X-Men

The X-Men are a group created by Professor Charles Xavier as a response to the emergence of naturally occurring superhumans known as mutants among the baseline human society. Dedicated to promoting a dream of peaceful coexistence between mutants and humans, Xavier trained his X-Men in the use of their mutant powers at the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, forging them into defenders of a world that hates and fears them. Over the years, the heroes of mutantkind found their mission constantly endangered by both reactionary humans and fanatic mutants.

The result of a leap in natural evolution, mutants, or Homo superior, are born with superhuman abilities which generally manifest themselves at puberty. Often seen as a threat, mutants are often hated and feared by other humans. Spending most of his early adult years studying mutation at Oxford University, Professor Charles Xavier, who himself was secretly a mutant telepath, envisioned mutants and humans coexisting peacefully. During his time at Oxford, Xavier met the brilliant geneticist Moira Kinross. Moira revealed that she too was a mutant, with the ability to be reborn and reset her own personal timeline upon death. Having lived many lives, many of which had ended in mutantkind's destruction, Moira opened her mind to Xavier and showed him that thus far, mutantkind had always lost. The two would become close allies, as they sought to find a way to avert mutantkind's destruction.

Over the years, Xavier realized that other mutants had alternative plans for mutantkind's future. In Israel, he met a mutant named Magnus. Radically opposing to Xavier's dream, Magnus believed that a species war between mutants and humans for dominance of the Earth was inevitable, and that mutants must take their rightful place as the supreme species. Additionally, in Egypt, after an encounter with an unscrupulous mutant telepath known as the Shadow King, Xavier vowed to protect the world from the threat of evil mutants, endeavoring to foster peaceful coexistence between mutants and humans.

Ultimately, with Moira's support, Xavier decided to set up a school to secretly train mutants to protect a world that hates and fears their kind, dubbing them his X-Men. To accomplish his goal, Xavier transformed his father's estate into the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. In this "X-Mansion", he constructed the Danger Room to test and train mutants and developed Cerebro, a powerful mutant detector.

After years of preparation, Xavier decided it was the time to recruit the young mutants he had been keeping track of, as anti-mutant hysteria hit its peak. With reports about a young mutant accidentally endangering and then saving a crowd of people with an optic blast, Xavier traveled to Washington D.C., seeking out FBI agent Fred Duncan, who was assigned to investigate reports of mutants. Xavier convinced Duncan to allow him to enroll young mutants in his school and prepare them to battle evil mutants.

In the following days, Xavier, as Professor X, recruited Scott Summers, the young mutant from the news story. Rescued from the clutches of evil mutant Jack Winters, Summers became the first of the X-Men, codenamed Cyclops. Later on, Cyclops and Professor X saved young Bobby Drake, a mutant commanding extreme cold and moisture, from an angry lynch mob. Drake joined the group as Iceman. Xavier's next recruit was the winged Warren Worthington III, who had already embarked on a solo super hero career as the high-flying Angel. After a brief battle, Angel agreed to join the group. Their next recruit was the dexterous and intelligent Hank McCoy, who was rescued from a would-be conqueror, the Conquistador. McCoy joined Xavier under the codename Beast. Rounding out the group, Xavier had Jean Grey join them as Marvel Girl. Jean Grey had been mentored by Xavier since childhood, after her mental powers manifested.