In Remember to Forget, we spotlight comic book stories that I wish we could just forget.

Reader freedyjay (and I'm sure other people, but he's the specific e-mail that inspired me to write this one) suggested that I spotlight "Dark Xavier" from the "X-Men & the Micronauts" mini-series by Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, Butch Guice and Bob Wiacek.

The basic plot of the series is that a mysterious being known as the Entity is causing trouble in the Microverse, the subatomic universe where the Micronauts live.

Here, he destroys a peaceful planet...

Eventually, things are so bad that even a bad guy like Baron Karza, the sworn enemy of the Micronauts, headed to Earth to save the Microverse. He seemed to think that killing Professor Charles Xavier is the way to do this. The New Mutants and X-Men naturally disagree...

Karza is defeated, but as he lost, he ends up switching bodies with Kitty Pryde...

So the X-Men decided to go into the Microverse to help stop the Entity.

Meanwhile, the Micronauts have also run afoul of the Entity and he defeated them and then brainwashed them into an evil version of the X-Men and had them fight the real X-Men who showed up to help (as they figured that the Micronauts would be happy to see them, as they had teamed up in the past)...

The X-Men were defeated. The Entity then began to seduce Kitty Pryde, not knowing that Karza was in control of her body. While the Entity made his move, however, Professor X attacked the entity on the psychic plane and that's where a very disturbing truth was revealed...

Yes, the Entity was merely the dark side of Professor X's personality run amok! The Entity then ended up defeating Xavier and taking control of his body. Watch out, nublie teenage girls!

And sure enough, as soon as the Entity is in control of Xavier's body, it totally pervs out on Dani Moonstar...

The X-Men and the Micronauts had freed themselves and were fighting their way back against the Entity, but in the end, the whole thing was resolved by Professor X reviving himself on the psychic plane and then basically defeating the Entity and getting his body back...

Everyone's WAY too cool about that resolution, right? "Oh yeah, the evil side of my personality is so strong that it split itself from me, killed a bunch of people and did some sort of weird stuff with my teenage students, but it's gone now, so it's all good. Just trust me, the guy whose evil personality just killed a bunch of people did some sort of weird stuff with my teenage students"

"Oh, of course, Professor, thanks so much for your sacrifice in stopping your own evil self!"

What a weird, weird story. And yes, it is not a surprise that it was almost completely ignored by later X-Men writers, including Chris Claremont himself, who co-wrote the thing!

Thanks to freedyjay for the suggestion! If anyone else has a suggestion for a future Remember to Forget, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!