Xavier's teaching – the Open Hand
Team Appearances: Marvel Graphic Novel #4, New Mutants (1st series) #1-3, Uncanny X-Men #167, New Mutants (1st series) #4, Marvel Team Up Annual #6, Firestar #1, New Mutants (1st series) #5-13, X-Men & Micronauts #1-4, New Mutants (1st series) #14-17, Firestar #2, New Mutants (1st series) #18-21, New Mutants Annual #1, New Mutants (1st series) #22-25, Rom Annual #3, Uncanny X-Men #190-191, Uncanny X-Men Annual #8, New Mutants (1st series) #26-29, Secret Wars II #1, New Mutants (1st series) #30-34, Secret Wars II #5, New Mutants Special Edition #1, Uncanny X-Men Annual #9, Uncanny X-Men #200
Before
- While celebrating an earlier victory aboard the royal cruiser of the Shi'ar, the X-Men were kidnapped by the alien Brood. As the insectoid aliens infected their victims with their own eggs, slowly transforming the hosts into Brood, Xavier believed his students to be dead. [Uncanny X-Men #161-166]
- Karma's uncle, General Coy, used her younger siblings to blackmail Karma into serving him. Aided by Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four Karma was able to free the children and was then recommended to Xavier's school by Mr. Fantastic. [Marvel Team-Up (1st series) #100]
- Colossus' younger sister, Illyana, was kidnapped by Belasco and taken to the nether-realm called Limbo. While the X-Men managed to rescue her, they had to discover that time moved differently in Limbo. Initially six years old, Illyana returned as a 13 year old teenager, having spent more than half of her life in Belasco's realm. [Uncanny X-Men #160]
- When the X-Men's Kitty Pryde befriended one of the local teenagers, Douglas Ramsey, Xavier told her that Douglas was a mutant as well. However, as Douglas had no active powers besides his obvious linguistic skills, Xavier didn't want to enroll him at the Institute. [Uncanny X-Men #180]
Chronology
Believing his students dead, Xavier feel into a deep depression and he had no intention to continue running his school, despite the fact that several young mutants were forwarded to him. Aside from Karma, they were Rahne Sinclair, a ward of his fellow scientist and former lover, Moira MacTaggert, and Danielle Moonstar, the granddaughter of a fellow war veteran. Although Xavier feared not being able to handle losing yet another set of students, he found that he had no choice but to help the newly emerged mutants when they were being hunted by the renegade Hellfire Club member Donald Pierce. Together with the three female mutants, Xavier was able to rescue Roberto DaCosta and Samuel Guthrie from the villain and his lackeys. [Marvel Graphic Novel #4]
At least partially, though, Xavier's decision to Xavier to re-open school was influenced by a Brood Queen embryo growing within him, as not only the X-Men had been infected, but their mentor as well. At times, the Brood embryo would take over at times, testing the children, who she considered perfect future Brood hosts. Fortunately, the reports on the X-Men’s death had been exaggerated and, when the X-Men returned from space, things came to a head as the Brood Queen hatched and Charles’ body fully transformed into that of an alien insectoid. His mind still being dominant, the X-Men saved their mentor by cloning his body with alien technology and transferring his mind into the new body. [New Mutants (1st series) #1-3, Uncanny X-Men #167] The teenage mutants continued to train in the use of their powers, making some good progress as they went on a few missions. During one occasion, Karma became separated from the rest of the team when the Viper blew up her own hideout. There being no trace of Karma afterwards, it seemed like she had drowned in the ocean right below the cliff side on which the building had been located. [New Mutants (1st series) #4-6]
To help the others deal with their grief, Xavier sent the New Mutants on a holiday trip to the Amazonian area along with Sunspot's mother, an archaeologist. There, they stumbled over Nova Roma, a long-lost colony of ancient Rome that was so remote and hidden that it had remained undetected for the past 20 centuries. Captured to serve as slaves, the mutants befriended Amara Aquilla, the daughter of one of the city's senators. They also attracted the unwanted attention of Selene Gallio, wife of another senator, who kept sacrificing young women to a pit of lava to restore her own youth a beauty with the drained life-energies. When she intended to do the same to Amara, the young woman discovered herself to be a mutant as well, using her new-found seismic abilities to drive Selene away. [New Mutants (1st series) #7-11] Receiving the codename Magma, Amara enrolled at Xavier's school, with her teammates helping her as much as possible to adjust to the cultural shock of being exposed to modern technology and civilization. [New Mutants (1st series) #12-13]
Magma was not the only new member, though. Over the past weeks, Colossus' sister Illyana had come to terms with her experiences in Limbo. Revealing that during the time in Belasco's realm she not only had manifested the mutant talent of teleportation through time and space (via Limbo's stepping disks) but also mastered some sorcerous skills. She soon adopted the alias of Magik when she was placed among the New Mutants. [New Mutants (1st series) #14] Right thereafter, Kitty Pryde was held hostage by Emma Frost, the Hellfire Club's White Queen. With the X-Men unavailable, the New Mutants staged a rescue mission on their own, finding themselves going up against the Hellions - the Hellfire Club's own training team for young mutants. The two teams were almost evenly matched, and in the end it was by sheer luck that the New Mutants accomplished what they came for. [New Mutants (1st series) #15-17]
Magik's abilities as a sorceress were the key to defeat a demonic bear that came to haunt her teammate, Dani Moonstar. Originally having devoured Dani's parents years ago, they were released from the bear's form when Magik struck it with her so-called Soulsword. Unfortunately, this happened only after the bear had severely injured Danielle and, without the aid of the Morlock Healer, she would have remained paralyzed for the rest of her life. [New Mutants (1st series) #18-20]
While she was still recovering, Xavier's school had one of its most unusual visitors ever. Attracted by the Shi'ar power generator underneath the mansion, a techno-organic alien by the name of Warlock had made his way to Earth and crash-landed on the Xavier estate, where he immediately began to drain the energies from his surroundings .With Xavier not at home and the New Mutants having no other means to make Warlock understand they were sentient beings not to be devoured by him, they brought in Douglas Ramsey. Even though he was so far unaware of his status as a mutant, Douglas used his linguistic skills to decipher Warlock's speech patterns and to communicate with him. It was then that the mutants learned that Warlock belonged to a hostile race where each child has to fight their father in a duel to the death. Lacking his people's hostile trait, Warlock rather fled than battle his father. Once Xavier returned, he allowed both Warlock and Douglas to join the team. [New Mutants (1st series) #21]
Shortly thereafter, the New Mutants had another alien encounter when they attended a concert of rock singer Lila Cheney. Being a mutant capable of long-distance teleportation, Lila had traveled all across the universe and earned herself a reputation as a thief. When some of Lila's enemies disturbed the concert, trying to kidnap the singer, the New Mutants became involved and found themselves transported to the other end of the galaxy along Lila. Apparently she had double-crossed by some of her business partners, but the New Mutants helped her to defeat the aliens coming after her. In return, Lila let go of her original plan to steal the entire planet Earth and sell all of humanity into slavery. At least, this decision might have partially been affected by her attraction to Cannonball, with whom she started a long-distance relationship. [New Mutants Annual #1]
Sometime after the team's safe return home, Wolfsbane and Sunspot began to act strangely. Both of them suffering spells of amnesia; Rahne would transform into a gorgeous, radiant beauty, whereas Roberto showed some extremely violent behavior. Several months previously, the two teenagers had been exposed to the same drug that had catalyzed the powers of Cloak and Dagger. [Marvel Team-Up Annual #6] Initially there having been no ill after-effects to that exposure, apparently the drug had slowly altered Rahne's and Roberto's body chemistry, so that Cloak and Dagger's powers of light and darkness was transferred to the two New Mutants. Actually happy to be free of that curse, the now powerless Cloak and Dagger volunteered to have the powers returned to them when they saw that Wolfsbane and Sunspot were even less successful in handling them, especially the dark hunger that comes along with Cloak's shadows. In a complicated procedure involving the powers of Xavier, Magik and Rogue of the X-Men, the symbiotic abilities were given back to their rightful wielders, returning Roberto and Rahne to their regular selves. [New Mutants (1st series) #22-25]
When Moira MacTaggert asked Xavier to come to Muir Island to help her with a patient, half of the team accompanied the professor. In the long run, this was a rather fortunate occurrence, for the problem case was Legion, Xavier' illegitimate son that he never knew of. The troubled teenager possessed even greater mental powers than the professor himself, manifesting themselves as telepathy, telekinesis and pyrokinesis. However, due to a childhood trauma, Legion was not only autistic but also suffered from a multiple personality disorder, with each persona wielding a different ability. The various personas fighting each other, Legion's powers grew out of control and he accidentally pulled the minds of all other residents of the island into his own psyche. Recently having been injured, Xavier was unable to deal with the situation all by himself. With Cypher translating what some of the personas were saying and Wolfsbane sensing who of them was trustworthy, Danielle Moonstar took charge of the situation and arranged a truce between the personas. At least temporarily at peace, Legion released all the minds trapped inside his own. [New Mutants (1st series) #26-28]
Meanwhile in Salem Center, some operatives of a mutant circus kidnapped Sunspot and Magma. They were blackmailed into performing in a gladiator arena in Los Angeles with the lives of some runaway children who would have been killed if they did not act to their captors’ wishes. Also, the two were drugged to weaken their resistance and to make them let loose with their powers. Cannonball and Magik were able to track them down, and with the help of Dazzler, Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers they tried to free their teammates. At several times, their rescue attempts were interrupted by the near omnipotent Beyonder, who had recently arrived on Earth and curiously studied humanity. When the mutant teenagers finally confronted the mastermind behind the mutant gladiators they were in for a surprise. Though now incredibly obese, they recognized her as none other than their former teammate Karma, whom they believed to have died months before. The heavyweight used the momentary distraction to make her escape, leaving especially Sunspot and Cannonball puzzled as to what had happened to their former teammate to cause such a change. [New Mutants (1st series) #29-31]
Once the others returned from Muir Island, the New Mutants made finding Karma their top priority. Learning that she spent the previous months building a criminal empire, they tracked her activities to Madripoor and Cairo, where the New Mutants ran into Storm. The X-Men's former leader had returned to her native Africa after losing her powers. Learning of the teenagers' problem, Storm immediately realized that it wasn't actually Karma they were encountering, but Ahmal Farouk, aka the Shadow King, who was possessing her body. That not only explained Karma's insatiable appetite but also her increased mental powers. However, this knowledge didn't do Storm much good as she ended up mentally enslaved by Farouk/Karma, just like most of the New Mutants. Only Magik and Warlock remained free, their minds being too alien to possess. The pair came up with a clever plan. Warlock shapeshifted into Magik and pretended to be wanting to join Karma's criminal organization as equal partners. Thus distracted, Farouk realized too late that the real Illyana was teleporting her friends to Limbo one by one, out of reach of Karma's possession power. When the team returned, they timed their attacks to constantly keep the villain off-balance, allowing him no time to concentrate. That gave Karma the necessary edge to force Farouk out of her mind and retreating back to the astral plane. Having regained her free will, though, Karma was disgusted by the hideous body she was now stuck in. [New Mutants (1st series) #32-34]
Before returning to Westchester, Storm took the New Mutants to a vacation to a Greek island named Kirinos. Without warning, they found suddenly transported to Asgard by the Enchantress, who had mixed them up with the X-Men. Actually, Loki had asked her to capture the X-Men, but he was than pleased to see the depowered Storm among his captives. When Magik tried to teleport her team to safety, her powers went haywire, and the New Mutants ended up scattered throughout Asgard and in different time zones. Karma ended up months in the past in an unforgiving desert. She was willing to die until she came across a little girl, begging her for protection from a monster and asking her to help her home (actually an illusion created by the Norns, whose Queen Karnilla wanted to cross Loki’s plans to use the mutants). Her protective instincts roused, Karma spent months crossing the desert with the girl, shedding her considerable girth in the process and regaining her backbone, until she was found by the other mutants. Meanwhile, Magma found herself with the fairy-folk, who gave her some poisoned food that magically transformed into a fairy herself. Still possessing her mutant power as well, she attacked the neighboring area inhabited by the dwarves, where Cannonball was staying. Sam managed to snap his friend out of her trance, though the changes to her body seemed permanent. She was now half her original size, along with huge pointed ears and eyebrows.
Meanwhile Mirage saved a flying horse from a trap and formed a bond with the animal, unaware that this would turn her into one of the fabled Valkyries, the Asgardian Chooser of the Slain. Elsewhere, Wolfsbane befriended an intelligent wolf prince and Sunspot founds himself in an Asgardian tavern, meeting the fabled Warriors Three, whereas Cypher would have spent the rest of his life in slavery if not for Warlock rescuing him in time. After reuniting, the New Mutants took the battle to the Enchantress who still held Magik prisoner. After being freed by her teammates, Magik banished the Enchantress to Limbo, taking her place as Asgard's sorceress supreme. Storm still being Loki's prisoner, the New Mutants summoned the X-Men for help and, together, the two teams thwarted his plan to transform the enthralled Storm into the new Asgardian Goddess of Thunder and as such rightful heir to the throne. Hela, the Death Goddess, became involved as well, but found herself outclassed when the mutants were aided by Danielle's new comrades in arms, the Valkyries. The X-Men and Loki reluctantly struck a deal: the Enchantress would be returned to Asgard and the heroes were sent back to Earth with all enchantments removed, all knowledge and gifts taken back, only Dani’s bond with her winged horse and as a result her status as a Valkyrie remaining. [New Mutants Special Edition #1, Uncanny X-Men Annual #9]
Afterwards
- Nearly dying from some massive injuries he received, Professor Xavier was transported to the Starjammers' ship, where his life could be saved with alien technology. However, with the ship's hyperdrive engine destroyed, there was no way the Starjammers could bring the professor back to Earth. [Uncanny X-Men #200-201] As such he remained with the group and his lover, Shi'ar princess Lilandra, for the following months.
- The Shadow King would soon find a new host in the catatonic Legion, and eventually began to influence Moira MacTaggert and the other residents of Muir Island. [Uncanny X-Men #254-258]