The Magic of Charles Xavier's Wheelchair

- by Ninja Ross, 23 April 2019

The X-Men's Charles Xavier is well known for his inability to walk, which is why he's nearly always depicted in a wheelchair (unless sleeping or when he walks around sometimes for various reasons). But they're very rarely standard, run of the mill looking wheelchairs.

Xavier has had some pretty sweet rides in his time, ranging from subtle, yet sleek models to high tech nonsense.

One that comes under all of those things is the one Patrick Stewart uses in Days of Future Past. It's minimalist. So lightweight, that it actually floats.

Technically, the floating contradicts the “wheel” part of wheelchair, but not if we look at the term wheelchair in a more metaphorical way. Regardless, a floating chair sounds pretty damn awesome.

But it looks like there's a pretty big downside to it, when you think about the knee pads he wears. Sure, it's cool to whoosh around on a flying chair, but his lack of seat belts clearly leads to him falling off after flying too fast or trying to do tricks to impress women.

In earlier movies, he stuck with the wheels. In fact, he even saw the advertising potential in them.

Not content with just having spokes with a playing card in them so it sounds like a motorbike when he goes fast enough, he had huge X's attached to them, just in case people weren't sure who he and his friends were.

But it looked cool all the same. He could have made the X's neon or put flames on them, but he kept it very plain, showing a little bit of restraint. Still no seatbelts, so no physical restraint.

But sometimes it's nice to see him in the classic sort of wheelchair, a chair that compliments his college professor look. A sexy leather number. And besides being pretty classy, it always looks incredibly comfortable. A trait somewhat wasted on him, really.

It has no seatbelts, so that's his own fault if he rolls down a steep hill until his chair is caught on a tree branch, but it's no use because he wasn't wearing a seat belt. Style over safety is how Chuck rolls.

But it's his slowest looking chair, which is its major downside, and it would also be a lot of effort to have to push the wheels. The little joystick on his arm rest is a much better solution, as long as the battery is charged.

But as cool as those are, they pale in comparison to the one where it looks like he's driving a yellow one-man hovercar.

He doesn't care about your doors. That thing can clearly smash through anything. You need to widen your door for his ridiculous tricked-out ride before he scratches your door frame.

And, even better, it's basically its own seat belt, with a leg shield.

It also looks roomy enough, so he can store things there when needed. Phone, laptop, clipboards, skittles, rubbish until he passes a bin somewhere, etc.

​One would assume that all of this takes a lot of time, money and effort. He needs to be conscious of how he looks, as well as functionality. He'd need to pay people to custom make these chairs, take the time to come up with the designs. But we're forgetting that old Professor Charles Francis Xavier is a psychic! A master of mental manipulation! Making it entirely possible that he never changes his wheelchair.

Perhaps he doesn't even bother cleaning and he's sitting in his own waste. Why would he bother with bathing if he can just convince people around him that he doesn't smell?

​For all we know, he's being pushed around on a skateboard by his own farts or riding on the back of a dwarf. Or, even more of a betrayal, he might have had a seat belt on all this time!

But regardless of whether he's being deceitful or not, it's good that he changes up his look sometimes. It reminds people he's in charge, so he gets the cool seat. I'm glad that he usually sticks with nice, sharp looking suits, though. There's no way a skin tight leather super suit is going to be easy for him to put on.


Have you got a favourite Xavier Wheelchair moment? A favourite style? Let us know in the comments below!

Tagged: Comics.

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