Top Five Month (check here to see an archive of all the top five lists ever featured) continues with a look at the founder of the X-Men who, for being such a good guy, seems to like to lie and deceive (all in the name of altruism, I suppose) constantly!

Here are his top five lies/deceptions...

Enjoy!

NOTE: Professor Xavier did not know actively know about the existence of Cassandra Nova until she introduced herself in New X-Men. Jean Grey entered his mind and discovered that Xavier had some vestigial memories of killing Nova in the womb, but obviously he would not remember that stuff. Just his parents perhaps letting him know that he had a twin sister who died in the womb. So he did not keep her existence a secret from anyone so she is not on this list.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Keeping Cerebro a secret...for some reason



This one is really weird because I don't really see what Xavier's point is here - why keep Cerebro a secret from the rest of the X-Men? Especially because he reveals the secret, like, five issues later!!! So odd.

Making the X-Men think he lost his powers just to see what they would do





Years before Kitty Pryde made it explicit, man, Professor X was a jerk sometimes. Like here, the endings of X-Men #4 and X-Men #5.

Letting Wolverine attempt to assassinate him because he knew he could break Wolverine's conditioning and then have him be a weapon for Xavier, instead.

So yeah, apparently, Wolverine and Xavier met before they "officially" met. Wolverine was brainwashed into killing Xavier, and Xavier stopped him and used his own mental powers to "turn" Wolverine. Why? Because Xavier figured he could use an assassin of his own.



Later in the issue, we see Xavier completing his own brainwashing so that Wolverine will later want to join the X-Men when Xavier approaches him in Giant-Size X-Men #1. Messed up, Charlie!!!





Keeping the Danger Room's sentience a secret

In Astonishing X-Men #7-12, the X-Men find themselves in a fight against the Danger Room itself. Honestly, while at the time I did not think it was a good idea by writer Joss Whedon, looking back at it nearly ten years later, I REALLY don't think this was a good idea. But anyhow, in Astonishing X-Men #12 we learn that Professor X knew about the Danger Room's sentience for some time now...





So compounding the original not-so-great idea of making the Danger Room sentient, Whedon double downed and also made Xavier seem, well, really jerky.

The only reason this one did not make the top five is that a few years later, in X-Men Legacy #223, Mike Carey did his best to redeem Xavier's actions...





I think Carey did a nice enough job that I am keeping this one off of the top five.

Go to the next page for the start of the top five!

5. Not letting Cyclops and Havok know that they had a brother



One of the lesser revelations of X-Men: Deadly Genesis was that Xavier knew that one of Moira MacTaggert's proto-X-Men was the brother of his own X-Men, Cyclops and Havok, and just chose not to tell them for whatever reason.

4. Being a member of the Illuminati



Pretty much everyone in the Illuminati was being deceitful to their people. Xavier, though, particularly stands out because the world hated and feared mutants and he didn't seem to use the powers of the Illuminati to really help out that much, did he? What was he DOING, then, as a member of the Illuminati? So he's part of this super-powerful hidden group and he never bothered to actually help out the mutant cause?

3. Faking his own death and not telling all but one of his students







I mean, I guess it makes sense, but it's still a pretty messed up lie just to get time to prepare. Perhaps just tell your students, "Hey, no one bother me for awhile please."

Go to the next page for the top two!

2. Wiping the memory of Cyclops of the team of X-Men who died between the original X-Men and the All-New, All-Different X-Men.







This is some really messed up stuff - wiping Cyclops' memories of seeing a replacement team of X-Men killed (including his own brother) and then going out and recruiting a NEW team of X-Men without letting them know that he already sent another team to save the original X-Men and that they had all been killed!!! What the hell, Xavier?!?

1. Saying that the X-Men weren't named after him



This one is tops because it is so blatant and really, if you can't tell the truth about something so simple like this, how can you EVER be trusted?

Can you think of other notable lies by Xavier? Any that you think should make the top five? Let me know!