Professor X’s Complete X-Men Family Tree

The founder of the X-Men and a purveyor of mutant liberty since the Silver Age of Comics, Charles Xavier/Professor X has a wealth of comic book lore surrounding him. Because of this, his family tree is as extensive as it is interesting, with the premier mutant hero having a variety of familial relationships, some of which are incredibly positive while others decidedly less so.

To untangle the roots of Professor X’s family tree, we’re diving into each member of Charles’ family and their relation to him. While it can be argued that the X-Men themselves are part of Professor X’s family, we will solely focus on those who are related to Xavier by blood or by marriage.

13 Charles Francis Xavier

Professor X

Born with an incredible mind and the mutant-born power of telepathy, Professor Charles Xavier traveled across the world to educate himself. He developed the ultimate goal of finding a way for humans and mutants to coexist in peace free from prejudice. After meeting friends like Moira MacTagget and Erik Lehnsherr and spending several years serving in the US Military, Professor Xavier conceptualized the idea of an all-mutant team of heroes that would fight for mutant rights while gaining the support of the public.

While he hoped to lead this team on the front lines, Professor Xavier was paralyzed from the waist down by a cosmically powerful alien named Lucifer (not to be confused with the biblical demon). However, ever determined to create this team, Professor Xavier transformed his family mansion into Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, giving mutant children the education they could not get anywhere else while acting as the headquarters for the X-Men. Professor Xavier has been reborn in the Krakoan era and now actively fights alongside his X-Men for the good of mutantkind.

12 Doctor Brian Xavier

The father of Professor X, Doctor Brian Xavier was a renowned physicist who made a name for himself in the field. Doctor Xavier found great wealth and success as a physicist, purchasing a mansion for his wife and unborn child. However, on the night of Charles’ birth, the family was attacked by the villain Omega Red, prompting Brian to fight alongside Wolverine to defend his family.

During World War II, he helped work on the Manhattan Project alongside J. Robert Oppenheimer to create the first nuclear bomb. Sadly, Brian Xavier was later killed during an accidental explosion at a nuclear research lab. However, his potential involvement with Project: Black Womb opened up some suspicions about his death.

11 Sharon Xavier-Marko

The mother of Charles Xavier, Sharon became pregnant with Charles and his twin sister Cassandra. However, the telepathic powers possessed by the two unborn babies nearly caused her death during her pregnancy. Despite this, she was still able to deliver Charles in a healthy condition, although Cassandra was presumed stillborn after the incident.

Sharon lived alongside Charles and her husband Brian until his death and she later remarried to Doctor Kurt Marko. However, unlike Brian, Doctor Marko proved to be an abused spouse, causing Sharon to fall into depression and alcoholism to cope before eventually dying. Charles’ memories of the tragic death of his mother became a fundamental part of his teaching philosophy to promote the values of goodwill and compassion to all his students.

10 Cassandra Nova Xavier

The malignant twin sister of Charles Xavier, Cassandra Nova was born as the evil antithesis of Charles as soon as she was conceived, with the two fetuses engaging in a telepathic battle to the death in their mother’s very womb. While Charles seemingly exorcised his evil twin, Cassandra Nova survived the encounter and spent decades in South America manipulating the artificial intelligence known as the Master Mold. She took control of the Sentinel robots and used them to destroy her brother’s dream of a world where mutants and humans could live in harmony.

Her Sentinel armada managed to destroy the mutant-populated island of Genosha. Thanks to the combined telepathic powers of Jean Grey and Emma Frost, Cassandra Nova was vanquished for a time. However, since her first master plan to foil Charles’ dream, she has returned on several occasions to destroy Charles and his X-Men, with no plan too warped for her as long as it leads to the death of her brother.

9 Doctor Kurt Marko

The abusive stepfather of Charles Xavier as well as the father of Cain Marko/Juggernaut, Doctor Kurt Marko was a colleague of Brian Xavier at the secretive Project: Black Womb. When Brian died, Doctor Marko used the opportunity to woo Sharon Xavier so that he could inherit the famed Xavier fortune, bringing his son Cain to live with the Xaviers in luxury.

Ever consumed by his work, Kurt became distant and often abusive of his new wife, as well as his son and stepson for many years. This was until a catastrophic lab accident, wherein Doctor Marko saved Charles and Cain from a chemical fire in a surprise show of selflessness. This resulted in Kurt’s death, leaving the two boys with nothing but one another and the looming fate of the Xavier fortune split between them.

8 Cain Marko

Juggernaut

The step-brother of Charles Xavier, the Juggernaut initially followed in the footsteps of Professor X’s other sibling in that he too took to villainy and made it his life’s work to destroy his brother and the X-Men. Ever since the death of his father, Cain Marko has had a major rivalry with Charles. He constantly tried to one-up him in academics or sports but always fell short thanks to his brother’s mutant telepathy.

While serving alongside Xavier in the US Army, Cain happened upon the mystical Crimson Gem of Cytorrak which granted him superhuman strength and invulnerability. He finally had enough power to best his brother. Juggernaut joined forces with the Brotherhood of Mutants to battle Professor X. However, after being trapped in Limbo only to be saved by Charles, Juggernaut decided to retire from his supervillain career and even started working alongside the X-Men for a time.

7 Charles and Marcia Graymalkin

Distant ancestors of the Xavier Family, Charles and Marcia Graymalkin were colonizers of America during the 1700s. They settled down in a rural farming community in New York on land that would one day hold the famed Xavier Mansion. The two eventually had a son named Jonas Graymalkin, who, unbeknownst to his parents, was a mutant.

Sometime before the American Revolution, Charles discovered his son had been engaged in a homosexual romance with another teenage boy. Overwhelmed with disgust, Charles beat his son to near death and buried him outside the farmstead. What became of Charles and Marcia afterward is unknown, but they inevitably passed away from old age at the very least.

6 Jonas Graymalkin

Graymalkin

After being beaten to near death and buried alive by his father in the 1700s, Jonas Graymalkin developed the mutant ability of Darkness Empowerment, wherein his strength, sight, agility and constitution dramatically increase when he is enveloped in darkness. This power kept him alive for over three hundred years while he was trapped underground. A Sentinel blew up a portion of the Xavier Mansion he was buried under, thereby freeing him.

Thanks to a DNA test conducted by the X-Men’s Beast, it was discovered that Jonas was a far-off ancestor of Professor X. This explained why he was buried in the same location where the Xavier Mansion was built. With little of his past life remaining, Jonas joined the recently established Young X-Men group, helping them fight for mutant rights and battle threats to the planet. While he never had any meaningful interactions with Professor X, Jonas became very close with several of his new teammates, including Anole, to whom he came out regarding his homosexuality.

5 Lilandra Neramani

Shi’ar Majestrix

A royal member of the alien Shi’ar Empire, Magestrix Neramani was once Professor X’s wife. They met when she arrived on Earth to seek the legendary telepath’s help in defeating her villainous brother, Emperor D’ken. Later on, in the aftermath of the legendary X-Men: Phoenix Saga storyline, Charles Xavier volunteered to become her consort and moved with her to the Shi’ar Throneworld after he came to believe that the X-Men had died.

Eventually, Charles Xavier did return to Earth and the two began a long-distance relationship for many years. Charles Xavier’s sister Cassandra Nova ruined their relationship by possessing Lilandra and forcing her to attempt to kill the X-Men during Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run. The fallout left Lilanda so psychologically scarred that she nearly killed Charles Xavier after she was led to believe Cassandra had possessed her brother. In the end, they could not reconcile the disastrous events that had unfolded and they separated.

4 Xandra Neramani-Xavier

Shi’ar Majestrix

After the death of Magestrix Neramani at the hands of Darkhawk during the War of Kings event and the temporary death of Professor X, the Shi’ar Empire used their DNA to create a child. She was named Xandra Neramani and was destined to become the new heir to the Shi’ar Throne. However, she was targeted by the Shi’ar mutant terrorist Deathbird, leading to the egg being placed in the care of X-Men members Rogue and Gambit.

Thanks to the efforts of the two X-Men –and the surprise intervention of Deadpool– Deathbird was defeated and Xandra’s egg was hatched. She used her paternal-born telepathic powers to gain enough of an understanding of the universe to immediately become the next Majestrix. She has continued to lead the Shi’ar Empire and has made many allies across the cosmos, including Black Panther’s Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda.

3 David Haller

Legion

Perhaps the most famous child of Charles Xavier, David Haller was born out of a love affair between a younger Professor X and Israeli Ambassador Gabrielle Haller a few years before the X-Men were created. Professor X was initially unaware of the conception of his son until his telepathic mutant abilities emerged and he caught the attention of the professor’s recently created New Mutants team.

David’s fractured mind created an unlimited number of alters who fought for control inside his mind, each with a different power. This earned him the name Legion and caused him years of anguish until he finally developed a way to control his mind and omega-level abilities. Legion has become a regular ally of the X-Men and X-Men adjacent teams. While he isn’t on the warmest terms with his absent father, he knows Professor X to be a good man, and that is enough for him.

2 Charles Xavier II

A decidedly more enigmatic child of Professor X compared to Legion and Xandra, Charles Xavier II is a character with very little activity in the main Marvel timeline. He was born from a dalliance between Professor X and the mutant shapechanger Mystique, who birthed Charles Xavier II in Cambridge after his father died in the climax of Avengers vs X-Men.

In canon, Charles Xavier II was given away to a –likely– British family and that was the last anyone ever heard of him. But in the alternate universe of Earth-13729 which is set 25 years into the future, Charles Xavier II came to learn the true identities of his parents. However, instead of following his father’s footsteps, Charles Xavier II decided to join forces with his supervillain half-brother Raze and formed a New Brotherhood of Mutants to usurp the purpose of the X-Men. Ultimately, this plan was foiled and he was arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D Agents.

1 X

Thanosi

One of the many Thanosi clones made by merging the DNA of the mad titan, Thanos, with the DNA of Earth’s greatest heroes, the clone known as X was created by combining Thanos and Professor X’s DNA. X, alongside the other Thanosi, were initially deemed failed experiments by Thanos until they concocted a scheme of their own. They planned to use the cosmic hero Adam Warlock, to put an end to the universe by having the hero become the successor of the supreme cosmic being, Atlez.

Their schemes alerted several other heroes, including Doctor Strange, Moondragon, Gamora and Spider-Man, who allied together to stop X and his Thanosi brothers from fulfilling their cosmic plans. Fortunately, thanks to an illusion cast by Moondragon, X was led to believe he succeeded in destroying the universe, leading him to deconstruct himself as he had completed his purpose in life. In his final moments, the mad clone of Professor X never discovered the truth about the universe, and he died in fulfillment.