Xavier: leaving Earth begins as a rescue

Xavier: leaving Earth begins as a rescue Xavier’s departure in Uncanny X-Men #200 is easy to flatten into “he went to space with Lilandra.” The circumstances are much more serious than that. He is gravely ill, and Lilandra’s link with him alerts her to the danger. She and Corsair go after him because the Starjammers have a chance of helping him. Getting Charles aboard is a rescue, with the crew taking risks while already in trouble themselves. It happens during a major change for the school. Magneto is being trusted with responsibilities that once would have seemed impossible to hand him. Charles leaving therefore affects more than his own whereabouts. The people who depended on him have to keep going without him. But the other side of that is worth keeping in view too. He cannot teach anyone if he dies. Needing help does not make his commitment to his students less real, and accepting that help does not erase the consequences of his absence. Once he is in space, the distance is more complicated than simply deciding to come home. Damaged equipment and hostile forces affect what the Starjammers can do. Their technology gives them possibilities Earth does not have, but it does not guarantee an easy journey whenever somebody wants one. There is something revealing about putting Xavier in that position. At the school, he is usually the person explaining what must be done. Here, his own situation depends on other people’s skill, resources and decisions. He becomes part of a group whose problems were already underway before he arrived. Charles can be a teacher and a telepath and still be a man who needs someone to come get him. This period makes all of those things part of the same story.