. I can't wait until this reverses itself and we can have leadership that can be looked up to again.
Contrariness is endemic to Americans. I blame them :).
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Polaris! Pyro! Post! Professor Xavier!)

Post by drkrash »

You're not wrong, especially in pop culture.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Polaris! Pyro! Post! Professor Xavier!)

Post by Ares »

Yeah, I really hate what they turned Prof. X into, and is partially why I prefer adapted versions of the characters like the X-Men Films or X-Men: Evolution where he doesn't have the kind of baggage Marvel has done to him. Of the stupid things I would retcon out of Marvel (and I've got a list as long as my arm), Xavier's history would be one of them.

And I noticed a while back that Marvel and DC were both going on a "anti-mentor" kick. Dr. Fate's Nabu, the Green Lantern's Guardians of Oa, Captain Marvel's Wizard Shazam, Prof. X, Odin, Nick Fury, Tony Stark, Carol Danvers and even Captain America have all fallen from grace and respectability. Only with Carol they ignore the horrible stuff she's done because of the push they're giving her.

It's especially bad because writers will often retcon in new horrible stuff older characters have done to make them look bad, or re-interpret history to paint them in a bad light. Jane Thor remembers Odin as this guy who broke her and Thor up because he was a misogynist, forgetting that Odin was willing to make her a goddess to let her and Thor be safe together and that she broke up with Thor. Or how X-writers kept doing things like the Vulcan X-Men team or Cerebro is Sentient stuff that they retconned into Xavier's past. Or the multiple stuff with the Guardians of the Universe.

It's like at some point the idea that they might have their leadership and mentor roles through merit and actual qualifications became inconceivable to them. Thank God Obi-Wan Kenobi happened in the 70s/80s or he'd probably be revealed to be a pedophile at this point.
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Polaris! Pyro! Post! Professor Xavier!)

Post by Ares »

What's kind of hilarious is that they already had a perfect Asshole Xavier that they could have used to their hearts content: The Ultimates Xavier. The Ultimates version of Jean and Charles were completely unlikable assholes which . . . well, it's Warren Ellis, it's not that surprising. But still, words fail me on describing just how horrible those two came off. Like, I know there were villains in the Ultimates setting that did more legitimately horrible stuff, but these two were suppose to be heroes and they were just casually abusing their abilities constantly.

Spider-Man said it best the one time Jean Grey swapped Wolverine and Peter's minds because Logan had hit on her. When she undoes the switch, Peter immediately screams in pain due to injuries his body had sustained while Wolverine was in control of him, and just starts yelling at the X-Men. "This! This is why people hate and fear you! It's got nothing to do with you being mutants! It's because you're a bunch of A******S!"

And then when he angrily swings away, all Jean can say is that maybe they should send him some kind of apology card or something, while poor Colossus just goes, "Why am I an a******? I was just standing here."
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
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Re: Professor Xavier

Post by Ares »

Jabroniville wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 12:17 am Claremont, however, was unafraid to show some moral ambiguity. He would mindwipe Kitty Pryde's parents of the knowledge of her kidnapping by the White Queen, and his students being the X-Men.
Minor correction here, but that was actually Jean Grey that messed with Kitty's parents minds regarding the White Queen kidnapping. Cyclops comments on how Xavier was surprised by the parents reactions and Jean revealed she had done it. It was suppose to be a clear example of Jean losing her objectivity and morality with how her powers were suppose to be used.

I think a major problem with what Xavier became was that they made his psionics too powerful. Like, he could be the most powerful telepath on the planet, but all that meant was that he was the measuring stick for everyone else. Originally people with sufficiently focused and trained wills could resist his powers, and you often needed to be unconscious for him to alter your memories. It was later writers that got into stupid powerful feats where he could have apparently ended the entire Secret War on his own by shutting down everyone's minds, Galactus included.

Basically, much like how Silver Age writers made Superman so powerful he became boring, 90s and 2000s era writers made Charles so powerful that he became a chore to write.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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Ares
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Polaris! Pyro! Post! Professor Xavier!)

Post by Ares »

And last time, I promise, but I absolutely HATED Grant Morrison's run on the X-Men. The only good thing he did was make the mansion feel like an actual school, but pretty much everything else about it was just so God damned dumb. From getting rid of the costumes ("Finally, I felt so stupid wearing those things."), to Cassandra Nova ("My evil twin who I tried to strangle in the womb!"), to Magneto ("I'm an evil druggie Holocaust survivor acting like a Nazi! Irony!"), to Emma Frost ("I'm British now! And also diamond!"), to Cyclops ("We're also banging now! Because shut up!"), to Quentin Quire ("Even I don't know why people continue to write me!"), I just hated virtually everything about the book and hold both it and Final Crisis up as examples of how Hit-Or-Miss Morrison's writing can be.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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KorokoMystia
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Polaris! Pyro! Post! Professor Xavier!)

Post by KorokoMystia »

Ares wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 4:28 am It's like at some point the idea that they might have their leadership and mentor roles through merit and actual qualifications became inconceivable to them. Thank God Obi-Wan Kenobi happened in the 70s/80s or he'd probably be revealed to be a pedophile at this point.
It didn't stop them from ruining Luke Skywalker, though..but I won't go into that here.
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Ares
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Polaris! Pyro! Post! Professor Xavier!)

Post by Ares »

KorokoMystia wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 4:57 am
Ares wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 4:28 am It's like at some point the idea that they might have their leadership and mentor roles through merit and actual qualifications became inconceivable to them. Thank God Obi-Wan Kenobi happened in the 70s/80s or he'd probably be revealed to be a pedophile at this point.
It didn't stop them from ruining Luke Skywalker, though..but I won't go into that here.
I was going to bring Luke up as an example of what they do to mentors, but that's a dead horse I've already clubbed to powder with another dead horse.
"My heart is as light as a child's, a feeling I'd nearly forgotten. And by helping those in need, I will be able to keep that feeling alive."
- Captain Marvel SHAZAM! : Power of Hope (2000)

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Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds (Polaris! Pyro! Post! Professor Xavier!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Huh- Kreuzritter informed me that "Gay Pyro" was actually gonna be a thing way back in the day, too: https://www.cbr.com/x-men-villain-originally-gay/
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