After the trauma of the Genosha attack and the deaths of 2 Marvel icons, X-Men lore has just taken a hard swerve into unchartered adult waters.
Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for X-Men ’97 episode 6
Marvel’s X-Men ’97 episode 6 saw the return of Professor X after his supposed “death” at the end of X-Men: The Animated Series and introduced a new addition to his mutant skillset. Continuing on from the devastation of X-Men ’97 episode 5’s ending, the latest chapter swerved away from the Genosha tragedy to reconnect with the former leader of the X-Men, as well as continuing Storm’s Life/Death storyline. Xavier’s in particular threw up a surprising reveal.
Charles Xavier has been missing from X-Men ’97 since the start, having been secretly taken to the Shi’ar Empire by alien empress Lilandra, with the world led to believe he was killed by anti-mutant advocate Henry Gyrich. It was inevitable that he would return, and the deaths of Magneto and Gambit in the Wild Sentinel attack on Genosha sped up his return to Earth after a vision of Gambit interrupted Xavier’s new cosmic life. But before that, X-Men ’97 peeled back the layers on a side of Xavier’s life that has never been seen on screen before.
Professor X Is… Sexually Active In X-Men ’97
Charles Xavier’s Return Reveals A Surprising Preference
In probably the most surprising reveal of the show so far, X-Men ’97 episode 6 confirms that Professor X has a sex life. And not only that, he seems to go in for the more counter-culture side of things. As Lilandra and her newly announced partner are paraded in front of the Shi’ar empire, Xavier is announced as her “royal consort”, prompting his amused reaction, which quickly swerves into NSFW territory, helped by Lilandra’s response:
Xavier: “Your man speaks as if I am your pet… not an entirely displeasing thought.”
Lilandra: “Hush now, beloved, you may bark later.”
Why Professor X’s Kink Makes Sense
Charles Xavier is a prototypical straight-laced leader, stoical and magnificent in his near-regal poise. He is, for the most part, a picture of devotion to his cause, rarely deviating from his professional commitment or the projected image of the X-Men’s father and leader. Such was that commitment that his romance with Lilandra in X-Men: The Animated Series was strained and a necessarily chaste affair, despite strong feelings. This was Saturday morning cartoon world, after all.
But now all bets are off. X-Men ’97 is for adults – the same kids who watched back in the 1990s and have now grown up and discovered all the things cartoons can’t really show. As a result, Charles Xavier is no longer chaste, and him assuming a submissive dynamic with the powerful female ruler of a distant empire actually fits very well with his image. This is Charles letting his hair down. Well, letting his bald down. His sexual preferences contradicting his outwardly projected image is clever, because it reflects not only the stereotypical image of high-powered men in sex-positive counter-cultures, but also the duality of identity so key to superhero stories.
That obviously doesn’t mean that there’s not something slightly disquieting about the image of Charles Xavier on a leash, but how the professor gets his kicks is mostly none of our business. It’s only because of X-Men ’97’s flagrantly… sensual personality that everyone now has to reconcile that image with the one of Professor X leading Marvel’s mutants into battle.
X-Men ’97 Is Really Pushing Its “Grown Up” Brand
We’re Not The Saturday Morning Cartoon Crowd Any More, Mes Amis
This isn’t even the first time sex has reared its head in X-Men ’97. Just as creator Beau DeMayo used the Genosha attack in episode 5 to reflect the collective loss of innocence after tragic cultural moments like 9/11 and the Pulse nightclub shooting, there is another loss of innocence happening here. While the MCU has made the majority of its characters completely sexless (bar a nod to Tony Stark’s pre-Iron Man bed-hopping, a misplaced Hulk/Black Widow zucchini joke, and She-Hulk’s frankly horny over-compensation), X-Men ’97 is happy to admit that the X-Men have sex.
In fact, look a little deeper, and there’s been sex all over the place. Logan’s pining for Jean Grey took a more physical turn than Wolverine could have expected, and the whole Cyclops/Jean Grey/Madelyne Pryor storyline has sex at its very heart. As DeMayo revealed on X.com, Jean’s trauma very much parallels the experiences of victims of sexual assault:
Don’t forget, Jean, who now faces the memory disassociation and identity crisis that many survivors of sexual assault face. Sinister’s “your mind, your body, you have no choice” was deliberate. His violation of, not saying when they’re switched, has turned her mind against itself.
These are adult themes, played out for adult viewers, and there is no reason the depiction of sex, its complications, its variations, and its traumatic underside shouldn’t be just as readily explored as the impact of mass trauma on those experiencing it. Even back in X-Men: The Animated Series, there wasn’t a full no-sex rule: the dearly departed Gambit was essentially a more acceptable iteration of Pepé Le Pew, and it was clear that in his past as a member of the Thieves Guild he got down.
And on the other side of his personal dynamic, Rogue’s entire story is effectively Susan Sarandon’s from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. “Toucha, toucha, toucha, touch me, I wanna feel dirty“, she implores Magneto, her reimagined “creature of the night”. The very fact that she almost threw away years of on-off romantic tension with Gambit simply because someone else came along who could touch her says a lot about the motivations here. And her final epiphany in episode 5 that “some things are deeper than skin.” Rogue’s revelation was that she should choose Gambit because he could give her more than… satisfaction, basically.
Rogue: “You light up everything you touch, but never me.”
Gambit: “Some things be deeper than skin, chere.”
Rogue’s reflection of that line when she ultimately turns Magneto down is her claiming ownership of her sexuality. In fact, the whole X-Men ’97 Rogue/Gambit/Magneto arc rings the entire arc of enforced celibacy that the comics kicked off full circle. She was always robbed of closeness, but X-Men ’97 has been more than willing to say the quiet part of that loud. And Rogue accepting Gambit as her soul mate despite their inability to connect on that level is only made more profound and affecting because of the conscious acknowledgement of the sexuel element.
If the MCU wants to explore X-Men in a way that the Fox live-action franchise failed to – by following X-Men ’97‘s lead and casting off the image of sexless superheroes, it will be better for it. The idea that young, athletic characters living in such close quarters and experiencing trauma and joy and basically everything together wouldn’t develop relationships that went beyond PG-13 levels is silly. Maybe it’s just time for all of X-Men to grow up.
