The X-Men founder isn’t the man he thought he was, as Marvel reveals new comic book mysteries about Charles Xavier

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The X-Men haven’t even fully entered the MCU just yet, but Marvel is nonetheless rewriting X-canon to insert a brand new threat rooted to the heart of the franchise — and perhaps retconning the origins of the founder of the team, in the process.

Spoilers for Uncanny X-Men #8 follow. Do not read further unless you’re willing to get spoiled!

Uncanny X-Men #8, the final chapter of the four-part ‘Raid on Graymalkin’ crossover between Marvel’s X-Men and Uncanny X-Men titles, brings the storyline to a close while setting up a lot of mysteries to unfold in upcoming issues across the X-Men franchise as a whole. The issue sees Charles Xavier face-off against new mutant threat Philip Scurvy — only for the latter to reveal that he actually has more of a history with Xavier than the founder of the X-Men knew.

“I’m sorry, Charles. You are not the only one of your kind,” Scurvy telepathically communicates to Xavier. “There are five of us. We’re five of us. The boy, Harvey X, he was called. He died. If you live, you can ask Rogue about it. We call ourselves the Avians. And we wanted no part of your bloody wars.”

The mention of Harvey X — who debuted in the first issue of the current Uncanny X-Men series — is a significant one, because the character died in Uncanny X-Men #5 after providing a last-minute power boost to Rogue, so that she could save her team. However, Scurvy revealed that there was more to that than met the eye, as well. “Do you want to know what he died of, Charles? A tumor. On the brain stem. We all have it. So do you. You’re dying, Charles.”

Who are the Avians?

While Scurvy is the first one to name the Avians, we’ve seen at least three of the five before, as is pointed out. The most famous of the known Avians is Charles Xavier, who’s been a mainstay of the X-Men mythos since they debuted back in 1963. Curiously enough, in the previously established classification of mutant abilities, Xavier was rated as an Alpha-level mutant… which was the second most-powerful level of mutant powers. Finding out that Xavier is one of the newly-discovered Avians suggests that either he’s more powerful than anyone knew, or else that what separates the Avians from other mutants isn’t how powerful they are, but some other factor yet to be identified. 

(I assume that the fact that all five Avians have or had a brain tumor isn’t the sole connecting factor, given that presumably other mutants have had brain tumors in their lives.)

Scurvy, meanwhile, first appeared in 2024’s Free Comic Book Day 2024: Blood Hunt/X-Men one-shot; he’s a mutant working for the Graymalkin Prison and Dr. Corina Ellis, and a psychic who claimed in 2024’s X-Men #9 to be the one person capable of “keep[ing] the ‘world’s most powerful psychic locked down.” As is clear in Uncanny X-Men #8, he might have been a little bit too hasty in making that boast, but nonetheless: he almost took out two separate X-Men teams simultaneously, so he’s definitely someone to reckon with.

The third Avian that readers have met is Harvey X, who debuted in 2024’s Uncanny X-Men #1, and who died in the fifth issue of the series. A mutant child who desperately wanted to be one of the X-Men — “I can’t believe you’re here. You’re my favorites. I know everything about you,” he said, when meeting the team for the first time — he seemingly passed upon touching Rogue for the first time, utterly a portentous warning in the process. It turned out, issues later, that he’d sacrificed himself on purpose to save the X-Men from future events, and that his power set included not only the ability to see the future, but a healing power, as well. So… do all Avians have two power sets, or was Harvey special…?

But wait, that’s just three of the Avians, and Scurvy specifically mentioned five. Does that mean we’re going to meet others…? Keep reading.

When are we going to see other Avians meet the X-Men? 

As if the revelation that Xavier is not only part of a previously unknown sub-sect of mutantkind that has remained hidden until now — and a sub-sect that is all dying, for some unknown reason — wasn’t enough, the issue has one more surprise up its sleeve: “the last Avian” is being hidden at Graymalkin Prison behind locked doors under the name “Inmate X.” But… who is Inmate X? That one remains a mystery for now… at last until the next crossover, perhaps. (Yes, we’re unsure why this is the last Avian when there still seems to be one other unaccounted for, but let’s chalk that up to another mystery for now, shall we…?)

The next crossover, by the way, comes in March, when ‘Manhunt’ runs through eight different X-Men comics. The storyline of that one? Charles Xavier breaks out of Graymalkin. Huh. That certainly feels like it might be connected to all of this, doesn’t it…?

Uncanny X-Men #8 is in stores and available digitally now.

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