One of the things that X-Men: First Class really got right was the way that James McAvoy’s Charles Xavier, while an idealist, was not exactly a Boy Scout. He could (and did) do a number of Machiavellian things in the film, which is good because at the end of the day, that’s really what Charles Xavier is all about—a guy who wants to do good and will do whatever it takes to achieve that good. Although, at times, it does seem like he is pleased to have the chance to deceive people.…
1 Brainwashing Wolverine into joining the X-Men. Recently it was discovered that Xavier and Wolverine met before Wolverine ever joined the X-Men. Wolverine had been brainwashed to kill Xavier, and Xavier lifted the elaborate brainwashing—but not without leaving in a suggestion of his own. Xavier planted the command in Wolverine to agree to join the X-Men should Xavier ever ask him to. Xavier figured he could use an assassin of his own, if need be. Of course, Wolverine became a valued member of the team, but initially, it was all about trickery.
2 Joining the Illuminati. The Illuminati were a group of some of the most powerful men on Earth (Mister Fantastic, Iron Man, Namor, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Professor Xavier), who would meet in secret to help keep an eye on the world. The very idea of an Illuminati cabal was, in and of itself, a betrayal, but it was particularly bad in Xavier’s case, as nothing ever seemed to happen to benefit mutantkind while he was involved with them.
3 Lying to yourself counts! An early X-Men idea that writer Stan Lee had that was quickly dropped was this bit from #3 where Professor Xavier reveals that he is pining away…for his student Jean Grey?!? Even better is the fact that when he thinks about why it couldn’t work out, he convinces himself that it is because he is the leader of the X-Men and he is in a wheelchair. Not, you know, that she is sixteen, you’re more than twice her age and her teacher! But no, it’s the wheelchair that makes it not a good idea.
4 Learning the Danger Room is sentient and still using it. Years ago, Xavier discovered that the Danger Room, the advanced computer that develops different holographic tests for the X-Men’s training, had become so advanced that it was sentient! And yet Xavier kept this fact to himself until the Danger Room ended up killing a student in its attempt to escape from the school, which it did as a new sentient being known as Danger. Nice job, Xavier.
5 Pretending to be dead. In X-Men #42, Professor X is seemingly killed. However, in X-Men #65, it is revealed that Xavier struck a deal with a shape-shifting former villain, Changeling: Xavier helped Changeling (who was dying of a rare, life-threatening disease) redeem his misspent life and Changeling in turn pretended to be Xavier while the real Xavier prepared for an upcoming alien invasion. Only Jean Grey knew he wasn’t really dead.
6 Tricking the X-Men into killing one another in their minds. In Uncanny X-Men #375, Wolverine has been replaced by a Skrull (a shape-shifting alien). Xavier is not sure if there are other Skrulls on the team, so he decides the only logical way to figure this out would be to enter all of the X-Men’s minds at once and trick them into thinking that they were in a fight to the death against one another. The reasoning: if they were fighting for their lives, they would not be able to guard their thoughts from him, so he could check to make sure they weren’t Skrulls. If he determined they weren’t, they would be “killed off” in the mental scenario. Eventually, he clears every one of the X-Men. If that sounds abhorrent, hey, this is how Charles Xavier does business. There are no ethics in Xavier’s world!
7 Keeping a whole separate team of murdered X-Men secret. X-Men Cyclops and Havok were brothers, but they actually had another brother they were never aware of because he was raised on an alien planet. This brother was eventually taken to Earth on a mission and escaped. He was found by Moira MacTaggert, a geneticist friend of Xavier’s, who took him on as a pupil. Xavier realized the connection between Cyclops and Havok and this boy, but he decided not to tell them about their long-lost brother…for no apparent reason, really. Bad move #1, Xavier, but it gets worse. Soon afterward, the original X-Men were captured by a powerful mutated island. Readers familiar with X-Men history will know that this is when Wolverine and the “All-New, All-Different” X-Men made their debut. These new X-Men were recruited by Xavier to rescue the original X-Men and then stuck around after they succeeded. What Xavier never told the new X-Men, though, was that their team was the second team he sent to rescue the original X-Men. The first team consisted of Cyclops’s brother (code-named Vulcan) and some other students of MacTaggert’s, and they were all brutally murdered by the island. Xavier just sent the next group in there, not letting them know that their predecessors were murdered doing exactly what they were trying to accomplish. Xavier decided it was best to keep this a secret for years (until a resurrected Vulcan showed up years later looking for revenge), and he never told Cyclops and Havok about their other brother.
8 Telling the X-Men he didn’t name the team after himself. Clearly the biggest deception of all, though, took place in X-Men #1 when Xavier is asked why the team is called the X-Men. “It’s because of the ‘extra power’ you all have! What’s that? My name’s Professor X and the team is called the X-Men? What a total coincidence!”