Warning: Contains SPOILERS for X-Men #13 (2025) and the X-Manhunt event.

The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, birthplace of the X-Men , has long been thought to have become another victim of anti-mutant hysteria. Still, a version of the iconic academy exists in a form only a few can access. While Charles Xavier may have been locked underneath his old teaching grounds, now twisted into a mutant prison, the Xavier School has persisted as a place of solace for Charles to rest.

In X-Men #13 – written by Jed MacKay, with art by Netho Diaz – Cyclops’s X-Men have finally tracked down their old teacher, who has found temporary refuge at Storm Sanctuary.

As Psylocke, Magik, and Juggernaut face a cosmically powered Storm, Quinten Quire, aka Kid Omega, engages Xavier in a clash of Omega-level telepaths. Despite the severe gap in the psychics’ ages and experience, Quire keeps Xavier locked in a stalemate. However, as the last line in his defense, Charles conjures a psychic simulacrum of the old Xavier School, still intact and full of eager students, or at least a version of it.

Charles Xavier Conjurs A Psychic Copy Of His School, Highlighting Everything The Character Has Lost

X-Men #13 – Written By Jed MacKay; Art By Netho Diaz; Ink By Sean Parsons; Color By Fer Sifuentes-Sujo; Lettering by VC’s Clayton Cowles; Cover Art by Ryan Stegman & Marte Gracia

Since Krakoa’s destruction, it’s felt as if everything the X-Men once held sacred has long since been turned to ash or perverted beyond all recognition. Mutantkind’s nation is gone, Charles Xavier has taken a drastic moral turn for the worse, and the once-bastion for wayward mutants has been gutted and reformed into a prison. Despite all these changes, nearly all linked to the failures of the X-Men’s most prolific leader, a version of the Xavier School lives on in Charles’s mind. Free from destruction, trauma, and time, this mental construction is like a snippet from the X-Men’s most iconic era .

However, Xavier’s mind is sick and broken, leaving his version of the Xavier Institute a clever facade superimposed onto something far more sinister. When Quinten and Charles clash, Xavier unleashes a violent barrage of attacks upon his ex-student. While Kid Omega has certainly done some things to warrant harsh punishment, Charles pushes it over the line. Soon, a classroom of Xavier clones rabidly assaults Quinten before crucifying him on the iconic X that Wolverine was once mounted on. This version of the Xavier School may be as malformed as Charles’s mind, but it opens a new possibility for future X-Men .

This Heartbreaking Xavier Moment Reminds Readers The X-Men Franchise Could Desperately Use A New Academy

Young Mutants Need Guidance To Harness Their Powers

Since the fall of Krakoa, mutantkind, especially young mutants, have been deprived of prejudice-free educational systems and specialized institutions designed to help mutants control their powers. While factions like Rogue’s Louisiana X-Men or Kate Pryde’s team of young mutants continue to tepidly foster the Xavier School’s mission, these actions only help a small handful of young mutants. Xavier’s School offered something greater; it was a home for the wayward to discover themselves without the fear and judgment of others. But despite the supposed death of Xavier’s dream and the school in which that dream was first fostered, there is hope.

Sure, the lessons and experiences learned wouldn’t be physical, but it would give a chance to those who would otherwise never know the peace the Xavier School once offered.

Charles Xavier’s torturous acts aside, this mental manifestation of the Xavier School could prove to be an asset that mutants desperately need. Omega-level mutants like Charles and Quinten have the power to host hundreds, if not thousands, of minds within their own. These X-Men could easily link with mutants across the world and offer them a new psychic sanctuary in which a new Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters would arise. Sure, the lessons and experiences learned wouldn’t be physical, but it would give a chance to those who would otherwise never know the peace the Xavier's School once offered.

Marvel's Omega-Level Telepaths Could Create A New School Without Needing A Physical Location

Not the Same, But Better Than Nothing

Neither Xaiver’s dream nor his flagship institution need to die alongside his frail psyche. While Xavier’s psychic manifestation of the school is little more than a foundation to mock Kid Omega, it opens a pathway to something that could actually be beneficial for the X-Men . Something the team needs now more than ever is a centralized community. Mutants like Kamala Khan and her friends have vibrantly succeeded in this endeavor, but mutantkind as a whole is still left isolated and fractured. But a psychic manifestation of Xavier's School, the birthplace of heroes, could be the symbol the X-Men need.

While the fight for mutant freedom may be ongoing in the physical world, Charles Xavier, Kid Omega, or even Betsy Braddock have the power to grow this simple simulacrum into a full-blown psychic school. This could be the chance for Xavier to earn his salvation in the wake of the horrors he has caused and continues to inflict. This could be his chance to regain the faith of his former family while building the foundations for the next generation to succeed where he has so far failed his X-Men.

X-Men #13 is now available from Marvel Comics.