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I'd prefer Professor X to have the use of his legs, but it's a character reference point in a way: it's ironic that the most powerful telepath in the world is confined to a wheelchair and that if he had the use of his legs, I think he'd be used more as a character. Because he's in a wheelchair, he tends to get written off as a brain on wheels, which Morrison parallels with Martha, and as a bald gentleman with a cane, the visual tends to make me think of Lex Luthor. I think it's an image thing as well: as a mutant with a non-apparent power, Professor X may be looked on differently by the public because he's in a wheelchair. I also think he's probably wearing fishnet stockings and suspenders beneath that green blanket, a la Everett Scott in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Professor X with a cane is a great image, but artistically, the only Professor X for me is the Yul Brynner one in Fantastic Four, where he's literally flown in to stop Madrox. The sequence of him as he leans ever forward in his chair, concentrating to stop Madrox's multiple selves is a powerfully dramatic scene, which I don't think would have been the same had he just been leaning on a cane.
Character-wise, whether or not he's in a wheelchair doesn't matter: he's got the biggest, most powerful support group of anyone in a wheelchair that I know, money is no object to him and he has his own private jet - storywise, it's a useful, if overused plot device. The ongoing 'will he, won't he' over the use of his legs will remain ongoing, and IMO I don't see it as a revision of his character as such: just because he can't walk doesn't diminish his character any. |
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