In this series we spotlight comic book stories that are likely best left forgotten. Here is an archive of past installments.

I have another column called "If I Pass This Way Again," which is about plot points that were introduced once and then never addressed again. You would THINK that this one would qualify, but it does not. Today we look at the time that Professor Xavier was going to totally make a move on Jean Grey, except that he was her leader and he was in a wheelchair.

When Jean Grey was introduced in X-Men #1 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman), all of her teammates were total horndogs for her, but what's interesting is that it almost seems like Professor Xavier is spurring them on, by stressing how attractive their new teammate is...

They really laid it on thick. "Oh man, look at how hot she looks in our formless jumpsuit uniform!!"

Things take an extra turn for the disturbing, however, in X-Men #3 (by Lee, Kirby and Reinman), when the various teenagers are fighting over who gets to be paired up with Marvel Girl on a mission to discover new mutants.

Xavier then reveals a little secret...

Now, do note that it is unlikely that Lee and Kirby intended for Xavier to be quite as old as he has later been portrayed, as he was just prematurely bald. However, he's at LEAST 30 years old, and Jean Grey is sixteen, so no matter what, it's not good.

Lee dropped the idea and most X-Men writers felt that it was best just being ignored. However, thirty-plus years later, a comic book writer decided otherwise. Go to the next page to see how it was brought up again...

As I detailed in an old Comic Book Legends Revealed, Mark Waid thought it was interesting if Onslaught turned out to just be Professor X's repressed evil side. You know how we all have some thoughts at times that are inappropriate? Well, imagine if you had to power to actively repress those thoughts? But then what if those thoughts coalesced (because you were a powerful telepath) and took on a life of their own? That was basically Waid's view of what Onslaught would be. In the end, Onslaught instead turned out to be Xavier corrupted by the evil side of Magneto (which he picked up when he wiped Magneto's brain in X-Men #25).

Before that change was made, however, Waid wrote X-Men #53 (with art by Andy Kubert and Cam Smith), where we open with Jean Grey noting how often people's real thoughts don't match their actions...

And then she's accosted by Onslaught himself, who shows her the dark side of Charles Xavier...

I remember at the time being impressed by the gutsiness of the decision to revisit the X-Men #3 moment, but note that Mark Waid himself wasn't even sure if that was the right call at the time. I think it was probably best off just keeping it to an errant thought in an early issue, never to be discussed again.

And since Onslaught, it hasn't.

If you have a suggestion for another comic book plot that is probably best forgotten, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com or at my new CBR e-mail, brianc@cbr.com