Let’s start with the creepy. Professor X is in love with Jean????? There’s hints about this over and over in the pages of X-Men and it’s yucky. But on to the good stuff:
Issue #3 introduces The Blob, a terrific Marvel villain.
He’s a carnival freak.
It also shows us how Professor X scans the planet for mutants, then sends his team out to get them…
No cerebro yet. X is doing it all under his own power.
Anyway, the X-Men go find Blob and offer him the chance to join their school. Blob declines membership because he says he’s better than all of them combined.
But afterwards, he’s afraid that now that he knows their secret Mansion location, they’ll come after him. He runs back to his circus, and it turns out, his circus is a criminal enterprise. (Why didn’t X know that?). And returns to fight the team again.
So, the team fights a gorilla, an elephant and a bunch of performers.
And it ends with X mind-numbing him. Professor X mindwipes Blob and the rest of the carnival, and sends them all on their way.
This is the second time Professor X has brainwashed an enemy.
It’s a deus ex machina that undermines the rest of the story. I can’t wait until he develops better ethics and stops doing this. It removes the stakes–he lets his students get beat up for a while but ultimately saves the day by doing what he could have done in the first place.
X continues to be a creep.
Between how gross he is about Jean and his brainwashing and general superior attitude, Professor X is…A jerk!
But the rest of the team kind of are too.
They’re kids, so they have an excuse for acting like bullies.
In re the “Charlie loves Jeannie” controversy- frankly, I would be worried about the Professor if he DIDN’T have a crush on Jeannie! Their “To Sir, With Love” age-difference notwithstanding, Jeannie is a ravishing young woman whom ANY man of ANY age could not be faulted for at least admiring her! Remember, this was “X-Men: Year One”, when poor Jeannie was the only game in town! Moira was off on Muir Isle, and was probably still smarting from her and Xavier’s failed relationship! Actually, by this period in time, she, chronologically, had to be married to Joe Mactaggert in order to have given birth to and half-raised their son, who had become ‘Proteus’ by the time of the Second Class. But I see nothing wrong with Charles Xavier having a crush on his beautiful young student, as long as he doesn’t stoop to inethicality by using his superior mental powers to “persuade” her to “cooperate”. ( of course, they say all’s fair in love and war ) The most interesting thing about the first three years’ worth of ‘X-Men’ comics is watching to see who Jean would eventually couple up with, Scott, Warren, ……or the Professor! Remember, Jean’s ( Marvel Girl’s ) dossier in 1975’s “FOOM” Magazine #10 ( the X-Men issue ) clearly stated that Jean had her choices narrowed down to precisely those three bachelors! Also remember- this was the early-mid Sixties, not the mid-Seventies, when Marvel and Chris Claremont were throwing us “liberated” women who didn’t need men for ANY damn thing! So, the expectation on Jean at the time was that she hook up with SOMEBODY- frankly, considering the available candidates- it seems to me that the most logical candidate from a standpoint of sheer intelligence would have been WARREN—- Warren checks all the boxes- he’s handsome, charming, comes from a filthy-rich family who could have provided her with INFINITE security, and even a measure of social class and power, and, oh, let’s NOT FORGET: He’s the ANGEL!!!!!! Sheesh!!! Now, obviously, Professor Charles Xavier is a man of power and wealth, as WELL, but- let’s face it- he’s a paraplegic! And a young girl has certain DRIVES!!! So- it seems to ME that, considering the Professor’s disability and his mature age, Jean should be planning on becoming Mrs. Warren Worthington!! Yeah!! But WHO does she eventually CHOOSE, between Bachelors Number One, Two, and Three???? Why, the one of the three who DOES NOT have any WEALTH!!!! Now, Scott’s a swell guy, and all, ( at least before he abandons his wife and newborn child in ‘X-Factor’#1 ) but he’s strictly a working-class, paycheck-to-paycheck kinda guy! Warren would have made her RICH!!!! But, some girls just don’t GO for that sort of thing, I guess….. anyway, the Professor’s disability is the whole reason why he needs X-Men to begin with! Had he his mobility, he could just go around solving the ills of the world all by himself, which is what he WAS doing, until he was crippled by the alien Lucifer! My feeling about him mind-wiping entire towns at one time, etc., is that, sometimes, desperate times call for desperate measures! Think where the X-Men would be today without Professor X’s ability to do this on occasion! They wouldn’t have survived the Sixties, or whatever it’s Marvel-Time equivalent is. Nope! Nossir! However, I don’t wish to see this aspect of Professor X’s ability to become a “deus ex machina”, as you say. That’s probably why Marvel tried to bump him off, in 1967. ( that never works ) Chris Claremont has often said, in interviews and elsewhere, that the best way is not how to USE the Professor, but how NOT to use the Professor! That’s why Claremont permanently ( apparently ) destroyed the Professor’s mental rapport with the X-Men, so that they could learn to develop and grow without the Professor constantly telepathically monitoring them. I guess that’s okay, but I don’t understand what has prevented the Professor from being able to slowly rebuild the rapport in all the years since it was first severed, especially with super telepaths Jean and Psylocke to help him! But that’s it- everybody deserves to be happy- even poor old crippled, mind-addled Charles Xavier!! X-Celsior!!!