Lord Xavier and Miss Jane Grey

A noble lord as well as a learned scholar of some renown, Lord Xavier's studies less famously included the mystic arts. A master wizard who wishes only peace for his own kind, he turned his manor into a safe haven for others like himself, and formed the Fellowship of the X. Unfortunately, a spinal injury from many years ago keeps him from regularly helping his Fellowship in the field, but a wheeled chair of his own design helps him move about.

Miss Grey is Lord Xavier’s serving girl, and secretly his apprentice witch. Although she may appear a novice now, Lord Xavier senses great potential within her, which may one day in fact surpass his own. She even keeps one of the most magical creatures on the Earth—a phoenix—as a familiar, though of course she tells people it is merely a tropical bird she and her lord acquired on their travels.

Professor X as the wise old wizard mentor was one of the first things that came to me for this project. And like all wise old wizard mentors, he has a beard and wears blue robes. I tried to make the robes believable as a scholarly nobleman’s dress, however, and made his beard short, straight, and dark since I knew I would want Magneto’s to later be long, curly, and white. I experimented a bit with the wheelchair, maybe making it more wheelbarrow or rickshaw-like. But in the end I figured: in canon, he often uses a hoverchair; so in between his money, brilliance and connections, his medieval version could have a regular wheelchair, even if it’s a few centuries ahead. It’s not even really that advanced a technology. I just made it old-timey looking.

Jean being the Professor’s apprentice (and serving girl to the public) was just logical. The phoenix familiar I was a little less certain about. It was too fun an idea not to use, but I’m not sure how much sense it really makes. The phoenix was difficult from a design standpoint as well, since there’s no 100% canon depiction in mythology, and I knew I wanted it to be flame-colored, and not literally on fire. Jean’s dress also gave me a bit of trouble. It wound up adequately evoking her old Marvel Girl outfit, and looks plain enough for a serving girl I suppose, but maybe too plain for a adventuring witch and lead heroine. Oh well, her hair came out nice.