PROTEUS
Earth-1610
Real Name: David Xavier
Identity/Class: Alternate
reality
(Earth-1610) human mutant
(Scottish)
Occupation: Patient
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Pietro Lehnsherr, Wanda
Lehnsherr;
formerly Dr.
Moira
MacTaggert, Prof. Charles Xavier
Enemies: Isobel MacLinden,
Dr. Moira MacTaggert, S.T.R.I.K.E. (Betsy Braddock, Inspector Dai
Thomas, others), the X-Men
(Beast/Henry McCoy, Colossus/Piotr Rasputin, Cyclops/Scott Summers,
Iceman/Bobby Drake, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Professor X/Charles Xavier,
Storm/Ororo Munroe,
Wolverine/Logan)
Known Relatives: Charles Xavier (father),
Moira MacTaggert (mother)
Aliases: "Chum," "Dirt-Bag," "Dog-Breath"
(insults from foes);
possessed Betsy Braddock, Isobel MacLinden,
Wolverine (Logan), others
Base of Operations: Muir Island, Scotland
First Appearance: (mentioned & seen only
as David in the bodies of a professor & a police sergeant) Ultimate
X-Men I#16 (May, 2002);
(fully seen as Proteus) Ultimate X-Men I#17 (June,
2002)
Powers/Abilities:
Proteus was a mutant with the ability to manipulate reality within a
small vicinity around himself but the act of even slightly using his
powers severely damaged his physical body.
Proteus had the ability to transfer his mind into the
bodies of others, overriding the host's mental control of their own
body with his own. When in the body of a superhuman host, Proteus
gained access to the host's inherent superhuman abilities and could
utilize them at will.
He also possessed some degree of
telepathy, allowing him to sense the fears of opponents and generate
illusions reflective of those fears.
Proteus was capable of
manipulating reality to an unrevealed degree and was seen using this
ability to fly, leap great distances, generate force fields, teleport
and even reshape solid
objects within his vicinity. However, the more he used his powers, the
faster he burned out his host body from the inside, though he had begun
to learn how to slow this degradation.
Height: Variable
Weight: Variable
Eyes: Green
Hair: None; formerly blonde
History:
(Ultimate X-Men I#16 (fb) - BTS/Official Handbook of the Ultimate
Marvel Universe: The Ultimates & X-Men 2005 - Proteus entry - BTS)
- David Xavier was born to Professor Charles Xavier and Dr. Moira
MacTaggert in Scotland, a citizen of the United Kingdom.
(Ultimate X-Men I#17 (fb) - BTS) - During his marriage to Moira, Prof. Xavier showed little interest in his son, David. Despite his parents knowing that he carried the X-gene as a mutant, David grew up a typical boy of average size and intellect, and was an avid Glasgow Rangers fan.
(Official Handbook of the Ultimate Marvel Universe:
The Ultimates & X-Men 2005 - Proteus entry - BTS) - As he grew,
David harbored feelings that his father did not love him.
(Ultimate X-Men I#19 (fb) - BTS) - Charles Xavier
would occasionally take David to museums and art galleries during
David's summer breaks but David often found them to be boring.
(Ultimate X-Men I#18 (fb)) -
Whenever Prof. Xavier's friend Erik Lehnsherr would visit, David felt
alienated by Erik's twin children, Pietro and Wanda. Circa 1995 (see
comments), Prof. Xavier, Dr.
MacTaggert and David all took a family holiday to Germany to watch the
Glasgow Rangers battle Borrusia Dortmund in the European Cup.
(Ultimate X-Men I#19 (fb) - BTS) - During the Rangers/Dortmund game, Charles Xavier spent the entire game with his eyes closed telepathically talking with Erik Lehnsherr, leading a crying David to exclaim that he would never talk to his father again.
(Official Handbook of the Ultimate Marvel Universe: The Ultimates & X-Men 2005 - Proteus entry - BTS) - David Xavier attended high school.
(Ultimate X-Men I#18 (fb)) - As time passed, Prof.
Xavier grew bored with married life and more uneasy around David, whom
he loved but occasionally moreso as one would a pet than a son. He
ultimately left his family to start a South Sea island utopia alongside
Erik Lehnsherr without even saying goodbye to the thirteen-year-old
David, who watched him leave the house towards a limousine.
(Ultimate X-Men I#26 (fb)) -
David continued watching from his window as Charles Xavier met with
Erik Lehnsherr outside the limousine. When Erik Lehnsherr asked how
David took his leaving, Charles remarked that David was interested in
football, video games and USA professional wrestling, questioning what
David would really miss about him.
(Official Handbook of the Ultimate Marvel Universe:
The Ultimates & X-Men 2005 - Proteus entry - BTS) - David did miss
his father.
(Ultimate X-Men I#17 (fb) - BTS) - The day after
Charles Xavier left David and Dr. MacTaggert, David's mutant powers
began manifesting.
(Ultimate X-Men I#16 (fb) - BTS) - David Xavier became very sick.
(Ultimate X-Men I#17 (fb)) - Dr. MacTaggert
determined that David's sickness was
the manifestation of his mutant ability to reshape matter within a
small
vicinity surrounding himself but quickly learned that even slightly
using his powers had a devastating effect on David's physical body. Dr.
MacTaggert became worried for her son's life.
(Ultimate X-Men I#16 (fb) - BTS) - Davis was sent to
his mother's Muir Island facility, a haven for runaway mutants.
(Official Handbook of the Ultimate Marvel Universe:
The Ultimates & X-Men 2005 - Proteus entry - BTS) - David's high
school education was left unfinished following the emergence of his
mutant powers.
(Ultimate X-Men I#17 (fb)) -
Dr. MacTaggert and the
Muir Island staff kept David sedated on Haloperidol, locking him in a
lab in order to keep a constant watch on him. He remained locked up at
Muir Island for years. After founding his school for mutants in New
York and creating the X-Men team, Prof. Xavier never told his New York
students about his son.
(Ultimate X-Men I#18 (fb) - BTS) - Prof. Xavier kept
in regular touch with Dr. MacTaggert because he knew she was the best
geneticist in the business and because he wanted to make sure his
troubled son David had a comfortable home, feeling guilty for not being
there when David needed him the most.
(Ultimate X-Men I #17 (fb)) - Years after first
manifesting his powers, the
now nineteen-year-old David began convulsing and Dr. MacTaggert
suspected it to be more than a coincidence that Prof. Xavier and his
X-Men happened to be in Britain at the same time. Recognizing David's
convulsions as his death throws, Dr. MacTaggert allowed the Muir Island
staff to operate on David in an effort to save his life but David
transferred his mind into the body of Isobel MacLinden.
(Ultimate X-Men I#16 (fb) -
BTS) - David then escaped
Muir Island, killing half of the staff in the process, and ventured out
into the world.
(Ultimate X-Men I#16) - Dr.
MacTaggert sent police to
search for the missing David and after David attacked a ship's crew,
police tracked him to the ship but at first found only the empty skin
of the crew. When one of the officers suggested they report back to Dr.
MacTaggert that there was no sign of her son, David, in the body of a
professor onboard the ship, revealed his presence in the corner. The
police were quickly told to shield their eyes to prevent David entering
their bodies and the police sergeant pointed a gun at David and tried
to reason with the boy, noting that he wouldn't last more than
twenty-four hours outside of Muir Island. Remarking that it would be
twenty-four hours longer than the officers would survive, David
transferred his mind into the body of the sergeant and shot the other
officers dead. He then leaped from the ship to a nearby beach, where he
checked the sergeant's wallet and found money that he hoped to use at
Burger King. Days later, after being placed under house arrest by
S.T.R.I.K.E., Dr. Moira MacTaggert phoned Charles Xavier to inform him
that David had escaped Muir Island.
(Ultimate X-Men I#17) - Prof.
Xavier and his X-Men
students soon arrived at Muir Island, where Xavier performed a psychic
search for David as Dr. MacTaggert groaned that Charles was showing
more concern for David than he ever had during their marriage. Dr.
MacTaggert further expressed expectations that Charles would throw the
fact that she lost David in her face as soon as he arrived. As the
X-Men wheeled Prof. Xavier into the Muir Island facility, Dr.
MacTaggert related the story of David and his mutant powers to the
group and when she became emotional, S.T.R.I.K.E. agents Dai Thomas and
Betsy Braddock interrupted to reveal that David had managed to transfer
his mind into three other host bodies since escaping Muir Island. Betsy
then informed Dr. MacTaggert and the X-Men that they had used Cerebro
to track David to the Grampian region, at which point Prof. Xavier
emerged from his psychic search for David and announced that he was on
foot in the Aberdeen region. He and the X-Men immediately rushed to
David's location and they found him in a Burger King attempting to
order a combo meal. Prof. Xavier telepathically attempted to subdue
David but when Wolverine approached David, he attacked, using his
powers to manipulate the asphalt outside into launching Prof. Xavier's
wheelchair into the air. Prof. Xavier was knocked to the ground and
David revealed that he laughed at the notion of hurting people. David
then killed everyone within the Burger King, prompting Wolverine to
slash the boy.
Unfazed,
David transferred his
mind into Wolverine's body and flew into the air, announcing that he
had found the perfect host in Wolverine, who could heal his body as
fast as David burned it out. Assuming temporary leadership of the X-Men
with Prof. Xavier and Wolverine incapacitated, Beast led an attack
against David but David generated illusions of Beast's worst fears,
prompting Iceman to encase David in ice. David easily clawed his way
free and similarly subjected Iceman to his worst fears as well until he
was hit by a lightning bolt from Storm. Betsy Braddock followed suit by
detonating a psychic grenade within David's mind, dropping him to his
knees. Before he could be recaptured, however, David fled, carelessly
running
Wolverine into the path of an oncoming semi truck but transferring his
mind into the truck driver seconds before the truck hit Wolverine. He
then drove the truck off the side of a bridge, creating a traffic
nightmare to mask his further escape from the X-Men and S.T.R.I.K.E.
When Wolverine's healing factor repaired his body enough to speak,
Wolverine informed Prof. Xavier that David wished Charles dead.
(Ultimate X-Men I#18 (fb) - BTS) - During the ensuing
chaos involving the truck, David Xavier secretly transferred his mind
into the body of S.T.R.I.K.E. agent Betsy Braddock and he began acting
like Betsy in an effort to get close enough to Charles Xavier to exact
his revenge on his father.
(Ultimate X-Men I#18) - The X-Men and Dr. Moira MacTaggert were in Berlin searching for David and when some of the X-Men referred as David as being crazy, Dr. MacTaggert reminded them that David was her son and that he suffered from a degenerative medical condition. The X-Men continued discussing David and how S.T.R.I.K.E. had sent their agents Dai Thomas and Betsy Braddock to assist against David until the conversation was suddenly interrupted when Dr. MacTaggert realized they had all been lured to Germany by David because Germany was the location of the last family holiday of the Xavier family. Prof. Xavier, on the other hand, had become friendly with Betsy Braddock, at first unaware that Betsy's body housed David's mind. At some point, David killed Betsy's S.T.R.I.K.E. agent partner, Inspector Dai Thomas. Later that evening, during a dinner with "Betsy" in which Charles Xavier shared a lot of his history with Dr. Moira MacTaggert and David, Prof. Xavier realized David was in Betsy's body when "Betsy" admired the waitress' behind and ordered extra ketchup on her fries. Initially keeping his discovery a secret, Charles eventually revealed his knowledge to David when "Betsy" began asking about how Charles felt about Colossus returning to the X-Men. The two then calmly discussed when David had transferred his mind into Betsy's body, how "Betsy" had not arranged any backup against him and how David planned to kill Charles after he finished eating a package of M&Ms candies. David then announced his plans to kill his father and the X-Men and Charles responded that he would find a way to stop David despite his reality-warping powers.
(Ultimate X-Men I#19 (fb) -
BTS) - David soon captured Charles Xavier by telekinetically wrapping
metal objects around him and he subsequently captured his mother, Dr.
Moira MacTaggert, as well.
(Ultimate X-Men I#19) - The
X-Men continued their search for David, discussing whether Charles
Xavier was telepathically forcing them to act like heroes, until they
were confronted by "Betsy Braddock." When the X-Men appeared confused,
David revealed that he was possessing Betsy's body and laughed at how
he had next to them during their search for David following his
possession of Wolverine. Dr. MacTaggert and Charles Xavier attempted to
appeal to David to stop but David transformed Betsy's body to resemble
his own and announced that he would not stop until his father witnessed
him killing all of the X-Men he had been training when David felt
Charles should've been spending time with his family. Wolverine ordered
the other X-Men out of their Toyota vehicle then sped towards David in
an attempt to hit the boy but David easily swatted the vehicle aside.
Charles ordered the X-Men to attack to buy Wolverine time to recover
but David placed Beast into an illusion showing how life could be
without Charles Xavier's X-Men, promising to give Beast a perfect life
if he killed the other X-Men. When Beast refused, David pummeled Beast
to a bloody pulp, prompting Storm to attack while Iceman struggled to
utilize his powers due to fear. David easily avoided Storm's powers and
soon sensed the oncoming plane housing X-Men Cyclops, Marvel Girl and
Colossus, which he seemingly tore apart faster than Marvel Girl could
erect a telekinetic shield. When Charles Xavier appeared grief-stricken
at losing his students, David revealed the destruction of the plane to
be another illusion generated to torture Charles and he instead
deposited Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Colossus onto the ground near him.
Focusing his attention on Cyclops,
whom he deemed to be Charles Xavier's favorite student, David
approached and attempted to possess Cyclops but Cyclops unleashed an
optic blast against David, harming the boy and burning his skin to a
red color. Quickly recovering, David was confronted by Iceman, who
overcame his fear, and David monologued to his father that perhaps he
meant more to his father now that he was a mutant that could be trained
at his New York. Assuming the name of Proteus and the red coloration
Cyclops' optic blast had minutes earlier given him, David transported
Charles Xavier to the various European stops on Charles' book tour,
killing dozens of innocents at each stop in an attempt to ruin
everything Charles had worked for. Returning to Berlin to remind
Charles of the time Charles essentially ignored David to telepathically
talk with Erik Lehnsherr, Proteus erected a force field around himself,
Charles and Dr. MacTaggert to keep the X-Men away as he prepared to
kill his father. Before he could do so, however, Proteus found himself
telepathically attacked by Betsy Braddock herself, who revealed she had
been jamming his powers and short-circuiting parts of David's brain
from the inside. She then prepared to shut down David's mind for good,
gloating that it wasn't she was trapped inside her body with him but
rather, he was trapped with her. Holding Proteus back for mere minutes
at a time, Betsy was able to briefly regain control of her body and she
asked Charles to telekinetically induce a heart attack to stop Proteus
for good. Charles could not bring himself to murder his son, however,
despite Betsy's begging but Colossus took matters into his own hands,
crushing Betsy's body with a bus. A short time later, David Xavier was
laid to rest at a funeral held at Muir Island, Scotland. Following the
service, Charles spoke with Dr. MacTaggert and admitted his feelings
that he was danger to the children in his care, questioning how he
could shape young minds at a school when he couldn't even raise his son
David properly.
(Ultimate X-Men I#20 (fb) - BTS) - Prof. Xavier's New York lecture was canceled in respect of those David Xavier killed.
(Ultimate X-Men I#20 - BTS) - Xavier wrote a lecture
to his student Cyclops explaining why he was leaving his own school for
mutants, noting the cancellation of his New York lecture due to David's
past actions. Later, when visiting the telepathically mind-blocked Erik
Lehnsherr, Charles Xavier informed Lehnsherr of his plans to close his
school following the actions of Proteus in Paris and Rome. Lehnsherr
insisted that Charles couldn't blame himself for something his son had
done and reminded him of newspapers that say the casualties would have
been much worse if not for the presence of the X-Men. As Lehnsherr and
Xavier continued their discussion, X-Men Storm and Beast discussed
their relationship with Beast questioning whether David's illusion had
been correct about how others think of him. Lehnsherr and Xavier's
conversation eventually came around to the topic of David's death and
Xavier admitted that he couldn't even cry at his own son's funeral and
how David's death had only made him realize how much of an unfit father
he had been. Again questioning how he could shape the minds of young
mutants when he couldn't even raise his son properly, Xavier continued
to doubt himself until Lehnsherr revealed that he was confident enough
in Xavier's dream that he had purchased tickets to his New York
lecture.
(Official Handbook of the Ultimate Marvel Universe: The Ultimates
& X-Men 2005 - Proteus entry - BTS) - After Betsy Braddock was
reborn in a new physical body, David's final fate became cast in doubt.
Comments: Created by Mark Millar, Adam Kubert
and Danny Miki.
Earth-1610's version of Proteus was sort of a mashup of the Earth-616 characters Proteus, son of Moira MacTaggert, and Legion, son of Professor Charles Xavier.
The date of 1995 for the Xavier family trip to Germany would presumably be considered topical due to Marvel's sliding time scale, although the sliding time scale is not QUITE as prevalent on Earth-1610 as it is on Earth-616 due to many of Earth-1610's superheroic events occurring much more recently than similar events on Earth-616.
All characters in this profile should be considered the Earth-1610 counterparts unless otherwise noted.
David Xavier only referred to himself as Proteus once in Ultimate X-Men I#19 while sarcastically suggesting he could join the X-Men under that codename. He was consistently referred to by that name in the recap pages of Ultimate X-Men I#17-20 and in his profile in Official Handbook of the Ultimate Marvel Universe: The Ultimates & X-Men 2005, however.
This profile was completed 09/16/2024, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary's celebratory event.
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Earth-1610's Proteus should be distinguished
from:
Appearances:
Ultimate X-Men I#16 (May, 2002) - Mark Millar (writer), Adam Kubert
(pencils), Danny Miki (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Ultimate X-Men I#17 (June, 2002) - Mark Millar (writer), Adam Kubert
(pencils), Danny Miki (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Ultimate X-Men I#18 (July, 2002) - Mark Millar (writer), Chris Bachalo
(art), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Ultimate X-Men I#19 (August, 2002) - Mark Millar (writer), Chris
Bachalo (art), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Ultimate X-Men I#20 (September, 2002) - Mark Millar (writer), Adam
Kubert (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Ultimate X-Men I#26 (February, 2003) - Mark Millar (writer), Ben Lai,
Ray Lai (art), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Official Handbook of the Ultimate Marvel Universe: The Ultimates &
X-Men 2005 (2005) - Stuart Vandal (head writer, coordinator), Sean
McQuaid, Ronald Byrd, Chris Biggs (writers), Chris Bachalo (Proteus
entry art), Jennifer Grunwald (editor)
First posted: 09/24/2026
Last updated: 09/16/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
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