The Scott and Jean Archives
The Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters compiles a yearbook “to commentate each year of study”. Hank enthusiastically takes on the role of editor. Since the original school has been renamed the Xavier Institute of Higher Learning, (and The School for Gifted Youngsters now moved to Massachusetts,) Xavier wants to mark the occasion with a compilation of past yearbooks to “give [their] newer students a sense of the proud history”.
Autographs
Xavier: Hank’s selection of material and his omnipresent commentaries reflect his own characteristic outlook on his friends and our lives together...The X-Men’s lives have been filled with turmoil and tragedy, but Hank reminds us of the many good times as well.
Class Portraits
Hank: Our happy little quintet of Xavier’s original gifted youngsters hadn’t even spent the full year together before the good Professor proudly declared we had graduated with, especially in Warren’s case, flying colours.
Hank: Fortunately, the Greys soon reversed their decision*, Mr Rankin depleted his powers**, and Xavier’s original class was reunited. Scotty was so overjoyed he nearly smiled.
*After graduation, Jean’s parents sent her to Metro College in Manhattan. She could spend little time with the X-Men.
**Mimic, a former adversary, demanded to join the X-Men. He was even made deputy-leader in place of Cyclops.
Hank: Scott and Jean at long last ceased silently indulging their own angst and declared their love for each other. And after we rescued the Professor from the clutches of the diabolical Factor Three, he gratefully proclaimed we had all proven our worth as individual heroes, not simply as components of a team.
Hank: After so many of our victories over villainy,we now seemed trapped in a world that was both unforgiving and unjust. It would not be until years later that we discovered that the Phoenix was actually a celestial entity that had copied Jean’s form and psyche.
Hank: It was the Professor himself whose dream of peaceful coexistence between mutants and the rest of humankind had driven the school and inspired his students. Hence, when the Professor finally returned to Earth, past members of the X-Men flocked back to his banner.
Portraits
Hank: Who among us cannot leaf through our old yearbooks with their studio portraits of ourselves and our friends in our Younger days without moaning in shock and revulsion.
The Xavier Campus
Hank: From the very beginning the Professor has trained his students in utilizing their mutant powers in combat by pitting them against the perils in the mansion’s Danger Room.
Hank: After a hard summer day combating sundry evil mutants, there is nothing students at Xavier’s enjoy more than a relaxing few hours out by the mansion’s Olympic-size swimming pool.
Scott and Jean’s Wedding
Hank: Surely the most memorable celebration in Xavier’s history was the long-awaited wedding of Scott and Jean, an event which brought together not only most of Xavier’s students and alumni, but also members of the mutant teams X-Force, X-Factor, and Excalibur. To see Scott and Jean united at last, after all they had suffered, brought tears of joy to the eyes of everyone present.
Student Hangouts
Hank: When we of the original X-Men class sought to relax, we escaped from the suburban solitude of Salem Center into the bright lights of Manhattan. As if anticipating the ratings success of “Friends”, we chose as our favoured hangout a Greenwich Village coffee shop with the retro-kitsch name of Coffee-a-Go-Go.
Hank: Sad to say, the younger generation simply is not as adventurous as we original Xavier students were back in Ye Olden Days. Whereas we endured an hour in traffic to reach the Village, the new breed of X-Men content themselves with the brief trek to Harry’s Tavern at the end of Graymalkin Lane, just outside Salem Center.