The Hunt for Xavier

The Hunt For Xavier is a controversial X-Men storyline that ran in the fall of 1998. It is considered by many to be one of the worst X-Men storylines ever written and is considered by many to be a jump the shark moment for the X-Men franchise, which until that point had gone through a period of intense popularity.

Plot

The X-Men attempt to find the location of Professor Xavier, who has been missing ever since the authorities arrested him in the wake of the Onslaught disaster. Their quest for him leads them once again into the path of Cerebro, the mutant detecting device used by the X-Men which has now gained sentient life. This time, it has gained a new form, as opposed to mimicking Charles Xavier and creating a team of fake X-Men. Cerebro has begun kidnapping mutants left and right to "catalogue" them and has begun targeting members of the newly reformed Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who reveal to have Xavier as their prisoner/reluctant mentor.

The X-Men split in two as they are joined by the young mutant Nina, who was Xavier's fellow prisoner during his time in jail. As they find out the location of Cerebro's lair, Cerebro nonsensically changes his entire plan to not cataloging mutants but cataloging (IE digitalizing and storing) all humans on Earth, hence bringing about a perverted version of a mutant utopia for Xavier.

While the X-Men distract Cerebro and his drone units, Nina restores Xavier's mental powers (which were deactivated by Onslaught) and together, they force Cerebro to mindlink with all of humanity. Experiencing all the individual souls of humanity causes Cerebro to stop his evil scheme and literally fade away into oblivion. Xavier agrees to return home with the X-Men, reuniting the team with their mentor.

Controversies

"The Hunt For Xavier" was the start of a dark period for the X-Men franchise, as editors Mark Power and Bob Harras began taking an almost iron-clad control over the two core X-Men books, effectively writing the books themselves and forcing the actual writers to essentially write dialogue for the two's extensively detailed storyline outlines while at the same time, having to take full credit (or blame in this case) for Powers and Harras's storylines.

Joe Kelly and Steven T. Seagle refused to do this and were extremely furious that their plans for the series (which included the return of Phoenix) were being summarily rejected in favor of the storyline ideas of their editors. The two writers tried desperately to find some sort of compromise, but when they were told not only that they could not use Jean Grey but also would be forced to bring Gambit back (a character that Seagle and Kelly had no interest in writing), they saw the writing on the wall and resigned from the book at the time that the two writers reluctantly began work on the storyline.

The Hunt For Xavier was critically bashed by readers who disliked the uneven artwork from Adam Kubert and Chris Bachalo and nonsensical script, which included such nonsensical and contradictory elements such as Cerebro's motives changing mid-storyline. Many fans also were critical of the "new" Brotherhood of Evil Mutants; rather than portrayed as a group of villains capable of holding their own, the team was comprised of third and fourth string X-Men villains who were treated as jokes (even after Xavier was forced to train them). Most notably, the portrayal of Toad as being borderline mentally retarded angered many fans who remembered Toad's earlier portrayal as a charismatic and fully capable leader for the previous incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants early on in the 1990s.

Read Order

Part 1 – Uncanny X-Men #362

Part 2 – X-Men (2nd series) #82

Part 3 – Uncanny X-Men #363

Part 4 – X-Men (2nd series) #83

Part 5 – Uncanny X-Men #364

Part 6 – X-Men (2nd series) #84