WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Inferno #2
As the most iconic leader of Marvel Comics’ with groups like the Illuminati, Xavier has been pulling the strings of friends and allies for years. After all, since the Dawn of X, Charles and his longtime frenemy Magneto have been working behind the scenes with Moira MacTaggert to steer Krakoa into the future.
While the trio claim to have the nation’s best interests at heart, it’s clear that Charles has long since lost his genuine fatherly attachment to the peers he once called his students. Inferno #2 by Jonathan Hickman and Stefano Caselli triples down on Xavier’s manipulating behavior. And in the process, it highlights just how little he truly considers the agency of his Children of the Atom.
With Mystique’s resurrection of her precog wife, Destiny, threatening every plan Charles, Moira and Erik have made, the trio try desperately and fail not to allow her a seat on the Quiet Council. During a strategy session to discuss their next moves, the loyal Nightcrawler’s surprising of Destiny comes up with Charles saying, “We should have seen that Nightcrawler might the idea of his mother’s happiness,” as if he’d expected Kurt to blindly follow his old teacher out of faith without any thought to his own opinions. But Kurt isn’t the last X-Man Charles seeks to maneuver, and the issue ends with his own nominee – Colossus – being successfully elected to a seat on the Council. As Rasputin enters, Xavier remarks, “In him, we can trust,” and despite Piotr’s warm reception, Xavier’s history clearly shows that he trusts his student not to do the right thing, but to do what he is told.
Charles’ nomination of Colossus to the Quiet Council came solely from a desire for manipulation. Colossus may be a fan favorite, but he’s never been much of a leader within the X-Men. Meanwhile, after his death during the events of Avengers vs. X-Men by Jason Aaron, Matt Fraction, and more, Xavier left his seat on the Illuminati to Beast, who he clearly considers a competent and calculating mutant leader. It’s more than possible that he chose not to burden Hank with another position of power thanks to his work with X-Force, but it's far more likely that he chose not to reach out to his friend because he didn’t consider him to be as easily manipulated as Colossus himself.
Piotr Rasputin is far from the first student that Charles has used and discarded since the birth of the Krakoan nation. During the “X of Swords” crossover event, Xavier denied Cyclops and Jean Grey permission to rescue the Krakoan champions when the tournament went sideways – despite the fact that their son Cable was one such champion. Meanwhile, in the pages of X-Corp by Tini Howard and Alberto Foche, Xavier’s hardly treated Cyclops and Jean’s fellow founding X-Man Angel any better. Not only was he willing to sacrifice Scott and Jean’s child, but he’s placed his former student into yet another situation where he’s forced to rely on his monstrous Archangel persona at the risk of his own soul for the good of Krakoa.
With these calculating tendencies, Xavier is hardly what most would call a positive father figure. Unfortunately for Charles, Colossus is currently under his evil older brother’s thrall – making him far more manipulatable than even Charles knows. Despite his best intentions, Professor X’s machinations have once again placed the X-Men’s living dream in jeopardy. And with Marvel Comics’ Inferno heating up, it’s only a matter of time before it blows up in Charles Xavier’s face.
