Xorn

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This entry is for the X-Men character. For the Dungeons and Dragons creature, see Xorn (Dungeons & Dragons).

Template:Superherobox Xorn is the surname of two fictional mutants in the Marvel Comics universe.

Kuan-Yin Xorn

The first Xorn was a mutant who claimed that his mutation had gifted him with a "star for a brain"; as a result, he was a powerful healer and possessed the ability to manipulate energy and gravity. He was originally found and rescued by the X-Men members Cyclops and Emma Frost from a prison in China. He became a valued member of the team, even going so far as to apparently heal Professor X's severed spinal cord.

Soon he was put in charge of the "Special Class", a group of physical and social misfits who attended the Xavier Institute, who he soon commanded as his own unofficial team of X-Men. However, this proved to work against them when, in the storyline "Planet X", he took off his helmet to apparently reveal his identity as none other than the X-Men's nemesis Magneto. He claimed that he had used his energy-manipulation powers to fake the fictional Xorn's spurious mutation. Xorn had previously only demonstrated the ability to manipulate magnetism, gravity and electricity and to control nanotechnology, all of which Magneto was easily capable of. Upon this revelation, he once again crippled Xavier, levelled Xavier's mansion, and fatally wounded Jean Grey before being beheaded by Wolverine.

Xavier then took the body of "Magneto" to Genosha, where he met the original Magneto, who was alive and well. Xavier and Magneto debated the impostor's actions while standing by the bandage-wrapped body of Xorn. Most of the answers to the Magneto impostor's identity came in subsequent issues of X-Men, when a second Xorn was introduced.

His first name is taken from the Chinese deity Kuan Yin.

Shen Xorn

Later issues of X-Men stated that Xorn was an actual person who was under the influence of the entity known as Sublime. A man named Shen Xorn possessing similar powers appeared soon after, claiming to be the brother of the original Xorn, a claim supported by a thorough mindscan of him by Emma Frost. However, he left the team when Chuck Austen left as writer, and has not been seen since then.

Behind the scenes

Grant Morrison had intended Xorn to be the real Magneto. However, knowing that what he had planned for the character and the school would cause behind the scenes problems, it has been rumoured he deliberately sent in his scripts at the last possible moment, to minimize the chances of being asked for rewrites (the New Mutants writers, whose book was also set in the school, only found out that Morrison had destroyed the school when New X-Men #147 came out. It should be pointed out that this problem is not uncommon in shared universe comics). Consistency between the titles was being downplayed at Marvel during this period and falls under the remit of editorial, not the writers.

Unhappy with the treatment and death of Magneto, wanting to allow other books to get back on track, and wanting Xorn, a marketable new character, around, Marvel then reversed several of Morrison's decisions in the "Planet X" arc, reconstructing the school immediately and reintroducing Magneto (in Chris Claremont's new Excalibur book, while establishing that he never left Genosha after its destruction), and a new Xorn (in Chuck Austen's X-Men), while establishing that the new Xorn was the brother of the original and that the original had been possessed by some (unrevealed) force, widely believed to be Sublime, the collective consciousness of our DNA. Some confusion has arisen, however, due to the somewhat chaotic way Marvel went about this reversal, in two separate comics, and without complete answers as of yet.

Grant Morrison fans remain unhappy at what they see as Marvel maliciously unwinding Morrison's story. Other fans point out that Morrison's characterization of Magneto (a Jewish Holocaust survivor) as a tyrannical dictator who would herd people into crematoriums was horribly out-of-character, and even offensive.

More recently, in the Avengers Disassembled event, Magneto's daughter, the Scarlet Witch, was revealed to have been subconsciously rewriting reality for some time. Although some expected this to be used to complete the explanation, the existence and identity of the Xorns have not been revisited since the disappearance of Shen Xorn - although the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: X-Men 2005 did, indeed, hint that the Scarlet Witch was responsible for Kuan-Yin Xorn becoming a duplicate, insane, Magneto.