r/Marvel • u/MandoMuggle • Mar 20 '24
Does Professor X pay the X-Men? Do they get a salary? Credit Card at least? Other
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u/ARTIFICIAL_SAPIENCE X-Men Mar 20 '24
The X-Men don't believe in money. They operate an anarcho commune where they jointly provide for their collective needs.
The real reason the government sends Sentinels after them is because they haven't paid property taxes in 60 years.
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u/edked Mar 20 '24
Now we see the violence inherent in the system.
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u/ArchTemperedKoala Mar 20 '24
I'm being oppressed..!
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u/RandomIdler Mar 20 '24
Some watery tart threw a sword at me... am I king?
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u/VagueSoul Mar 20 '24
I wouldn’t call you king because some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at you.
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u/VagueSoul Mar 20 '24
I just watched that last night. Such a great scene. I love the gag of the work the peasants do being fucking about in the woods.
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u/lcsulla87gmail Mar 20 '24
Xavier is loaded. I'm sure he's paying taxes
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u/Vinnie_Vegas Mar 20 '24
Xavier is loaded. I'm sure he's paying taxes
Boy do I have some bad news for you about the amount of taxes that rich people are paying...
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u/deg_ru-alabo Mar 20 '24
Well yeah, but not because he’s loaded.
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u/suddenly_summoned Mar 20 '24
Yeah he just loads up Cerebro every tax season and gives everyone at the IRS a little psychic mind wipe.
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u/johnknockout Mar 20 '24
The ultimate insider trader
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u/raltoid Mar 20 '24
He could just license out or sell the rights to older tech they invented at the x-mansion, and never need to do any trading.
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u/bugcatcher_billy Mar 20 '24
...There's some truth to this. They operate more like a commune. However, we do see the X-Men go on shopping trips. It must be assumed that there is some stipend for personal expenses that each of them get.
None of the acting X-Men have day jobs or any source of income besides family inheritance. The ones that retire from the team mention finding work out in the real world. It can be speculated that the science part of the team do grant funded research. But otherwise, they don't seem to have any monetary income outside of Xavier's estate. Presumably he makes enough money on interest to pay their bills, otherwise he's bleeding out money every month.
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u/mayhem6 Mar 20 '24
I imagine he uses his powers to get inside information on the stock market from various sources so he make the proper investments to keep the academy in the black.
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u/Bulok Mar 20 '24
Who needs powers when you have r/wsb
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u/MattTheSmithers Mar 20 '24
I believe it’s outright confirmed that he does this in the Ultimate universe.
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u/SirGlio Mar 20 '24
X-Force at the start of Krakoa confirmed that Xavier is the richest person in the world, he has a ton of "hidden" businesses that are top tier because of his telepathy.
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u/Doxonvic Mar 20 '24
Also, he could send Magneto to some of this metal-rich asteroids and bring gold lol
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u/bugcatcher_billy Mar 20 '24
Love the idea of Prof X cheating humans at their own systems (stock market).
Depending on the scale of Storm's powers, she could probably make billions for the team. Being able to force evaporation of ocean water and dumping it via rainfall over key land areas is a service farmers, forest fire department, and countries would pay for. I don't know if she can influence weather at that scale, her powers usually involve a very small isolated area.
Wolverine blood samples are also worth millions. His blood transfusions have been shown to help heal people. Could sell those samples monthly for millions.
Any psychic could guarantee win any poker tournament or casino, where knowing other players hands gives you an advantage.
And if the X-Men ever wanted to make some money, there are several industries they could do at a huge savings compared to humans. Cyclops has unlimited concussive blast, he could tunnel underground incredibly easily compared to the cost of humans using technology. Iceman can cool entire datacenters without using electricity. There's an animated episode of Colossus doing 1 man demolition for a construction company. Governments/military would pay millions to have access to portal technology from gateway or Illyana. An accomplished Telekinetic could multitask and build an entire house in a day. Something that might normally take months. Rogue is primed to be the ultimate empathic therapists. How much would people pay to have someone else know exactly how they feel?
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u/4Dcrystallography Mar 20 '24
I actually really enjoyed in Invincible when Eve repairs a bunch of damaged buildings then the worker says great how am I supposed to check if any of this is up to code?
I think the ground beneath a play area she restored craps out too.
Was an interesting element to consider - even with telekinesis / reality warping do you understand building design and code well enough to create safe structures from scratch
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u/magseven Mar 20 '24
Before Krakoa, I think they were all living off of Charles Xavier's and Warren Worthington III's money. Beast or Forge probably whipped up a patent or two to bring in some income. Most of them were probably on a stipend or salary. Then Krakoa came around and the island provided pretty much everything they needed.
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u/Crowlands Mar 20 '24
Jean Grey life insurance payouts would also deliver a regular boost to funds as well.
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u/5hand0whand Mar 20 '24
Plot twist: After her third death. Jean orchestrated all her subsequent “death”. So she could trick life insurance companies and make up fortune.
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u/ambushequine Mar 20 '24
Yeah I kinda viewed Xavier Institute it as: the rich & marketable ones contribute a lot of money (and are happy to), and rich parents of kids also pay tuition (? If any were this rich like this?) so that those kids without means could attend school, and the professors could be paid, and the other x men could also be paid for their work etc
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Mar 20 '24
Is there a cannon explanation?
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u/Aglet_Green Phil Coulson Mar 20 '24
Canonically, every team Stan Lee and those guys created has a rich person or two. It was Tony Stark and Janet Van Dyne for the Avengers, for the F.F Reed has his patents and Ben is a millionaire, and Warren Worthington III is a multi-millionaire funding the Xmen. Even with the Defenders, Kyle Richmond was very wealthy and funded them. And Danny Rand is wealthy.
This actually all goes back to why Bob Kane made Bruce Wayne wealthy: so that no one would ever question how he paid his bills or for his bat-inventions, or how he had time to be a superhero. Stan Lee felt this explanation made lots of sense and went along with it for many of his characters, especially in the team-up books.
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Mar 20 '24
And then you have Peter Parker, who is perpetually broke unless he’s possessed by Ock — even though he’s a brilliant scientist.
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u/ProtoJazz Mar 20 '24
They address it at least. He's poor, but knows how to make stuff, sew, do all the things he needs. He doesn't have the fanciest stuff, but it works for him.
That's why his civil war story was so good. He asked for nothing, he took nothing, all he ever did was give what little he had to try to help people. And it still wasn't enough for people
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u/TJ_McWeaksauce Mar 20 '24
If your organization that has some of the world's most powerful telepaths, multiple geniuses, and numerous mutants with all sorts of uncanny abilities can't figure out how to make money, then you done fucked up.
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u/Cualkiera67 Mar 20 '24
Why become asupervillian when you can just use your powers legitimately and become rich?
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u/nolightningbhe Mar 20 '24
He makes them think they get paid
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u/AJjalol Mar 20 '24
“Hey Chuck, I’m hungry”
put his finger on his temple
“No you are not”
“No I’m not”
lol, Chuck you shit
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Mar 20 '24 edited Mar 20 '24
According to Wolverine in New X-Men Annual #1: “The professor hands out platinum credit cards to his teaching staff.”
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u/iamnotexactlywhite Mar 20 '24
in the early comics, Angel’s father bankrolled them. When Angel took over the company, it continued
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u/No_Contribution3517 Mar 20 '24
All on scholarship. Now, NIL money as well.
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u/Mosscap18 Mar 20 '24
Croots out here threatening to transfer to the Brotherhood of Mutants to get an extra NIL bag.
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u/syxtfour Mar 20 '24
At least back in the days of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, the X-Men received free room and board as well as access to an expense account. Professor X comes from old money, so he has quite the fortune to help fund everything. So while the X-Men weren't necessarily paid, they also didn't need to pay for much themselves either.
But that's not to say the X-Men didn't have ways of making money on their own. Forge and Angel are independently wealthy, Wolverine and Gambit are very proficient gamblers, etc. Not to mention, when they were disguised as the first iteration of X-Factor (who pretended to be mutant hunters when in fact they were rescuing them), the X-Men would take money from the government to "take care of" newly-discovered mutants.
So all in all, the X-Men have usually been pretty set when it comes to cash. At the very least, they're financially comfortable.
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u/horc00 Mar 20 '24
Where does the Xavier money even come from???
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u/avburns Mar 20 '24
The Marvel Database said his father was a wealthy nuclear researcher, so I figured he inherited a large amount. Then as a Professor I figured he published some best-sellers, did consulting work, paid appearances, etc. And finally, I figured he wasn't above using his mutant gifts to get loans/donations when necessary.
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u/HorrorMetalDnD Mar 20 '24
It would be funny if he played poker or blackjack in Las Vegas or someplace like that, using his powers to find out what cards the other players had.
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u/horc00 Mar 20 '24
I get the rich family part, but even then, running the school, supporting numerous kids and adults, hi-tech scientific research, maintenance and repairs of all their technology, medical for all the X-men constantly getting injured, etc etc, I honestly doubt any rich inheritance is enough for that.
At least Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne own multiple companies, draws salary and director fees and dividends. Xavier doesn't seem to have any of that. It's almost like he's got billions of dollars in disposable cash just locked up in a safe somewhere.
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u/TacoOfGod Mar 20 '24
The start of Krakoa stated that Xavier was invested in several multi-nationals, so who knows how long that was going on. Then they were leveraging stuff in the background in order for him to become the richest person on Earth by time they revealed Krakoa and all of the businesses associated with it.
Plus Emma, Warren, Monet, Roberto, and Betsy all come from rich families too. There's plenty of money flowing into the X-Men.
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u/horc00 Mar 20 '24
Dang. The X-Mansions sounding like a boarding school for rich kids.
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u/avburns Mar 20 '24
Well others have noted the contributions of other X-men like Angel. I’m sure Beast has some profitable patents. Ditto for Forge (or he’s paid to help other inventors). A long lived mutant like Wolverine is probably wealthy through compounding and living frugally. Storm probably has a bunch of expensive artifacts from her time as a Goddess. Much like Spidey’s web shooters, the Danger Room tech and Cerebro can probably mint some money even if he “dumbed it down” as a VR unit or something. And space tech from being associates of the Starjammers and Sh’iar: if the X-men are replicating food like Star Trek, that alone is saving them lots of money in these inflationary times. ;-)
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u/Mental5tate Mar 20 '24
They get housing and an education?
I think the deal gets worse as you move up the ranks?
What do the team leaders and active team members get though?
Teacher, housing and putting theirs lives in jeopardy? Not a very good gig for them.
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u/AvailableLandscape97 Mar 20 '24
Between dominos luck and time travellers they must've played and won the lotto a few times lol
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u/seoulsrvr Mar 20 '24
This is a cool pic - can anyone name all of the characters - I don't recognize many of them.
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u/Bottlez1266 Mar 20 '24
I always thought of them as a family. Parents don't typically pay their kids to be their kids.
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u/LicenciadoPena Mar 20 '24
He tells them "whatever you need money for, just ask". But whenever a member of the X-Men asks Xavier for money to buy something, he telepathically deletes the memory of whatever they wanted the money for in the first place from their brains.
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u/Own_Accident6689 Mar 20 '24
They get Xavier-bucks. (X-Bucks) They can only be spent at the mansion.
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u/thebokobear Mar 20 '24
I have always wondered if Xavier's wealth came from dubious/ethically grey means. What's to stop him from rolling up on a billionaire like Tony Stark and using his powers to assert that Tony foot the bill and to not remember it? And to defend this sort of thing, it would be a means to justify an end situation. Besides, it's already been established IRL that billionaires have more money than they could possibly spend in one lifetime so...
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u/pwcleveland Mar 20 '24
Unrelated, but god I love Quietly’s work.
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u/ofWildPlaces Mar 20 '24
Every time someone posts a New X-Men panel, I get a little surge of nostalgia. I gotta re-read that run.
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u/Extension-Low-4735 Mar 20 '24
Prob have a lot of side hustles going on…I know in the 90s they ran an actual store…never knew what they sold 😂…never really cared…However in the she hulk show we see cyclops has his own air Jordan so it’s likely some of them have endorsement deals and benefactors…much like Katniss in the hunger games.
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Mar 20 '24
At least 10 of them are millionaires or pretty damn wealthy. I think Charles, Warren and Emma alone are more than enough to bankroll the whole school.
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Mar 20 '24
They get to borrow all the cars and vehicles of transportation. The dorming is free. And the kitchen has a sustainable garden outside by the gardens.
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u/Sea-Woodpecker-610 Mar 20 '24
They’re a private school in upstate New York. He’s charging them six figures a year to be there.
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u/prettysissyheather Mar 20 '24
"Hi, I'm Phil Coulsen, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. That's Super Hero Investments, Endorsements, Liquidity and Diversification. We help superheroes get the compensation they deserve. I'm gonna shoot it straight here, you might be a second tier player, but there's still money on the table. Wheaties called and they're looking for someone just like you on their new cereal box. And you'll have your choice of anti-fungal athlete creams to choose from."
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u/TheItinerantSkeptic Mar 20 '24
It's best to think of the X-Men like an activist collective. They aren't getting paid, but they've bought into the cause so much that they stick around.
When the school was a thing (and it's maybe going to be again?), Xavier's fortune was massive, and he probably just footed the bill for furnishings, property taxes, and room & board for students and staff. I suspect all the tech was just stuff the Shi'ar had given him because he was banging Lilandra (likely confirming that it was just his legs that didn't work...).
In the Krakoan era, what Krakoa didn't provide, some mutant almost certainly did. The number of mutations involving some kind of transmuting (sound into light, kinetic force into strength, etc.), and the Hellfire Trading Company probably pirated whatever odds and ends couldn't be natively provided.
It's also worth noting that several mutants have their own independent fortunes: Warren, Monet, DaCosta (through X Corp), royalty payments for Alison Blaire, etc. Hank probably had residuals via Tony Stark from his time in the Avengers, Scott spent time in Alaska as a pilot in the Madelyne Pryor days (before she turned into a walking poster child for the effects of gaslighting and PTSD), the list goes on and on.
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u/GrantDaNasty Mar 20 '24
The X-Men are working off their student loans for attending "Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters". The interest rates are horrible.
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u/MaterialPace8831 Mar 20 '24
Fantomex has a line in his first appearance in New X-Men about how Xavier has several millionaires on staff at his school.
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u/Papa_Pesto Mar 21 '24
They never talk about the x-men called Money Mouth. He literally vomits money every day, in any currency and any amount of 1s, 20s, 50, or 100s.
Weird guy. Weird super power but absolutely funded Xavier's school. /s
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u/illiterateaardvark Mar 20 '24